Drug COs, HMOs and Polls

From Yahoo News: According to a recent Harris Interactive Poll, “only tobacco companies do a worse job than managed care and health insurance companies in serving their customers.”

According to the article, that’s basically the same way people have felt about HMOs and insurance companies since 1997 when the public perception polls first began. Do we need a study to know this?

Also in the poll were pharmaceutical companies who “lost ground” since last year and have steadily been dropping since 1997. It’s no wonder pharmaceutical companies recently began running patient testimonial advertising on national television in the US.

A chairman of the poll wrote, “The forces which have damaged public perception of health insurers, managed care and the pharmaceutical companies are still in place and are, we believe, likely to inflict more damage over the next few years”, according to the article.

Prediction: Someday we will see the pharmaceutical industry come under the same scrutiny as the tobacco industry has. First, for the manufacturing and distribution of harmful vaccines, and then for the many dangerous medications they produce.

Yahoo News: Poll Finds Low Consumer Confidence in Managed Care