Making Money in Medicine Is Moral

After the Massachusetts Public Health Council announced new rules
that will allow CVS and other retailers to open in-store clinics
designed to treat minor ailments, Boston mayor Thomas M. Menino
declared that the decision "jeopardizes patient safety. Limited
service medical clinics run by merchants in for-profit corporations
will seriously compromise quality of care and hygiene. Allowing
retailers to make money off of sick people is wrong."

"These clinics will not be 'making money off of sick people,'" said
Dr. Yaron Brook, executive director of the Ayn Rand Institute, "they
will be making money by helping sick people become well.

"Mr. Menino wishes us to think there is something morally suspect
about retailers requiring payment for providing medical services.
Does he expect them to give away medical services for free? By his
logic, it is unjust that farmers make money off the hungry, gyms make
money off the unfit, and newspapers make money off the uninformed.

"Contrary to Mr. Menino's insinuations, businesses do not profit by
exploiting consumers, but by offering them life-enhancing values--
whether a loaf of bread, a miracle drug, or a cutting-edge surgical
procedure.

The farmers, doctors, and businessmen who create and supply those
values have a moral right to be compensated for their efforts. The
attack on profit in medicine is an attack on profit as such--and on
all the goods and services profit makes possible. We should oppose
Mr. Menino's attack on profit and welcome expanded freedom in
medicine."

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http://www.aynrand.org/site/News2?
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