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More than Medicine
Book

More than Medicine

The Broken Promise of American Health

Robert M. Kaplan
Harvard UP, 2019

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Editorial Rating

9

Qualities

  • Scientific
  • Hot Topic
  • Insider's Take

Recommendation

This slim, apolitical and important volume reads like a manifesto. Renowned medical scientist Robert M. Kaplan challenges leaders to make the United States’ health care system average. By the most important measures of health – life expectancy and quality of life – the US badly lags its peers and slides further behind each year. Kaplan prescribes dramatic changes in health care policy without a bigger budget. He argues for reallocation of the current budget, which today focuses on cures, technologies, procedures and medical “moonshots.” Kaplan pleads for a more commonsense, balanced approach – namely, an immediate increase in funds allocating 10% of the US budget to the societal, behavioral and environmental drivers of health. This would permit a more comprehensive, whole-person approach to wellness and health instead of fixing people after they break. This is an important read for policy makers and legislators as well as health care professionals and providers.

Take-Aways

  • Americans spend far more on health care than people in other rich countries, yet receive much less.
  • Policy makers should reconsider the system’s focus on cures, new treatments and technologies.
  • The US should spend more on initiatives and programs that better address current drivers of poor health and early death.

About the Author

Robert M. Kaplan is director of research at the Stanford School of Medicine Clinical Excellence Research Center. He was president of the American Psychological Association Division of Health Psychology.

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