Friday Reads
Posted: May 11, 2012 Filed under: morning reads | Tags: ad scamming by Big Pharma, Al Franken, austerity, Big Pharma, Budget Deficit, DOJ tracking people via cellphones, DTC, Euro, Greece 34 Comments
Good Morning!
I found a few interesting things for us to look at this morning. I’m going to start off with the increasingly creepy role Big Pharma plays in what your doctor prescribes for you when you probably don’t need it. Only one catch here. You might’ve asked for it based on the constant and perpetual bombardment you get daily of Big Pharma’s ads for Life Style Drugs. Here’s a great article from Alternet called: “Ask Your Doctor if This Big Pharma Scam Is Right for You: The Dangers of a Drugged Up America; In medicated America, the fix for every problem is just a prescription away. Except that it’s not”.
In the past three decades, America’s healthcare system has radically metamorphosed from a public service network (largely run by independent physicians and nonprofit hospitals) into a corporate profit machine–one that Dr. Arnold Relman, the renowned former editor of the New England Journal of Medicine, calls the Medical-Industrial Complex. Drugmakers have been among the most ambitious, in-your-face pushers of this transmutation of medicine into just another commodity to be sold by hook or crook. In this system, the concept of “care” has been reduced to “caveat emptor,” with the shareholders’ interest in monetary gain overriding all other interests.
A fast-moving, systemic epidemic called DTC has swept across America, endangering public health, jacking up our costs, and weakening the curative connection between health professionals and patients. DTC stands for “Direct-to-Consumer” drug advertising. It’s a plague of marketing, empowering profiteering corporations to short-circuit the judgment of doctors by using all of the tricks of Madison Avenue (including lies) to convince viewers and readers that (first) they’re suffering from a particular malady, (second) the advertiser’s brand-name medicine is the very best cure, and (finally) they must go to their doctors pronto to insist on getting a prescription for that specific drug. The essence of this marketing scheme is to turn consumers into sales representatives for drug peddlers. Brilliant.
Greece might be in a better bargaining position than German Bankers would like. Here’s an interesting article from Bloomberg called: “Greeks May Hold $510 Billion Trump Card in Renegotiation”.
“Greece has got some strong cards to persuade them to go easy on austerity,” said John Whittaker, an economist at Lancaster University Management School in England. “Everyone fears a Greek departure from the euro because they’ll lose money and lose political capital.”
European governments have poured money into Greece since its first rescue was agreed to in April 2010 in a bid to keep the country in the euro and prove that monetary union, a symbol of European post-war integration, is irrevocable.
After receipt of a 7.5 billion-euro tranche in March, Greece now owes other countries more than 80 billion euros in bailout funds. The European Financial Stability Facility said 4.2 billion euros of rescue cash will be disbursed to the nation today.
The ECB also stands to lose much if Greece walks away from its obligations. First, the central bank bought about 50 billion euros of the government’s bonds to push down yields and help the nation retain access to the capital markets.
Al Franken’s career has been a delight to follow. He’s pressing the DOJ to explain why it’s tracking people via their cellphones. This is via The Hill.
In a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder, Franken asked how often the Justice Department requests that wireless carriers turn over the location data of their customers and what legal standard the department believes should apply.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) releaseda report last month that found that local police across the country regularly gather cellphone location data, often without a warrant. The ACLU called the practice “pervasive and frequent.”
The Supreme Court ruled earlier this year in United States v. Jones that tracking a suspect’s car using a GPS device qualifies as a search under the Fourth Amendment.
Franken said that police who obtain location records from wireless carriers might be “working around” the Supreme Court’s decision.
“I was further concerned to learn that in many cases, these agencies appear to be obtaining precise records of individuals’ past and current movements from carriers without first obtaining a warrant for this information,” Franken wrote. “I think that these actions may violate the spirit if not the letter of the Jones decision.”
Franken asked Holder to explain how the Supreme Court’s decision affects the gathering of cellphone data and whether the Justice Department’s practices have changed since the ruling.
Our budget problems are not due to programs that help Low-Income Americans. Here’s some analysis from the Center on Budget Priorities on what is driving our budget problems.
