It’s interesting to look at the intersection between healthcare and a company’s marketing efforts. Americans might not bat an eye if they see a commercial on TV about a new medication that just came out. They might watch with interest if they have the condition that the maker of this particular medication says it can alleviate.
If you’re watching one of these commercials, you might notice several paragraphs of fine print that show up on the bottom of the screen. The company that makes this medication or medical device know they have to put it there.
Medical devices that malfunction can cause lawsuits, and faulty medications can as well. That’s always a danger for companies that manufacture medication and medical paraphernalia, but such concerns rarely slow them down.
Let’s take a closer look at how America markets healthcare and health-related products. It’s different in many other developed or so-called first world nations, though many Americans don’t know that.
In Other Nations, You Can’t Advertise Medication or Medical Devices on TV
As we just mentioned, it’s not uncommon for an American citizen to turn on their TV and see a commercial advertising medication or a medical device. However, in most other countries, you can’t legally do that. You can do it in New Zealand, but that’s about it.
If someone from Europe were to see this kind of commercial on TV while visiting America, it would probably perplex them. It’s a major cultural difference.
In America, individuals in the marketing or advertising worlds call this kind of ad direct-to-customer advertising, or DTC. Most other countries don’t allow it because they feel it’s unethical.
Medical devices and their advertising fall into more of a gray area. You can get away with it in some countries, but you will see heavy regulation of these ads.
Why Medical Companies Can Advertise on TV or Through Other Mediums in America
You might wonder why medical companies in America can freely advertise medication and medical supplies on TV and through other mediums, such as podcasts, radio shows, etc. This is mainly because, in America, we have almost exclusively privatized health-related care options.
If American had universal healthcare, or healthcare any member of the general public could access for free or for very little money, then companies that manufactured and sold medications and medical devices could not become incredibly wealthy. That’s something this country allows.
Almost all other countries feel that medical companies should be able to make a profit, but they should not follow a profit-first, people-second business model. Since America uses a capitalist system of free market, lawmakers feel it is permissible to let medical companies rise to positions of extraordinary wealth and power.
That’s part of what led to the recent killing of a United Healthcare CEO. Some Americans don’t like the system as currently devised.
As it stands, though, the medical industry can advertise on TV with virtually no hindrance, provided they talk about a medication or medical device’s potential side effects. That’s why, if you see one of these TV commercials, you will notice so much fine print on the bottom of the screen. It’s genuinely difficult to cover all the potential negative side effects that a drug might cause in a 45-second TV commercial.
Medical companies can also advertise on TV and remain privatized because they spend hundreds of millions of dollars every year on lobbying efforts. If elected lawmakers receive compensation from lobbyists, they will continue to support TV advertising of medication and medical devices, not to mention leaving healthcare in American privatized in a more general sense.
Doctors and Other Medical Entities Benefit from Partnerships with Medical Companies
You can also look at doctors and hospitals as having a part to play in this system as it’s presently constructed. A doctor at a private practice might regularly receive visits from individuals representing medical companies.
A hospital administrator may get such visits as well. The business entities that send out these representatives might make a particular drug or medical device.
While these company reps can’t actually pay the doctor to recommend their products to their patients, they can still give them swag. They might give them keychains, pads, pens, or considerably nicer gift items than that.
That’s legal, and this kind of behavior helped bring about the pain pill epidemic that the Sackler family spearheaded in the early 2000s. They had salespeople traveling around the country and trying to push oxycodone on doctors. These doctors soon had patients with addiction issues.
The Sackler family claimed they didn’t know about the addictive properties of oxycodone and its derivatives. They eventually had to settle lawsuits in court stemming from paid pill addictions and deaths. Still, they kept the vast majority of the money they made from these endeavors.
Might This System Change Anytime Soon?
If you understand that lobbyists and drug companies have tremendous political influence in America, then you can probably accurately predict that you will continue seeing commercials for medication on TV in the immediate future. You should continue to experience the privatization of healthcare in the United States as well since these concepts directly coincide.
Lobbyists for huge corporations, some of them large enough to make hundreds of medications and medical devices, reach out to politicians on both sides of the aisle. It’s not about having right-wing or left-wing beliefs. It’s about profit.
That’s why the system remains this way. Any politician with financial stakes in a drug company will readily support the medical establishment as it exists today, from TV commercials to privatized healthcare and everything in between.
These special interests wield power the likes of which the average citizen never even takes any time to consider. They might see three commercials for medication on TV in a row without ever really thinking about why they’re seeing them. If they go to another country and watch TV, they may experience culture shock from never seeing ads for medication or medical devices.