Back to Results
Cover image of Getting What We Deserve
Cover image of Getting What We Deserve
Share this Title:

Getting What We Deserve

Health and Medical Care in America

Alfred Sommer, M.D., M.H.S.
Former Dean, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

Publication Date
Binding Type

One of America's leading public health experts finds a host of ills in this country's health care system:

• The United States spends nearly twice as much on health care as the rest of the developed world, yet has higher infant mortality rates and shorter longevity than most nations.
• We have access to many different drugs that accomplish the same end at varying costs, and nearly all are cheaper abroad.
• Our life span had doubled over the past century before we developed effective drugs to treat most diseases or even considered altering the human genome.
• The benefits of almost all newly...

One of America's leading public health experts finds a host of ills in this country's health care system:

• The United States spends nearly twice as much on health care as the rest of the developed world, yet has higher infant mortality rates and shorter longevity than most nations.
• We have access to many different drugs that accomplish the same end at varying costs, and nearly all are cheaper abroad.
• Our life span had doubled over the past century before we developed effective drugs to treat most diseases or even considered altering the human genome.
• The benefits of almost all newly developed treatments are marginal, while their costs are high.

In his blunt assessment of the state of public health in America, Alfred Sommer argues that human behavior has a stronger effect on wellness than almost any other factor.

Despite exciting advances in genomic research and cutting-edge medicine, Sommer explains, most illness can be avoided or managed with simple, low-tech habits such as proper hand washing, regular exercise, a balanced diet, and not smoking. But, as he also shows, this is easier said than done.

Sommer finds that our fascination with medical advances sometimes keeps us from taking responsibility for our individual well-being. Instead of focusing on prevention, we wait for medical science to cure us once we become sick.

Humorous, sometimes acerbic, and always well informed, Sommer's thought-provoking book will change the way you look at health care in America.

Reviews

Reviews

An ideal, nonalarmist first book on what needs reforming in American health care.

Al Sommer, former Dean of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and a giant in the world of public health, has written a thought-provoking and insightful short course on the power of prevention. Indeed, the book is delightfully not just another treatise on universal access or the complexities of health insurance. Instead, it is a commonsense and concise case for the health benefits and cost savings that accrue from public health in all its breadth.

In contrast to the confusing, politicized national conversation about health care, Sommer talks to the reader in a straightforward fashion.

This volume is a timely, easy-to-read, practical treatise on health care reform.

Alfred Sommer brings his vast global experience and applies his academic rigor and wit to look at contradictions inherent in the US health system, especially the disproportionate emphasis on expensive biomedical treatment of diseases over policy choices to invest in better social and economic environments that foster prevention and health promotion. This book is immensely timely, engaging and thought provoking—a must read.

About

Book Details

Publication Date
Status
Available
Trim Size
5.5
x
8.5
Pages
152
ISBN
9780801893872
Illustration Description
2 halftones, 31 line drawings
Table of Contents

Preface
1. Genesis: From Few to Many—in Fits and Starts
2. Disease Is the Sum of All Evils
3. Genes: Sometimes "Destiny," Sometimes Not
4. The Complex Nature of Causality
5. The Consequences of Our Own

Preface
1. Genesis: From Few to Many—in Fits and Starts
2. Disease Is the Sum of All Evils
3. Genes: Sometimes "Destiny," Sometimes Not
4. The Complex Nature of Causality
5. The Consequences of Our Own Behavior
6. Choosing the Healthier Lifestyle
7. From Science to Policy: The Path Is Anything but Linear
8. The U.S. Health Care System
9. Who's Healthy? Who's Not? Why?
Notes
Further Reading, Films, and Websites of Interest
Index

Author Bio
Alfred Sommer, M.D., M.H.S.
Featured Contributor

Alfred Sommer, M.D., M.H.S.

Alfred Sommer, M.D., M.H.S., is University Distinguished Service Professor and Gilman Scholar at the Johns Hopkins University and dean emeritus of its Bloomberg School of Public Health. He is the author of Getting What We Deserve: Health and Medical Care in America, also published by Johns Hopkins; Vitamin A Deficiency: Health, Survival, and Vision; and Epidemiology and Statistics for the...
Resources

Additional Resources