Several conservative analysts and some journalists lately have cited figures showing substantial growth in recent years in the cost of federal programs for low-income Americans. These figures can create the mistaken impression that growth in low-income programs is a major contributor to the nation’s long-term fiscal problems.
In reality, virtually all of the recent growth in spending for means-tested programs is due to two factors: the economic downturn and rising costs throughout the U.S. health care system, which affect costs for private-sector care as much as for Medicaid and other government health care programs. Moreover, Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projections show that federal spending on means-tested programs other than health care programs will fall substantially as a percent of gross domestic product (GDP) as the economy recovers — and fall below its average level as a percent of GDP over the prior 40 years, from 1972 to 2011. Since these programs are not rising as a percent of GDP, they do not contribute to our long-term fiscal problems.
Specifically, federal spending for mandatory (or entitlement) programs outside health care (including refundable tax credits like the Earned Income Tax Credit) averaged 1.3 percent of GDP over the past 40 years. This spending reached 2.0 percent of GDP in fiscal year 2011, a substantial increase. But CBO projects that it will return to the prior 40-year average of 1.3 percent by 2020 and then remain there.
Federal spending for low-income discretionary programs is virtually certain to fall as a percent of GDP in the coming decade as well. Under the Budget Control Act’s funding caps, non-defense discretionary spending will fall over the decade to its lowest level as a percent of GDP since 1962 (and probably earlier).
As a result, total spending for low-income programs outside health care — both mandatory and discretionary programs — is expected to fall over the coming decade to a level below its prior 40-year average.
I’m going to let you know exactly why I would never live in Nebraska again. A nice Lincoln lady explains why gays shouldn’t be protected from bullying or severe beatings. Be sure to pay careful attention as to why both Hillary and Judas are ‘homos’.
What’s on your reading and blogging list today?
peej
Carissa
bostonboomer
ecocatwoman
grayslady
Minkoff Minx
mablue2
peggysue22
quixote
skydancingguestblogger
Mona (aka Wonk the Vote)
What cracks me up when they advertise these drugs on tv is the list of “side effects” to look out for when taking them.
Some of those lists run longer than the ingredients included!
Franken always seems busy, working, working, working while many of his fellow senators are rushing to the microphone for one reason or another.
If there were more like Al in the Senate we may get somewhere.
My favorite is the invention of “Restless Leg Syndrome” as a disease to sell some silly drug with a huge list of side effects. I can’t believe anyone fell for that one.
I have restless legs, and it’s real and horrible. It runs in my family. I wouldn’t take a drug for it, but it isn’t imaginary.
Really? I had never heard of it before. I’m sorry to hear it’s real. Hope it gets better for you!
Yes, it is real, and severe RLS can almost completely prevent people from sleeping. Depending where you are on the continuum, it may or may not be worth it to take something for it. I want to see how badly the RLS is interfering with patients’ functioning before prescribing meds. Stretching regularly, including before bedtime, often helps decrease RLS.
It’s real, but it’s not disabling. I usually get it when I’m really tired or at night when I’m trying to go to sleep. It has gotten worse for me since menopause, and I have a lot of trouble going to sleep. I still wouldn’t take that medication. The side effects sound a lot worse than the problem itself.
NW Luna,
The worst thing for me about restless legs is that as I have gotten older it interferes with my ability to meditate and relax. When I start to go into a deep state, I often start experiencing restless legs and then I have to move around.
The lists of side effects are hysterical. Frankly, I stay as far away from doctors as I possibly can. So far, I’m basically healthy, thank goodness. That runs in my family too, so I guess I’m lucky. We’re physically healthy, but psychologically we’re subject to anxiety and depression.
I like when the list of the side effect possibilities end with “including death.”
The “war on drugs” ought to include Big Pharma and their pimps – I mean, their DTC advertisers.
The one that sticks out to me is: “It may cause fatal events”. 😯 I have yet to meat someone that has had a second fatal event.
I need my coffee, I was up about 2 am watching some documentaries and well it shows.
