In keeping with this, we have a right to expect businesses, which hold a charter with the public, to have codes of ethics that address the impact of their business practices on society, on families, and on children. Look around your own social landscape and see how much space is commercial-free. Not only do we have to be careful as parents about the commercialism in public places, we also must not be na ve about the commercialism that lurks in unexpected places. We don't tend to think of health care as a business, but it is. Even if we have insurance, we still pay for health care, and in some states our healthcare expenditures are taxed.
Healthcare providers receive incentives from pharmaceutical companies for the use of their products.
Commercialism has found its way even into health care. This wasn't always the case. Medicines were not always advertised directly to the public. It wasn't until the early 1980s, for example, that formula advertisements appeared in popular magazines. Up until then, formula had been advertised only to doctors in medical journals.