Description
Book SynopsisHumorous, sometimes acerbic, and always well informed, Sommer's thought-provoking book will change the way you look at health care in America.
Trade ReviewAn ideal, nonalarmist first book on what needs reforming in American health care. Booklist 2009 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. -- Roberta B. Ness American Journal of Epidemiology 2010 In contrast to the confusing, politicized national conversation about health care, Sommer talks to the reader in a straightforward fashion. Washington Post 2010 This volume is a timely, easy-to-read, practical treatise on health care reform. Choice 2010 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. American Journal of Opthalmology 2010
Table of ContentsPreface
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
