In this week's Health Affairs, law professor Richard Epstein reviews the second edition of Shannon Brownlee's book Overtreated: Why too Much Medicine is Making Us Sicker and Poorer.
As the title suggests and as Epstein notes, Brownlee breaks no new ground in observing that there is no correlation between high health care spending and favorable outcomes. Indeed, theDartmouth Atlassuggests the correlation my be inverse. But Epstein encourages even those readers already familiar with the field to read Brownlee's Overtreated, because they will "appreciate her unerring ability to draw her readers into narrative with a well-placed anecdote or interview." Epstein finds Brownlee quote effective in juxtaposing "the personal touch with the statistical indictment of the U.S. health care system."
In this week's Health Affairs, law professor Richard Epstein reviews the second edition of Shannon Brownlee's book Overtreated: Why too Much Medicine is Making Us Sicker and Poorer.
As the title suggests and as Epstein notes, Brownlee breaks no new ground in observing that there is no correlation between high health care spending and favorable outcomes. Indeed, theDartmouth Atlassuggests the correlation my be inverse. But Epstein encourages even those readers already familiar with the field to read Brownlee's Overtreated, because they will "appreciate her unerring ability to draw her readers into narrative with a well-placed anecdote or interview." Epstein finds Brownlee quote effective in juxtaposing "the personal touch with the statistical indictment of the U.S. health care system."