Even if medicine in the USA isn’t the most accessible or inexpensive system in the world, at least we like to think it’s the best. What if we don’t even have that?
It is easy to be a prophet while Bush is in power. One need merely predict the inevitable. After five years of Bush’s regressive administration, the consequences for public health and safety are finally showing their effects nationwide.
A 15-month inquiry by a top House Democrat has found that enforcement of the nation’s food and drug laws declined sharply during the first five years of the Bush administration. The seizure of mislabeled, defective, or dangerous products dipped 44 percent, according to the inquiry pursued by Representative Henry A. Waxman of California, the senior Democrat on the House Government Reform Committee.
The Times article also reports, “The biggest decline in enforcement actions was found at the agency’s device center, where they decreased 65 percent in the five-year period despite a wave of problems with devices including implantable defibrillators and pacemakers.”
This administration is ruining our environment, our economy, our world standing, and now our health?
19, That opens up a hole new can of worms. Why can’t the questioning consumer in conjunction with a knowlegable, competent doctor together pick out the prothesis, or medication that will work best for the patient/consumer? Isn’t that how it is supposed to work? In the ideal case it should be, but too many times the uncritical patient blindly takes the first thing that the doctor suggests, not knowing that the doctor may have other interests in mind. This gets down to what I think is the bigger problem with the whole healthcare situation that this country is faced with. Too many people don’t really care about the costs/processes/procedures involved with their health. Just as long as the insurance company covers it and they feel good fast. Have you ever wondered why a doctor orders the tests involved, or what they cost? Not very many are aware that a cheaper CAT scan or XRay can do what a more expensive MRI can find, but don’t ask certain questions of the doctor, just as long as the copay is low. I feel that is more people just asked more questions at the doctors office, and atleast were somehow more involved with how much is actually involved in the cost or their care, the system would run a lot smoother.
-sorry, I guess I am just long winded today.
21, I am refering to your ascertian that based on the article that you posted to and the subsequent New York Times article referred to. I looked at the data provided and am trying to see any significant conclusion that can be drawn. I am not trying to attack you, I was just trying to analyze the evidence presented in front of me. I do not understand from the artcle(s) presented how the administration (including the FDA) has really done any thing wrong.
If a police officer starts to slack off in a neighborhood, there may not be an increase in crime immediately, but the potential for the unscrupulous to take advantage of a lax enforcement sysytem is immense.
The same drug companies that are paying this administration to let them write its laws are also pushing for less regulation. That creates a catastrophic time bomb.
This is a perfect example of what’s wrong with our cash-based political system. Company A pays off Congressman B for legislation C, which Company D uses unscrupulously, causing Congressman B’s constituents to force him to place regulation in place to close some of the massive loopholes in law that shouldn’t exist in the first place.
So we wind up with a thicket of laws and regulations that only those who can afford to navigate can use.
We can fix it, but first we must agree it’s broken.
The murder rate in the US has been dropping to last several years, does that mean the police are slacking off? No, that is nonsense. I don’t understand how you can come to the conclusion that we are in grave danger from the articles that you have presented. From the NYT article, the only years presented as data are 2000 and 2005. What happened in the years 2001 thru 2004? Could it be that 2005 just happens to be a very slow year for citations to be issued? Likewise what about 2000? Could that just be a year that saw a large amount of citations issued. The data presented is very sparse to make a deterimation one way or the other. I would be with you in your call for changes to be made at the FDA if it can be shown that magically after 2000, enforcement had dropped.
Bribery is illegal, and if you some other evidence to show that bribery is taking place, please, show some proof. Nothing in what you have posted so far shows or even hints at this.
So you think the drug lobby (or any other) is not bribing our politicians with campaign donations? Why do you think they give so much money, tout of the goodness of their heart?
My comment about cops was an analogy. I guess you do have comprehension problems. A lax enforcement environment encourages abuse. Or do you not agree?
Wait a minute, I push your analogy to an extreme and you question my abilities of comprehension? All I am doing is applying critical thinking to the articles that you presented as proof that the FDA is lax in their enforcement of current laws. You have yet to offer anything to debate my ascertian that these articles are anything but proof of your ascertians, devoid of supportable facts. Instead, you only offer further unsupported allegations of bribery? Like I said, I would agree with you fully if you supported any evidence what so ever. BTW, I do agree that current campaign finance laws are totally assinine, but that is another issue alltogether.