More than waste and inefficiency, poverty fuels rising health care costs
Waste and inefficiency are often blamed for rapidly rising health care costs. Poverty is an even larger determinant to which we need to pay more attention.
For years, experts have blamed problems in health care delivery and its rising cost on waste and inefficiency. While they are certainly contributors, it’s time to acknowledge poverty as an even larger determinant.
That’s the message of written by Dr. Richard (Buz) Cooper, who died last year before seeing the book in print. The author, a respected researcher and a colleague of mine at the , questions conventional policy assumptions about the state of health care and before we can fix the system.
