Medical Opinion: a Political View

Shari Roan, in her article on “Working On a Cure for Unequal Medicine,” accepts the assumption that we have viewed “women’s health as an afterthought or of secondary importance to men’s health.”

She is aware that “women’s health care amounts to two-thirds of the nation’s annual health bill” but finds nothing noteworthy in spending two-thirds of our resources on the “afterthought.”

I do not mean to suggest that all of women’s concerns are unfounded or that we should not vigorously search for more effective ways to treat diseases that afflict women. My point is that the assumption that women’s health care is inferior to men’s is a political one. If our political agenda was to state that men’s health care was inferior to women’s, we could make a good case for that as well.

ANDREW KADAR, M.D.

Los Angeles