Phoenix said:
Because he is licensed by the STATE and he must adhere to the rules and regulations of the state. What he wants to do is irrelevant, what the AMA says is irrelevant. He must adhere to whatever the state medical board has governed at their accepted practices and regulations.
Again, whether or not existing state regulations in the state where this guy practices prohibits him from selectively declining patients is not of particularly great concern to me when discussing what I feel ought to be the case, or constructing an argument for or against a given practice of a given individual. I am of the opinion that any governmental regulation that forces him to give service is wrong and should be removed.
You might want to note that as a libertarian I'm generally in favor of removing a heaping crapton of existing laws that I think violate individual liberties (and are thus unjust), so a lot of my commentary is going to be colored by that.
If I say "I fail to see how the state has any
right mandating that he provide service to anyone and everyone," and you say "Because it's the law," then we're not even arguing on the same level. You're saying the state has the right because there's a law on the books, whereas I was saying the state doesn't have the right to make that law.
Obviously, there are going to be people that disagree with me, and in general, these people have very little respect for private property rights.
I'm guessing whatever state he practices in (and I have absolutely no idea where Bakersfield is) allows him this leeway, or else the "gum = no service" policy would have probably been changed pretty quickly, or he would have gotten a letter from the state board, or some such. And of course, what the AMA says does matter because they are a huge lobby that helps set state policy in the first place.
Considering I have no idea what state we're talking about, I have no way of researching or knowing the policies of that state, so this is all speculation anyway. I suppose I could follow that news link or do a lengthy google search, but I'm guessing there are a lot of cities in the States with that name, so.... it's 4 AM, it's late, I'm going to bed, and probably someone else will have figured all that out by the time I wake up and post again.