Title: Corporate%20Control%20of%20Public%20Health:%20Case%20Studies%20and%20Call%20to%20Action
1Corporate Control of Public HealthCase Studies
and Call to Action
2Am I Stoned?
- A 1999 Utah anti-drug pamphlet warns
- Danger signs that your child may be smoking
marijuana include excessive preoccupation with
social causes, race relations, and environmental
issues
3Corporations Dominate the Global Economy
- Almost 6 million corporations
- 90 of transnational corporations headquartered
in Northern Hemisphere - 500 companies control 70 of world trade
4Corporations Dominate the Global Economy
- 53 of the worlds 100 largest economies are
private corporations 47 are countries - Wal-Mart is larger than Israel and Greece
5The Stock Market
- The top 1 of Americans owns 35 of all stocks,
bonds, and mutual fund assets - Consequences of Differential Stock Ownership
- Corporations are answerable to their shareholders
- Governments are answerable (at least in theory)
to their citizens (either through elections or
revolutions)
6Corporations
- Internalize profits
- Externalize health and environmental costs
7Corporate Taxation
- Corporations shouldered over 30 of the nations
tax burden in 1950 vs. 8 today - Nearly 1/3 of all large U.S. corporations pay no
annual tax
8Corporate Taxation
- Big business claims that U.S. corporations pay
the highest corporate taxes in the world (35) - FALSE The rate actually paid, after foreign
governments get their cuts, money sent to foreign
subsidiaries, loopholes, etc. 2.3 (U.S.
Treasury Department)
9Reasons for Inadequate Corporate Taxation
- Corporate tax breaks/loopholes
- Corporate welfare
- Cheating and under-payment common
- Offshore tax havens shelter capital
10Ugland House, Cayman Islands18,000 Corporations
Registered Here
11Job Creators?
12Corporate Taxation
- 2004 Bush administration offered temporary tax
holiday on foreign earnings - 300 billion in profit repatriated
- 92 went to dividend payouts, stock buybacks, and
corporate coffers - Only 8 went to R and D, new factories, and hiring
13Exorbitant CEO Pay
- The average CEO makes 331X the salary of the
average U.S. worker (1960 - 41X) - Mexico 451
- Britain 251
- Japan 101
- US Military 201 (top rank lowest rank)
- US ratio of average CEO to minimum wage worker
7741
14Exorbitant CEO Pay
- Median U.S. CEO salary 10.5 million (2013)
- CEO salaries up 937 since 1978
- Average worker pay up 10
- The average CEO makes 250-400X the salary of the
average U.S. worker (1960 - 41X) - Mexico 451
- Britain 251
- Japan 101
- US Military 201 (top rank lowest rank)
15(No Transcript)
16The Mega-Rich
- Worried / Investing in personal security
- Bodyguards
- Armored cars
- Bullet-proof windows machine gun proof doors
- Home security fogs
- Panic rooms
- Fully-stocked home medical suites
- Yachts with escape submarines
- Islands
17Corporate PR Tactics
- Advertising
- The art of convincing people to spend money they
don't have for something they don't need. (Will
Rogers) - Astroturf - artificially-created grassroots
coalitions - Corporate front groups
- Invoke poor people as beneficiaries
18Corporate PR tactics
- Characterize opposition as technophobic,
anti-science, and against progress - Portray their products as environmentally
beneficial despite evidence to the contrary - Host all-expense paid educational seminars for
federal judges - Corporate espionage spying, bribes
19Public Relations
- 200 billion industry
- PR flacks now outnumber journalists
20Greenwash
- Public relations / ad campaigns
- BP invests 100 million annually in clean energy
amt. it spends annually to market itself as
moving Beyond Petroleum
21Sponsored Environmental Education Materials
(Examples)
- International Paper
- -Clearcutting promotes growth of trees that
require full sunlight and allows efficient site
preparation for the next crop - Exxons Energy Cube
- -Gasoline is simply solar power hidden in
decayed matter - -Offshore drilling creates reefs for fish
22Sponsored Environmental Education Materials
(Examples)
- American Coal Foundations Power from Coal
- The earth could benefit rather than be harmed
from increased carbon dioxide.
