Friday, September 21, 2007

On Gucci and Gouging

If there was any chance at real health care reform, it was going to start with restricting direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertising from the pharmaceutical industry. The thought that Congress had any real modicum of desire to really change the health care climate today went up in smoke yesterday when the FDA's budget, paid in large part by pharmaceutical interests, was approved by "consumer safety-conscious" congressmen and congresswomen. We need such advertising for pharmaceutical companies, they argued, to assure effective monitoring of DTC ads to assure patient safety!

Huh?

Hey guys and gals, if we didn't have the ads in the first place, they wouldn't have to be monitored, would they?

But there were just too many powerful interests protecting their turf. One quip from the Wall Street Journal's Health Blog really hit home:
But it wasn't Big Pharma that carried the day on the revision; it was the Gucci-loafered lobbyists for media and advertising firms.
Real health care reform doesn't stand a fricking chance as long as our elected officials (and this includes every one of our comb-over presidential candidates) don't take their job seriously and start to vote on behalf of America's best interest, instead of their own.

-Wes
at

4 comments:

  1. Christopher BayneFri Sep 21, 08:53:00 AM CDT

    Hey guys and gals, if we didn't have the ads in the first place, they wouldn't have to be monitored, would they?

    Here! Here! I like it.

    ReplyDelete
  2. rlbatesFri Sep 21, 09:41:00 AM CDT

    Here! Here! I love this post!

    ReplyDelete
  3. JawsFri Sep 21, 12:52:00 PM CDT

    In regards to your comment about elected officials and presidential candidates taking their jobs seriously on our behalf, I have always found this quip from H.L. Mencken as accurate and explanatory:

    "...then all the odds are on the man who is, intrinsically, the most devious and mediocre — the man who can most easily adeptly disperse the notion that his mind is a virtual vacuum.

    The Presidency tends, year by year, to go to such men. As democracy is perfected, the office represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. We move toward a lofty ideal. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron." (emphasis added)

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousFri Sep 21, 01:55:00 PM CDT

    You mean it hasn't already?

    ReplyDelete

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.