Gifts for doctors shouldn't erode our faith in health care
Letters to the EditorPublished January 30, 2006
Re: Report: End freebies for doctors, Jan. 25.
I could barely get through my breakfast without choking over this front-page story.
What a blanket indictment of America's drug companies and our free enterprise system. Not only does this story make it sound as though pharmaceutical representatives are pushing illegal drugs in our schoolyards, but it also demeans all doctors who prescribe drug products that are truly best for their patients. I cannot believe any reputable doctor would prescribe a drug simply because he or she gets a few pens or a free lunch.
The report also states that any doctor who has a cozy relationship between themselves and drug companies poses a serious threat to unbiased medicine and to patients. I personally have more faith in our medical community and believe that the vast majority of doctors can discern a blatant bribe from a well-informed product presentation by a highly trained pharmaceutical representative. Have we come to the point where doctors will sell themselves out for a ham sandwich?
Our continued progress in longevity, due in large part to innovation by the private sector, will screech to a halt if we continue to kick and beat up on America's drug and medical device companies. We will reap what we sow.
-- Bill Reading, Lecanto
Don't overregulate health care
Re: Report: End freebies for doctors, Jan. 25.
This article does not address the many sacrifices made daily by physicians treating thousands of patients who do not have insurance, who need free drugs that they can't afford, or the 12- to 14-hour days doctors put in to serve their patients. The drug company relationships were curtailed three years ago by the Office of the Inspector General guidelines that remain in effect today. Very few freebies exist other than those mentioned in the article such as pens, pads and a possible meal at an association meeting where information on new drugs is introduced by knowledgeable speakers.
As for speaker honorariums, doctors are required to earn more than 40 CME credits per year by listening to lectures by reputable physicians who take time off from daily practice to make the presentation. They are losing much more in patient fees than the honorariums pay. With continued Medicare cuts in doctor fees and other rules and regulations, it is difficult to practice medicine.
Yet we have the finest health care system in the world. Let us not overregulate it any more to drive fine young persons from entering the field of medicine. I say thanks to the dedicated physicians we have who strive so hard to provide the best patient care possible.
-- Kenneth Webster, executive director, Pinellas County Osteopathic Medical Society, Palm Harbor
Drug companies can cut these costs
I read with great interest the recent article, Report: End freebies for doctors. I found myself in complete agreement with the "influential group of doctors" who feel doctors shouldn't be allowed to take any gifts from pharmaceutical companies, and that there should be stricter rules on speaker fees and tighter limits on drug company donations for research and consulting.
According to the article, drug companies spend $21-billion on marketing, 90 percent of which is aimed at the doctors, for a whopping $13,000 per doctor! Apparently there is another group that fears that if these restrictions prevent pharmaceutical companies from providing doctors with free samples, patients who can't afford expensive drugs won't get them.
But if the drug companies didn't spend $21-billion for marketing, the cost of their products possibly could go down, making their drugs more affordable for all.
Also, if the FCC were to stop allowing drug companies to advertise prescription medications on television, their marketing costs would drop drastically. It should be illegal to market prescription drugs directly to consumers, otherwise why have them only available by prescription?
-- Debra Bellmaine, Clearwater
The healing in harps
David was on to a good thing, wasn't he? After all, he eventually became king. By simply playing his harp before King Saul, he relieved Saul's chronic melancholy and soothed the king's troubled soul. A reading of the Plucking harps to fix hearts (Dec. 27) indicates that this "good thing" can be partly explained by a physics principle called entrainment.
A gifted doctor and master harpist in Urbana, Ill., was featured in the article. My entire being felt better after reading her success in a serious and vital heart procedure at an Urbana-area hospital. Our bay area has so many wonderful hospitals, surgeons and harpists. Could the St. Petersburg Times just search them out and feature their successes using this entrainment principle? We would all feel better, then.
-- Donald E. Burke, St. Petersburg
In defense of public defenders
Re: The $40 Lawyer, Jan. 22.
Your article, was extremely offensive and demeaning to me and my fellow assistant public defenders throughout the state. It further creates in the public's mind the idea that those of us who choose the very noble and satisfying profession of defending the poor and defenseless are doing so only because no one else will have us.
We are either a "harried idealist" or a "rumpled, inept clock puncher." I assure you that I am neither. Instead, I am a highly skilled and talented criminal defense attorney who works hard for my clients. I am proud to be an assistant public defender and proud to practice law in an office full of intelligent and skilled lawyers who consistently provide excellent representation to people who are too poor to afford an attorney.
The next time you choose to profile one of us, how about making it someone who graduated at the top of their class and had many job offers for a lot more money, but instead chose to give back to the community and work for justice. Profile someone who has discovered that a well run public defender's office is the best place in the world to practice law - not just for the first few years of practice, but for an entire career. I assure you, that you will have no trouble finding many assistant public defenders who fit that description.
-- Jill D. Menadier, Tampa
Why the giving goes on
About the current brouhaha over lobbyists giving gifts to legislators to influence legislation: If it didn't work they wouldn't do it.
-- G.B. Leatherwood, Spring Hill
Get to the point
It's not clear to me what your reporters and editors think they accomplish when they bury the leads of their stories under so many lines of narrative. As someone who studies and teaches writing of various kinds, I can understand the desire to have a distinctive prose style and the wish to present information in innovative and thoughtful ways. But when I read a newspaper's account of a current event, especially a local one, I want the facts and other relevant details upfront, so that I can decide whether to spend my limited time reading the rest of the story. When your stories don't do this, I simply stop reading them and go to the Tampa Tribune.
-- Raul Sanchez, Gainesville