Interesting.
I’m hearing from more and more doctors and from pharmaceutical sales representatives that the sales reps are rapidly becoming persona non grata in the doctors’ offices.
Here’s the thing — PhrMA and the American Medical Association both have thrown doctors under the bus. Doctors are supposed to be represented by the AMA, a majority of doctors oppose Obamacare, but the AMA has decided to support Obamacare.
PhrMA, has gone all in with the White House funding an advertising campaign in favor of Obamacare in exchange for favorable terms.
The doctors are caught in the middle and made a bad guy for the White House. Twice now Barack Obama has attacked doctors publicly while refusing to add tort reform to healthcare reform — a necessity to get costs down in healthcare.
More doctors should begin banning pharmaceutical sales reps from their offices. If PhrMA is going to work against doctors and, inevitably, ruin doctors’ livelihoods, doctors should reciprocate and go after pharmaceutical companies. The easiest way to do that is shut down office visits.
By the way, I don’t know a single drug rep who supports the plan. It sounds like PhrMA is going the route of the AMA — screwing their own to stay in the White House’s good graces.
Moe Lane
Neil Stevens
Steve Maley
Dan McLaughlin
So much of tomorrow...
jeffreywturner (Diary) Friday, August 14th at 10:30AM EST (link)The AMA, PhrMA & the AARP are all doing the same thing.
They are giving away so much of tomorrow for such a little bit of today. It is equivalent to selling one’s soul to the devil in order to obtain some short lived physical pleasure.
These guys are all looking at the short-run quick buck they are going to make under such a plan and are not looking at the fact that it will essentially put them out of business in the long-run.
It really is indicative of the larger problem we seem to face of how everyone wants instant gratification these days. No one is willing to forgo anything for the future’s sake it seems.
“Life is too short, can’t we all just eat pork and kill some terrorists?”
Not a very long run
briann (Diary) Friday, August 14th at 10:53AM EST (link)I also am surprised by these organization’s leaderships willingness to sell out their membership.
While I am sure that the administration has promised them significant gains for their cooperation, they have to know that those promises expire if and when this thing passes and they no longer have any leverage. Just ask Rev. Wright.
-Bri
This is part of the leadership crisis in the country.
Big Apple Infidel (Diary) Friday, August 14th at 11:21AM EST (link)From Wall St. to Congress to the medical industry to unions. These so-called leaders do not act in the best interests of the people they work for or represent. They, in fact, are not leaders. They have become a parasitic cabal working in their own self-interest at the expense of Americans.
Who would have thought that so many business elites would have been so comfortable working with a radical left-wing administration? The reason is because they are all in the same orbit where public interest and ideology matter less than control and payoffs do. Are we going to be ruled by a fascistic kleptocracy?
Greetings from occupied territory!
It's the same "Potomac Fever" that infects the Republican Party.
Achance (Diary) Friday, August 14th at 10:57AM EST (link)The leadership gets the disease in DC and gets amnesia about who put them there.
As to AARP, I had the misfortune of being in DC in ’07 when AARP and SEIU were having a conference planning “health care reform” in my hotel. Needless to say, I didn’t go around broadcasting by background and profession in the hotel bar.
In Vino Veritas
It's the consequence of the loss of organizational loyalty
civil truth (Diary) Friday, August 14th at 11:16AM EST (link)These “leaders” will get rich personal rewards for their treachery which will either keep them very comfortable in retirement, or they can spread this wealth with the Board of Directors who keep them in their positions.
Either way, they preserve their sinecures, and as the noose tightens, it will be other necks that will get broken first.
What they don’t realize is that when the serious Communists are able to seize and consolidate their hold on power, that they will get crushed undefoot too.
The Revolution always consumes its own, though others are there to take their places on the carousel for a season until their time comes too.
We need to hold back the tide this year and next before the tools of tyranny get fully polished up and operational.
The greatest evil…is conceived and ordered (moved, seconded, carried, and minuted) in clean, carpeted, warmed, and well-lighted offices, by quiet men with white collars and cut fingernails and smooth-shaven cheeks who do not need to raise their voice. Hence, naturally enough, my symbol for Hell is something like the bureaucracy of a police state or the offices of a thoroughly nasty business concern. -C.S. Lewis
http://www.gmsplace.com/
Talk about a theme here!
farstar99 (Diary) Friday, August 14th at 11:20AM EST (link)The elite upper classes in all of these organizations, completely out of touch with the people they’re supposed to represent.
That is the theme the RNC would broadcast if they had any savvy.
Lefty government.
Unions.
Pharma companies.
Professional associations like the AMA.
