General Agreement on Trade in Services
In countries where the medical industrial complex is too influential, there are legal limitations to consumer options for accessing diverse healthcare services due to regulations in international markets such as the General Agreement on Trade in Services. In the U.S, there are loose regulations on healthcare industries, often driving companies to charge high prices and fragment standards of care. For instance, pharmaceutical companies can charge high prices for drugs, as we have recently seen with EpiPen. Furthermore, since manufacturers of medical devices fund medical education programs such as continuing medical education and physicians and hospitals directly to adopt the use of their devices, there is a controversy that such education has a bias to promote the interests of its funders. The recent development of the telehealth industry could be a possible solution to the fragmentation of care, however, there are currently no government regulations for telehealth companies. Clearly, the government must impose stronger regulations that focus on patient well-being.