Health-Care Hucksters, What Their Ads Say -- And Don't Say was the title of an article in the February, 1994 issue of Consumer Reports. The subject of the piece was recent advertising by the American Medical Association, the Health Insurance Association of America, and the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association. The advertising campaigns of these three groups are focused on health care reform.
The article reports that while while the AMA advertising is talking about health care for everyone, that "since as far back as 1946, the AMA has been the major obstacle in universal coverage, fighting national health insurance whenever it appeared on the national agenda." The article reveals that the AMA's, "This is the moment of truth," ad running in Time, Newsweek, and U.S. News and World Report, is part of a $1.9 million advertising campaign. Consumer Reports asserts that despite all the AMA's advertising talk of putting patient care first, that "... the AMA is really talking about putting the incomes of doctors first, as it has done for 48 years."
The advertising campaign of the Health Insurance Association of America (HICA) is priced at $65.5 million, which includes "a toll-free telephone number to learn more about the insurers' brand of reform." So far, 228,000 people have called, and some 18,000 of them (or about 8 percent) have filled out a response card asking to be supporters of the HICA's Coalition for Health Insurance Choices.
While the Consumer Report's article didn't specify the amount of money being spent by the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Assoc., for their advertising campaign, the suggestion is that it must be heavy: "The drug companies are the most profitable of all Fortune 500 industries. The industry's 30.8 percent return on stockholders equity, a common measure of profitability, soars above that of other industries and has for years. During the 1980s, drug prices rose almost 20 percent more each year than other medical services. And health care reform stands to make drug companies even more profitable, as long as Congress avoids clamping down on prices."
When sports chiropractors first appeared at the Olympic Games in the 1980s, it was alongside individual athletes who had experienced the benefits of chiropractic care in their training and recovery processes at home. Fast forward to Paris 2024, where chiropractic care was available in the polyclinic for all athletes, and the attitude has now evolved to recognize that “every athlete deserves access to sports chiropractic."
It is estimated that 61% of patients with CTS avoid taking surgical options due to postoperative complications and costly surgical procedures. Chiropractic care offers a comprehensive and effective treatment for carpal tunnel syndrome, addressing the condition from multiple angles. Recent studies also have unveiled a game-changing adjunct to chiropractic treatments for CTS: nerve flossing.
Some doctors thrive in a personality-based clinic and have a loyal following no matter what services or equipment they offer, but for most chiropractic offices who are trying to grow and expand, new equipment purchases help us stay relevant and continue to service our client base in the best, most up-to-date manner possible. So, regarding equipment purchasing: should you lease, get a bank loan, or pay cash?
