Budget Watch Nevada

AB128 would require soft drink and snack food companies to disclose gifts, payments, and other benefits given to convenience stores and fast food restaurants. I think this is a great idea.

Have you ever wondered while driving up to Taco Bell why they always have Pepsi signs in the window and never Coca Cola signs? I think we need a law that REQUIRES such a restaurant to disclose in writing to all patrons that Taco Bell is or was related to PepsiCo, and that the restaurant may gain some financial benefit by only selling one company’s soft drinks.

Same for my local convenience store. When I go in there for some potato chips, I notice that they always have special racks for certain brands, but not my favorite “all natural” corn chips. Something’s fishy. I think I’ll call my friendly assemblyman and ask him to demand that the C-stores tell me up front who supplies their chips and whether there is any financial incentive to do so.

Does all this sound crazy? Now go back to the introductory paragraph and replace “soft drink and snack food companies” with “prescription drug companies” and replace “convenience stores and fast food restaurants” with “doctors and health care providers” and you will see what the legislative committee is really up to: burdening the medical profession with more regulations.

As in food choices, the free market should decide how doctors will provide products and services. Let the buyer beware and let him do the proper research into his own health care choices . . . and keep the government out of the transaction.