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Big pharma is significantly less of a problem than the physician and hospital cartels. I have no idea why these groups have survived scrutiny for their literal
by deregulateMed 5y ago
Big pharma is significantly less of a problem than the physician and hospital cartels.
I have no idea why these groups have survived scrutiny for their literal multi-hundred million dollar lobbying/bribery of politicians.
My closest guess is that we all know "My" physician or a well paid nurse that benefits from the bribery.
- throwawayswede 5y agoThey're part of the same mafia, Pharmaceutical Research & Manufacturers of America spent $8664000 in 2021 only on lobbying. https://www.opensecrets.org/federal-lobbying/top-spenders https://www.opensecrets.org/federal-lobbying/top-spenders
- deregulateMed 5y agoSo much evil in 1 list.
- bpodgursky 5y agoDo you think this is a big number? $8mm across a huge industry is barely enough to get a legal team out of bed. This is really pocket change.
- renewiltord 5y agoWhat about $8664000.00? I made it slightly longer. I can add some more zeroes.
- the-dude 5y agoThat looks like a big number, but it is $8.6M ? Is that a lot?
- gregsadetsky 5y agoI double checked -- another source[0] mentions amounts that are a bit higher: "The Chamber [of Commerce] spent nearly $82 million on lobbying in 2020" But generally in line with the list posted by the GP: "Facebook and Amazon were the only companies in the top 10 spending list and spent nearly $19.7 million and more than $18.7 million on lobbying in 2020, respectively" I too, am surprised as how little this is for these gigantic companies ($20M for FB? 1/1000th of their quarterly revenue?) and more generally, how little money this is... in comparison with the entire US government budget? Sorry, this is probably all obvious? Just a bit.. sad? [0] https://thehill.com/business-a-lobbying/536082-us-chamber-nudged-out-of-top-lobbying-spender-spot-for-first-time-in-20 https://thehill.com/business-a-lobbying/536082-us-chamber-nu...
- missedthecue 5y agoHow much do you think lobbyists should earn instead?
- ncphil 5y agoReally. Who doesn't get how cheap our politicians come? Old joke about Spiro Agnew (Nixon's VP who had to resign because he took around $30,000 in bribes while Governor of Maryland years before): When Armstrong set foot on the Moon he would have been set for life if his first words had just been "Coca Cola!" Of course if it had been Agnew he probably would have said something like, "Fred's Tailor Shop, Baltimore!" Point is, US politicians really do come cheap. Political favors are a wholesale business, they make out on volume.
- dillondoyle 5y agoNo it's not. Lobbying in that reported sense is also a very small slice of persuading politicians and regulators and bureaucrats. PHRMA plays big in politics, 501c4 space etc. They also are known for the revolving door which is hard to quantify, but surely it makes a big difference on regs. Look at the Purdue, they got the regulator responsible for approving the label to actually sit in a hotel room and help write their oxy label together... Here's an article shows "in the US from 1999 to 2018, found that the pharmaceutical and health product industry spent $4.7 billion, an average of $233 million per year, on lobbying the US federal government; $414 million on contributions to presidential and congressional electoral candidates, national party committees, and outside spending groups; and $877 million on contributions to state candidates and committees." https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7054854/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7054854/
- 8note 5y agoIts certainly more than I paid in taxes
- perryizgr8 5y agoIt was purposefully written to mislead, hence the lack of commas or the M suffix. So yeah, it is definitely not a lot. For comparison, Facebook alone spent $17M on lobbying in 2019.
- giantg2 5y agoI don't see most physicians being an issue. Many of them are fed up with the insurance, pharma, and regulations. Most are forced to work for large providers instead of being independent just due to the overhead of dealing with digital record systems, legal, insurance billing, etc.
- deregulateMed 5y agoWhen they spent $400,000,000 on favorable monopolistic legislation it helps to aim the spotlight on anyone else.
- giantg2 5y agoWhat organization and legislation was that?
