Additional information
by Michael D. Stein (Author)
How can we care so much about health care yet so little about public health?
Before Covid-19, public health programs constituted only 2.5 percent of all US health spending, with the other 97.5 percent going towards the larger health care system. In fact, the United States spends on average $11,000 per citizen per year on health care, but only $286 per person on public health. It seems that Americans value health care, the medical care of individuals, over public health, the well-being of collections of people.
Author Biography
Michael D. Stein, MD, a primary care physician and researcher, has been writing about medicine and public health for decades. He is Professor and Chair of Health Law, Policy, and Management at Boston University School of Public Health. Stein graduated from Harvard College and received his medical degree from Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons. Stein has published more than 400 scientific journal articles related to behavioral medicine and risk-taking, and is the best-selling author of ten books, including The Addict: One Patient, One Doctor, One Year, Pained: Uncomfortable Conversations about The Public's Health, and Broke: Patients Talk about Money with Their Doctor.