23Academics/Professional Organizations Affected
- Increasing corporatization of academia
- For-profit schools
- Charter schools
- Educational corporations
24Academics/Professional Organizations Affected
- ?Private commercial funding of university
research - Front-end domination and rear-end repression
affect research agenda, dissemination of
knowledge - Undone science
- Secrecy/gag clauses
25Academics/Professional Organizations Affected
- For-profit colleges growing, marked by
corruption, high interest rates on loans to the
un- and under-qualified - Benefit largely from taxpayer money
- Dramatic decrease in tenured faculty, rise in
administrators - Gagging of researchers at federal agencies
demoralizing, can affect recruitment of quality
scientists
26The Media
- 5 corporations control majority of US media (down
from 50 in 1983) - Extensive corporate-media links
27Global Warming Controversial?
- Of 928 articles in peer-reviewed scientific
journals, none were in doubt as to the existence
or cause of global warming - Of 636 articles in the popular press (NY Times,
Washington Post, LA Times, WSJ), 53 expressed
doubt as to the existence (and primary cause) of
global warming - Science 20043061686-7
- (Study covers 1993-2003)
28(No Transcript)
29Lobbying
- Approximately 40,000 lobbyists (12,600 full-time)
- Estimates of return on lobbying range from 28 to
100 for every 1 spent
30Lobbying
- Federal lobbying groups spent 3.5 billion in 2010
(3.25 billion in 2013) - All single issue ideological groups combined
(e.g., pro-choice, anti-abortion, feminist and
consumer organizations, senior citizens, etc.)
76 million (2010)
31Top-Spending Industries, 2011(Low Estimates)
- Pharmaceutical industry - 236 million
- Insurance industry - 158 million
- Oil and gas industry - 146 million
- Electric utilities - 144 million
32Campaign Cash and Lobbying
- Citizens United
- McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission
- Lobbying promotes international
non-cooperation/isolationism
33 34- The alliance between GE Medical Systems and
NY-Presbyterian Hospital
35General Electric
- Ranked by Forbes as worlds largest company
(based on equal weighting of sales, profits,
assets, and market value) - 2012 revenues of 145 billion
- Close to the GDP of more than 2/3 of U.N. member
states - 2012 net after-tax profits of 15 billion
- Just over 1/3 from U.S. operations
36General Electric
- Makes household appliances, lighting, and medical
equipment - Plastics division, which produced bisphenol A,
spun off in 2008 - Produces jet engines and military hardware
37General Electric
- Charles Wilson (CEO of GE pre- and post-WW II
helped oversee U.S. military production during WW
II) - The revulsion against warwill be an almost
insuperable obstacle for us to overcome. For that
reason, I am convinced that we must begin now to
set the machinery in motion for a permanent
wartime economy.
38General Electric
- Has built 91 nuclear power plants in 11 countries
(including the troubled Fukushima Daishi plants
in Japan) - Including 23 plants at 11 sites in U.S.
- e.g., Hanford
- ¼ of GEs US reactors found to be defective
39General Electric
- Operates coal-burning power plants
- Major releasers of toxic mercury
- Produces nearly 40 technologies used in fracking
- Increasing investments in fracking
40General Electric
- Operates a large financial services group
- Lending accounts for gt 30 of revenue, vs. lt 6
of revenue from consumer appliances - Responsible for over 50 of companys profits in
recent years - Owns a multi-billion dollar media empire
- Including NBC (49, Comcast 51), Telemundo,
and Universal Studios
41GEs History
- Conducted unethical human subject experiments on
prisoners, involving testicular irradiation, from
1940s to 1960s - Intentionally-released excessive radiation from
its Hanford, WA nuclear reactor in the 1980s, to
determine how far it would travel
42GEs Record
- Sued radiologist who brought to light dangers of
GEs contrast agent, Omniscan - Causes nephrogenic systemic fibrosis (FDA black
box warning) - Ordered to pay 11.4 million to Bracco
Diagnositcs for falsely/misleadingly claiming
that its x-ray contrast agent Visipaque was
superior to BDs Isovue
43GEs Record
- Americas largest corporate polluter
- 116 Superfund sites nationwide
- Approximately 13 in NY
44GEs Record
- Between 1947 and 1977, two of its capacitor
manufacturing plants dumped at least 1.3 million
pounds of PCBs into the Hudson River - Probable human carcinogens with adverse effects
on liver, kidney, nervous system, and
reproductive organs (EPA) - 200 mi of Hudson Superfund site
45GEs Record
- Eliminated 34,000 US jobs between 2000 and 2010
- Added 25,000 overseas jobs over same period
- One of nations top out-sourcers of jobs
46GEs Record
- Cited by Human Rights Watch for systematic
workers rights violations in the U.S. and
abroad - Extensive record of tax violations, military
procurement fraud
47GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt
- 2013 total compensation 19.8 million
- Named Worlds Best CEO in 3 separate Barrons
polls - 2006 - 2011 - On Board of NY Federal Reserve Bank
48GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt
- 2008 Named one of the 100 Most Influential
People in the World by TIME Magazine - 2009 - Appointed by President Obama to his
Economic Recovery Board - GE then became eligible, via a loophole, for ¼ of
the 340 billion Temporary Liquidity Guarantee
Program (debt support)
49GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt
- 2011 - Appointed by Obama as Chair of his outside
panel of Economic Advisors and of his Council on
Jobs and Competitiveness - On the board of directors of The Robin Hood
Foundation!
