More "Sicko"

Michael Moore's "Sicko" opened at Cannes recently. In this interview with Bill Maher, Moore says he's still recovering from praise from Fox News and condemns the "health" and drug corporations in the US. He says it's not only that millions of Americans have no health insurance, but also that the health insurance corporations try to maximise profits by avoiding making payments, a situation made worse by the high costs of many drugs from pharmaceutical corporations:



Cf.Chomsky:

"There are periodic scandals - meaning some horrible thing that happened by accident escapes, that's called a scandal - and the media feeders have to pretend to be very irate: how can our democracy survive etcetera etcetera.
"It is well known among serious journalists that after a major scandal, like say Watergate or Iran-Contra or something, there is a period of a couple of months when the media tend to be more open. And then you can sneak in the stories that you've been storing up.

"So if you take a close look at the media you'll discover that the really smart reporters often are coming out with things in that window of opportunity that opens up in reaction to the scandal.

"On top of that there is just plenty of people with integrity and who are really working hard to stretch the limits, and sometimes they get things through."

http://www.zmag.org/chomsky/interviews/9501-journalism.html

The New York Times might have printed the following story anyway, but it may be significant that it has done so just after Moore’s “Sicko” got a lot of positive attention. Anyway, it documents a very sick situation:

“After Sanctions, Doctors Get Drug Company Pay

By GARDINER HARRIS and JANET ROBERTS

Published: June 3, 2007

… Medical ethicists have long argued that doctors who give experimental medicines should be chosen with care. Indeed, the drug industry’s own guidelines for clinical trials state, “Investigators are selected based on qualifications, training, research or clinical expertise in relevant fields.” Yet Dr. Abuzzahab is far from the only doctor to have been disciplined or criticized by a medical board but later paid by drug makers.

An analysis of state records by The New York Times found more than 100 such doctors in Minnesota, at least two with criminal fraud convictions. While Minnesota is the only state to make its records publicly available, the problem, experts say, is national.

One of Dr. Abuzzahab’s patients was David Olson, whom the psychiatrist tried repeatedly to recruit for clinical trials. Drug makers paid Dr. Abuzzahab thousands of dollars for every patient he recruited. In July 1997, when Mr. Olson again refused to be a test subject, Dr. Abuzzahab discharged him from the hospital even though he was suicidal, records show. Mr. Olson committed suicide two weeks later.
In its disciplinary action against Dr. Abuzzahab, the state medical board referred to Mr. Olson as Patient No. 46.

“Dr. Abuzzahab failed to appreciate the risks of taking Patient No. 46 off Clozaril, failed to respond appropriately to the patient’s rapid deterioration and virtually ignored this patient’s suicidality,” the board found.

In an interview, Dr. Abuzzahab dismissed the findings as “without heft” and said drug makers were aware of his record. He said he had helped study many of the most popular drugs in psychiatry, including Paxil, Prozac, Risperdal, Seroquel, Zoloft and Zyprexa.

The Times’s examination of Minnesota’s trove of records on drug company payments to doctors found that from 1997 to 2005, at least 103 doctors who had been disciplined or criticized by the state medical board received a total of $1.7 million from drug makers. The median payment over that period was $1,250; the largest was $479,000.
The sanctions by the board ranged from reprimands to demands for retraining to suspension of licenses. Of those 103 doctors, 39 had been penalized for inappropriate prescribing practices, 21 for substance abuse, 12 for substandard care and 3 for mismanagement of drug studies. A few cases received national news media coverage, but drug makers hired the doctors anyway.
…
In cases involving Dr. Abuzzahab over 15 years in the 1980s and ’90s, the medical board found that he repeatedly prescribed narcotics and other controlled substances to addicts, renewing one patient’s prescriptions six weeks after the patient was jailed and telling another that his addictive pills should be thought of as “Hamburger Helper.” He prescribed narcotics to pregnant patients, one of whom prematurely delivered a baby who soon died.

In explaining his abrupt discharge of the suicidal Mr. Olson, Dr. Abuzzahab told the medical board that “if a patient is determined to kill himself, he can’t be prevented from doing it and hospitalization postpones the event,” records show.
Mr. Olson’s sister, Susie Olson, said Dr. Abuzzahab “had no time for my brother unless David agreed to get into a drug study. He said, ‘You’re wasting my time and the hospital’s.’ It was all about money.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/03/health/03docs.html

In the interview with Maher, Moore says that he hopes Al Gore will run for President again. Perhaps Gore has changed, but while he was Vice-President he defended the interests of the corporations attacked in “Sicko”:

Drug Corporations and Crumbling Health Care

by Nastya Petrovitch

“For example, “in 1998, [Al Gore] put great pressure on South Africa, threatening trade sanctions if the government didn’t cancel plans to use much cheaper generic AIDS drugs, which would cut into U.S. companies’ sales, [something that would affect] three million HIV-positive persons among its largely impoverished population [and was done at the time because] he had significant ties to the drug industry” (Blum 2000, p. 6). The big pharmaceutical companies would have a significant loss in profits if a country with as high of demand for AIDS drugs as South Africa stopped buying their drugs and bought generic versions instead. They used their power and influence to make sure that they could maximize their profitability off of the poor, dying people in South Africa (Blum). And because of their great control over government, the AIDS epidemic has been ravaging Africa, despite the availability of medicine that could allow them to live a long fruitful life.

Pharmaceutical companies charge astronomically high prices for drugs to get as much money as they can from consumers. Drugs have risen twice as fast as inflation, causing many Americans to not be able to afford the medications that they need (Anderson & Taylor, 2007, p. 374).

http://www.bloggernews.net/16985

It seems that Clinton has changed since 1998; it's easier when you're not in power and not subjected to huge power of the drug corporations. But recently corporations have become increasingly aware that they need to try to create a more favourable public perception of themselves):

"Companies understand the power of publicity and that charitable giving helps build a strong public image. Some enlightened companies view giving as essential for good corporate citizenship. However, corporations expect concrete rewards for their generosity.

Many companies use the Internet as a means to advertise their philanthropic activities. By posting grantmaking information on the Web, companies make the public aware that they are involved in improving the quality of life, particularly in areas of company operations. This exposure gives the company a positive image and improves public relations, which ultimately translates into increased profits."

http://www.techsoup.org/learningcenter/funding/page5226.cfm

So now Clinton is able to persuade corporations to work with him - and he can even work with the French !

"Citing the importance of keeping AIDS treatment affordable, President Clinton also announced the “next generation” first-line treatment, taken once daily, is now less than $1 under new agreements. The equivalent product in the U.S., launched in July 2006, is widely perceived as a gold-standard treatment, as it offers greater convenience, fewer side effects, and improved treatment outcomes in comparison to the regimen used most commonly in developing countries.

French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy, chairman of the UNITAID board, added, 'Every person living with HIV deserves access to the most effective medicines, and UNITAID aims to ensure that these are affordable for all developing countries. I am pleased that our partnership with President Clinton is lowering the price of second-line treatment, and that the new prices will be available to low and middle income countries alike.'”

http://www.clintonfoundation.org/050807-nr-cf-hs-ai-fe-next-generation-hiv-aids-treatment-now-less-than-one-dollar-a-day.htm