Divinity School Student Discusses American Health Care

A Harvard Divinity School student, and co-author of a new book, discussed the state of American health care Wednesday and addressed the question of why, even though the American health care system is costlier than that of any other nation, American health outcomes pale in comparison to those of residents of other countries.

“The American Health Care Paradox,” a new book co-written by Harvard Divinity School student Lauren A. Taylor, tackles this question by recognizing a tendency for the U.S. to spend disproportionately more money on health care than on other social services which might affect health. Taylor presented her book and fielded questions at the book release event.

After snacking on wine and cheese and taking their seats, the audience listened as Taylor explained the issues at the crux of the paradox.

“High spending, not-great outcomes,” Taylor said. “That’s the paradox. If you want to talk about ink spilt, there is a lot of ink spilt on this issue.”

Despite the abundance of literature on this paradox, Taylor’s book illustrates the fact that the misallocation of resources toward health care over social costs is not reflective of the factors that have been found to lead to health outcomes. The top three factors she cited were behavioral patterns, social circumstances, and genetic predisposition, while health care accounted only for a tenth of the contributions to overall health.

In writing the book, Taylor collaborated with Elizabeth H. Bradley ’84, a professor at the Yale School of Public Health.

“We’re very much a complementary pair,” Taylor said, adding that Bradley’s background in economics and epidemiology aligns with her interests in the history of science and public health.

As a student at the Divinity School, Taylor said she used her knowledge of culture and values in the U.S. to explain the seemingly counterintuitive investment approach to health care, comparing values in America to values in places like Scandinavia and Western Europe, which have drastically different health care systems.

“We found this through field study: we have a very narrow sense of what health is,” Taylor said. “Health, to us, is freedom from disease produced through one mechanism, and that is good health care.”

In anticipation of the interview circuit that accompanies non-fiction book releases, Taylor expressed some trepidation about taking on the controversial and politically charged issue of health care in public.