Health Care Reform thread

[General_Failure]

Australia's had a ten-year drought. They're also paying people to have babies.

[mpmcgraw]

BTW xanax is for anxiety and is the most abused drug (you can't abuse pot) in America.  

You can take away the direct marketing all you want, most of these drugs will still keep selling like crazy and being abused like crazy without a bump.  Its part of our culture now, people think they NEED pills.  

(xanax is a wonderful wonderful drug btw)

[ice grillin you]

xanax is what im told i need to take if i am going to get over my fear of flying

[reese125]

xanax sucks

crush up some ecstasy and snort it

[mpmcgraw]

ectasy you are guaranteed to have problems with your moods and behavior and there is some evidence it damages your central nervous system.  i've seen what it does to people when their off it after they are used to it and it's not good.

xanax can also kill you if you drink grape juice which i think is hilarious.

[Sgt PSN]

xanax is what im told i need to take if i am going to get over my fear of flying

nah, you don't need any of that crap.  just stop at the airport bar on your way to the gate.  order your favorite fruity drink and then ask them to quadruple the booze in it.  you'll be flying before anyone else on the plane.  or you'll be asleep.   either way, you won't give a farg. 

[Seabiscuit36]

xanax sucks

crush up some ecstasy and snort it

Special K dook. 

I lurve Xanie bars, used to have someone that had a connect.  We'd roll down to UD with 200 pills, sell 2mg bars for 10 bucks a pop, and get farged up, and farg some sloots.  Odd thing about xanax, when it take it, the next day i wake up with hiccups, and they stay around all day. 

B.A. Baracus, my co worker now has to take it to fly, and once it sets in, he loves flying

[reese125]

christ I was only kidding...but it looks like we got some baseheads up in here

[Seabiscuit36]

i draw the line at what the CIA distributes

[rjs246]

The easier life gets the more we multiply

I dunno about that. How many of us are playing Warcraft instead of rasing or bettering our families?

Yeah as others have said, its a proven fact so please go away.

[Munson]

SB, you sound like half the people I know jesus christ

[bowzer]

Also, I want the plan to include a sin tax on soda.  1 cent per ounce would be a good target.  The stuff has absolutely no nutritional value.  Mountains of science show how harmful it is, especially to children.  If we're gonna have sin tax on tobacco, booze, etc., then lets not stop with the adults.

Some will argue this tax would disproportionately affect the poor.  So what, I say.  No one is forcing them to drink soda.
Some would argue it's a government intrustion on the marketplace.  Bullshtein, I say.  A tax becomes a fact in the marketplace, and any good company will adapt to the change.  That's what they do.
Some will say we can't count on revenue from sin tax because as consumption decreases, so do reveues.  Fine, I say.  Don't fund shtein solely based on sin taxes; use them as supplementary revenue.

Why sodas and not trans-fats?  Because they are distinct.  They can be targeted precisely without much trouble.  They do only harm.

And while we're at it, we ought to stop subsidizing companies and farms that produce high fructose corn syrup. 

It's a huge problem in the Appalachian region of the country.  I watched a special on ABC a few months ago about that region and how kids are only drinking Mountain Dew because the soda companies are pumping it into the schools there.  It's what they drink for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.  Not only, do they have the health problems, but their teeth are disgusting.   Besides the fact that the live in the poorest region in the country, they end up depressed even more  because they can't even smile.

[MadMarchHare]

I'd like to see direct marketing to consumers by pharmaceutical companies banned outright. 

I agree with this.

I'm curious to know how you feel, MMH.

I can't help but thinking that the direct marketing causes the weak minded to think they have these symptoms and to run to the doctor to be checked for whatever malady they think they have. The doc then prescribes this medication and gets kick back for doing so. Is that a fair assessment?

The commercials are downright annoying. I love how the happy actor recites the potential side effects at the end.

As I mentioned earlier in this post, I think direct marketing is the single most destructive thing we as an industry has ever done (to ourselves;  we lobbied like hell for this).  I believe this had a major role in the Vioxx deaths.  Vioxx was approved for RA and OA in extreme cases, but was then marketed to anyone with sore joints ad nauseum on TV, mags, etc.  Celebrex too.  If used as intended, the body count certainly would have been lower.  But, you know, Merck would have had less profit, so...

Pharma is a business, a very risk oriented business, but maximizing profits at patient's expense is bad economics in my opinion.

[MadMarchHare]

Doctors absolutely still get HUGE kickbacks. Some even admit to it to their patients.

And ESPECIALLY for vaccinations.

Not from Pharma, not anymore.  We have been sued into oblivion by the gov't on numerous occasions, and I'm pretty confident my company at least doesn't pull this shtein.  Christ knows I take enough classes about it, and I don't even deal with physicians.

[MadMarchHare]

ectasy you are guaranteed to have problems with your moods and behavior and there is some evidence it damages your central nervous system.  i've seen what it does to people when their off it after they are used to it and it's not good.

xanax can also kill you if you drink grape juice which i think is hilarious.

What the farg are you talking about?  Maybe, maybe, grapefruit juice (let me go check), but not grape juice.
Dont' get your medical information from the National Enquirer, I hear it's not very reliable.

EDIT:  OK, grapefruit juice can prevent the metabolism of alprazolam (Xanax), which could very well be lethal.  Bravo, except for it not being grape juice.

http://medicine.iupui.edu/clinpharm/DDIs/table.asp