The U.S. medical system is touted as the most advanced in the world, yet many common treatments are not based on sound science. Treatments can go into widespread use before they are rigorously evaluated, and every year patients are harmed because they receive too many procedures―and too few treatments that really work. Unhealthy Politics sheds new light on why the government’s response to this troubling situation has been so inadequate, and why efforts to improve the evidence base of U.S. medicine continue to cause so much political controversy and public trepidation.

The medical guesswork problem --Sham surgery : a case study of the use of medical evidence -- Doctor knows best : the influence of physician leadership on public opinion -- The limits of professional self-regulation : findings from a national physician survey -- Zero-credit politics : the government's sluggish effort to promote evidence-based medicine, 1970s-2008 -- Electoral competition, polarization, and the breakdown of elite-led social learning.