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Previous Volume 357:1221-1228 September 20, 2007 Number 12 Next

	Since this article has no abstract, we have provided an extract of the first 100 words of the full text and any section headings.

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The United States spends more on health care than any other nation in the world, yet it ranks poorly on nearly every measure of health status. How can this be? What explains this apparent paradox?

The two-part answer is deceptively simple — first, the pathways to better health do not generally depend on better health care, and second, even in those instances in which health care is important, too many Americans do not receive it, receive it too late, or receive poor-quality care. In this lecture, I first summarize where the United States stands in international rankings of health status. . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Health Status of the American Public

Pathways to Improving Population Health

Addressing Unhealthy Behavior

            The Case of Tobacco

            Is Obesity the Next Tobacco?

Nonbehavioral Causes of Premature Death

The Case for Concentrating on the Less Fortunate

Why Don't Americans Focus on Factors That Can Improve Health?

How Can the Nation's Health Improve?

Source Information

From the Department of Medicine, University of California at San Francisco, San Francisco.

Address reprint requests to Dr. Schroeder at the Department of Medicine, University of California at San Francisco, 3333 California St., Suite 430, San Francisco, CA 94143, or at schroeder@medicine.ucsf.edu.

Related Letters:

Shattuck Lecture: Improving American Health
Freudenberg N., Maziak W., Messerli F. H., Greenberg H., Lott J. P., Schroeder S. A.
Extract | Full Text | PDF  
N Engl J Med 2007; 357:2405-2407, Dec 6, 2007. Correspondence

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