Hamilton County Commissioner Warren Mackey is raising legitimate questions about a county-owned pharmacy that would compete with private pharmacies.
The county pharmacy is set to begin operations early next year in the McDaniel Building at 455 N. Highland Park Avenue. The goal of the facility is to save taxpayer dollars by making prescriptions available at a lower cost to county workers.
Far be it from us to oppose tax savings in principle. But the county-run pharmacy will be in direct competition with privately owned pharmacies in the area for the business of many hundreds of county employees. Since it will be supported by government, it will have an unfair advantage, and it will likely pull the business of a number of county employees away from privately run pharmacies that do not have the same government support.
Mackey said he is “not happy” about the government-run pharmacy, the Times Free Press reported: “On the one hand, yeah, I want to save county employees money,” he said. “But what troubles me is when government competes against private industry.”
While his objections are not likely to derail the county pharmacy, they are welcome nonetheless. Government should not get into the grocery business or the personal computer business or the pizzeria business, so why should it get into the drugstore business?