Posted on 09/14/2009 11:14:43 PM PDT by mtrott
As many as 84% of Americans blame the pharmaceutical industry for the country’s healthcare woes, a new survey has found.
Results of The Harris Poll, held in August, show Americans blame many different parties for the problems of the current healthcare system in the USA, with pharma coming second in the blame game with 84% of adults pointing the finger at pharma. Even more than 50% believed the industry deserves a “great deal” of blame.
(Excerpt) Read more at pharmatimes.com ...
So the companies that have come up with the medications that are extending Americans' life expectancy up close to 80 years are to be blames for our "health care woes"? And these advances in life expectancy have occurred even as Americans' lifestyles get more and more unhealthy!
First of all, what are our health care "woes"? Geez, we have the best health care in the world. There are providers falling all over each other to get you to use their services. I recently needed to get an abdominal ultrasound, and I called one afternoon about 4pm to get an appointment, and they said, can you come in tomorrow morning at 8? That is pretty impressive.
Secondly, I just see no logic whatsoever to the idea that the pharma companies are the problem. Have they somehow made everyone sick?
And if you are going to say they are causing "woes" in that the prices are too high for people to afford, I will start to feel sorry for them when they are willing to alter their lifestyle choices so as to be able to pay for their own meds. But no, people want to spend their disposable income on flatscreens and fancy cell phones, not on medicine or doctor visits. That's what you have all those "rich" taxpayer for.
I don’t see anybody forcing anyone to take medication.
The State Run Media has been bashing big Pharma for years so the sheeple blame Pharma for healthcare problems. What a surprise.
Young boys have NO say when they are diagnosed with inability to sit still and not squirm.
“I don’t see anybody forcing anyone to take medication.”
I don’t think I’d go that far... Haven’t I read about ADD meds given to kids in school? And what about the flue shot. Don’t some states make it the law?
Huh. Here’s the FR thread right above your comment on my last “Latest Posts” screen:
Girl faces deportation over vaccine (Gardasil)
Monday, September 14, 2009 11:24:13 PM · 2 of 3
Isn't that the truth. The same people blaming Pharma are probably the same people who live on prescription medication (and many who don't need it, especially pain medication).
Just try to take away their medication (and in many cases try to get them to pay for it).
There are plenty of drugs/meds that people can be forced to take. Kids forced to get vaccines, children forced to take ADHD drugs, teens forced to get HPV shots.
Now, the feds want to force people to get swine flu shots and exonerate the pharma companies from any accountability.
Yeah, I agree that the pharmaceutical companies are a part of the problem.
Its a rotten deal, but somewhat natural from a human nature and uninformed populace standpoint - blame one of the biggest actors, and the biggest most remote actors, in the room.
As the pharmaceutical industry, by its own success, has obtained such a larger than ever before footprint in health care solutions, its size, which results largely from its success, makes it a natural target simply because of the amount of dollars now expended on pharmaceutical solutions.
Its very similar to how U.S. oil companies are blamed for high oil prices, regardless of the facts:
that their profit margins (net earnings per each revenue dollar) are among the lowest, compared to many other major industries;
that they hold, on their own, all of 7% of the world’s oil reserves, while state-owned monopolies control most world oil reserves;
that U.S. consumers pay much lower gasoline prices than do people in most major industrialized nations;
but - and here is why they are attacked - the mere size of their revenues (because the U.S. market is so large) is “enormous”, as revenue totals go.
But explaining to people how and why it is that on a net-earnings per dollar of revenue basis Google makes a much higher % profit than either big oil or big pharma, just seems to fall on deaf ears.
Profit as a percentage of revenue is just no match for simple numbers, of revenue dollars. Google may in fact be much more “greedy” than Merck or Exxon/Mobile, but, no matter what, you cannot convince most people of that fact.
If I couldn't order from Canada I'd be in bed on full time oxygen, or dead. Walmart drug prices would leave me with about $100.00 a month to live on, food, shelter, everything. The drug companies are global, America is their cash cow, we pay the bills, the rest of the world gets the cheap pills!
