According to a study, pharmaceutical companies have spent more money lobbying Congress than other health care organizations. A slowing has been seen in lobbying by physicians, which suggests a decline of their political influence.
Investigators found that health care lobbying expenditures totaled $237 million in the year 2000, which was more than any other industry including agriculture, communications and defense. These figures were strong indicators of the impact of health care issues to varied interest groups.
Ranking of money spent on lobbying:
Another study showed that legislators wanted further input from physicians regarding public health concerns and attributed their credibility with the public as a way to offset the deep pockets of drug companies.
The Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995 requires several actions of the lobbyist including submitting detailed biannual reports and listing the spending amounts on lobbying activities. Experts claimed that the Lobbying Disclosure Act could be stronger if it demanded more in-depth reporting such as specifying the legislation discussed and the defining the positions supported by lobbyists.
Individual Organizations with the highest lobbying expenditures:
EurekAlert! March 26, 2004
These decisions affect virtually all aspects of health care, so it’s not surprising that our country is so focused on a drug-based model of treating disease when you look at which groups are spending the most money.
The drug companies have a huge influence on the majority of published studies and nearly all of medical education. This influence causes physicians to use their expensive symptomatic Band-Aids as solutions for people’s problems instead of addressing the underlying cause.
If just a portion of the lobbying funds were allocated to optimizing food and stress concerns, we would have more than enough funds left over to help the more than 40 million Americans walking around without any health coverage.
This article is just further proof that the drug companies are not out for the best interest of the public; rather they are out for commercial gain and profit.
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