5 ms·
See how much money your physician takes from drug companies. https://www.cms.gov/openpayments/ https://www.cms.gov/openpayments/ As a physician I can tell you
by davak 11y ago
See how much money your physician takes from drug companies.
https://www.cms.gov/openpayments/ https://www.cms.gov/openpayments/
As a physician I can tell you that this type of public reporting has radically decreased the amount of stuff that doctors take from drug companies.
Removing advertising from the TV will do the same. It is much easier for a physician to give a patient the most correct medication without these biases. Remember that in the US, we spend about 2-3X as much as anybody else for less length and quality of life.
http://qz.com/553181/americans-spend-nearly-three-times-as-much-on-healthcare-as-other-wealthy-countries-and-die-earlier/ http://qz.com/553181/americans-spend-nearly-three-times-as-m...
- maerF0x0 11y agoI would argue the opposite. By creating a separate class of individual that receives information about medicines we obfuscate what the options are. Under the current model a doctor could say "You should take <x>" and I would have little to no exposure to alternatives" . IMO the real issue is that advertising (not just pharmaceutical) is not very informative anymore, we need a return to fact based ads. No more "sexy" women draped over whatever, no more saccharine smily women glowing after their husband took <y> ... Ads today are propaganda.
- Florin_Andrei 11y ago> information about medicines TV ads are not "information about medicines", that's just ridiculous. They are mind-games the advertisers play with potential customers in hope of squeezing more cash out of them. You want true information? Read peer-review studies. > Under the current model a doctor could say "You should take <x>" and I would have little to no exposure to alternatives Right, 'cause doctors are evil like that. I just saw an ad revealing what doctors don't want me to know, I am totally going to believe it!
- crusso 11y agoYou could say similar things about political ads. They're mind-games. Do we want to get rid of them too?
- TeMPOraL 11y agoABSOLUTELY YES. That we, as a society, allow people deceive us and to lie in our faces, and not only that - we've turned it into an respected occupation - still boggles my mind.
- netheril96 11y agoIn order to ban lies, you need to entrust power in someone else to discern the lies from truth. But that someone else lies too. It is simply intractable. Like the halting problem.
- crusso 11y agoExactly. That's why we opt for free speech. We allow people to lie and attempt to deceive and spin because we know that it's better for citizens to be accustomed to the marketing and somewhat robust against it than to trust some other higher power that can betray the unprotected and unaware masses.
- TeMPOraL 11y agoI don't buy it. I think "we" didn't allow a thing, it's just that lying makes money, money gives power, and power can be used to keep your lying legal (and money can be used to make it be perceived as socially acceptable occupation).
- crusso 11y agoAnd how do you get around the problem of who watches the watchers? [edit add: Because I actually don't disagree with anything you said, but the solution you propose never seems to work]
- metalliqaz 11y agoAds have always been propaganda.