This diary is a follow up to the Impending Crisis in Emergency Medical Care.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/4/3/203726/3474
My doctor's office is a wholly owned subsidiary of the pharmaceutical industry.
Whenever I go to see him, without fail I see lavish food trays, pharmaceutical reps. wandering in and out like they own the place and mountains, and I mean mountains of drug samples. They have an entire room which is used as a sample warehouse. They don't even hide the stuff!
Now I happen to like my doctor . . .
So I decided to raise this issue with him--gently. I don't want to upset the applecart.
First, I asked him, as I do with any health care provider, who he voted for. I would not be able to maintain a relationship with an MD who supports Bush and the status quo--50 million uninsured is okay? Satisfied that the guy and I are on the same team, I bring up the subject of the place being overrun with pharmaceutical reps.
"It's the way things are done. The food is good. Golf balls are expensive." Is what he says. Huh? Yes.
Then, he tells me, I don't need to worry, the medicine I take is generic. Huh?
Of course he means, that I am lucky, his medical decisions, in my case, are not being influenced by the goodies offered by the pharmaceutical reps. I really refuse to believe that this particular doctor is making medical decisions based on whether or not he will receive an all expense paid Caribbean cruise courtesy of Merck. Not this guy--I hope. But I am sure other doctors ARE making decisions based on financial and other incentives offered by the drug companies.
And I am sure, many of the doctors practicing medicine as the handmaidens of the pharma companies will say that they are being so squeezed by insurance companies they have to do something to make ends meet. We are so fucked!
But truthfully, I like my doctor and I respect his medical accumen but I am concerned. I read a recent study that looked at doctors prescribing habits, it sampled a large number of doctors and, sure enough, it revealed that they are in fact swayed by pharmaceutical company freebies and inducements.
Now I'm sure most of you will say, find another doctor. Why? This is American medicine circa 2005. This is American medicine in George Bush's America.
I like the guy. He went to an excellent medical school, he is smart, affiliated with a top teaching hospital. He has helped me. He is accessible and I think he is quite honest. I suppose I am lucky. The guy is just doing what the law allows him to do.
Recently someone wrote very elequently in another diary something that applies here as well.
Someday we will tell our children that there really was a time in America when, there were slaves, when we had child labor, when a very unworthy man named George Bush was president because his daddy put him there. And yes, drug companies set up shop in doctors offices and seduced them with money and vacations. And it was legal.