a result of the laws on medicaments

[Ibrahim90]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GlaxoSmithKline#Health-care_fraud_settlement

this apparently just came out. Fraud is a pain, but I suspect that it wouldn't have been as likely to happen if it weren't for certain "laws".

[evensgrey]

Well, MOST of the things listed are only the result of Government fiat (you couldn't have improper patent litigation, for instance, without patents), but the bribery is concerning.  That one doesn't arise from Government fiat alone.

[MrBogosity]

Well, MOST of the things listed are only the result of Government fiat (you couldn't have improper patent litigation, for instance, without patents), but the bribery is concerning.  That one doesn't arise from Government fiat alone.

Without government, whom would you be bribing?

[Gumba Masta]

Well, you could bribe a guard to look the other way when you're stealing something that isn't his. You could bribe a doctor to put you higher on a organ's donor list. You can bribe a dog with a pack of snausages to play dead.

[evensgrey]

Without government, whom would you be bribing?

In this instance, the bribery was of doctors, who would still be there without government.

[MrBogosity]

From the BBC story:

"The sales force bribed physicians to prescribe GSK products using every imaginable form of high-priced entertainment, from Hawaiian vacations [and] paying doctors millions of dollars to go on speaking tours, to tickets to Madonna concerts," said US attorney Carmin Ortiz.

Not saying it's a good thing, but if that's bribery EVERY pharmaceutical company is guilty.

[MrBogosity]

Oh, and BTW, this is Britain, where they have universal healthcare, so arguably doctors are part of a government agency.

[evensgrey]

From the BBC story:

Not saying it's a good thing, but if that's bribery EVERY pharmaceutical company is guilty.

Well, yes, but there's degrees, right?  There's a difference between giving doctor a few courses of a new antibiotic so he can see how well it works or a couple boxes of pens and giving a doctor a vacation trip to the other side of the planet or a ludicrously highly paid speaking tour.

Incidentally, the UK has had private, privately paid doctors again for something like 30 years, and private, privately paid hospitals for something like 25.  Considering that the NHS had simple, routine surgical waiting lists that were multiple years long when this started, it's really the only thing that's kept the NHS from collapsing.

[MrBogosity]

I thought the "private" doctors in the UK were also forced to work on the NHS side as well, they don't work full-time for the private clinics.

[evensgrey]

I thought the "private" doctors in the UK were also forced to work on the NHS side as well, they don't work full-time for the private clinics.

Either way, they still get patients treated VASTLY more efficiently on the private side, even with the heavy government burdens placed on them.

[MrBogosity]

Either way, they still get patients treated VASTLY more efficiently on the private side, even with the heavy government burdens placed on them.

I can believe it.