Overtreated in America

Overtreated: Why Too Much Medicine Is Making Us Sicker and Poorer  by  Shannon Brownlee  

I just finished reading this book and wanted to recommend it to my friends at Gather.

With our new "socialized medicine" being touted in the news, I think this might be timely reading for those with inquisitive minds, health concerns and fear/reality of losing health benefits.

This book addresses some of the underlying causes of our high cost of health care in America. Perhaps  returning to the days of seeing medical professionals when truly necessary, instead of clogging doctor's offices or emergency rooms just because the "insurance company will pay" will help alleviate our current problems of overcrowding, overcharging, over medicating.    Who knows?

One of the causes is something we, as individuals, can do something about, instead of just whining. We do have control over our actions and choice making in our health care. I have thought for a long time that medical providers have ordered unnecessary tests/treatment more out of fear of litigation than medical necessity.    

Brownlee's  book is an exploration of three simple questions:

(1) What drives unnecessary health care?
(2) Why should we worry about it?
(3) And once we understand how pervasive it is in American medicine, how can we use that knowledge to create a better system?  

Health and medicine writer  Shannon Brownlee notes that Americans spend between one-fifth and one-third of health-care dollars on unnecessary treatments, medications, devices, and tests.  

Reading this book you will learn, among other points that:  

 1. The more specialists involved in your health, the more likely it is that "you will suffer from a medical error, that you will be given care you don't need and be harmed by it."

 2. The Institute of Medicine estimates that "only 4 percent of treatments and tests are backed up by strong scientific evidence; more than half have very weak evidence or none."  

3.  Research shows, "stunningly little of what physicians do has ever been examined scientifically, and when many treatments and procedures have been put to the test, they have turned out to cause more harm than good."   For some of you, this may be an eye opener. 

Included in the book are examples of "fad medicine", such as tonsillectomies, weight control meds, knee surgeries, hyperactivity drugs, even some invasive heart surgeries. 

Wouldn't it be great if Obama and his committees would read then work on educating the public to self responsibility for health care?