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Overtreated: Why Too Much Medicine Is Making Us Sicker and Poorer
Average Customer Review : 4.5/5 based on 25 reviews
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List Price : $16.00
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Editorial Reviews
“My choice for the economics book of the year…it’s the best description I have yet read of a huge economic problem that we know how to solve—but is so often misunderstood.”—David Leonhardt, New York Times Our health care is staggeringly expensive, yet one in six Americans has no health insurance. We have some of the most skilled physicians in the world, yet one hundred thousand patients die each year from medical errors. In this gripping, eye-opening book, award-winning journalist Shannon Brownlee takes readers inside the hospital to dismantle some of our most venerated myths about American medicine. Brownlee dissects what she calls “the medical-industrial complex” and lays bare the backward economic incentives embedded in our system, revealing a stunning portrait of the care we now receive. Nevertheless, Overtreated ultimately conveys a message of hope by reframing the debate over health care reform. It offers a way to control costs and cover the uninsured while simultaneously improving the quality of American medicine. Shannon Brownlee’s humane, intelligent, and penetrating analysis empowers readers to avoid the perils of overtreatment, as well as pointing the way to better health care for everyone. With a new afterword offering practical advice to patients on how to navigate the health care system.
Spotlight Reviews
Thought-provoking (2008-12-28)
Customer Review : 4
This book obviously presents only one side of the issues it addresses, but the information is still useful. As I read through each chapter, I was forced to consider my own beliefs about health care as well as the flaws in the current system. While not objective, Overtreated is a good addition to your health care reform reading list.
tremendous book (2008-12-02)
Customer Review : 5
This is just a great book. I have long thought that health insurance costs are way out of line because we are just made to have too many procedures and tests. This has become protocol and everyone has bought into it. I've read many books and articles lately that show that all this testing has not actually produced more health among Americans. Not to mention the fact that this approach also makes us all feel that we are not healthy, and makes us fearful all the time of what may be wrong and what the tests may show. This creation of fear and dread among healthy people is worse than the waste of money. The body has incredible healing powers of its own. A lot of the interventions by doctors creates "patients" when we would have been better left alone. It's a bad way to live, but everyone is convinced that all this stuff is necessary. I hope this book takes off and opens the eyes of many.
Excellent book! (2008-10-13)
Customer Review : 5
This is an excellent book detailing how pharmaceutical companies have fostered over-medication on the public in the name of profits.
Root cause for spiraling health care costs in the US (2008-09-04)
Customer Review : 5
This country has spent a lot of time agonizing over health care delivery and costs ever since medicare was introduced in the 1960's. Since then, health care costs have increased at rates much higher than inflation causing health care to become unaffordable to many people and a huge economic burden on US businesses that must supply health care insurance to their employees. The way things are headed, Medicare will soon be insolvent (it's a much bigger problem than social security) and even more people will be uninsured.
Against the clatter of partisan politics and special interest obfuscation, this book prevents a well-researched, evidence-based discussion of one the main driving factors behind the perverse economics of health care. Until people and politicians understand the root causes of the problem, the problem can't be solved. I hope people read this book because it's a big step forward towards a solution.
Healthcare System Misdiagnosis (2008-08-16)
Customer Review : 3
The author clearly documents how our healthcare system frequently wastes resources on unnecessary scans and procedures due to a number of reasons including, demands of the patient, doctor's personal beliefs in a procedure, and the economic incentive of more procedures resulting in more profit.
From the author's perspective, over treatment is the problem and the solution is better assessments of what scans and treatments are needed, part of which includes communication between the doctor and patient. When the patient understands and can weigh the potential risks and benefits, he or she is likely to be more conservative than the doctor, resulting in less care by direction of the patient.
What the author overlooks is the patient's lack of consideration of cost. In nearly any other transaction in our economy, the customer would not only evaluate risk and benefit but also cost. Over treatment is not the core problem, but a symptom of the problem. The problem is our healthcare system is a big all you can eat buffet where your personal consumption has little or no impact on your cost. As the community eats more and more, the buffet price goes up for everyone. Meanwhile the cooks are profit motivated for you to eat more. The expensive dishes are being promoted while the cheaper ones may not even be displayed unless you ask for them by name.
Pharmaceutical companies, medical device manufacturers, hospitals and physicians need to have the same market pressures that nearly every other business has, that their product or service be affordable to their customer and it's benefits outweigh it's cost, otherwise there will be no sale and thus no profit. Insurance works against this basic virtue of the free market. A system that gives the customer an incentive to shop and consider costs, such as HSA's, is what is truly missing from America's healthcare system. Over treatment is merely a symptom of the underlying problem.
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