Health Care, in the Right Doses

The New York Times, Friday, July 26, 2002

To the Editor:

Research like that presented in ''More May Not Mean Better in Health Care, Studies Find'' (front page, July 21) is all too often misused as a rationalization for policies that deny access to care and choice of treatments.

Every threat of major illness has elements of terror and helplessness. But providing access and choice reduces this post-traumatic component, which compounds the impairment and morbidity associated with the threat or reality of major illnesses.

The improvements in quality of life and reductions in the social burden accompanying increased access to care are conveniently overlooked as a subject of research by managed care-sponsored researchers and administrators.

HAROLD J. BURSZTAJN, M.D.

Chilmark, Mass., July 21, 2002

The writer is an associate clinical professor of psychiatry at Harvard.