Why is there so much medical advertising in the US?

[GoTfan]

I've been on holiday in the US for the last week or so, and the amount of medical advertising on the TV is ridiculous. Can someone from the US explain to me why there is so much medical advertising? Please, I would love to know.

[quesaisje]

People have a lot of problems in our country. If you convince them that those problems are reducible to a diagnosis ("you may be suffering from a condition known as..."), and that you have a cure to sell, you make a lot of money. If you thought that you saw a lot of drug advertising with whatever you were viewing, try watching Jeopardy.

[Progressive Pessimist]

Because our system emphasizes profit over health-simple.

[MyLifeIsYours]

The mistake of having private insurance prevailing over a true universal health care that provides for all Americans. The grotesque nature of having to see life saving medication being a commodity to  commercialize never fails to amuse me.

[RINO Tom]

I've been on holiday in the US for the last week or so, and the amount of medical advertising on the TV is ridiculous. Can someone from the US explain to me why there is so much medical advertising? Please, I would love to know.

We have a private healthcare system ... do you not see advertising for all of the other private markets in your country?  While many of the more politically minded people here will talk about how horrible our healthcare system is (and it has a ton of problems), I will give my opinion as a consultant that works in healthcare that:

1. We have the best healthcare in the world, and it is not particularly close.  Our problem is equity, but it is undeniable that many of the countries that have prioritized equity have sacrificed quality at "the top," so to speak.

2. Much of the excess money due to our "for-profit" healthcare system (this is a grossly oversimplified characterization) is poured aggressively into research and development.  Did anyone think the COVID vaccine was going to come out of Denmark?

[GoTfan]

I've been on holiday in the US for the last week or so, and the amount of medical advertising on the TV is ridiculous. Can someone from the US explain to me why there is so much medical advertising? Please, I would love to know.

We have a private healthcare system ... do you not see advertising for all of the other private markets in your country?  While many of the more politically minded people here will talk about how horrible our healthcare system is (and it has a ton of problems), I will give my opinion as a consultant that works in healthcare that:

1. We have the best healthcare in the world, and it is not particularly close.  Our problem is equity, but it is undeniable that many of the countries that have prioritized equity have sacrificed quality at "the top," so to speak.

2. Much of the excess money due to our "for-profit" healthcare system (this is a grossly oversimplified characterization) is poured aggressively into research and development.  Did anyone think the COVID vaccine was going to come out of Denmark?

No, I do not see nearly as much in Australia.

[pikachu]

I've been on holiday in the US for the last week or so, and the amount of medical advertising on the TV is ridiculous. Can someone from the US explain to me why there is so much medical advertising? Please, I would love to know.

We have a private healthcare system ... do you not see advertising for all of the other private markets in your country?  While many of the more politically minded people here will talk about how horrible our healthcare system is (and it has a ton of problems), I will give my opinion as a consultant that works in healthcare that:

1. We have the best healthcare in the world, and it is not particularly close.  Our problem is equity, but it is undeniable that many of the countries that have prioritized equity have sacrificed quality at "the top," so to speak.

2. Much of the excess money due to our "for-profit" healthcare system (this is a grossly oversimplified characterization) is poured aggressively into research and development.  Did anyone think the COVID vaccine was going to come out of Denmark?

Restricting advertising for certain products isn’t unheard of in the US though. Cigarettes are the obvious one, I’d imagine that marijuana will be the same if/when it’s legal federally, and a lot of people want that for gambling.

[Alcibiades]

1. We have the best healthcare in the world, and it is not particularly close.  Our problem is equity, but it is undeniable that many of the countries that have prioritized equity have sacrificed quality at "the top," so to speak.

Americans pay far more per head for healthcare than any other country in the world for outcomes that at the very least do not seem any better than those in other developed countries. That is to say the problem with American healthcare is not just inequity, it is also inefficiency. This is in large part a result of the very high level of fragmentation in the market; private American healthcare providers simply cannot compete with, for instance, national health services which exploit their monopsony power to procure drugs at low prices. All in all, I really don’t see how you can claim that the American health system is higher quality than at least the better-run and -funded European ones.

