Those Spiffy Ads Etc.

TW: Ask any health care or insurance provider and you will hear Americans just want to consume more and more health care. Why would they not if they see spiffy commercials and have a 3rd party paying (those commercials presumably only create resentment for those without a 3rd party payer). Of course to suggest caps on such consumption would require....egads RATIONING!!! or rational thought or something else not likely not currently being discussed at town halls.

Here in Chicago the boner ads get much play, during our recent trip outside the cocoon ads for "Medicare reimbursable scooter" ads were ubiquitous.

From Economist:
"WATCH television in America for two hours and you'll be convinced no man in the country can get an erection, nobody can sleep through the night, and a significant portion of the population is dragging through the day depressed out of their minds. But all you have to do is ask a friendly physician for drugs A, B or C, and all your troubles will be solved. While we're screaming at each other about how to cover the uninsured and pay for it all, perhaps we also should look at reforming the mountain of prescription drugs Americans are consuming—and for which the government increasingly will be on the hook in a reformed health-care system.

An alarming study released last week found that the number of Americans using antidepressants has soared from 6% to 10% in less than a decade. And, astoundingly, ABC noted in its story on the study that many of the drugs' recipients "are not suffering from depression. It's more often for nerve and back pain, sleep problems, smoking cessation, and even menopausal hot flashes. In many cases, patients get an anti-depressant for no obvious reason." How can anyone—well anyone other than the pharmaceutical industry, which spent $855m on lobbying from 1998 to 2006—see this as anything less than absolutely crazy?

A good place to start would be curbing the television advertisements for prescription drugs, most of which promise halcyon days if only you pop a little blue or purple or yellow pill. Companies can’t advertise cigarettes on TV in America, and hard-liquor advertising is self-restricted, but inundating viewers with rosy images of prescription-drug-induced happiness is just fine? It’s ludicrous from the standpoint of social well-being; and with prescription drugs the fastest growing component of American health-care spending, it's a fiscal nightmare waiting to happen—one that should keep citizens and policymakers awake at night, even with liberal doses of Ambien."