Getting What We Deserve: Health and Medical Care in America

In this assessment of the state of public health in America, Sommer, former dean of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, argues that human behavior has a stronger effect on wellness than almost any other factor. He asserts that misleading pharmaceutical marketing and the interests of the medical insurance industry are responsible for the divide between scientific evidence and the way medicine is practiced. Writing in a humorous and acerbic style, he reminds general readers that "most premature deaths in the US are caused by known and preventable factors; greater expenditures on basic research are not needed to solve these problems, nor are increases in health care spending." A list of books, films, and web sites is included. Sommer is professor of epidemiology and international health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
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