The article at the site: http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2008/05/09/ama_calls_for_limits_on_drug_ads/ discloses that the AMA wants drug ads for pharmaceuticals to be pulled from TV. the argument is based on concerns that "the ads gloss over risks and may cause overprescribing of expensive medicines". Really?
Prescription medications require a doctor to dispense, unless the AMA is arguing that its members, the doctors are being deceived by ads and aren't doing THEIR homework about the risks of medication, the general public is not at risk from these ads. Anyone who has gone to a doctor to get an antibiotic is fairly aware that doctors often don't prescribe merely at patient request, so what's the problem?
Perhaps it's more about the fact that doctors who prescribe FDA approved drugs and products now face new hurdles because of the new protection that FDA approved products get eg the presumption that they are safe, relieving their manufacturers of liability in lawsuits which leaves who holding the bag? That's right, physicians who are negligent in prescribing or dosing or in installation of FDA approved products or devices.
Further, information is power when it comes to the health services industry and individuals should be able to hear about new products available and ask their doctors about such products. The medical services industry and doctors are notoriously private and protective about what they do, their records of what they do, and their knowledge of what they do...all the while pushing for more public, more thorough, more invasive information about their patients. This has always been a hurdle for patients trying to question a doctor. It's a lot easier for physicians to say I didn't know this would happen if the consumer knows nothing about what he's being prescribed.
Consumers don't have the ability to write their own prescriptions. Drug ads are information, some good, some incomplete, it is the doctor responsibility to further educate his patients about possible medications...do your homework.
Doctors also don't like doctors appearing on commercials pushing products. But why? It's no different from the AMA pushing for wider health insurance coverage using ads that imply that health insurance is the only way people can get medical care which glosses over the fact that health insurance is being pushed because it's the best way for physicians to protect their interest in getting paid.
While the health insurance industry and the health services industry invade consumer privacy about every aspect of their health as a means of getting out of paying for or being responsible for anything that happens to the consumer, the AMA fights to preserve the secrecy surrounding the medical profession...it's a brave new world for all of us and like claims of "National Security", the consumer's not buying it.
