TYT Contributor Dylan Ratigan (http://www.twitter.com/dylanratigan) discusses the systemic problems with the American healthcare system, and recommends TYT Investigates’ recent report on the newly appointed secretary of Health and Human services, Alex Azar.
In addition to paying outrageous prices for health insurance, Americans are also being squeezed when it comes time to pay for their prescriptions. Drug prices in the U.S. are higher than almost anywhere else in the world, and this wasn’t done by accident. Big Pharma has bought and paid for our elected officials, and they’re allowed to do whatever they want as a result.
Ring of Fire’s Farron Cousins discusses this with attorney Michael Burg.
The United States is one of only two countries in the world that allows drug companies to market their products directly to consumers.
For the last 18 years, our TV airwaves have been dominated by commercials telling us that if we feel sad, if we feel sick, if we feel anything at all – then we need to take a magic pill from Big Pharma to make all of our worries melt away. A magic, by the way, pill that has been marked up by as much as twenty thousand percent.
Direct to consumer advertising has been a huge cash cow for the drug industry. Drug companies in the U.S. are now pulling in around $300 billion dollars every year, and this massive haul is all thanks to their marketing. Twenty percent of the country now takes at least five prescription drugs per month.
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