Getting What We Deserve: Health and Medical Care in America

by Sommer, Alfred, M.D.

• ISBN13: 9780801893872
• ISBN10: 0801893879
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2009-10-01
• Publisher: JOHNS HOPKINS UNIV PRESS

Summary

The rest of the developed world spends a great deal less on health care than we do but lives healthier and longer lives. This Paradox seems to complex to understand and too complicated to reverse because we have lost sight of the essentials-thanks in large part to the obfuscations of Pharmaceutical marketing, the entrenched interests of the medical insurance industry, the political timidity and rigid philosophies of our Politicians and business leaders, and sheer lack of imagination. This is all the more striking when other countries provide successful models that we could choose to emulate without fear of falling into an Unknown abyss. Book jacket.

Author Biography

Alfred Sommer, M.D., M.H.S., is the former dean and a professor of epidemiology and international health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and a professor of ophthalmology at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. A member of the National Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Medicine, Dr. Sommer has written about and studied public health and illnesses for more than three decades. He is the winner of the 1997 Albert Lasker Award for Clinical Medical Research.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. ix
Genesis: From Few to Many-in Fits and Starts	p. 1
Disease Is The Sum Of All Evils	p. 10
Genes: Sometimes "Destiny," Sometimes Not	p. 26
The Complex Nature of Causality	p. 32
The Consequences of Our Own Behavior	p. 37
Choosing The Healthier Lifestyle	p. 54
From Science To Policy: The Path Is Anything but Linear	p. 67
The U.S. Health Care System	p. 73
Who's Healthy? Who's Not? Why	p. 109
Notes	p. 115
Further Reading, Films, and Websites of Interest	p. 123
Index	p. 127
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