50GEs Record
- Named Americas Most Admired Company by Forbes
- Named one of the Worlds Most Respected
Companies in polls conducted by Barrons and The
Financial Times
51Concerns About the Agreement between GE Medical
Systems and NY-Presbyterian Hospital (2003)
- Provides GE with financial incentives to promote
high technology purchases - Hospital prohibited from purchasing more
effective equipment from other companies
52Concerns About the Agreement
- Augments trend in academic medical centers to
promote the use of expensive, high-technology
care at expense of preventive care and public
health measures - Highly reimbursable
- Services may be redundant in certain locations
53Concerns About the Agreement
- Patients with developmental anomalies and cancers
caused by GEs pollution diagnosed with GE
scanners and treated with GE-manufactured
therapeutic devices, increasing GEs profit
54-
- A macabre twist on cradle to grave care
55Solutions
- NY-P should cancel agreement
- Health care providers and organizations should
condemn this alliance - Medical and ethical organizations should develop
standards regarding future agreements
56The American Council on Science and Health
- Corporate Front Group
- Promulgates unsound science
- Pro-corporate agenda
- Major media presence
- Medical director spent time in federal prison for
Medicaid fraud, perjury, and obstruction of
justice - Threatened to sue me, Medscape over allegations
in article on global warming
57WHO Tobacco Treaty
- U.S. attempted to undermine treaty through Bush
administration appointees with strong ties to
tobacco industry
58Medical Technologies Industry
- Successful lobbying effort against Medicare
physician payment policies relevant to unproven
imaging studies - Whole body CT scans (scams)
59Drug Testing
- 2011 Florida Governor Rick Scott (R) issues
executive order requiring drug tests on current
state workers and new applicants - 2011 Scott signs bill requiring drug tests for
TANF program - positive test allows parent to choose another
individual to receive benefits on behalf of
children - Aid recipients responsible for cost of tests
60Drug Testing
- Florida Governor Rick Scott
- Former CEO of Columbia/HCA
- Fired after presiding over massive Medicare fraud
that cost corporation 1.7 billion federal fine - Then set up Solantic (FL chain of emergency care
clinics) transferred ownership to his wife upon
entering statehouse - Solantic is in the drug-testing business!
61Corporate Agribusiness
- Successful campaign against Oregons Proposition
27 (labeling of GM foods) - Lobbying for pre-emptive labeling laws re GMOs,
rBGH
62Corporate Agribusiness
- Supports spread of GMOs to developing world
- Keeps GM seeds from non-corporate academic
researchers - Promoting agriculture bills which provide large
subsidies to large industrial farms
63Corporate Agreements with Medical Associations
- AAP Abbott Nutrition (manufacturers of Similac)
- AAP Babies R Us
- AAFP Coca Cola, Inc.
