Tennessee lawmakers just passed a pharmacy regulation bill, modeled after an Arkansas law that federal courts have already blocked.
Instead of learning from the legal chaos in our neighboring state, Nashville will likely face a similar lawsuit where it can expect to spend untold sums of taxpayer dollars defending a policy with serious constitutional and antitrust liabilities.
Worse still, the law threatens to reduce access to pharmacies, shrink competition and impose new burdens on patients already struggling with high health care costs.
An Arkansas warning for Tennessee lawmakers
I warned lawmakers recently that laws favoring some pharmacies over others would disrupt the market and reduce patient access. Those concerns were ignored. Now, Tennesseans may experience the consequences of a policy marketed as “health care reform” that actually amounts to heavy-handed government interference in the marketplace…