I’m not exactly sure how to word what I’m about to say but here goes:
One of the only times people have the opportunity to see pharma people is when they’re sitting and waiting to be called for their appointment at their doctor’s office. The last time I was in the waiting room at my PCP’s office no fewer than 6 pharmeceutical salespeople came in. That was witin a 15 minute time period.
They walked up to the same desk where I signed in, gave their name and the company they worked for and then were motioned on back. Granted, they were well dressed in business suits, heels for women and what looked to be Italian type loafers for the men. They carried what looked to be very expensive briefcases as well as another leather case (probably their sample case). I’m not critizing their dress either, I’m merely pointing out what John Q Public sees.
What does that have to do with the title of this article? Well, the same people who were dressed to the nines were also the ones who were ushered immediately back while the rest of us had to wait our turn.
That’s what the average American sees when these types of polls are taken. Sure we have the best scientists putting their hearts and souls into their research. Patients aren’t exposed to the dedicated scientists who are working his/her tail off to find a cure.
We do have the best health care in the world (if one can negotiate the system correctly). Yes it takes money to test a hypothesis in order to see if it will help cure many of the diseases.
While you may guess people are buying flat screen t.v.’s, fancy cell phones, tricked out cars, designer clothes and the like, we here in the United States are underwiting many of Canada’s medicine (not to mention Mexico and other nations). You are, of course, aware it’s cheaper to buy American medications across the Canadian border. Same with Mexico except there seems to be so much fraud and black market I’d be hesitant to buy my meds from Mexico. In my own personal life I have insurance which covers medication where I pay a small co-pay unless I demand the name brand drug and even then I don’t pay full price.
Just as an FYI, your example about the ultrasound doesn’t really have all that much to do with pharmaceuticals.
As far as people lowering their standard of living in order to be able to afford their medications, many times even that won’t cover the cost of many meds. My ex-(now deceased) husband had chronic lymphocytic leukemia. Even with excellent insurance, savings, my 401k and I had an excellent job. When one treatment costs $6,000.00 and a total of 6 were needed, then what? We were extremely lucky as it turned out because there was a study being conducted. The study didn’t change the cost of the medication but our oncologist managed to cut a deal with our insurance company to where they’d pay half of the cost and our oncologist absorbed the other 3 tests. There are some good guys out there!
Oh, my disposable income (if you could call it that) was to keep gasoline in the car where I could get to work), use coupons and shop the sales I could afford, forego my annual check-up, hold blood drives at my place of employment, eat one meal a day (for myself) since I still had a growing teenager as well as a sick husband at home, move into a much smaller home, work as much overtime as I could and then go grab a change of clothes and sleep in that uncomfortable folding chair and more.
Our health care woes as you outline them are not what I’ve seen.
I nearly died in August ‘06. I’d been having pain on the right side directly under my right rib cage. My PCP and I too thought it was probably my gall bladder. I had all of the tests done witin a 4 week time frame. Blood tests, cat scan, ultrasound...all the tests they do when looking for a gall bladder problem. Only thing is, they all came back negative.
Rather than my PCP taking it further to see just what it might be I was told “If it gets to hurting any further, go to the ER.” Two weeks later it did get worse and I did end up in the ER. The ER phsyician was ready to send me home when my friend had a real hissy fit telling the ER doc this had gone on long enough and we weren’t leaving. (By this time I was beyond caring or even hearing much of what was being said) To appease my friend they did a cat scan. Lo and behold, plain as day, I had a duodenal ulcer which had perforated and was leaking into my abdominal cavity. Peritonitis anyone?
I was one of the lucky ones because if I’d gone home that night I wouldn’t have been around to make my next appointment with my PCP. I had emergency surgery that night and I’ve had another surgery to correct some problems stemming from the emergency surgery.
Yeah, I know it’s a long post but it points out that we can have the very best health care in the world and there are going to be mistakes and plain old laziness. As an aside, I wasn’t unhealthy other than the peforated ulcer, unless you count weighing 106lbs and being 5’1” unhealthy.
So in the minds of the title-writers, polls make reality.
I wonder if I can get 55% of the public to believe that I won the lottery.
Pharma's R&D costs of yester-year are substantially less today. Computer modeling has done that.
Like wise, Phama's purification costs have been reduced because of instrumentation and automation.
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