For Your Own Good [Andrew Stuttaford]
The New York Times reported yesterday that a number of Democratic politicians are taking a run at pharmaceutical companies that pitch prescription drugs (usually via TV commercials) to patients. Some of this is just the feeling that certain health problems are, well, just too awkward to be addressed in primetime (and I'm confident that, however misguidedly, many in the GOP feel this way too) but, as we can see from the following quote from Democratic congressman Jerrold Nadler, some of it is the product of the almost unlimited contempt that many in the political class feel for the average individual:
>>> “You should not be going to a doctor saying, ‘I have restless leg syndrome’ — whatever the hell that is — or going to a doctor saying, ‘I have the mumps,’ ” Mr. Nadler said in an interview. “You should not be diagnosed by some pitchman on TV who doesn’t know you whatsoever.”<<<
Have no doubt, however, that another motive for restricting the consumer's right to know will soon be emerging. As government takes increasing control of health care it will not want patients demanding treatments that health bureaucrats deem too expensive. Of course, private insurance companies do this already, but they, mercifully, do not have the power to restrict the ability of pharmaceutical companies to tell potential customers what products are out there. To the extent that the First Amendment allows, government can — and almost certainly will. For the good of the patient, of course. |
