[Vision2020] America's Health Care is a National Disgrace

[Saundra Lund]

I know there are lots of lurkers out there, and I was hoping some of them
with more direct knowledge than I would chime in.

First, though, Paul, I'm sorry to hear about your family member  :-(  I've
seen situations like that, and it really is heart-wrenching.

Personally, I'm concerned about the relationship of DTC (direct to consumer)
advertising and the rising costs of prescription drugs.  The pharmaceutical
industry spends BILLIONS of dollars on DTC advertising for prescriptions
drugs, and those costs are then passed along to consumers and to our
government (we-the-people).  I've read several places that these DTC
advertising costs are a significant source of the increase in drug costs, as
opposed to earlier years (pre-1997, when the government relaxed DTC
advertising rules) when the pharmaceutical industry claimed that R&D
(research and development) costs were the cause of the high cost of drugs.

I've also read that these DTC advertising costs can somehow be deducted from
corporate income, thus lowering what they pay in taxes.  Which, of course,
means that we pay more there, too, on top of increased drug costs due to DTC
advertising costs.

Furthermore, the government (aka, we the people) also pays for those DTC
advertising costs every time someone receiving government assistance needs
medicine.

I wish I had The Answer, but I don't.  I'm all for empowering consumers --
particularly with respect to health care decisions -- but I guess I'm not
convinced that the potential benefits are worth the very real financial
costs to consumers with respect to DTC advertising, especially with the FDA
being the joke it has become with an ***85%*** decrease in enforcement
actions between 1998 & 2004, with a *significant* decline starting in 2002
with then-Chief Counsel Daniel Troy.

For those interested in learning more, my suggestion is to Google it --
there's a lot to read with arguments from all sides, and I think it's an
important topic we would all benefit from learning more about.  Even if we
don't all agree on solutions -- or whether there's a problem -- I think we
need to know how DTC advertising is affecting our health care and our
wallets, for better or worse.

BTW, I can't say as I've noticed it recently, but I recall when I first
started seeing the advertisements, many didn't even identify what medical
condition the drug was for -- they all just ended with something like, "Ask
your doctor if X is right for you."  I always wondered how many women wound
up asking their doctor, "Is X right for me when X was an ED drug, and what
the doc's reaction was  ;-)  And, of course, vise versa  ;-)


JMHO,
Saundra Lund
Moscow, ID

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to do
nothing.
- Edmund Burke

***** Original material contained herein is Copyright 2006, Saundra Lund.
Do not copy, forward, excerpt, or reproduce outside the Vision 2020 forum
without the express written permission of the author.*****

-----Original Message-----
From: vision2020-bounces at moscow.com [mailto:vision2020-bounces at moscow.com]
On Behalf Of Paul Rumelhart
Sent: Wednesday, January 10, 2007 10:16 PM
To: vision2020 at moscow.com
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] America's Health Care is a National Disgrace

g. crabtree wrote:

> And I am suggesting that to pass regulations to forbid companies to 
> advertise to consumers is draconian. The only benefit would be 
> physicians not having to explain to a patient why they won't authorize 
> that particular product. Are you against consumer information web 
> sites such as WebMD, DocWeb or the online PDA? Just because a consumer 
> is aware of any given product does not mean that he will automatically 
> get it. From my perspective, you have got to have a better reason to 
> pass legislation that limits peoples access to information them 
> because you don't want an MD to have to say no and justify his refusal.


First, I'm all for consumer education at such sites as WebMD, DocWeb, etc.
I am marginally active in wikipedia, and have adopted a couple of pages to
watch over and contribute to.  I just don't think that commercials for
prescription drugs fall into the same category, at least the ones I've seen.
They are more about triggering an emotional response to their ads instead of
a reasoned one.

My motivation for my views on this stem from my observations of a close
family member who had to take prescription drugs to stay alive, at least
until her death a few years ago.  The pills she had to take had side-effects
that were awful.  So she had to take drugs to counter those effects, and
then other pills to counter their side-effects.  She was taking probably 30
pills a day near the end.  I would just like people not to voluntarily enter
that particular hell if they can at all avoid it.  I feel that these
commercials create a climate in which people think that a magic pill will
cure their every ill.  Can't sleep, try Senestra!  Feel a little pain
somewhere, try Advil, or Tylenol, or Alleve.  Can't get your cholesterol
down?  Try Lipitor.  In my opinion, people would be wiser to resist any and
all of these unless they have to take them.  We are trying to micromanage a
set of systems (our bodily
functions) that are much more complex than any system we've ever designed
ourselves. 

But, you're right, banning them outright is probably too draconian.  
Perhaps they could be regulated some other way, such as having to have their
facts supported by impartial scientific studies as Roger suggested.

Paul

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