6/1/2023 0 Comments John abramson new book![]() ![]() The everyday poor health of Americans and the inability of our healthcare system to mitigate preventable deaths amounts to a crisis that dwarfs even the COVID-19 pandemic. ![]() ![]() This translates into an extra 1,300 deaths daily, equivalent to three jumbo jets crashing every day. The same age-adjusted mortality rate has improved so much more in comparable countries that, by 2017, an excess 478,000 Americans were dying each year. Over the ensuing four decades, however, the opposite has occurred. Although healthcare was expensive-costing 2.3% more of our GDP than the average of 11 other wealthy countries-the rapid growth of HMOs and managed care plans promised to make our healthcare even more effective and efficient. At the time, the death rate for Americans was lower than that of comparable countries, resulting in 128,000 fewer deaths annually. Back in 1982, when I first began my career as a family practitioner in a small town of Boston, I was confident that the care I’d provide would be as effective as the care patients receive anywhere in the world. ![]()
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