[Alcibiades]

As for the main point of this thread, the thing that non-Americans find particularly bizarre and disturbing is that advertising for prescription drugs is allowed. That there is a private healthcare market is irrelevant; as pikachu points out, there are plenty of examples of privately-sold products for which advertising is restricted. Undoubtedly, prescription drugs are a special type of good, advertising for which presents a special danger, i.e. consumer pressure interfering with the medical judgement of doctors. This is a lesson that should be all too familiar to Americans from the opioid crisis.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

2. Much of the excess money due to our "for-profit" healthcare system (this is a grossly oversimplified characterization) is poured aggressively into research and development.  Did anyone think the COVID vaccine was going to come out of Denmark?

This is an odd argument to use as two of the earliest vaccines to be approved and widely available during the pandemic were developed in Germany and the United Kingdom. A great deal of medical research does go on in the United States, but it does occur in other countries as well.

[Alcibiades]

2. Much of the excess money due to our "for-profit" healthcare system (this is a grossly oversimplified characterization) is poured aggressively into research and development.  Did anyone think the COVID vaccine was going to come out of Denmark?

This is an odd argument to use as two of the earliest vaccines to be approved and widely available during the pandemic were developed in Germany and the United Kingdom. A great deal of medical research does go on in the United States, but it does occur in other countries as well.

And, uh, Ozempic is quite literally produced by a Danish firm…

[Ancestral Republican]

I've been on holiday in the US for the last week or so, and the amount of medical advertising on the TV is ridiculous. Can someone from the US explain to me why there is so much medical advertising? Please, I would love to know.

We have a private healthcare system ... do you not see advertising for all of the other private markets in your country?  While many of the more politically minded people here will talk about how horrible our healthcare system is (and it has a ton of problems), I will give my opinion as a consultant that works in healthcare that:

1. We have the best healthcare in the world, and it is not particularly close.  Our problem is equity, but it is undeniable that many of the countries that have prioritized equity have sacrificed quality at "the top," so to speak.

2. Much of the excess money due to our "for-profit" healthcare system (this is a grossly oversimplified characterization) is poured aggressively into research and development.  Did anyone think the COVID vaccine was going to come out of Denmark?

Wrong on both points.

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

Having a private insurance market doesn't have much to do with the amount of ads, aside from the ones for Medicare Advantage plans. Drug companies would have just as much incentive to advertise if we had single payer, all else being equal.

Most of the answer is just that direct to consumer advertising on prescription drugs has been allowed by the FDA for the past two decades. On the other hand, before that there were still lots of ads for OTC meds, maybe more than there is for those drugs today. I'm not sure how the OTC advertising compares to other countries.

[Del Tachi]

1. We have the best healthcare in the world, and it is not particularly close.  Our problem is equity, but it is undeniable that many of the countries that have prioritized equity have sacrificed quality at "the top," so to speak.

Americans pay far more per head for healthcare than any other country in the world for outcomes that at the very least do not seem any better than those in other developed countries. That is to say the problem with American healthcare is not just inequity, it is also inefficiency. This is in large part a result of the very high level of fragmentation in the market; private American healthcare providers simply cannot compete with, for instance, national health services which exploit their monopsony power to procure drugs at low prices. All in all, I really don’t see how you can claim that the American health system is higher quality than at least the better-run and [is more well-funded] than European ones.

These two things cannot be true at the same time.  The U.S. healthcare system is extremely well-funded, it's just that (unlike Europe) a lot of the funding comes from private payers and insurers. 

Systems in Europe are able to buy drugs/treatments at low prices because they operate under uncompetitive price-fixing regiemes.  U.S. healthcare is basically a subsidy to the Euros.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

As has been said, I don't think the private insurance system has much to do with it. Ads for health insurance plans aren't all that common, mostly because most people just get it from their employer. And most medical things advertised still could under a single-payer system. Even ads for specific clinics and hospitals could exist under such a system.

