According to DHSC , these categories “ are of most significance for childhood obesity ” and were “ decided following extensive consultation .”
Ads from Big Food and Big Pharma constitute the majority of revenue for US news outlets in case you haven ’ t noticed . Can you imagine the backlash if the US government banned ads for Wendy ’ s Big Bacon Classic Triple or Popeyes ’ Classic Bacon & Cheese Chicken Sandwich UK style ? Unfair ! Discrimination ! I ’ m starving !
Instead news outlets now ADD ( pun intended ) commercials for fat drugs like Ozempic — in a perverse yin and yang of market capitalism .
Some predict the GLP-1 fat drugs are just our latter day Vioxx , a drug that caused 88,000 heart attacks and 38,000 deaths in the US but on which Merck still made money . Like Merck , GLP-1 makers seek to extract profit from the early Wall Street frenzy before long term health risks and harm are known .
Surgeons I have interviewed cite life-threatening risks on the operating table from GLP-1 drugs which are also linked to eye risks , negative mental effects , thyroid tumors , pancreatitis , hypoglycemia , kidney failure , cancer and gallbladder conditions requiring hospitalization . When the drugs are discontinued , the weight comes back so patients are lifers .
If you suspect that all the “ let ’ s talk / we care ” messages about gaps in mental health treatment — “ barriers !” “ stigma !” — are driven by drugmakers , you are right . Drugmaker-funded “ patient ” groups have succeeded in elevated anxiety and depression into “ mental illness ” and the crop of “ behavioral care ” centers in medical settings are nothing but lucrative psych drugs dispensaries . ( How does a reporter know this ? She worked in ad agencies .)
In 2024 , the Biden administration issued a rule to ensure that mental health services ( read : drugs ) for the alleged “ half of US adults with mental illness ” ( right ) and 70 percent of uncovered children are covered by insurers .
But large employers are not buying it . Or paying for it .
In January , a consortium of companies with over 10,000 employees filed suit against the ERISA [ Employee Retirement Income Security Act ] Industry Committee and the US Departments of Health and Human Services , Labor and Treasury , terming the new rule arbitrary and capricious . The mental health mandate curbs “ employers ’ ability to provide affordable coverage that suits their employees ’ needs ,” reported Reuters .
Over $ 5,500 annually for an ADHD drug ? Over $ 2,000 for one bottle of the bipolar drug Caplyta ? The big companies in the lawsuit cite “ regulatory overreach ,” but how many of them are drugmakers themselves — and looking in the mirror ?
36 The Trial Lawyer