Free Market of Thought in Health Care

There was a girl who enrolled in my high school my senior year. A Muslim, she had gone to a Catholic High School nearby, up until the point that their dress code no longer permitted a garment she wore on her head. (Shame on me for not knowing the proper name of said garment). Out of religious beliefs, she was unwilling to change her dress, so she enrolled at my public high school to finish it out.

The student and her family had her beliefs. The Catholic High School had theirs. Neither were going to give, so someone had to change. The student took her brain, and her tuition check, to a different school that permitted the garment.

Nobody forced the school. Nobody forced the family. No one thinks this is odd. No one is calling for reform.

Yet, the same thing happens in the health care industry, and it becomes a gigantic political issue. Here’s a [slightly slanted] article from today’s Chicago Sun-Times. Many of you might be familiar with conscience clauses that a number of states have passed permitting health care professionals from opting out of treatments that they find morally wrong. Many others don't like these laws.

One way or the other, how is this even something that needs to be regulated? While I suppose that having said clause in law is better than not, it’s already in the Constitution. (Although, that’s subject to interpretation). I’m certain that every pharmacy and health care provider in the country is more than competent enough to handle this issue on their own. If Walgreen’s contractually requires all pharmacists to dispense the morning-after pill – including the anti-abortion ones – and they do not, they will be fired, as well they should. If said pharmacist has a conscience clause in his contract with CVS who then requires the same thing, CVS should be held liable.

We’re not robots, we are people. We all bring differing credos to that which we do. Some want to check it at the door, some want to negotiate it in the door. That there’s an expectation out there that all people should always check it at the door always, submitting ourselves to the whims of future employers and the public-at-large seems oddly Wall-esque to me.

We aren’t bricks in walls.