[EQ] We Can Do Better - Improving the Health of the American People

We Can Do Better — Improving the Health of the American People

 

Steven A. Schroeder, Department of Medicine, University of California at San Francisco, San Francisco.

Special Article - Shattuck Lecture

The New England Journal of Medicine - Volume 357:1221-1228  September 20, 2007  Number 12

 

  http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/357/12/1221?query=TOC

 

“….The United States spends more on health care than any other nation in the world, yet it ranks poorly on nearly every measure of health status. How can this be? What explains this apparent paradox?

 

The two-part answer is deceptively simple — first, the pathways to better health do not generally depend on better health care, and second, even in those instances in which health care is important, too many Americans do not receive it, receive it too late, or receive poor-quality care. In this lecture, I first summarize where the United States stands in international rankings of health status. Next, using the concept of determinants of premature death as a key measure of health status, I discuss pathways to improvement, emphasizing lessons learned from tobacco control and acknowledging the reality that better health (lower mortality and a higher level of functioning) cannot be achieved without paying greater attention to poor Americans. I conclude with speculations on why we have not focused on improving health in the United States and what it would take to make that happen….”

 

Health Care for All?

 

M. Gregg Bloche is a professor of law at Georgetown University and a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, both in Washington, DC, and an adjunct professor at the Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore.

The New England Journal of Medicine - Volume 357:1173-1175  September 20, 2007  Number 12

http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/357/12/1173?query=TOC

 

 

 

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