Advocacy organizations like AARP.
Their leaderships all long-time lefty collaborators and plants, or just getting payoffs and kickbacks.
In the good old days, a nice dose of tar and feathers would take care of this. Run them out of town on a rail.
The problem is the RNC is infected with this same selfishness
Ward_Off_Monkey Friday, August 14th at 1:10PM EST (link)that puts the individual above all else, including God, country and family.
“The government’s view of the economy can be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.” ~ Ronald Reagan
The individual person is above all else....
JadedByPolitics (Diary) Friday, August 14th at 1:46PM EST (link)because if an individual does not take care of himself and his means to make himself better he is of no use to either God, country or family. I think you are mistaking what it means to be an individual! What we are not and what the Conservatives in this country are not is a “group” it benefits no one if members of a group do nothing because they are relying on individuals to see to their needs now does it? If you can show good reason why individual realibility is a bad thing do so and if not do not attempt to place the GOP in the same league as the idiots in the Democrat party.
Unified Patriots – How-To:
Activists Taking Action
You misunderstand my post. I am not saying that the
Ward_Off_Monkey Friday, August 14th at 3:26PM EST (link)individual is not important or that the rights of the individual should be superceded by some larger entity, be it a political party or government. This nation was founded on the idea that self-determination of the individual was most important and that no tyrant should be able to take that away. What I am saying is that when the individual alone becomes supreme over all and the only thought given to any action is, “What’s in it for me?”, then this nation is lost.
While one should strive to make his own way in the world and be dependent on no one but himself save God, when that impulse to provide for self becomes so self-centered that no concern is shown for the impact of one’s actions on family, community, or the nation as a whole then destructive and not constuctive outcomes result. Our self-determination should be focused on constructive purposes and not what will come only as a result of damaging or taking from another, the “Share the wealth” mentality of the Left.
This whole health care reform as currently proposed is supported by companies, non-profits and individuals who are only thinking of what they will benefit and not what the cost to others or society as a whole is. Look at the support amongst those under 30. According to the latest poll from Rasmussen, 67% of those under 30 support health care reform as currently proposed. Why do you think that is? This group many times is uninsured through their own choice because either they are unwilling to pay premiums of any amount for health insurance or because they still feel the invincibility of youth or a combination of the two. However, when someone says, “I can provide free health care for you.” they jump at the chance because that seems the wise choice if you can get it for free. Why look a gift horse in the mouth? Of course, you and I know that nothing is ever free and that ultimately this health care reform will cost this country, this economy, and all productive individuals in this society much, much more than we can afford, all because of the selfishness that has pervaded our society and the short-sightedness that comes with it. I see that selfishness and short-sightedness as one of the biggest gifts that the 1960′s and our public education system have given us.
“The government’s view of the economy can be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.” ~ Ronald Reagan
Also, had the GOP not been infected to some extent with this same
Ward_Off_Monkey Friday, August 14th at 3:34PM EST (link)malody in recent years we would not be in the precarious position we are now.
“The government’s view of the economy can be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.” ~ Ronald Reagan
Oh yeh, and the tort reform!
jeffreywturner (Diary) Friday, August 14th at 10:33AM EST (link)That is the single greatest reform needed to healthcare in the US, and the only one that will significantly reduce costs WITHOUT reducing quality, and somehow, NONE of the major proposals of the Democrats (who interestingly receive massive amounts of money from the trial lawyers) includes real, meaningful tort reform.
“Life is too short, can’t we all just eat pork and kill some terrorists?”
shouldn't blame the reps
RyanOHIO Friday, August 14th at 11:01AM EST (link)The reps are in more trouble than the doctors if Obamacare passes. They’ll all be put out on the street. Doctors shouldn’t be blaming them, as I doubt there’s a single one that supports what PhrMA is doing right now.
It's not about blame
izoneguy (Diary) Friday, August 14th at 11:13AM EST (link)it’s about hitting them where it hurts and sometimes civilian casualities will be incurred. Once the reps end up on the unemployment line then the giant drug firms won’t have a sales force and will not be able to recruit new salespeople.
The drug makers sales of new and exciting drugs that doctors would push will fall flat. Again – unintended consquences by giant firms who do not think things though.
It’s a war. Most doctors are also business people and I don’t know too many doctors who are excited about HR 3200. SO doctors will punch back twice as hard if that is what it will take for the giant drug companies to hop of the Obama train of shame.
AARP will be seeing a bit hit in it’s membership as well.
The AMA is losing support and doctors are quitting it every day.
Gettimg in bed with a Marxist will produce horrible off-spring.
