A Follow up with DePasquale on Prescription for PA
Eugene,
I can't specifically site instances of collusion between pharma and doctors it's merely antidotal from my experiences with many doctors and listening to others recount their experiences. As the old saying goes "to a man with a hammer everything looks like a nail". IE to a doctor with a cholesterol blocking drug everyone with an elevated cholesterol level needs to be medicated; while in reality the role of cholesterol has not really been determined. The current assumption is that cholesterol leads to increased evidence of heart attacks but I've also heard theories that cholesterol is the bodies way of repairing inflammation in the body. The latest on the statin drugs used to treat high cholesterol levels - well there is some evidence that they cause heart problems. Hmmm... Go figure, BIG PHARMA is wrong again. As with everything in America these days it's driven by capitalistic greed. Products are rushed to market and in many cases pharma is employing scare tactics to create markets where none previously existed in fear that their R&D won't pay off for their shareholders.
Or take Adderal and Ritalin which are hugely prescribed to children to control ADHD and ADD. Rambunctious use to be an adjective that would be used to describe many children. Now they've been turned into drug addicts (after all Adderal and Ritalin are drugs that have been sold in the black market for years also known as speed) so they'll sit on a sofa and do nothing and the parents won't have to "deal" with their children. It still amazes me that you have to have a license to drive a car or to get married or to modify your property but you don't have to take any test or show any maturity or have any financial resources at all before having a child.
And since I'm on the subject of BIG PHARMA, how about AZT prescribed to HIV+ people. A drug that was originally developed in the 1960's as a cancer treatment costing roughly 60 cents per pill but sold to people with serious health problems for $100 a pill and more and often subsidized by the state taxpayers in order to allow these suffering/dying individuals have a little more quality of life.
And how many times do we hear about drugs that have gone wrong causing more problems than they solve. Modern Medicine would have you believe that longevity is an indicator of a healthier society but in reality it is merely an indicator of living more years. Medications have created a huge crisis in health care; while extending peoples lives they have at the same time created a system that requires people to spend many more years suffering until they finally die. Lying in assisted living and full care facilities, many times incoherent or unable to even leave their beds or wheel chairs. Is this the society that we really want to create and live in? I'll take quality of life over quantity any day.
My main point in my note to you however was that I really disagree with extending nurse practitioners into the realm of a doctor. They aren't trained to have the same expertise at diagnosing as a doctor is and I can tell you that I've already had nurse practitioners performing diagnostics on me without consulting with a doctor nor did a doctor come in and discuss any of my concerns. A nurse practitioner may be able to treat a diagnosis but they aren't going to know if the diagnosis is inaccurate and therefore they may continue treating inappropriately. The exposure of risking peoples lives just isn't worth the cost (profit - if you're an insurance company). Although a nurse practitioner may be able to help with cuts, scrapes, breaks and other everyday obvious events they should not be allowed to diagnose any internal symptoms. Of course most people should be capable of dealing with these obvious incidents without the aid of a doctor or practitioner to begin with so what role would they really fill? And from my experience with nurse practitioners my bill isn't any cheaper when I walk out the door. I still pay the full price even though I did not get the expertise. I wonder where that extra profit goes?
Sincerely,
Todd Clay
I can't specifically site instances of collusion between pharma and doctors it's merely antidotal from my experiences with many doctors and listening to others recount their experiences. As the old saying goes "to a man with a hammer everything looks like a nail". IE to a doctor with a cholesterol blocking drug everyone with an elevated cholesterol level needs to be medicated; while in reality the role of cholesterol has not really been determined. The current assumption is that cholesterol leads to increased evidence of heart attacks but I've also heard theories that cholesterol is the bodies way of repairing inflammation in the body. The latest on the statin drugs used to treat high cholesterol levels - well there is some evidence that they cause heart problems. Hmmm... Go figure, BIG PHARMA is wrong again. As with everything in America these days it's driven by capitalistic greed. Products are rushed to market and in many cases pharma is employing scare tactics to create markets where none previously existed in fear that their R&D won't pay off for their shareholders.
Or take Adderal and Ritalin which are hugely prescribed to children to control ADHD and ADD. Rambunctious use to be an adjective that would be used to describe many children. Now they've been turned into drug addicts (after all Adderal and Ritalin are drugs that have been sold in the black market for years also known as speed) so they'll sit on a sofa and do nothing and the parents won't have to "deal" with their children. It still amazes me that you have to have a license to drive a car or to get married or to modify your property but you don't have to take any test or show any maturity or have any financial resources at all before having a child.
And since I'm on the subject of BIG PHARMA, how about AZT prescribed to HIV+ people. A drug that was originally developed in the 1960's as a cancer treatment costing roughly 60 cents per pill but sold to people with serious health problems for $100 a pill and more and often subsidized by the state taxpayers in order to allow these suffering/dying individuals have a little more quality of life.
And how many times do we hear about drugs that have gone wrong causing more problems than they solve. Modern Medicine would have you believe that longevity is an indicator of a healthier society but in reality it is merely an indicator of living more years. Medications have created a huge crisis in health care; while extending peoples lives they have at the same time created a system that requires people to spend many more years suffering until they finally die. Lying in assisted living and full care facilities, many times incoherent or unable to even leave their beds or wheel chairs. Is this the society that we really want to create and live in? I'll take quality of life over quantity any day.
My main point in my note to you however was that I really disagree with extending nurse practitioners into the realm of a doctor. They aren't trained to have the same expertise at diagnosing as a doctor is and I can tell you that I've already had nurse practitioners performing diagnostics on me without consulting with a doctor nor did a doctor come in and discuss any of my concerns. A nurse practitioner may be able to treat a diagnosis but they aren't going to know if the diagnosis is inaccurate and therefore they may continue treating inappropriately. The exposure of risking peoples lives just isn't worth the cost (profit - if you're an insurance company). Although a nurse practitioner may be able to help with cuts, scrapes, breaks and other everyday obvious events they should not be allowed to diagnose any internal symptoms. Of course most people should be capable of dealing with these obvious incidents without the aid of a doctor or practitioner to begin with so what role would they really fill? And from my experience with nurse practitioners my bill isn't any cheaper when I walk out the door. I still pay the full price even though I did not get the expertise. I wonder where that extra profit goes?
Sincerely,
Todd Clay
posted by cityguy at 2:25 PM
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