Based on more than a decade of research on the impact of governmental policy decisions on health, the book "The Body Economic" shows how certain fiscal policies can be lethal. From HIV outbreaks to increases in heart attacks, the price of austerity can be calculated in human lives. But by mining data from the Great Depression to the present day, the authors also show how smart policy choices can boost economic growth without human costs.
Sanjay Basu, is a co-author of "The Body Economic," a practicing clinician, and an assistant professor of medicine and an epidemiologist at the Prevention Research Center of Stanford University. Basu talks to Ross Reynolds about how economic policy affects human health.