"katysails" wrote in message

I agree with you on the advertising thing....I had a discussion with
several docs who are quite frustrated when people come in demanding the
newest, latest drug advertised on the television. What they don't listen
to is the side effects or the disclaimers. This drives the price of health
care up. Rather than take a medicine that is more suitable, and mist likely
generic, they insist on the newer medication at the higher price...the
insurance company, then, is left with the balance after the co-pay....and
we wonder why prescription riders are so high?

There is something that doesn't figure with this argument. I have no
problem whatever steering patients to a more appropriate medication. If the
physicians to whom you spoke can't affect a similar outcome, they don't have
the confidence of their patients. Advertising never plays a role in the
final decision my patients and I ultimately make. Initially they may
*think* they have the answer, but they trust me to set them straight if that
info is false or inappropriate.

The primary reason medications and Rx riders are so high has far more to do
with governmental intervention (the generic drug law, for starters) than
with advertising.

Max