“Draining The Sink” On Drug Pricing Will Be Messy Business.

Mike Magee Last week’s New York Times headline said it all: “Drugmakers Are ‘Throwing the Kitchen Sink’ to Halt Medicare Price Negotiations.” It called to mind a story our aging legislators might sooner forget from two decades ago. But how the nation gave away the bank to these corporate characters (which include not only pharma, […]

The MIC Circular Firing Squad

Mike Magee If you want to see the Medical-Industrial Complex (MIC) in full “circular firing squad” mode, simply check out the recent Energy & Commerce Committee hearings on soaring drug prices hosted by chairman Rep. Greg Walden (R-OR). Delivering tough talk to committee members, he said, “Consider yourself on [the working group] if you’re on […]

Canada vs. U.S. Health Care: National Governance Reform – HHS, FDA, NIH, CDC.

Mike Magee As we have seen, America’s health care system – disintegrated, opaque and heavily conflicted – didn’t just happen. It is the result of thousands of conscious decisions over nearly a century. Choices made have tipped the scale toward intervention, technology, and medicalization at every turn. Peggy Noonan suggested this week that Paul Ryan’s […]

Testosterone: Another Case of Physician Enabled Drug Abuse

Ad From MedicineNet.com Mike Magee Is testosterone the next Oxycontin? It certainly has many of the same earmarks. It’s widespread abuse is being aided and abetted by sloppy prescribers. Its’ benefits are being exaggerated and its’ risks understated. It is associated with heavy marketing by pharmaceutical companies and a range of profit seeking intermediaries. And […]

An FDA Golden Voucher That’s Too Good To Be True.

Mike Magee Thirty-six years ago, as Ronald Reagan assumed the presidency, Congress cried “uncle”, in the face of America’s perceived global non-competitiveness in pharmaceuticals. They had been convinced by the persistent voices of Louis Lasagna and University of Chicago economist Sam Perltzman that there was a “drug lag” in America, and that it was the […]

Calling PhRMA’s Bluff: 15 Ways To Bring US Drug Costs Under Control

Mike Magee Historically, U.S. insurers have been relatively permissive when it comes to pharmaceuticals. Most drugs were covered and reimbursed generously. That reflected two realities: drugs were a relatively small piece of the over all health care cost, and denying certain drugs coverage on formulary lists was almost always a public relations nightmare, angering both […]

The Three Pillars of the Medical-Industrial Complex – and the Physician. Part 5. Decoupling Research.

VIEW ENTIRE SERIES Mike Magee Historically, for a century since the Flexner report, some 40 premier academic health systems have been the masters and the model for American health delivery, constantly reinforcing the three-prong definition of the ideal senior level “thought leader” and successful academic physician – researcher, teacher, clinician. But in 2009, AHA president, […]

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