Big Pharma continues its lying campaign to mislead seniors and Americans to pressure Congress to avoid drug price controls. They want to continue the legal theft.
Big Pharma lies are dangerous
This morning as I was drinking my first cup of coffee with my daughter, a Big Pharma ad came on. I had to do a double-take because of its subtleness and effectiveness. Here is the text of the ad.
I take medications for systemic lupus and cancer. Recently, I’ve been hearing about Medicare negotiation and how some in Congress think it’s a good idea. It isn’t. In countries where the government sets prices and controls access, patients experience dangerous wait times. Some never gain access to the lifesaving medicines we have here in America. Government price setting will hurt seniors like me. Let’s never let that happen.
Ironically, the woman in the ad has the same disease that my wife has, Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE). There have not been significant strides on this disease, likely because it does not affect enough people. And that is the problem with having a system that is dependent on for-profit drugs.
Let’s discuss several drugs specific to the mentioned disease in the ad, SLE. It has been managed successfully for decades with old medications no longer under patent like prednisone, less than $20/mo, Hydroxychloroquine, less than $10/mo, an,d if one has kidney involvement, mycophenolate mofetil, less than $60/mo. My wife participated in a study for several years to test the drug Benlysta by Big Pharma GlaxoSmithKline plc (GSK).
My wife perceived no measurable positive effects of this drug. Now that the test is over, it would cost her north of $42,000/yr if she wanted to use the drug. One should remember all drugs were in some manner funded by taxpayers directly or indirectly. Yet these drug-pushing terrorists continue to rip off Americans,
The statements in the ads are false and misleading. They claim that other countries that have price controls on drugs have significant wait times. Have you tried to get an appointment with a specialist recently? For most in America, the wait times are weeks, if not months. Have you tried to get a drug you cannot afford? You must either become a beggar or do without medicine. They fatten the coffers of executives and shareholders that played a minimum role in creating the drugs.
The ad would have one believe that humane procedures in other countries to save the lives of most without causing their bankruptcy is somehow dangerous. The facts say otherwise.
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is an international organization that works to build better policies for better lives. Their goal is to shape policies that foster prosperity, equality, opportunity, and well-being for all. They rank countries in many areas, including healthcare. As drug companies and other health companies continue the pilfering of Americans, we continue to remain mediocre in life expectancy and other places in healthcare. We are ranked 26th in life expectancy. Every country that reins in our Big Pharma and other personal-wealth pilfering companies do much better than the United States.
Do not be fooled by these ads. They want you to support policies against your interests. They want you to pay as much as you can, no less. These companies transfer America’s wealth to a few using their pricing power for service, and product one needs to live. It is time for Medicare for All and to remove the profit out of healthcare. After all, those who profit from healthcare and innovate the new drugs and techniques aren’t the ones getting the profits and massive bonuses.
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The drive towards privatization of Medicare was a part of the addition of a prescription benefit to Medicare. The prescription portion, Part D, started out privatized. Private insurance companies would control the medications for seniors. This now is a battle for seniors to get the prescriptions that their doctors prescribe and are covered under the insurance carrier. However, the insurance carrier now says it is to early to fill the prescription, there is a less expensive prescription that will work (even when there is medical evidence to the contrary), or the best one yet is that Medicare says that prescription is not correct. We really need Universal Health Coverage to get health out of the hands of profiteers. Great article by the way.
Big Pharma have always lobbied politicians (deducting the cost as an expense of doing business) and “motivated” them with quasi-bribes (i.e., “donations”). That’s bad. They’ve always wined, dined, and provided junkets to physicians. That’s bad. A couple of decades back they begin advertising directly to consumers (tax deductibly, of course). That’s arguably worse.
Now they’re getting consumers to lobby politicians for them. Lobby them for what? Lobby politicians to allow big Pharma to price gouge the suckers who are doing the lobbying on their behalf.
What qualifies the woman to speak so authoritatively about drug pricing? She has a disease. A sucker herself, she’s accepting payment from her victimizers to help turn other people into suckers.
Incidentally, as you note, this is a very sophisticatedly slick ad. One feature of its slick professionalism is that the video was over-lighted and thus blown out and desaturated. In other words, it’s the product of accomplished professionals pretending to be “just plain folks” amateurs.
My wife is Chair of the Democratic Executive Committee here in Volusia County FL. She distributes to about 1000 or more people a newsletter I write each week. I’ll include a link to your work in this issue.