Book Summary and Reviews of Overtreated by Shannon Brownlee

Overtreated by Shannon Brownlee

Overtreated

Why Too Much Medicine Is Making Us Sicker and Poorer

by Shannon Brownlee

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  • Published:
  • Sep 2007, 352 pages
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About this book

Book Summary

Though touted as perhaps the best in the world, the American medical system is filled with hypocrisies. Our health care is staggeringly expensive, yet one in seven Americans has no health insurance. We have some of the most skilled physicians in the world, yet 100,000 patients die each year from medical errors. In this searing exposé, award-winning journalist Shannon Brownlee takes readers inside the hospital to dismantle some of our most venerated myths about American medicine. Using vivid examples of real patients and physicians, Overtreated debunks the idea that most of medicine is based in sound science, and shows how our health care system delivers huge amounts of unnecessary care that is not only wasteful but can actually imperil the health of patients.

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Reviews

Media Reviews

"Starred Review. Many of Brownlee's points have been much covered, but her incisiveness and proposed solution can add to the health care debate heated up by the release of Michael Moore's Sicko." - PW.

"Starred Review. A bombshell of a book: must reading for consumers, their political representatives and all those White House contenders." - Kirkus.

"[A] stunning but reasoned picture of the out-of-control, inefficient and often tragically ineffective U.S. health care system." - Library Journal.

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