Drug Companies Influence Doctors
If we have surgery, we do our best to think about our bodies, drugs, and the people who administer drugs. In doing this, it’s good to remember that each individual person’s fight for a rational medical experience is connected to a bigger fight for a rational economic system. Drug companies are a multi-trillion-dollar industry, and they survive by convincing us that we need drugs and by making it hard to refuse them.
I recently needed a minor routine procedure, and the doctor agreed to do it without drugs. Before I went into the procedure room, an anesthesiologist came to tell me that my decision to forgo drugs was wrong. No matter what I said, he came up with [thought of] a fresh argument. After about twenty minutes, he finally said, “Look, I get paid by the day, so I’m not going to lose my pay if you say no. However, my company loses money if you don’t agree to let me put you out [put you under anesthesia].” I then realized that he was a trained salesman who was supposed to make each procedure profitable for the drug company.
I finally agreed that if I was in agony, he could give me the tiniest possible dose of a drug that he said would not interfere with my thinking. Something went wrong, and the procedure hurt so much that I could not lie still for the doctor. I asked the anesthesiologist to give me the drug as we had agreed. A few weeks later, I got a $900 bill for that one little dose. It would have been much higher had he given me all three of the drugs usually given to the fifteen million people who have this procedure every year in the United States.
Washington, DC, USA
Reprinted from the e-mail discussion list for RC Community members
(Present Time 208, July 2022)