I think the main reason is a lack of regulation in general for this type of advertising. The US and New Zealand are the only countries in the world that permit prescription drug advertising, and I suspect that advertising in general is at least more tightly regulated making it less lucrative. I'm not sure how advertising for OTC medication works in other countries or if it some prohibit it entirely or at least restrict it, but it probably makes up the majority of US medical advertising.

[Ancestral Republican]

1. We have the best healthcare in the world, and it is not particularly close.  Our problem is equity, but it is undeniable that many of the countries that have prioritized equity have sacrificed quality at "the top," so to speak.

Americans pay far more per head for healthcare than any other country in the world for outcomes that at the very least do not seem any better than those in other developed countries. That is to say the problem with American healthcare is not just inequity, it is also inefficiency. This is in large part a result of the very high level of fragmentation in the market; private American healthcare providers simply cannot compete with, for instance, national health services which exploit their monopsony power to procure drugs at low prices. All in all, I really don’t see how you can claim that the American health system is higher quality than at least the better-run and [is more well-funded] than European ones.

These two things cannot be true at the same time.  The U.S. healthcare system is extremely well-funded, it's just that (unlike Europe) a lot of the funding comes from private payers and insurers. 

Systems in Europe are able to buy drugs/treatments at low prices because they operate under uncompetitive price-fixing regiemes.  U.S. healthcare is basically a subsidy to the Euros.

This nonsense talking point needs to die.

If American pharma prices were "subsidizing" European pharma costs, they wouldn't be able to afford billions in lobbying and advertising.

Only one reason to oppose single payer healthcare and that's not understanding how healthcare works.

[Alcibiades]

These two things cannot be true at the same time.  The U.S. healthcare system is extremely well-funded, it's just that (unlike Europe) a lot of the funding comes from private payers and insurers.

I think you may have misread my post; by ‘better-funded European ones’, I meant the better-funded amongst the various European systems, not European systems that are necessarily better-funded than the American one.

Systems in Europe are able to buy drugs/treatments at low prices because they operate under uncompetitive price-fixing regiemes.  U.S. healthcare is basically a subsidy to the Euros.

Well yes — I said as much in my post, if more charitably worded. Americans, by not adopting a similar healthcare regime, are making a political choice to continue paying far more for drugs than they need to.

[quesaisje]

Americans use a lot of drugs, even compared to older countries. It's not just the prices. Our national mascot should be a patent medicine salesman.

They also allow hospitals and insurers to team up and advertise Medicare Advantage plans, if you can believe it.

[Mr. Smith]

It's money.

[Dr. Cynic]

I've been on holiday in the US for the last week or so, and the amount of medical advertising on the TV is ridiculous. Can someone from the US explain to me why there is so much medical advertising? Please, I would love to know.

Well, boner pills aren't just gonna sell themselves.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Americans use a lot of drugs, even compared to older countries. It's not just the prices. Our national mascot should be a patent medicine salesman.

What baffles and alarms me is the use of opiates for mild to moderate pain, which is completely inappropriate and has obvious consequences (which, I understand, are very visible these days) but is widespread in both the United States and Canada.

[quesaisje]

Americans use a lot of drugs, even compared to older countries. It's not just the prices. Our national mascot should be a patent medicine salesman.

What baffles and alarms me is the use of opiates for mild to moderate pain, which is completely inappropriate and has obvious consequences (which, I understand, are very visible these days) but is widespread in both the United States and Canada.

It's insidious. The direct-to-consumer advertising on television is the most visible symptom, but pharmaceutical companies spend even more on marketing to clinicians and other paths for shaping the conversation. They lobby public officials directly, they stand up patient advocacy groups, they spin up their own non-profits and research institutes. It's hard to find anyone whose mouth hasn't been stuffed with gold, in ways both obvious and subtle.

The industry has taken a long time to move away from "pain as the fifth vital sign." It's still official policy for the VA, as far as I'm aware, and was disowned by the leading accreditation agency for hospitals only within the past few years.