More than Medicine

“Many Americans are already aware of the extraordinary cost of health care in the United States. This fact is frequently explained away by asserting that such is the price to be paid for the best health care system in the world. Kaplan’s book shatters that comforting myth and exposes the American health care system for what it is: below average in quality and therefore way above average in cost.”—Joseph Q. Jarvis, The American Interest

“Kaplan…argues that our enthusiasm for biomedical science has inflated health-care costs while encouraging us to neglect more fundamental determinants of ill health, such as behavior and social conditions.”—Chris Pope, The Wall Street Journal

“Sharp, authoritative, and intensely data-driven… The argument is deeply compelling.”—Kirkus Reviews

“Kaplan’s call to ‘rethink’ how health-care costs could be lowered through greater attention to disease prevention and social and behavioral risk factors is worth noting.”—Publishers Weekly

“More than Medicine makes a clear and compelling case for why America’s overspending on medical care contributes to poor health outcomes. To improve health and well-being in current and future generations, we must heed Kaplan’s call to prioritize financial support for the social determinants of health.”—Jonathan Fielding, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health

“This is the right book, by the right author, at the right time. Kaplan asks a simple question that should concern all of us: why do we spend so much on health but have such poor results? He challenges the fundamental premise that has guided much of American biomedicine for the past half century: that we will achieve health through medical intervention. He makes a convincing argument that we need to think differently—that the promotion of health and prevention of disease should motivate our spending.”—Sandro Galea, Boston University School of Public Health

“From one of the world’s leading experts on public health, a brilliant data-driven examination of the mismatch between the pathways to optimal health and the narrow focus of legacy medicine. More than Medicine offers a new vision to advance health, science, and public policy.”—Howard S. Friedman, author of The Longevity Project

“By combining scientific and clinical evidence with rare insight into political funding processes, Kaplan argues persuasively that the vast amount of money we spend on health care is not worth the cost. More than Medicine challenges us to reincorporate the essential element of human care back into medicine.”—Rose McDermott, Brown University