A new book by Dr. Michael Ozner takes on the cardiovascular surgery industry head-on. The aptly titled Great American Heart Hoax claims that although insurers pay $60 billion per year invasive cardiovascular surgery, 70%-90% of these procedures are unnecessary.

Full review here:http://healthcare-economist.com/about-the-author/

There is evidence that people enrolled in coronary artery disease studies are less sick than average. This means that in studies they are less likely to have poor outcomes even with no intervention. Current thinking recommends medical management for people who are stable with low risk. Otherwise, intervention definitely helps by reducing mortality and morbidity.

Finally, it is simply not true that the US spends more and has worse results. For example, it does much better in cancer survival, infant mortality by birthweight, population blood pressure control, on dialysis, on all sorts of measures of preventive care, and on hospital errors. Assuming, of course, that spending is adequately measured in countries that control provider reimbursement–which it isn’t.