Fox News reported the other day that the Florida Senate recently passed a bill outlawing Florida physicians from asking patients whether or not they own a gun, unless there’s a legitimate reason for doing so. The Florida House of Representatives recently passed it as well:

Supporters of the legislation, including the National Rifle Association, say they’re seeking to stop doctors from invading their privacy. Critics of the bill, however, claim that doctors need to ask patients about guns to ensure their safety and to make sure they remain out of the reach of children.

The NRA’s rationale doesn’t make sense, since patients are not exactly obligated to release information they don’t want to release. I really don’t get why Florida Republicans wasted their time voting for this bill, seeing as how it’s anti-business.

Yeah, that’s right, anti-business. If a patient doesn’t like the questions the doctor is asking, they’re free to leave, to the rightful detriment of that doctor’s business. Or maybe not. Maybe enough other patients like doctors asking about their gun habits in order to make the practice successful. That’s the concept of a free market at work, isn’t it? A doctor’s reasons for asking about guns in the house are probably political, but if they want to run with that as part of their business model, where do Florida legislators find the authority to stop them?

Yeah yeah, states have police powers, blah blah blah. That doesn’t mean that free market principles stop at the state line. If anything, that’s where they should have more power.

So it will be interesting to see how Rick Scott responds to this legislation. If he sticks to the principles that got him elected, then it’ll be vetoed. In fact, one of Scott’s pet causes is free-market healthcare, and he founded an advocacy group in 2009 about it. So I hope he does veto it, but because both chambers have veto-proof majorities, perhaps he won’t want to expend political capital to defend the big X.