“Your Prescription will be $93,000, sir. Would you like me to put it in a bag for you?”

Pharmaceutical companies have a new strategy; the development of drugs that will cost in the $100,000 per patient range. And the best news for the Dendreon Corporation, the manufacturer of Provenge, is that Medicare has agreed to pay $93,000 per patient for it with your tax dollars! That’s right. This is a treatment for TERMINAL prostate cancer patients that will extend their life by four months, as compared with two months for the previously existing drug.

Sales people have long known that it is easier to sell one person something for $1,000,000 that one hundred people something for $10,000. The pharmaceutical industry has taken that to heart and is concentrating on medications in the $100,000 range.

Dendreon Corporation claims that the reason for the high cost is that they put $1 Billion into research and development. Oh really? Who says? Their accountants? Does anyone really trust accounting these days? Accounting has become a creative pursuit like painting and music composition. Should we be sending in forensic accountants to check out the R and D cost claims before agreeing to pay $93,000 per patient?

And, unfortunately this medical treatment doesn’t do anything to positively impact our nation’s overall health; it just allows someone to live a couple extra months at an unbelievably high cost that will be paid by tax payers. Now that’s an entitlement program! The patient gets a couple extra months to live and the pharmaceutical company makes $100K per patient. Who is really winning here?

That same $100,000 could fund a fitness program for hundreds of children to prevent obesity and resulting health problems such as diabetes, heart disease and cancer. Or, nutrition programs for children, in our own country, who are malnourished. These are everyday health issues that would provide us greater bang for our buck.

This is the same dilemma that we face in so many areas. When the basic needs of our nation like medicine, fuel, insurance are for profit industries, then the opportunistic profit seeking corporate culture has a field day. “Maximize profits” is the war cry of the modern corporation. But lost from the contemporary equation are the public’s best interests. Okay, I know this sounds a little socialist. So what’s wrong with that? When people are having the money sucked out of their pockets, it doesn’t matter whether it’s tax dollars or corporate greed, they become poorer as a result.

The fact is that the modern corporation has nothing to do with the founding principles of our nation. The founding fathers had been abused by the British corporations in colonial America. As a result they created corporations with limited powers, temporary charters, and public benefit as the main mandate. They even held corporate leaders legally responsible for corporate misdeeds. This is all very different than what corporations morphed into through court interpretations of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, which was suppose to give rights to the freed slaves.

Perhaps we should have a serious look at nationalizing some of these industries. I, for one, would like to start with the Health Insurance Industry. Big Oil would be nice, too. But let’s not forget to take a look at Big Pharma. Perhaps they could be directed to intervene where the greatest public good would be served instead of where the largest and quickest profits could be made.

“The government is incapable of administrating such things”, you say? Well I remember when the government (NASA) put a man on the Moon. Don’t tell me the government is incapable. At least you can vote politicians out of office. Try to vote out the CEO of Aetna or Bristol Myers Squibb.

Keep reading between the lines.

Puzzled by the Puzzle of Back Pain!?!?

The Health and Wellness section of the L.A. Times today had and article entitled "The Puzzle of Back Pain". I could not believe what I was reading and was compelled to send an email to the writer, Karen Ravn.

I'll just post the email I sent and leave it at that, without any additional rant. It is my great wish that she would contact me so I could pull away the curtain on many of these issues and expose what is really going on between the lines.

Dear Ms. Ravn,

I’m puzzled and even shocked by your article about back pain “The Puzzle of Back Pain” in today’s L.A. Times. You really drank the Kool Aid on the medical party line. I sincerely invite you to contact me to get some direction about articles that would help the public become enlightened about this and other healthcare issues. After 30 years in the healthcare profession I have valuable insights to share.

You may have noticed our nation is in the midst of a health care crisis. Corporate medicine on all levels, insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies, certain physician specialty groups are financially protected to the detriment of our nation’s health and financial well being. With 75% of all bankruptcies in the U.S. being related to medical bills, AND, 65% of those had health insurance, we have a boondoggle of giant proportions going on that is comparable to the financial industries tricks that darn near destroyed our economy.

You quote Dr. Richard Deyo, stating that “surgery can be very effective for certain conditions: ruptured discs…etc.” As a professor of “evidence based medicine” at Oregon Health and Science University Dr. Deyo ignores the fact that there is no high quality peer reviewed studies published in leading medical journals to support his contention.

Epidural steroid injections are not recommended by the American Academy of Neurology for the treatment of radicular lumbosacral pain in their 2007 clinician guidelines due to a lack of “evidence” of benefit. This war cry of “Evidence Based Medicine” is consistently used to manipulate the system when convenient and forgotten when it serves the right person’s purposes.

Certainly no article about back pain should ignore the benefits provided by Doctors of Chiropractic. According to Pran Manga, PhD, MPhil, health economist, "There is an overwhelming body of evidence indicating that chiropractic management of low back pain is more cost-effective than medical management." ( Manga P, Angus D, Papadopoulos C, Swan W. "The Effectiveness and Cost-Effectiveness of Chiropractic Management of Low Back Pain." Funded by the Ontario Ministry of Health, August 1993.)

He is not alone in his assessment. Numerous international and American studies have shown that for nonspecific back pain, manipulation was heads above all other treatments. In fact, Anthony Rosner, PhD, testified before the Institute of Medicine: "Today, we can argue that chiropractic care, at least for back pain, appears to have vaulted from last to first place as a treatment option." (Testimony before the Institute of Medicine: Committee on Use of CAM by the American Public, Feb. 27, 2003.)

My specialty in Non-Surgical Spinal Decompression also stands as a vital option for those with debilitating back pain caused by herniated or degenerative discs and spinal stenosis along with radicular pain, and helps them avoid surgery. Ironically, patients have to pay out of pocket for these services as most insurance companies claim a lack of “high quality peer reviewed studies published in leading medical journals to support its use”. Yet, they still pay for the surgeries and epidurals even though they lack the same standard of proof and cost much more.

I would like to encourage you to contact me and do a real story that strips away the myths and B.S. that hurt everyday people. My contact info is below. Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,

Dr. Bruce Shannahoff, D.C.