How Can We Reform Healthcare?

                                                                                         

In Obama’s press conference, he said that the most important thing we can focus on to get out of our economic mess is the reformation of healthcare. He wants higher quality care, at a lower cost - that’s what we all want. But how are we going to get it? An integral part of the problem is the prescription drug industry.

Are we talking about prescription drug addiction and abuse? About teenagers who steal their parents’ pills and take them to pharma parties so their friends can try them out? About unethical drug dealers who go from one doctor to another faking symptoms so they can get painkillers for $5 a pop and re-sell them to people who will pay the $60 street price?

No, we’re talking about the millions of people taking unnecessary drugs given to them by their doctor, often for conditions not approved by the FDA, and all the additional drugs the same people have to take to help control the dangerous and sometimes deadly side effects.

What are the problems people are taking these drugs to resolve?

Antidepressants, which sometimes make people so depressed they want to kill themselves, are being prescribed for simple headaches. Zyprexa, FDA approved for schizophrenia and certain types of bipolar disorder, is being prescribed for sleep disorders, dementia in the elderly, and to facilitate weight gain - which, by the way, is a side effect that can and has caused diabetes in many of those who’ve taken it. Eli Lily, Zyprexa’s manufacturer, recently paid $1.4 billion for illegally marketing the drug for these purposes.

And then there’s OxyContin, approved by the FDA to be used as a last resort for pain so severe it cannot be handled with any other drug. Instead, it’s being prescribed for everything from toothaches to back pain. And OxyContin addiction has turned into one of the most significant drug epidemics in the nation.

How much money is being wasted?

The total sales of prescription drugs reached $286.5 billion in 2007. Antidepressants alone brought in $21 billion despite the fact that a recent review of unpublished data - data that was intentionally not disclosed to the FDA during the approval process – found that the effectiveness of a dozen popular antidepressants was greatly exaggerated by specifically withholding studies with unfavorable results.

Drug companies like Wyeth, manufacturer of Effexor (2007 sales - $2.5 billion) and Pfizer, makers of Zoloft (2007 sales - $175 million) are pawning ineffective and dangerous drugs off on the public, including the doctors who prescribe them.

Even more money is being spent on drugs to treat the side effects of other drugs. The list of side effects is long – roughly 115 common illnesses, most of which could well require additional drugs for treatment – everything from high blood pressure, heart palpitations, blood clotting, bone pain, seizures, colitis, kidney failure, diabetes, liver damage and pulmonary edema to sleeplessness, depression, anxiety.

People with these side effects – many of which are serious illnesses - wouldn’t have them if it weren’t for the original drugs they were prescribed. And sometimes it was just for a headache.

There are many steps we can take to improve our healthcare system. But reining in what may be the greediest, most criminal industry in the country would be a good start.

About the author:
Gloria MacTaggart is a freelance writer that contributes articles on health.

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