These policies share the common theme of banning pharmaceutical companies from advertising on television. I would recommend making the parent proposal @ThomasPaineās post because it has the most votes, and it includes a provision for requiring financial disclosures from doctors.
Iām not particularly concerned with this issue as I think television is well on itās way to irrelevancy in the news and information arena, but Iām certainly not opposed, and this merge should happen to reduce duplicates.
Not only ban advertising in all media including and especially on-line media but also payments to media by companies (Drugola) to influence their programming and/or algorithms. They can stop advertising but continue to make payments to control messaging as they did throughout the Covid years. No payments by large companies or their representatives to any media whether it be legacy or new media. Transparency should also be included. All media must disclose their funding sources and amounts so the people can follow the money.
`I agree; however, there more that needs to be accomplished. I have worked in the healthcare industry for years and am a past healthcare reporter. Iāve witnessed the pharmaceutical/coverage changes through the years; and consulted for a number of hospitals/healthcare agencies. My gripe is the high cost of drugs. Magazines are full of two-page ads. One is in color touting the advantages of a particular drug and asking you to āAs your MD for XYZā drug! Whatever happened to the doc prescribing the best drug for the problem, considering the patient, his other meds, etc.? The second page is b&w listing all the contraindications and side effects/dangers of the drug. The color page is astronmical in cost. And the second isnāt cheap either. They all are required to rain disacllaimers (more space) BUT, we need to know all the details of the drug. Pharmaceutical salespeople give physicians, nurses, PAs, and nurse-practitioners gifts for pushing their respective drugs.Once, when I was in sales, I was told, if the doctorās wife wants a Gucci handbag, buy it for herā¦" I didnāt stay there too long! How about reducing the ad to one page or less. maybe half color and the rest B&W? Eliminate āAsk your doctorā¦ā Iād love to sit down and talk to Robert Kennedy, Jr. about what can be done. Obviously, the pharmaceuticals are passing the costs on to us. I am 86, and take some very expensive medicines, some of which are biologicals (higher cost). Luckily, I have insurance, etc. Thank goodness I can afford it, but I know what is driving the costs higher! I am still active and go to the gym three days/week. I could shed the light on the problem based on my career and personal issues.
They donāt advertise to sell the drug, they advertise to control the media. Pharma then can dictate what is covered and what is not covered. No mainstream media covered the RFK Jr. presidential campaign even though he had over 20% of teh voters in polls. Directly due to big pharma control of media. Drug costs are too high but we are enormously overprescribed. Natural or generic medications that they cannot profit from (like ivermectin) are buried and made unavailable. The entire system is corrupt. Once they clean out the system, healthcare will decrease in cost by half or more.
Prohibit all Doctors and Nurse Practicioners from getting any sort of kickback from pharmaceutical companies.
Why should Doctors and Nurse Practicioners get paid to prescribe one medicine over another, including quantity of the prescriptions written? These medications may not have been properly tested, nor had long-term use reviews. As seen in our past, safeguards typically have been thwarted, complications withheld on behalf of the almighty dollar.
Just because the doctor prescribes it does not mean the medication works. Shouldnāt the doctor ask patients if they can affordability the medicine without breaking the bank, taking out a personal loan, or mortgaging their home? Pharmaceutical companiees are charging patients in some cases $1000+ per pill, lung cancer pills (Augtryo) at $8000 retail for a 40 day supply, GI liquid (Gatstrocrom) at $2000 per month. Who in America can afford any of these?
If doctors new their patients would not take it because of the cost, and they were not getting paid to prescribe, the cost of medicines would drop dramatically.
What about the addictive nature of the medicine? Do the side effects outweight the benefit?
Doctors and Nurse Practicioners need to make an āeducated and informedā decision on these medicined in conjunction with the patient, instead of a āpay drivenā decision. By stopping the kickbacks, it will ensure the prices go to an afforrdable level, and doctors use their medical degrees to make sound decisions in the best interest of the patient.
Looking up different iterations of the terms Pharmaceutical, Advertising, Ads, Commercials, there are well over 20 of them now. Iām adding a number of them as an example, but Iām sure there are many more. Is there a way to group all of these or merge them all to clean up the Health category feed?