For far too long we have allowed the pharmaceutical companies to dictate the terms of healthcare in America. Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs) and Preferred Provider Organizations (PPOs) have failed the American people and are virtually in bed with big pharma. In the “greatest nation” on the planet the average healthcare expenditures are approximately
$12,000 per person while in India it is $100. It is time that big pharma levels with the tax paying citizens.
Secretary Kennedy campaigned on banning pharmaceutical advertising on TV for starters. This is something that is needed as we are bombarded with commercial selling drugs. The days of treating illnesses and making patients healthy are long gone. Today prescriptions are the name of the game. Doctors seek to prescribe a pill for everything, never seeking lifestyle changes or home remedies as a first course of action.
The Secretary also has a very aggressive stance against the FDA who he views as “in bed” with big pharma. The FDA manages a nearly $3 trillion budget charged with protecting the public’s health and ensuring food safety. Do you feel that our health is more protected now than a decade ago? Do you feel that our food is more safe than it was a decade ago? I’d say no to both and give the FDA a “F” rating in quality assurance.
I want to see a new direction for healthcare in America. I want to see prices come down so that citizens do not have to decide to suffer and pay rent, or fall behind on rent and seek desperately needed care. Something must be done about the outrageous prices that exist nationwide within the healthcare industry. Big pharma is making record breaking profits, the FDA has a growing budget, yet we are struggling to pay healthcare bills and the most unhealthy as a nation now than ever before.
Let us support Secretary Kennedy as he seeks to break up the monopoly on healthcare that keeps medical expenses up and quality of food down. These two aspects work together to
negatively affect a majority of Ameircans while benefiting the top 1%. This must end and now is the time!
[Tony Williams is an Ed.S. student at Liberty University. He is an Ashford University Alumni holding a Master of Arts in Health Care Administration and Bachelor of Arts in Gerontology Nursing.]