AMERICA'S BIGGEST RACKET
Allow me to state right off that these comments of mine here are opinions. As such they may not be exactly factual and historically accountable. But I am open about this, unlike too much media today. But a blog is a blog is a blog. I try my best.
[UNHINGED: The Trouble with Psychiatry by Dr. Daniel Carlat] A recently published book by a highly-respected psychiatrist clearly documents how the pharmaceutical industry not only "buys" psychiatrists, it writes books for them in which they only add the name of the doctor. It is a scam, pure and simple. The fact that so many drugs have been found to have serious or life-threatening side-effects, should not come as a shock. The entire field of medicine and accompanying corporations comprise a heavily-fraudulent business. We are duped in the U.S. constantly by physicians, drug corporations, hospitals, HMOs, PPOs, etc. Medicine in America is no longer "practiced," it is far too often a part of a scam. And you and I suffer because of it.
With graduate study in psychology, I know that there can be many beneficial aspects to what we commonly call "talk therapy." But today, this practice is being superceded by drug therapy, and I use the word "therapy" reluctantly. No matter what kind of medicine you rely on in the U.S. today, getting you hooked on prescription medicine is an easy way to force you to come back over and over for a lifetime. This means guaranteed money for the physicians and the drug corporations. In some cases the side-effects from the prescription drugs are far more harmful than what you are being treated for. But you may never know about the dangers of the medicine because the data on the trials to get the drugs approved by the FDA or other government agency was probably done and written by the drug corporations themselves. They fudge on the information they provide about their findings.
Avandia, now under fire because of the death-threatening side-effects, presented studies from the drug company itself to prove its worth to the federal government. The dangerous side-effects were revealed in some of the studies, but were never presented in the application for approval. I would call that a scam or something worse. People are dying because information about the dangers were never shown to patients or physicians. This is happening over and over with prescription drugs. Meanwhile the drug corporations are making billions and billions of dollars in profit from these dangerous drugs.
Europeans are not as prone to use prescription drugs as we are in America. Could it be that this is one reason that many nations in Europe have longer life expectancies for their citizens than in the U.S.? Not only are drugs not gone to as soon or as often as in the U.S., but drugs cost far less in Europe. Something is amiss. Something needs to change. We are suffering from this scam. We are victims not patients. Yes, I believe in capitalism, but not criminal capitalism.
Yes, I know that many people are prone to say that the government should stay out of business. No matter what your political stance, who, other than the federal government, can regulate such a huge industry and make certain that the American public is safe in a physician's office or at the drug store?
Of course the federal government needs to be more reliable itself. Of course. But to simply say "no" to federal government regulation of the health care industries is to cut off our nose to save our face. We are committing suicide by allowing the health care industry to set the rules and regulations. It is time for a basic change in how health care is delivered in America.
