221–230 of 329 posts
Such a ban would probably be damaging to many publicly traded companies (not just in health care, but also media and related) that are large components of the Health Care index funds and even broader market index funds sitting in Americans' retirement accounts... which might make this difficult to accomplish politically. (Aside from constitutionality issues, etc.)
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The irony of wanting to ban Rx drug ads because they are creepy, is that it was regulations that made them creepy to begin with. (You seem aware of this already) There is an argument to be made for consumer advertising for a drug like Viagra. Without awareness that an effective treatment exists, patients with ED or another embarrassing condition are not likely to bring it up with their doctor on their own, thus resul…
What if you allow basically the same ad but disallow mention of any brand names - only the generic name or condition to be treated?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
No, but I also don't think people should be free to buy any chemical at will. Alcohol is heavily regulated and still causes massive issues for society.
Alcohol is mostly regulated for taxation, not usage. (To the point of poisoning untaxed alcohol to make sure you get hurt if you sneak around the tax.)
To claim that alcohol isn't regulated on usage or that most alcohol regulations are for taxation purposes only is pretty far off the mark.
The primary rationale for the taxation of alcohol itself is to counterbalance the public health issues that alcohol causes. Public health issues cost money to remediate.
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Are you not aware that 88,000 people die from alcohol-related causes every year in the US and that alcohol is the third leading preventable cause of death? http://www.niaaa.nih.gov/alcohol-health/overview-alcohol-con...
Do you support banning alcohol?
Such a ban would probably be damaging to many publicly traded companies (not just in health care, but also media and related) that are large components of the Health Care index funds and even broader market index funds sitting in Americans' retirement accounts... which might make this difficult to accomplish politically. (Aside from constitutionality issues, etc.)
Ah, yes, the "it will hurt the free markets" red herring.
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> This has positives, as consumers can be more active participants in their health, but can also lead to people shopping for doctors who will prescribe the drugs that they want based on flimsy research and marketing. Turns out, people suck at being intelligent healthcare consumers. Its not their fault though. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/02/upshot/why-consumers-often... http://www.nber.org/papers/w21160 Disclaimer:…
Have you ever lived in a country with single-payer healthcare? Let me tell you it's not all roses. - Months long waits for anything requiring a specialist unless you're literally about to die. - Arbitrary exclusions like dental and optical. - Doctors taking in ~50% of the entire provincial budget and whining that it's not enough. And at a typical tech worker salary this all this ends up being more expensive in additi…
Your point about doctors taking ~50% of the provincial budget seems exaggerated (please provide a reference to support it). Even if healthcare takes 50% of the budget, it's not all going to doctors, probably not even the majority of that. There are a lot of expenses other than doctors in a health system (nurses, administrators, buildings, equipment, materials, etc, etc, etc).
In the US, the big "single-payer" system, Medicare, is far more cost efficient than private insurance: http://healthaffairs.org/blog/2011/09/20/medicare-is-more-ef...
And I can think of at least one good reason to prefer single-payer if you are a not-poor tech worker: Job flexibility. Since insurance comes from the govt instead of the employer, employees don't jeopardize or destabilize their health coverage by switching employers or switching to being self employed.
Edit: wording
I just stopped turning on the TV in the end. These ads seemingly dominate television over there and some of the side effects for those drugs sound horrible, death is mentioned a lot.
I guess I'll be the one to go against the grain here. I've seen a lot of doctors over the years, primarily for mental illness, but my experience has served me well generalizing to normal, physical health. The model of a doctor as a paternal guardian who knows better than you so you should just do as he says is a very bad model. They're as flawed human beings as anyone else and the only person qualified to fight for y…
As someone who also has mental health issues, I want to say I agree. However, I don't think ads are the optimal way for a populace to stay educated. Personally, every medication I've been prescribed has been followed by my own research as to how the medication is designed to work. I will agree though that the relationship between me and my doctor should be a two-way one. I am completely open with my doctor and make i…
I guess I'll be the one to go against the grain here. I've seen a lot of doctors over the years, primarily for mental illness, but my experience has served me well generalizing to normal, physical health. The model of a doctor as a paternal guardian who knows better than you so you should just do as he says is a very bad model. They're as flawed human beings as anyone else and the only person qualified to fight for y…
As someone who also has mental health issues, I want to say I agree. However, I don't think ads are the optimal way for a populace to stay educated. Personally, every medication I've been prescribed has been followed by my own research as to how the medication is designed to work. I will agree though that the relationship between me and my doctor should be a two-way one. I am completely open with my doctor and make i…
I thought that practice was forbidden, but perhaps not: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2811591/