I just made some coffee WV, so I will join you…
I know, WV. It would have to be a seriously disabling condition before I’d take a medication that can result in death.
Lest anyone faint when I am at work I am full on…two cups to boot. I recall in the hospital they gave me a medication that made my heart race and I had to convince them to check my pulse….130-140 and I was in bed not running…took a while for what ever they gave me to work…got a different medication. I wonder what people do that don’t understand baseline readings, since you often have to advocate for yourself.
I can’t figure out why things like thinning eye lashes and old men’s erection problems get so much attention. Then, there are the “life style lifts”. Half of these things are created to “cure diseases” that are just symptoms natural process of aging.
Thinning eyelashes, lol. Still, some people almost completely lose their eyelashes in old age and it does bother people. That happened to my MIL. I wish there was a cure for excess hair. I have to have my eyebrows trimmed now.
Hmmm, I just noticed a part of my post is missing .. wonder what happened?
Well, I had a bit up there on Rand Paul and a few other things and it got zapped for some reason. Any how … I stuck a weird video up that Pam Spaulding put on her face book for kicks …
OMG, I couldn’t sit through the video. She seemed to be reading from a news article. I couldn’t take my eyes off the guy behind her. I’m not sure if he was reacting to what she was saying or what.
I think he was reacting and the guy across the aisle from him too. I think the elderly woman–looked like a nun to me–finally started reacting too. I kept thinking that two guys with a straight jacket would come in at some point and take her to a hospital.
Dak, I would’ve liked to see the men on the other side of the podium reacting. You think they were shaking their heads in agreement?
Wow…when we say the religious right is batshit crazy…this woman sure takes it to another level.
The volume is at 11 now.
Dak, you may need to put the photo at the bottom and move the written copy above it.
From commenter Lee Carney at Charlie Pierce’s blog …
Check out the key highlights of the budget here: http://www.budget.gov.au/
Just looking at the budget overview is amazing in comparison to our own circumstances. Of course their economy is driven by exports of raw materials and, marvel of marvels, they still manufacture in OZ. Generally this is what happens when you don’t let your economy turn into some kind of Vegas casino for high rollers. I hope the Labor government can stay in power.
I couldn’t agree more with Hightower’s opinion of the evils of DTC drug advertising. I’ll get some patients who are convinced that “the purple pill” or whichever caught their ears is the only solution. They think that if I don’t write them an Rx, I’ve given them bad care and am not patient-centered. It’s hard to give them Pharmacotheurapeutics 501 and Pathophysiology 501 in a few minutes!
But Hightower neglected to mention some improvements. Gone are the days of free pens, notepads, etc. from the drug reps. (Darn, I for one am always losing pens.) Authors of medical articles must list their conflicts of interest by the article, i.e., if they get retainers or honoraria or speakers’ fees from Pharma. Same info gets announced at their introductions if they speak at conferences.
As for Big Pharma whining about the high costs of drug development — they spend 2 X as much on advertising than they do on research. Such a waste. If it’s an appropriate drug, with the evidence to show how well it works and with minimal side effects, great. We don’t need the advertisting. Put more money into research.
What has he got to hide?
We already know that Zimmerman changed his story repeatedly during his interviews with investigators. He also may want to hide the photos of his injuries because they don’t match his stories. What I really want to see is Travon’s autopsy results. That will really tell the tale. And I’d like to know the bullet trajectory and what it says about whether Trayvon was standing up or lying down when he was shot. Personally I think Zimmerman shot him while they were standing up.
Florida has very strict sunshine laws, so if the judge allows the evidence to be withheld from the media I will believe he (judge) is in the bag for O’Mara.
Well, the Romney campaign is pushing it into high gear. /snark:
Romney adviser: His treatment of Rick Perry shows his kindness – The Hill’s Video
ROFL!! Romney bullied Kerry Healey quite a bit when he was working with her. He probably bullied her into making that statement–the campaign most likely wrote it for her.
The deal is how you act when millions of people aren’t watching.
Disgusting: Man Sold Trayvon Martin Gun Targets To ‘Make Money Off The Controversy’ | Mediaite
Absolutely no decency.