- AMA Sunbeam
- AMA sells access to Physician Masterfile
64Medical Care
- Sponsor luxury care consortiums, clinics
- Facilitate medical tourism
- Participation in medical transfer market
(facilitates medical repatriations of
undocumented immigrants - e.g., MexCare)
65Health Insurance Industry
- Dubious practices
- Delisting
- Cherry picking
- Pre-existing conditions
- Often lower quality of care
- High administrative costs
- 15-30 (vs. 2-3 for Medicare and Medicaid)
66Health Insurance Industry
- Large profit margins
- Loyalty shareholders (not patients)
- Corruption
67Prison-Industrial Complex
- Construction and management of prisons
- Providing (substandard) health care to inmates
68Pharmaceutical Industry
- Influence over physicians through control of CME,
gifts, research funding - Physician Payments Sunshine Act reporting
requirements - Conduct seeding trials to alter prescribing
patterns - Secrecy, statistical torturing of data sets,
selective publication
69Pharmaceutical Industry
- Data mining of prescribing practices
- Unethical trials in developing world
- Poor compliance with Clinical Trials Registry
rules
70Drug Company Malfeasance
- The pharmaceutical industry is the biggest
defrauder of the federal government, as
determined by payments made for violations of the
federal False Claims Act (FCA) - Accounted for 25 of all FCA payouts between 2000
and 2010 - Defense industry 11
71(No Transcript)
72Pharmaceutical Industry
- Avoided 7 billion in US taxes in 2012 by
shifting profits overseas - 240 million dollars spent on lobbying in 2011
- 1,228 lobbyists (2.3 for every member of
Congress) - Revolving door between legislators, lobbyists,
executives and government officials
73Pharmaceutical Industry
- Effectively lobbied and threatened trade
sanctions against developing countries in order
to prevent production and importation of much
cheaper, generic versions of life-saving
anti-AIDS drugs - Patent extensions
74PPACAPatient Protection and Affordability Care
Act
- Career arc of Elizabeth Fowler (architect of
plan) - VP for Public Policy and External Affairs
(informal lobbying) at WellPoint (nations
largest insurer) - Chief health policy counsel to Senator Max Baucus
(who drafted legislation) - Head of Global Health Policy at pharmaceutical
giant Johnson and Johnson
75Solutions
- Restructure tax system
- Punish corporate scofflaws with large fines and
jail time - Hide no Harm Act (pending in Senate) would hold
corporate officers criminally accountable if they
knowingly concealed serious dangers that led to
consumer or worker deaths or injuries - Increase enforcement budgets to combat corporate
crime
76Solutions
- Eliminate confidential legal settlements and
confidential business information relevant to
public health and safety - Sunshine in Litigation Act (pending in Senate)
would help limit court-endorsed secrecy - Eliminate mandatory binding arbitration clauses
77Solutions
- Living wage laws
- Work with corporations
- Healthy PR
- Shareholder activism
- Risks/benefits
78Solutions Fair, Representative Elections
- Publicly financed campaigns and campaign finance
reform - Open debates, free air time for candidates
- Proportional representation
- Instant runoff voting/cumulative voting/range
(rating) voting - Halt disenfranchisement, overturn voter
restriction laws
79Solutions Vote
- US voter turnout low
- Wealthy vote at almost twice rate of poor
- Whites gt Blacks gt Hispanics
- Old gt Young
- Property owners gt Renters
- Physicians lt general population
80Voter Turnout
81Solutions
- Activism / Letter writing / Protesting /
Whistleblowing - Join community groups become involved in local
as well as national issues - Lobby legislators
- Run for office
82Solutions
- Increase funding of public education
- Independent scientific review of school curricula
- Prohibit use of sponsored curricula
83Solutions
- Establish safeguards re corporate involvement in
academic research - Higher standards of journalism
- Support alternative media
84Solutions
- Augment and improve international aid package
- Sign, ratify, and adhere to major international
treaties
85Solutions
- Based on Precautionary Principle
- Recognize natures net worth
- Calculate prosperity based on Genuine Progress
Index or Global Happiness Index, rather than
Gross Domestic Product
86- All men are created equal
- Declaration of Independence
- Some people are more equal than others
- George Orwell
87Voltaire
- The comfort of the rich rests upon an abundance
of the poor
88Hudson River, 2009
89Primo Levi
- A country is considered the more civilized the
more the wisdom and efficiency of its laws hinder
a weak man from becoming too weak or a powerful
one too powerful.
90Günter Grass
-
- The first job of a citizen is to keep your mouth
open.
91African Proverb
- If you think you are too small to have an
impact, try going to bed with a mosquito in your
tent
92(No Transcript)
93Contact Information and References
- Public Health and Social Justice Website
- http//www.publichealthandsocialjustice.org
- http//www.phsj.org
- martindonohoe_at_phsj.org