Strong Medicine - Hardcover

Argues that the main problem with the American health care system is that we pay for procedures rather than improved health, and analyzes the government's negative impact on the health care crisis

end $900 billion a year on health care. That's more than enough dollars to ensure high-quality care for every citizen. Why aren't we getting it? And what can we do about it?

In this plainspoken book, George Halvorson cuts to the heart of our health system's failure: the incentives we offer doctors, hospitals, and insurers.

We pay for procedures, not outcomes; we reward providers for what they do -- whether it is effective or not -- instead of for improving patient health.

The result is the most wasteful, complex, redundant health care system in the world, where as much as 25 percent of all procedures performed are unnecessary.George Halvorson argues convincingly that if we want to change our system we don't need more government regulation, greater expenditure, or health care rationing. Instead, we need the right incentives. If we reward quality and efficiency, the health care system in this country will turn itself around to provide them.

George Halv