My favorite line in this article is:
Tauzin defended direct advertising as a means to not only educate patients about treatments but also alert them to illnesses they may not realize they have.
See, some consumers might not even have heard of certain diseases, or imagined that they might have it. In addition, many Americans need more to worry about, not less, and since the medical system is set up the way it is their primary care physician cannot be relied upon to find out of they might be ill, because there are so few primary care physicians and the system is designed to rush office visits for maximum efficiency in terms of the number of patients seen each day. Oh, and those ads for Cialis? the ones that make people want to have old-fashioned claw foot bathtubs moved out on beaches or to the edge of cliffs and somehow have them filled with nice warm water, although the nearest water supply is probably a half mile away? I guess it must work, since the ads show so many satisfied bathers, but has sitting in twin bathtubs on the edge of a cliff ever been a strong desire of yours? Me either.
Reform of the American health "industry" is on the agenda for the new Congress and new President (eleven days, and counting) and there is a huge fight shaping up over the glib spokesmodel Doctor Sanjay Gupta. Congressman John Conyers says he will be damned if he lets Gupta be put in as Surgeon General without a fight. Conyers sees Gupta as a mainstream partisan for the status quo, who has been dismissive of the concept of universal coverage, aka "single payer". Whatever faults such a system would have, and doubtless there would be many, short of starting a terrible epidemic it could not help but be vastly superior to the existing "pay to play" mess that the American medical profession has morphed into. When I was growing up my mom was surprised to see that her Doctor Anderson served powdered milk as an economy measure in their home. Can anyone imagine a doctor these days doing that? So in fifty years the medical profession has gone from middle class to something else. And the insurance companies? Oh my, what a growth opportunity that has been, eh? An entire industry that thrives through the ruthless denial of medical claims, often for frivolous reasons. I mean, what is a really sick person going to do? sue a massive corporation? Ha, right. Mostly they go somewhere and die.
What that has created is a game. Doctors raise their rates to stratospheric heights, insurance companies negotiate vigorously and they settle on a discount. How much? Try 80%. Sound impossible? It turns out that a noted University Medical Center near here has exactly that policy in place. So what happens if you come in as an uninsured? You get charged the full whack. $5,000 for a $1,000 procedure. Oh, unless you apply for a discount, permitting them to assess your assets and do a credit check. Sort of progressive gouging.
There is going to be a lot of work to do in the 111th Congress. I wish them well and I hope they are able to be as transparent as the President wishes things to be. If so, there will be some hair-raising stories that come out.
Arthur
Tauzin defended direct advertising as a means to not only educate patients about treatments but also alert them to illnesses they may not realize they have.
See, some consumers might not even have heard of certain diseases, or imagined that they might have it. In addition, many Americans need more to worry about, not less, and since the medical system is set up the way it is their primary care physician cannot be relied upon to find out of they might be ill, because there are so few primary care physicians and the system is designed to rush office visits for maximum efficiency in terms of the number of patients seen each day. Oh, and those ads for Cialis? the ones that make people want to have old-fashioned claw foot bathtubs moved out on beaches or to the edge of cliffs and somehow have them filled with nice warm water, although the nearest water supply is probably a half mile away? I guess it must work, since the ads show so many satisfied bathers, but has sitting in twin bathtubs on the edge of a cliff ever been a strong desire of yours? Me either.
Reform of the American health "industry" is on the agenda for the new Congress and new President (eleven days, and counting) and there is a huge fight shaping up over the glib spokesmodel Doctor Sanjay Gupta. Congressman John Conyers says he will be damned if he lets Gupta be put in as Surgeon General without a fight. Conyers sees Gupta as a mainstream partisan for the status quo, who has been dismissive of the concept of universal coverage, aka "single payer". Whatever faults such a system would have, and doubtless there would be many, short of starting a terrible epidemic it could not help but be vastly superior to the existing "pay to play" mess that the American medical profession has morphed into. When I was growing up my mom was surprised to see that her Doctor Anderson served powdered milk as an economy measure in their home. Can anyone imagine a doctor these days doing that? So in fifty years the medical profession has gone from middle class to something else. And the insurance companies? Oh my, what a growth opportunity that has been, eh? An entire industry that thrives through the ruthless denial of medical claims, often for frivolous reasons. I mean, what is a really sick person going to do? sue a massive corporation? Ha, right. Mostly they go somewhere and die.
What that has created is a game. Doctors raise their rates to stratospheric heights, insurance companies negotiate vigorously and they settle on a discount. How much? Try 80%. Sound impossible? It turns out that a noted University Medical Center near here has exactly that policy in place. So what happens if you come in as an uninsured? You get charged the full whack. $5,000 for a $1,000 procedure. Oh, unless you apply for a discount, permitting them to assess your assets and do a credit check. Sort of progressive gouging.
There is going to be a lot of work to do in the 111th Congress. I wish them well and I hope they are able to be as transparent as the President wishes things to be. If so, there will be some hair-raising stories that come out.
Arthur
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