Too Much Medical Care: Bad for You, Bad for Health Care Systems – STAT

Read article - An opinion piece by H. Gilbert Welch, professor of medicine and of the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice, and professor of economics and adjunct professor of business administration, where he discusses a recent study he conducted that found one group of Americans—the affluent—were at particularly high risk for being diagnosed with four cancers that are less likely to affect health: breast cancer, prostate cancer, thyroid cancer, and melanoma. "Don't make the mistake of thinking the affluent are genuinely at higher risk for these cancers. They aren't," says Welch. "Their death rates from these cancers are similar to everybody else's. Instead, they are at higher risk of being overdiagnosed because they are so thoroughly examined."