by John Stauber and Sheldon Rampton
Thanks to successful lobbying by the U.S. health care industry, a large portion of the U.S. public still lacks health insurance and therefore cannot afford the rising cost of medicines, doctor visits and hospital stays.
Fortunately, some of the same folks who killed health reform have thoughtfully provided you with an "alternative."
In August 1994, while Republican politicians were filibustering against the Clinton administration's health care proposals, Utah's Orrin Hatch took advantage of a nearly-empty Senate floor to slip through a law which prevents the government from regulating dietary supplements. Now you, the consumer, can choose your own regimen from a smorgasbord of touted cures.
Worried about cancer? Try dosing yourself with raw thymus, shark cartilage, Siberian ginseng, vitamins C and E or beta carotene.
Overweight? Try "herbal phen-fen," "dieters' tea," or "Diet Pep" pills which suppress your appetite using a mixture of caffeine, ephedrine and other "natural stimulants."
Impotent? Take your pick: yohimbe, royal jelly, vitamin E, ginseng or amino-acid supplements.
Of course, the evidence regarding efficacy or safety of these supplements is often controversial at best, so essentially you may be participating in an uncontrolled experiment with yourself as the guinea pig.
The promoters of the supplement industry play on public skepticism about conventional health care and its government regulators like the FDA. The fact that much of that skepticism is justified does not, however, mean that the purveyors of "alternatives" are necessarily offering something better.
In reality, what is happening is the emergence of a market-driven health industry in which traditional health care and the alternative sector are able to carve out separate market niches by positioning themselves against each other. As standards of efficacy and safety erode, health consumers are left to choose which sector offers the most convincing imagery.
From the point of view of PR or business, it's a marketer's dream. Everyone gets to sell something, and everyone gets to be a winner--everyone, that is, except the consumer.