The point cannot be made often enough: Modern liberalism, as embodied in the Obama presidency, is the defender of the status quo. And the status quo is a road to economic ruin. Political forces cannot redistribute the wealth that the economic system does not produce.
izoneguy, I was listening to talk radio from Nashville
janis (Diary) Friday, August 14th at 11:23AM EST (link)this morning and heard the numbers that only 2 in 10 doctors are members of the AMA at this point. As to the AARP, I wonder how many phone calls and emails they got when the Zero bragged that he had their support for the health care debacle? Makes me smile just to think about it, I’ll tell you.
Prescribe our stuff or we sue
Robert A. Hahn (Diary) Friday, August 14th at 11:21AM EST (link)Think about how this stuff is organized.
The PhrMA group is an industry lobbying consortium that gets its money and blessings from the individual companies’ Offices of the Chief Counsel. It’s lawyers talking to lawyers, to lobby other lawyers. I’d be surprised if even one of them has ever called on a doctor or a pharmacist in his life. I’d be even more surprised if any of them ever think to call up anyone on the sales side of the house to see what “marketing” thinks about a particular course of action. What do sales people know about laws?
All the lawyers will think about is what “deal” they can swing to maximize their advantage when the bill inevitably passes. The idea that the bill might not even pass does not enter their heads. To them, it doesn’t affect what they should do now… if the bill doesn’t pass, no harm done.
Wrong. Anyone on the marketing or sales side of a drug company could have told them that taking sides in this controversy was a big mistake. There is no unanimity among doctors on this issue, and it is the doctors who ultimately decide whether a “product” gets prescribed or not. Angering at least a large slice of them was a highly predictable outcome of taking a side — either side — on health care reform. I’m virtually certain that this view was being fed up the chain of command from the street reps. It just never made it over to the Office of the Chief Counsel.
The more the government gets involved in running business, the more of this we’re going to see.
Drink Good Coffee. You can sleep when you’re dead.
Yeah, like the doctors don't already have a
janis (Diary) Friday, August 14th at 11:28AM EST (link)hair trigger response when they think they might get sued. Nothing will endear this bunch to docs more than being threatened if they don’t prescribe some overpriced drug. Watching the government attempt to negotiate this particular Scylla and Charbydis is most entertaining.
It would be even more so if we weren’t facing the loss of so many freedoms were these asshats to prevail.
Having it both ways, he is
fisk2521 Friday, August 14th at 12:04PM EST (link)Given the Chicago style politics of this administration, one is forced to wonder what threats were made to the Pharm companies.
How about Freedom of Information application here? Transcriptions of the meetings, e-mails, letters, phone calls…etc.???
It is astounding how Obama has made headway with his attacks on big business to the poor downtrodden useful idiots, and then gets in bed with them to make deals, with no notice. He disparages Drs. with his $50,00 pirce tag on diabetic amputations, and tonsillectomies and then makes a deal with them to support his nonsensical program. He has decried the high cost of drugs and is now negotiating a deal with the drug companies that intentionally leaves out price caps on drugs.
Go figure
LDavis
... I don't know about that.
zachv (Diary) Friday, August 14th at 1:51PM EST (link)Family member calls on urologists in Wisconsin. She/He doesn’t have any trending problems with doctors and office visits.
Except for one city in the district that has never been pharmaceutical friendly. But, that has always been that city.
I wouldn't wanna piss off urologists either ;) nt
Common_Cents (Diary) Friday, August 14th at 2:25PM EST (link)Obama=Golfer in Chief, Leading from,
behind, the Back Nine.Leaders don’t create movements. Movements create leaders. Get involved. Your future depends on it.
Govt “invests” YOUR tax money for POLITICAL return rather than economic return.
Any word on docs dropping out of the AMA?
Lammo (Diary) Friday, August 14th at 3:07PM EST (link)I recall being part of an exodus from the ABA back in the early 90s when they decided to support abortion rights. I believe the AMA is voluntary for docs just like the ABA is voluntary for lawyers. Wondering if AMA support for Obamacare will trigger a similar response.
Don’t be so open minded that your brains fall out. (John Corapi, The Black Sheep Dog)
We are really in a David vs. Goliath struggle
peg_c (Diary) Friday, August 14th at 3:32PM EST (link)Where everywhere we look, the little guy is being screwed by the “elites” when the “elites” wouldn’t be where they are without the little guy.
By “elites,” of course I mean do-nothing narcisstic kingdom-protectors. There really is a war going on and it isn’t even really right vs. left. It’s the individual vs. the Collective.
Government cannot be the solution when government is the problem.