In this presentation, Professor Dutton, Professor of History and Adjunct Professor of Health Sciences at Northern Arizona University will draw on his new book Beyond Medicine to analyze why Americans are far less healthy than their European counterparts. Dutton argues that Europeans are healthier than Americans because European nations constructed health systems that focused not only on medical care but the broad social determinants of health: where and how we live, work, play, and age. European leaders also created social safety nets that became integral to national economic policy. In contrast, US leaders often viewed investments to improve the social determinants of health and safety-net programs as a competing priority to economic growth. Professor Dutton compares the US to three European social democracies—France, Germany, and Sweden—in order to explain how, in differing ways, each protects the health of infants and children, working-age adults,
and the elderly. Unlike most comparative health system analyses, Dutton draws on history to find answers to our most nettlesome health policy questions.