You know those blurbs at the end of pharmaceuticals commercials on TV? “If you can’t afford your medication, Prescott Pharmaceuticals may be able to help.” Who is the intended audience for those blurbs?
According to DailyKos commenter Ralphdog (a rural family-practice physician), those programs involve a LOT of paperwork for the doctor - so much so that some doctors won’t fill out that paperwork without charging the patient (who can’t afford their medications, remember) a paperwork fee. So the pharmaceutical companies don’t seem to be knocking themselves out to make these medicines available to low-income patients.
OTOH, people with reasonable insurance will probably hear those blurbs at the end of the commercials and think, “Well, that’s good. If the pharmaceutical companies are helping out, I guess I don’t need to be concerned.” This is straight out of psychological studies of “Social Proof.” Robert Cialdini writes about this in connection with the Kitty Genovese case, IIRC.
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