The United States and New Zealand are the only two industrialized nations that allow direct advertising of pharmaceuticals. The pharmaceutical industry owns a 20-25 percent stake in worldwide health, meaning the percentage of healthcare budgets devoted to paying for medications. Nineteen of the 20 largest pharmaceutical companies are American or European (#18, Takeda Pharmaceuticals, is Japanese). If we’re going to tackle high medical costs, Big Pharma would be a good place to start.
One evening a while back I was getting ready for bed and I opened up the medicine cabinet to perform the nightly ritual of taking my pills. I took out the six little bottles, opened them up one by one and put them in a little cup and as I started to lift them to my mouth a thought occurred to me. What would happen if I just quit taking these altogether? Keep in mind that I was fairly young at the time and had not been diagnosed with any "serious" condition. But every time I went for my yearly check-up, my doctor would question me about various symptoms and at the end of the visit I would invariably walk out with a prescription for some new wonder drug. My blood pressure was in the normal range but the "high" normal range. Thus two blood pressure meds. My cholesterol was a "little" high. Thus a cholesterol drug. Had I been feeling down in the dumps lately? Well, yeah, my sister had just passed away recently and that had hit me pretty hard. No problem, a pill for depression was prescribed. Trouble sleeping? No problem, here’s a prescription for Ambien. Trouble staying awake during meetings? Well, here’s some Provigil. And on and on it went. More and more pills but I really didn’t feel any different.
So I did something that some might consider foolhardy. I quit taking the pills. A month later and it actually seemed like I was feeling better. After six months I could tell that my outlook and everything was improving because I could read back through my daily journal and see it. So time came for my next check up and I decided to change doctors. Ended up that my blood pressure was still a little high but this time the doctor suggested just one pill and it was a generic (much cheaper co-pay for me). Apparently new guides had come out for cholesterol and he didn’t see any reason to put me on a pill for that. He just suggested some dietary changes. I talked to him about the loss of my sister and the depression and he said that it was natural and suggested that I start exercising, take up a hobby or something to get out of myself for a certain amount of time per day. As for the insomnia at night and sleepiness during the day, that had taken care of itself within a couple of weeks of stopping the pills.
Everything worked out well. My blood pressure responded to the generic med better than it had to the two brand name ones. I started going for a walk every evening and my outlook brightened and my sleep patterns got better as well. And the prescriptions I was left with were about one-tenth the cost of all the brand name scripts my old doctor had me taking.
So my thought is this: Those who oppose universal healthcare always bring up how the high cost of our care in the US is because of the elderly who need much more care in the final years of life. But I wonder if a lot of those costs result from the piling on of medicines to treat mild or imaginary symptoms. I know that my mother, before she passed away was taking sixteen different medicines. Over half of those were to deal with side effects of the other half. I wasn’t about to question the doctor where my mother was involved but looking back I wish I had taken her for a second opinion. I’d be willing to bet that at least half of what she was taking was unnecessary. And this cost is not just seen with the elderly. Like I said earlier, I was fairly young and healthy and my doctor still found reasons to earn his free lunches with the drug reps by pumping me full of pills.
Another point is that when Medicare part D was passed into law, Bush made sure that his friends in the pharmaceutical industry were well taken care of. One of the provisions of the law was that the government is prohibited from negotiating prices on the drugs. No wonder there are such enormous costs.
I know there is a lot of controversy surrounding Dr. Mathias Rath and his vitamin cures and such, but I think he really hit the nail on the head with the following quotes:
The purpose and driving force of the pharmaceutical industry is to increase sales of pharmaceutical drugs for ongoing diseases and to find new diseases to market existing drugs.
And
Millions of people and patients around the world are defrauded twice: A major portion of their income is used to finance the exploding profits of the pharmaceutical industry. In return, they are offered a medicine that doesn’t even cure.