Daniel Becker
Dr. Andy Lazris, a general internist and geriatrician, has written a wise book. All doctors in training and doctors in practice should read it, and so should their patients. Our health system has been slowly but steadily making it hard to be well. This book is well written, well researched, and makes a strong case that less is more for many of the common conditions and maladies that bring people to doctors. Organized medicine and academic medicine makes much of evidence-based practice. But what happens when the evidence is weak? Read this book and judge for yourself.
H. Gilbert Welch
As a medical student, I was trained in 'thorough'—the goal being to find as many problems with my patients as possible. In Curing Medicare, Dr. Andy Lazris seeks to redefine ‘thorough’—and not simply to humanize our profession but to protect the elderly from the harms of too much medical care. It is a passionate but thoughtful critique of medicine's relentless focus on numbers, unimportant measures of performance, and turning people into patients.
Bridget Hughes
Curing Medicare is at once serious and wise, humorous and entertaining. There are not many writers who can weave concrete and meaningful data into a book that reads like a juicy suspense flick. Dr. Andy Lazris has skillfully woven data, experience from his medical practice, and real-life patient stories we can all relate to into a call to action to change our broken Medicare system and improve patient quality of life. This riveting book shows Lazris to be a stand-out thought leader in an arena that affects us all: Medicare, over-care, and the disconnect from the peaceful beauty that is possible in the context of aging and death when we don't clutter up the process with end-of-life heroics. Lazris is a fierce advocate for his patients and for educating health professionals and health consumers alike of the dangers of overtesting and overtreating.
Nortin M. Hadler
There is now a sizable choir of American physicians recruited from all corners of the profession whose voices are raised in anguish over the difficulty of practicing medicine according to their conscience. Now Dr. Andy Lazris adds Curing Medicare to the repertoire. It is a compelling lament that is at once strident and compassionate. It earns Lazris a position in the front row of the choir. If only we could fill the pews.
Robert M. Duggan
I recommend Curing Medicare for all patients, politicians, physicians, nurses, and health policy thinkers. This is an important book by a very skilled individual. Somehow Dr. Andy Lazris effectively transforms his frustrations with the Medicare system into wonderfully clear teaching stories and solid policy recommendations.
