SANTA BARBARA, CA -- (Marketwire) -- 11/16/09 -- While Congress and the rest of the nation
turn the battle over healthcare reform into a pro-wrestling-style steel
cage death match with enough rhetoric to choke an English professor, at
least one expert is looking beyond the bills on the table for a different
solution.
According to a lengthy report by legal expert Terry Mix, "The American
Healthcare Dilemma" (www.terencemix.com), reorganizing the FDA and its
activities could save Americans trillions of dollars over the next decade.
Mix believes that cleaning up FDA miscues and duplicative functions can
save consumers serious money in unnecessary healthcare costs, as well as
free up some much-needed federal dollars. His chief complaints include:
-- More than 50 percent of all serious adverse reactions to drugs are
discovered after the drugs are initially marketed (e.g., they are not
detected during premarket testing).
-- About 2,270,000 patients per year incur hospital costs as a result of
adverse drug reactions.
-- Another 4,300,000 visit other healthcare providers (physicians,
hospital outpatient departments and emergency rooms) as a result of adverse
drug reactions.
-- Approximately 230,000 die each year as a result of an adverse drug
reaction (105,000 using drugs as directed and 125,000 from not following
directions) -- the fourth leading cause of death in the United States.
-- The total annual healthcare cost as a consequence of adverse drug
reactions exceeds a staggering $200 billion -- an amount equal to what is
spent on Medicaid every year and almost half of what is spent on Medicare.
"These costs can be cut in half by fixing everything that is wrong with the
FDA and the system of testing drugs," he added. "This would amount to
health care savings of at least $100 billion per year -- one trillion
dollars over ten years."
About Terry Mix
A graduate of the University of Southern California and Hastings College of
Law in San Francisco and a member of the California State Bar since January
4, 1967, he has spent most of his 40-plus years in practice engaged in the
subspecialty of drug product liability, litigating against many of the
major pharmaceutical companies in the United States.
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