Worried Sick: A Prescription for Health in an Overtreated America (H. Eugene and Lillian Youngs Lehman)
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List Price: $28.00
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Manufacturer: The University of North Carolina Press
Written By: MD, Nortin M. Hadler
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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 362.10973
EAN: 9780807831878
ISBN: 0807831875
Label: The University of North Carolina Press
Manufacturer: The University of North Carolina Press
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 392
Publication Date: 2008-06-02
Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press
Studio: The University of North Carolina Press
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Editorial Reviews for Worried Sick: A Prescription for Health in an Overtreated America (H. Eugene and Lillian Youngs Lehman)
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At a time when access to health care in the United States is being widely debated, Nortin Hadler argues that an even more important issue is being overlooked. Although necessary health care should be available to all who need it, he says, the current health-care debate assumes that everyone requires massive amounts of expensive care to stay healthy. Hadler urges that before we commit to paying for whatever pharmaceutical companies and the medical establishment tell us we need, American consumers need to adopt an attitude of skepticism and arm themselves with enough information to make some of their own decisions about what care is truly necessary. Each chapter of Worried Sick is an object lesson regarding the uses and abuses of a particular type of treatment, such as mammography, colorectal screening, statin drugs, or coronary stents. For consumers and medical professionals interested in understanding the scientific basis for Hadler's arguments, each topical chapter has an accompanying source chapter in which Hadler discusses the medical literature and studies that inform his critique. According to Hadler, a major stumbling block to rational health-care policy in the United States is contention over the very concept of what constitutes good health. By learning to distinguish good medical advice from persuasive medical marketing, consumers can make better decisions about their personal health and use that wisdom to inform their perspectives on health-policy issues.
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Consumer reviews:
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Customer Rating:  
Summary: Well worth reading ...
Comment: .. though not the classic his "The Last Well Person" is. This book restates and updates much of the information in "Last Well Person" as well as adding new information, but there is an undertone of frustration in it which I didn't find in the first one. I think banging his head against the brick wall of the American system of health care for the last 10-15 years has understandably caused Dr. Hadler some pain, and it sometimes shows. Also, the verbiage is occasionally unnecessarily dense, showing his years of arguing these points with health-care insiders rather than laymen.
This is nonetheless a very interesting book with well-supported positions and a wealth of information on what you need to know in evaluating "recommendations" by health professionals. The last section is Dr. Hadler's proposal for creating a sustainable health care system on the bones of the old system, rather than starting from scratch, and I found that very intriguing. I wish it had been fleshed out more, but it certainly creates a very good starting point for discussions.
In sum, I recommend this book for anyone interested in how we can make informed choices for our own health care and for the health care system in this country.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Maybe this should be required reading for older people
Comment: An eye-opener for so many caught on the treadmill of tests, diagnoses, questionable treatment. There's a lot of commonsense dispensed in this book that makes me realize anew how much more frightening is morbidity than mortality.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Snake Oil and MD's
Comment: Dr.Hadler book makes an excellent case for re-vamping health care in America as it currently is administered. He first,chapter by chapter,de-bunks most of the health treatments recommended by America's medical fraternity. Using statistics(and an excellent bibliography of suggested follow-up reading),Dr.Hadler points out the fallacies of the most wide-spread medical procedures and their actual lack of significant,statistical results. He makes a compelling argument that the system of surgical procedures and tests support a multi-billion dollar industry that,perhaps,doesn't put patient welfare first and foremost. He applies the same logic and statistical analysis(what there is available) to the non-regulated potients and nostrums constantly being sold through television ads and magazines. His final chapter inludes an excellent plan for a reformed,efficient and patient oriented health care system for the American public. The book is a cogent and critical analysis of health care in this country.
Customer Rating:
Summary: What's Up, Docs?
Comment: In Worried Sick, Dr. Nortin Hadler contends that many procedures like bypass surgery, stents, angioplasty, colonoscopy, mammography, prostate cancer and cholesterol screening, among others, ultimately do very little for the patient and a lot for the medical and pharmaceutical industry. He claims that the biggest predictor of health is socioeconomic status (SES), and not necessarily any of the indicators flushed out by screenings and diagnosis. He proposes a health insurance scheme based on proven effectiveness of procedures and pharmaceuticals, with medical care incorporating SES questions into the history and diagnosis. His contention is that we have "medicalized" conditions that have always been the bumps and bruises of life, with this medicalization resulting eventually in health insurance coverage and expansion of definitions that captures more people in these conditions and thereby expands the pool of patients.
Hadler has been making these points for some time in other works, and I think it's an important voice in the debate over health costs and medical insurance. Ultimately, Hadler claims that we should be debating not just about the efficiency of delivering health, for some the panacea for reducing its costs, but fundamentally the effectiveness of the care offered and provided. If, as Hadler claims, so many of the procedures, pharmaceuticals and gadgets foisted on the American public do little, nothing or may actually be harmful, why argue about how to better provide them, and instead, debate on whether they should be automatically included in the menu of options for which patients recruited and which insurance plans eventually pay.
My criticism of the book is that it is somewhat densely written, although Hadller's wit, sometimes expressed in sarcasm, probably evolved over time from the frustration of being a lone voice in the wilderness, makes the book more readable. However, a toned-down version could make the arguments moe accesible to the general public and perhaps give the book and its message a greater impact.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Unfair to patients and doctors
Comment: Dr. Hadler's second book on the same subject is an expansion of his diatribe against doctors (including, by extension, himself?). As with the first, he selects data to make his arguments, and omits those which disagree with him. As a consequence, the poor patient is left knowing far less than before starting, despite Hadler's promises to educate everyone. This is not to say that there are no useful points in the book; it is simply that given the unbelievably pompous and arrogant style, it is virtually impossible for one without great medical sophistication to make hide nor hair of it. Finally, his solution to the health care dilemma, to tax everyone 12% and pay only when the treatment satisfies Hadler's criteria of excellence, is sophomoric and useless.
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Still on the mend... (Mar. 5, 2008)
Still on the mend... Haven't blogged ... Worried Sick: A Prescription for Health in an Overtreated America (H. Eugene and Lillian Youngs Lehman)
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