It should simply be illegal to advertise prescription medications.
"Ask your doctor about Klonopin today"
"Ask your doctor about coronary artery bypass grafting today"
One of these sounds completely ridiculous, and the other sounds commonplace. They should both sound ridiculous, because they're both equally completely ridiculous.
The idea that the patient should be influencing the treatment decisions of medical professionals based on things they saw on television is just absurd. It should be illegal. Doctors are all complicit in it, that should be considered medical malpractice, but doctors are put in an impossible position on this stuff and I understand why they do it.
Healthcare in general is just such a goddamn mess. There are so many completely obvious ways to improve it, but it's impossible to implement any of them, and in the meantime people just keep losing their loved ones early to all the inefficiencies and waste and stupidity.
And all the politicians just want to get their stamp on it to show their constituency how caring and benevolent they are, but they're politicians so all they're actually capable of doing is fucking everything up. So they all just keep grandstanding and fucking everything up and it just gets worse and worse every year.
How do you think people get informed? Do you really think that advertising isn't useful to informing people? Do you really think as many patients would find out about viable treatments for their conditions if you ban advertising?
Advertising isn't hypnosis. People know not to take claims at face value and if they don't, US medical ads are full of disclaimers and warnings. And once you see an ad for a treatment, you have many opportunities to research it, including by discussing it with your doctor.
Do you really think doctors alone should decide your treatment?
My mother in law had terminal brain cancer. She could not eat due nausea from her chemotherapy. I accompanied her on a visit to her doctor. We told him the anti-nausea prescription wasn't working, and I asked why he didn't prescribe her medicinal marijuana. He angrily rejected it as a viable treatment and huffily said he'd change her prescription to a different anti-nausea medication. Shortly later she went on the last trip of her life, to Arizona for some sun and relaxation, but her nausea was so bad that she threw up in the airport and had to return home, where she died in bed a few months later, a 60 lb bundle of bones from barely eating for months on end.
If you want to be protected from "advertising", change the channel. I don't, so stop trying to "protect" me by restricting my right to listen to other viewpoints.
How many would claim that getting a 200M drug ad campaign qualifies? Hell, I watch a drug ad and it is all life style and vibe. Shots off my golf score! Luxury Yachts! Happy, Well Adjusted Grand Kids!
"Ask your doctor about Klonopin today"
"Ask your doctor about coronary artery bypass grafting today"
One of these sounds completely ridiculous, and the other sounds commonplace. They should both sound ridiculous, because they're both equally completely ridiculous.
The idea that the patient should be influencing the treatment decisions of medical professionals based on things they saw on television is just absurd. It should be illegal. Doctors are all complicit in it, that should be considered medical malpractice, but doctors are put in an impossible position on this stuff and I understand why they do it.
Healthcare in general is just such a goddamn mess. There are so many completely obvious ways to improve it, but it's impossible to implement any of them, and in the meantime people just keep losing their loved ones early to all the inefficiencies and waste and stupidity.
And all the politicians just want to get their stamp on it to show their constituency how caring and benevolent they are, but they're politicians so all they're actually capable of doing is fucking everything up. So they all just keep grandstanding and fucking everything up and it just gets worse and worse every year.