Healthcare Hullabaloo: A Boy Named Sue

I’ve never been much of a country music fan. However, I’ve always enjoyed the music of Johnny Cash.

I think that the first country song that I remember liking was his classic “A Boy Named Sue”.

If you’ve never heard it, you can check it out here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVTW_-C014o

Back in the day when this song was written, “Sue” was a very popular name for young ladies – in fact, it was #11 in 1969, the year that Cash first recorded this song. Today, the name “Sue” doesn’t even make the top 100 girl names. “Khole“ made the list for 2010, as did “Nevaeh“,“Brooklyn“,“Destiny“,“Aaliyah“,“Valeria“, and “Serenity“ – but good ‘ole “Sue“ has been relegated to the dustbin of history. Thank goodness for "Glee" - at least some "Sues" are still in the national spotlight.

Somehow, I can’t see “A Boy Named Aaliyah” making the Billboard Hot 100.

Fortunately for “Sue”, it still remains very popular today, albeit as a verb.

While I’ve been off the topic lately, I am constantly reminded that the legal community continues to play a significant role in the downfall of out health care system.

This upsets me, of course, but what can I do about it? Maybe I shouldn’t watch so much TV.

There has been a rash of TV commercials as of late, imploring people to call one law firm or another if they have this disease or if they have used this drug or that medical device. Just yesterday I saw multiple commercials about class action lawsuits for “Ice Cold Therapy Treatments”, “DePuy Hip Replacements”, “Accutane” (an acne treatment)and “Avandia” (a medicine for type II Diabetes). In a 24 hour period, I probably witnessed commercials that cost around $100,000 just to broadcast – I shudder to think about all the other commercials that I missed and that were broadcast on other networks. And this expense it repeated each and every day.

These 4 examples represent only a few of the active class action lawsuits that are out there – a quick Google search for “Class Action” got me the following suits that are currently out there:

• Accutane
• Actos
• Advair
• Avandia
• Bextra
• Byetta
• Celebrex
• Chantix
• Cipro
• Digitek
• Fen Phen
• Fentanyl
• Fleet Phospho Soda
• Fosamax
• Gadolinium MRI
• Gardasil
• Heparin
• Hydroxycut
• Ketek
• Klonopin
• Levaquin
• Ortho Evra
• Raptiva
• Reglan
• Paxil
• Provigil
• Prozac
• Seroquel
• Sereven
• Tamiflu
• Tegretol
• Trasylol
• Vioxx
• Vytorin
• Xenical
• YAZ Birth Contro
• Zelnorm
• Zetia
• Zicam
• Zyprexa

Guess what pays for all of these lawsuits, judgments, and settlements? Our health care dollars.

Oh sure, the pharmaceutical company initially foots the bill, but guess what – they then pass it back onto their customers in the form of higher costs for your favorite pills. Which is part of the reason why the premiums for small group health insurance with pharmaceutical coverage grow by as much as 30-50% a year.

So when you find out just how much your monthly premium is going up next year, please don’t blame Isabella, Jasmine, or even Addison. A lot of the blame can be placed squarely on good ‘ole “Sue”.

How do you do!

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Who are you? Do you agree with me, disagree with me, or have another perspective to share?

PLEASE put your 2 cents in by leaving a comment or email me at HealthcareBlog@SystematixOnline.com