Advice & Dissent
- |
Cost cuts by better ethics
On Wednesday, the Globe editorial page applauded a new state law that restricts the way pharmaceutical companies can market drugs to doctors. We don’t expect miracles, but the new rules should bring down marketing costs - and ensure that prescription decisions aren’t motivated by fancy dinners and one-sided education campaigns.► One Boston.com reader maintained that, despite our prediction, the new law won’t reduce drug costs. DocMikey wrote, “the price of medicine is not determined by what a company spends on marketing . . . The reality is that pharmaceutical prices are determined, like all other prices, by what the market will bear in an attempt to maximize revenues and profits.’’
► Reader rd333 argued the law will have an unintended effect: “Less money for our restaurants and their employees. These evildoers spend money in our local establishments.’’
► Others disputed the premise that freebies influence which drugs are prescribed. Asked wolverine13, “So an MD goes to school for how many number of years, but then gets handed a sandwich - and all common sense and training just flies out the window. . .?’’
► But others argued that marketing campaigns work. “Yes, these dinners and lunches do influence prescribing, even when given to nurses,’’ said SusanLH. “When residents or hospitalists are rounding and discussing therapies, it is not uncommon for nurses or residents to recommend the drug that they just heard about, along with the stats and studies that the reps passed out at the latest meeting (which often do not present the whole story, just the drug company’s side).’’
Sports in Boston schools
On Tuesday, we followed up on a Globe news series that described the poor state of sports in most Boston public schools. Athletics are an important way to keep students in school, we argued.► Some readers disagreed. “Sports are a huge waste of money and have no real benefit,’’ corsetkitty wrote. As much as I love music and theater and art, I’d vote to cut them in a heartbeat if it meant my child was in a smaller math class. Boston especially needs to get its act together academically. Why not cut out all after school programs until a school gets its MCAS scores up?’’
► Similarly, daviddow wrote, “While we debate the benefits of sports and other extracurricular activities in our schools, we miss the irony exposed when school authorities, driven by a culture that glorifies sports as a career, must use sports to entice students to enter the schoolhouse. . . . Who are all those people who must be bribed with goodies we cannot afford?’’
