Stephen Bezruchka has worked in the healthcare field for over 50 years. A graduate of Stanford Medical School, with a public health degree from Johns Hopkins University, Bezruchka began his career by setting up a community health project in the Himalayas.

He spent over 30 years practicing as an emergency physician in the United States before joining the faculty of the School of Public Health at the University of Washington in 1994.

Such experience gives him a unique vantage point when it comes to examining the state of the nation’s health. Bezruchka’s new book, Born Sick in the USA, comes with a diagnosis: America, your health could be a lot better. “Our nation has misguided priorities, so we live shorter, less healthy lives,” he noted.

“The root cause of our shorter and sicker lives is the huge economic inequality we tolerate, together with a lack of attention to our early years, when so much of our lifelong outlook for health and well-being is shaped,” said Bezruchka, adding that residents of the United States die younger than those in more than 40 other countries around the world.

Other countries address matters that the United States neglects. Maternity leave for mothers, daycare, and universal healthcare are examples of that, he stated. The U.S. government already spends more on healthcare per person than any nation that has universal healthcare, so we can afford the single-payer system without additional costs, noted Bezruchka.

But whether you call it Medicare for All or the Public Option, a universal system won’t solve all our health problems. As long as so many Americans are living in poverty, the nation’s health will suffer, he said.

Change requires a strategy to tackle the enormous economic inequality that exists in America, said Bezruchka. “Once people realize that they don’t live the longer, healthier lives that people in other nations do, we must change the status quo and decrease inequality, and use the proceeds to support early life. Large public support for improving health through massive demonstrations and a far-reaching media campaign can result in profound changes, such as the demonstrations that ended the U.S. invasion of Vietnam. Massive social movements are the forces we need now,” he said.

Bezruchka advocates people find one-liners to help in the campaign to influence others. Examples in the book include "Inequality kills" and "Americans have the right to life, but it is only a short one." The author said his bumper sticker reads, "Don't believe everything you think!"

To provide more ideas on addressing the nation’s inequality problem, Bezruchka has made his previous book, Inequality Kills Us All: COVID-19's Health Lessons for the World, available online free of charge at his website stephenbezruchka.com.