Next medicine

Every Year, The Average American Spends about $7,300 on medical expenses. The typical Canadian pays $2,700, the Briton only $2,000. And yet, according to the World Health Organization, our health care system, in terms of total quality, ranks 38th in the world, between Costa Rica and Slovenia. More than 200,000 people die each year in the USA because of medical mistakes, and our average life expectancy is lower than Cuba's. In Next Medicine, Walter Bortz shows how the defects of American health care threaten the stability of our entire nation. A physician with 5o years of experience and an expert on aging, Bortz argues that the financial interests of biotech and drug companies have eroded the values of the medical profession and placed profit before human well-being. Heart disease, for example, is widely treated with drug interventions and invasive surgeryùboth of which are extravagantly profitable for pharmaceutical giants and hospitals. But daily exercise and a healthy diet can prevent heart disease altogether and can be obtained by patients essentially for free. As such, the medical-industrial complex has a vested interest in keeping Americans sick, and until that changes, medicine will fail to effectively address the leading cause of disability and mortality today: chronic diseases like diabetes that are largely preventable. Dissecting these and other symptoms of our ailing health care system, Bortz prescribes a potent therapy: a radical new approach to medicine that emphasizes personal responsibility and provides incentives for healthy lifestyle choices. Nothing less than a paradigm shift, Bortz's proposal goes far beyond the administrative tinkering supported by politicians and special interests. In Next Medicine, Bortz makes a powerful case for a new kind American health careùone that is based on rigorous science and a fearless acknowledgment of human potential. --Book Jacket.