An Expose’ on Doctors and Drug Companies
The editor of Consumer Reports ON HEALTH, Ronni Sandroff, has finally shed light on the incentives Doctors are given to prescribe their medications to unknowing patients.
Ronni Sandroff, Editorial Director, Health and Family asks, “Would you trust a doctor who moonlights for a drug company promoting its products to other doctors? Many Americans are skeptical about such arrangements, according to a recent survey of 1250 adults in the U.S. by Consumer Reports National Research Center. And 77 percent of responders said they would be concerned about the quality of care from a doctor who accepts such payment.”
I’ve known and written for many years about the cooperation between the pharmaceutical salesman who jumps ahead of my appointment to distribute samples of their drugs from a briefcase full of the tools of a drug-pusher. They provide perks in the way of recorded prescriptions and the credit given by the Pharmacist to the physician whose name appears on the prescription. This poll was prompted by a report by ProPublica, a nonprofit organization that does investigative journalism. It identified more than 17,000 health-care providers (mostly doctors) who have accepted payments from seven drug companies---AstraZeneca, Cephalon, GlaxoSmithKline, Johnson and Johnson, Lilly, Merck and Pfizer---since 2009. It really has been going on for decades. Rooms full of samples with shelves from ceiling to floor, and wall to wall are filled with these drugs to start some unknowing patient on a lifelong use of such drugs.
Of those, 384 collected more than $100,000, 43 made more than $200,000, and two earned more than $300,000. You can look up the names on ProPublica’s website, at http://projects,propublica.org/docdollars. Under the new health-care reform law, all drug firms must disclose their financial ties to doctors by 2013. Meanwhile, you may be the victim of dangerous drugs given to you in the beginning and then prescribed to you after you have become addicted to the drug.
In the poll, most respondents said that doctors should tell patients if they’ve received money from a company whose drugs they are about to prescribe. And 54 percent said they’d feel comfortable asking their doctor about the issue. Ronni Sandroff, editor, finishes her article with this statement, “It’s time for doctors to com clean.”
The FDA, Congress, lobbyists and Senators have relatives who sway the vote to support this clandestine relationship. Many of our politicians go on to walk the halls of Congress as lobbyists once they have finished their term of office. They walk away with a retirement and the knowledge that the Supreme Court has just decided that Corporate money is a form of “Free Speech,” allowing our representatives to be bribed. Often times, the votes are cast, just as this one, to put off the prosecution of those who engage in such unethical practices.
Chief Justice Roberts of the Supreme Court has made this form of influence equal to the individual rights spelled out in our Constitution. Members of both parties have now transformed a democracy into an oligarchy. In an oligarchy, both parties are bribed with large sums of money to influence legislation that affects the specific Corporate interest.
American citizens gave up their privacy for security and, as Benjamin Franklin said, “They will get neither and lose both.” Now these millionaires ask the poor and middle-class to send their donations to the DNC and the RNC. The Democratic National Committee and the Republican National Committee are the banks who determine how much financial support is distributed to their members. You are asked to donate even more money so that you can feel a part of the PAC group. PAC stands for “Political Action Committee.”
Ronni Sandroff, Editorial Director, Health and Family asks, “Would you trust a doctor who moonlights for a drug company promoting its products to other doctors? Many Americans are skeptical about such arrangements, according to a recent survey of 1250 adults in the U.S. by Consumer Reports National Research Center. And 77 percent of responders said they would be concerned about the quality of care from a doctor who accepts such payment.”
I’ve known and written for many years about the cooperation between the pharmaceutical salesman who jumps ahead of my appointment to distribute samples of their drugs from a briefcase full of the tools of a drug-pusher. They provide perks in the way of recorded prescriptions and the credit given by the Pharmacist to the physician whose name appears on the prescription. This poll was prompted by a report by ProPublica, a nonprofit organization that does investigative journalism. It identified more than 17,000 health-care providers (mostly doctors) who have accepted payments from seven drug companies---AstraZeneca, Cephalon, GlaxoSmithKline, Johnson and Johnson, Lilly, Merck and Pfizer---since 2009. It really has been going on for decades. Rooms full of samples with shelves from ceiling to floor, and wall to wall are filled with these drugs to start some unknowing patient on a lifelong use of such drugs.
Of those, 384 collected more than $100,000, 43 made more than $200,000, and two earned more than $300,000. You can look up the names on ProPublica’s website, at http://projects,propublica.org/docdollars. Under the new health-care reform law, all drug firms must disclose their financial ties to doctors by 2013. Meanwhile, you may be the victim of dangerous drugs given to you in the beginning and then prescribed to you after you have become addicted to the drug.
In the poll, most respondents said that doctors should tell patients if they’ve received money from a company whose drugs they are about to prescribe. And 54 percent said they’d feel comfortable asking their doctor about the issue. Ronni Sandroff, editor, finishes her article with this statement, “It’s time for doctors to com clean.”
The FDA, Congress, lobbyists and Senators have relatives who sway the vote to support this clandestine relationship. Many of our politicians go on to walk the halls of Congress as lobbyists once they have finished their term of office. They walk away with a retirement and the knowledge that the Supreme Court has just decided that Corporate money is a form of “Free Speech,” allowing our representatives to be bribed. Often times, the votes are cast, just as this one, to put off the prosecution of those who engage in such unethical practices.
Chief Justice Roberts of the Supreme Court has made this form of influence equal to the individual rights spelled out in our Constitution. Members of both parties have now transformed a democracy into an oligarchy. In an oligarchy, both parties are bribed with large sums of money to influence legislation that affects the specific Corporate interest.
American citizens gave up their privacy for security and, as Benjamin Franklin said, “They will get neither and lose both.” Now these millionaires ask the poor and middle-class to send their donations to the DNC and the RNC. The Democratic National Committee and the Republican National Committee are the banks who determine how much financial support is distributed to their members. You are asked to donate even more money so that you can feel a part of the PAC group. PAC stands for “Political Action Committee.”
You cannot compete with Corporate money, but you are much larger in numbers and as Abraham Lincoln stated, “Government of the people, by the people and for the people shall not perish from the earth.” People argue politics on the basis of one party against another. They are foolish enough to believe that these representatives don’t all drink from the same well.
posted by Stan Kent at
9:35 PM
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