[twoodfin]

Because in healthcare you don't give what patients want but what they need.

Where's the line? Maybe I don't "need" a new prescription painkiller with substantially fewer gastrointestinal side effects than the OTC one I'm taking, but if it would greatly improve my quality of life, I certainly might want it. Maybe I'm lucky enough that I see my doctor regularly and he keeps up (without any pharmaceutical marketing?) on every medicine that might help me out, but why should consumers be force to depend on that?

The idea that there are hordes of people making doctor's appointments to demand brand name drugs they heard about on TV, and doctors are "forced" to write what they consider useless or overpriced prescriptions for these drugs seems silly to me.

[npsimons]

Maybe I'm lucky enough that I see my doctor regularly and he keeps up (without any pharmaceutical marketing?) on every medicine that might help me out, but why should consumers be force to depend on that?

You think that marketing helps? Maybe your doctor is unduly influenced by pharma marketing and prescribes you the worse drug that give you IBD; hell, maybe he prescribes you the wrong drug altogether because of marketing, and you die. It may sound beyond the pale, but borderline cases involving antidepressants (perhaps the most overmarketed drugs) have already happened.