- deregulateMed 5y agoAmerican Medical Association, aka physicians
- giantg2 5y agoAnd what was the legislation? How was it monopolistic in favor of physicians? The AMA does not really represent physicians. Less than 1/4 of doctors belong to the AMA. Many of them do not feel the AMA represents them. The AMA also accepts substantial donations from other sources, including corporate donors and foundations. https://www.physiciansweekly.com/is-the-ama-really-the-voice-of-physicians-in-the-us https://www.physiciansweekly.com/is-the-ama-really-the-voice...
- renewiltord 5y agoThe lobbying to: A. Limit medical care to being provided by these people B. Limit number of residencies
- fallingknife 5y agoI have a medical condition with no cure, yet I still have to pay a doctor every 6 months to keep my prescription with no changes. Total racket.
- dd36 5y agoMy contact lens prescription is similar.
- ashtonkem 5y agoContact lens prescriptions change though, and bad contacts can do subtle damage to the wearer’s eye. I have permanent scarring in my eyes because I over-wore my 2 week contacts, my fault I know, but without an eye doctor appointment I would have done even more damage.
- dd36 5y agoI’ve had the same script for 20 years. I should add that the same thing applies to glasses.
- qq4 5y agoWow, no kidding? I used to wear mine for months, maybe even close to a year. Anytime I had my eyes examined I asked how my eyes looked due to the constant wear and the optometrist told me they looked great but frowned at me doing so. I figured the disposable contact thing was mostly a racket, but I had some doubts. I wear glasses now.
- ashtonkem 5y agoThese were the 2 week variety that were on sale between 2008 and 2012, after which I changed to 1 month lenses. It’s possible that newer lenses are better when worn outside the recommended range.
- SignalNotSecure 5y agoHave you considered stocking up at the Mexican border? So many things are available over the counter in Mexico its awesome.
- spaetzleesser 5y agoI think pretty much all players in the US health system are a problem. They all benefit to some degree from this corruption. If I had to pick the worst I would name hospitals. But everybody else profits handsomely too.
- mpmpmpmp 5y agoEveryone except for the people who are actually providing direct patient care like the nurses and the technicians.
- dv_dt 5y agoAre you kidding? https://www.rand.org/news/press/2021/01/28.html https://www.rand.org/news/press/2021/01/28.html > Prescription Drug Prices in the United States Are 2.56 Times Those in Other Countries
- xyzzyz 5y agoSo are the nannies and the landscapers. Are these also a racket?
- jacobolus 5y agoServices from nannies and landscapers are nontradeable goods. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tradability https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tradability
- pkphilip 5y agoIt is just amazing to watch people in the US defend the price gouging in healthcare in the US. The medicine prices are MUCH lower in other parts of the world - including in places where the cost of living is much higher than in the US such as Norway and Switzerland. The cost of Insulin is 8x higher in the US than in comparable countries around the world. https://pharmanewsintel.com/news/insulin-prices-8x-higher-in-the-us-compared-to-similar-nations https://pharmanewsintel.com/news/insulin-prices-8x-higher-in...
- throwaway743 5y ago
- diogenescynic 5y agoSutter Health is one of those hospital cartels. They've made it so that giving birth in Sacramento is now one of the most expensive cities in America. It's all a racket. Source: https://www.kqed.org/stateofhealth/205822/northern-california-has-highest-costs-in-the-u-s-to-deliver-a-baby https://www.kqed.org/stateofhealth/205822/northern-californi...
- mpmpmpmp 5y ago"Well paid nurse"... Now thats a funny one.
- pydry 5y agoCapital loves to blame labor, capital owns the media and we're inclined to believe their stories.
- Andy_G11 5y agoI would think tech is now at the point to undermine micro-exploiters who extract punitive payments from people who feel that there is no viable alternative provider (e.g. a specialist who requires completely unnecessary monthly visits, gives a cursory glance, keeps treatment unchanged and charges hundreds in the process). What do you think? - Is this something tech CAN do today, with an open source application and publicly available data?