Analysis of Overtreatment in Americans (Essay Sample)

The overtreated American
Overtreatment refers to excessive, too frequent, and unnecessary medical procedures. Overtreatment lacks clinical benefits, and in most cases, it is viewed as significant harm. It is expensive and hence one of the biggest challenges faced by the health care system in the United States. Often, overtreatment follows over-diagnosis and over-screening. This paper analyses the causes of overtreatment and necessary reforms.
The main cause of overtreatment is technological changes. Technology has led to the development of many imaging systems and sensitive laboratories that leads to the detection of more abnormalities that, in most cases, do not harm patients (Herzstein & Ebell, 2015). Another possible cause of overtreatment is arbitrage changes in the definition of diseases. For instance, hypertension was originally linked with high blood pressure, but currently, it could be high or low blood pressure. Finally, overtreatment is caused by indication creep that occurs when medical practitioners use prescriptions for high-risk patients to all patients.