[News] The pharmaceutical industry is the BIGGEST political lobby in the US.

[RobinN]

The pharmaceutical industry is the BIGGEST political lobby in the US. There should be no doubt about the power the drug industry wields in shaping the U.S. health care system, and political lobbying is one of the primary reasons why the drug companies are controlling nearly the entire the health industry.

Last year, the pharmaceutical industry as a whole spent over $244 million on lobbying, and that's just the dollars-and-cents influence that what was reported. As Abramoff explains, there are other methods that are FAR more effective for getting desired results, which I'll get to in a moment. In addition, federal candidates received over $15 million in political contributions last year.

The pharmaceutical industry's power and influence over government, the field of conventional medicine, and your mind through massive marketing efforts, is in a class of its own. It's just that most people don't realize the staggering magnitude of their financial influence, and therefore are blinded and deceived by the manipulated perception that the industry is "helping mankind."

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/ar...1204_SNL_Art_1

[epileric]

Actually, anyone who cares to check the facts out would see that "Health" is the 2nd largest lobby in the US. Pharmaceuticals is just a small part of the Health lobby. This article likes to make things look scarier than they are (not saying lobbies aren't scary). The pharmaceutical lobby is big and has power- this shows in the US cost of prescriptions but saying they are the "biggest lobby" is an exaggeration. For that reason I would take the claims from such an article lightly. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lobbyin..._United_States

I also doubt the advice because it is on Mercolas site. In His unfounded claims he falsely attacks the whole medical industry and its regulators. The FDA have notified him numerous times. I would suggest being careful when using Mercolas "medical advice"

FDA Warnings
In 2005, the FDA ordered Mercola and his Optimal Wellness Center to stop making illegal claims for products sold through his Web site [6]. The claims to which the FDA objected involved three products:
* Living Fuel Rx, claimed to offer an "exceptional countermeasure" against cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, autoimmune diseases, etc.
* Tropical Traditions Virgin Coconut Oil, claimed to reduce the risk of heart disease and has beneficial effects against Crohn's disease, irritable bowel syndrome, and many infectious agents
* Chlorella, claimed to fight cancer and normalize blood pressure.
In 2006, the FDA send Mercola and his center a second warning that was based on product labels collected during an inspection at his facility and on claims made on the Optimum Wellness Center Web site [7]. This time the claims to which the FDA objected involve four products:
* Vibrant Health Research Chlorella XP, claimed to "help to virtually eliminate your risk of developing cancer in the future."
* Fresh Shores Extra Virgin Coconut Oil, claimed to reduce the risk of heart disease, cancer, and degenerative diseases.
* Momentum Health Products Vitamin K2, possibly useful in treating certain kinds of cancer and Alzheimer's disease.
* Momentum Health Products Cardio Essentials Nattokinase NSK-SD, claimed to be "a much safer and effective option than aspirin and other pharmaceutical agents to treating heart disease."
The warning letters explained that the use of such claims in the marketing of these products violates the Federal Food Drug and Cosmetic Act, which bans unapproved claims for products that are intended for curing, mitigating, treating, or preventing of diseases. (Intended use can be established through product labels, catalogs, brochures, tapes, Web sites, or other circumstances surrounding the distribution of the product.)

http://uptrendhealth.multiply.com/journal/item/47

That was 6 years ago but the dangerous behaviour continues today.

Last month, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration sent the osteopathic physician a warning letter accusing him of violating federal law by marketing the Med2000 for uses not approved by the federal agency.

The letter is the third since 2005 for Mercola, whose online empire draws traffic that places it in the top 400 websites nationally. He offers thermography through his Natural Health Center in Hoffman Estates.

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2...-fda-crackdown

[epileric]

According to the Kaiser Health News the pharmaceutical lobby, though still spending big has gone down since the previous year.

Overall, however, the health law's enactment brought a decrease from the massive effort stakeholders staged during the heated congressional debate in 2009. Ten key health care players spent about $127 million on lobbying, down nearly 9 percent from 2009, according to lobbying documents filed with the Senate Office of Public Records on Jan. 20 for the fourth quarter of 2010 and records from the Center for Responsive Politics as of Jan. 26

http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/Stor...-lobbying.aspx

From what I can tell the main place where money is being excessively spent in US healthcare is on unnecessary tests & treatments.

Led by Minal Kale, MD, a postdoctoral fellow in the Division of Internal Medicine in the Department of Medicine at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, the research team reviewed findings from a study published in the May 2011 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, which identified the top five most overused clinical activities in each of three primary care specialties: pediatrics, internal medicine, and family medicine. With this information, they performed a cross-sectional analysis of separate data that were pulled from the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey and the National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey. They found more than $6.7 billion was spent in excess healthcare spending in the primary care setting in 2009. Eighty-six percent, or more than $5.8 billion of the unnecessary spending, resulted from the prescribing of brand-name statins rather than generic versions.

The remaining costs were attributable to the following:

During physical exams, more than half of complete blood work ordered was not needed, resulting in more than $32 million in excess costs.
Unnecessary bone density scans in younger women accounted for more than $527 million.
CT scans, MRIs, or X-Rays in people presenting with back pain accounted for $175 million in excess healthcare costs.
Over-prescription of antibiotics for sore throat in children, excluding cases of strep throat or fever, accounted for $116 million in unnecessary costs.
Other excess costs included needless annual echocardiograms, urine testing, pap tests, and pediatric cough medicine prescriptions.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...1003144716.htm