Listen, I love watching baseball or football in my living room with my three-year-old playing about just like the next guy. I love when I hear the opening bars to a John Lee Hooker song and realize I’m getting the nostalgic, queasy, feeling I used to get as a child, of watching a movie with my parents during a sex scene. Awesome. I can’t wait until my little boy is old enough to ask me what the hell does this commercial have to do with boats or cars, or rugged good-looking silver foxes?
Unfortunately, the American Medical Association (AMA) hates love and romance and family values as they have called for a ban on commercials for prescription drugs.
Responding to the billions of advertising dollars being spent to promote prescription products, physicians at the Interim Meeting of the American Medical Association (AMA) today adopted new policy aimed at driving solutions to make prescription drugs more affordable.
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“Today’s vote in support of an advertising ban reflects concerns among physicians about the negative impact of commercially-driven promotions, and the role that marketing costs play in fueling escalating drug prices,” said AMA Board Chair-elect Patrice A. Harris, M.D., M.A. “Direct-to-consumer advertising also inflates demand for new and more expensive drugs, even when these drugs may not be appropriate.”
Whatever, grandpa! What’s the problem? Who cares if the pharmaceutical industry spends $4.5 billion a year on direct-to-consumer advertising?
New AMA policy also calls for convening a physician task force and launching an advocacy campaign to promote prescription drug affordability by demanding choice and competition in the pharmaceutical industry, and greater transparency in prescription drug prices and costs.
“Physicians strive to provide the best possible care to their patients, but increases in drug prices can impact the ability of physicians to offer their patients the best drug treatments,” said Dr. Harris. “Patient care can be compromised and delayed when prescription drugs are unaffordable and subject to coverage limitations by the patient’s health plan. In a worst-case scenario, patients forego necessary treatments when drugs are too expensive.”
Good luck! In the meantime me and the boy are going to watch some fellas throw the pigskin while I explain what rectal bleeding, and an erection for four hours means. Maybe we will discuss nausea, increased appetite and weight gain, loss of sexual desire, insomnia, fatigue or drowsiness, constipation, dry mouth, club foot, dizziness, agitation, irritability, anxiety, itchy ear, loose stool, suicidal thoughts, restless leg syndrome...You know, family time.