10 March 2010 - by admin

ISBN13: 9781594202346
Condition: NEW
Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.

Product DescriptionBestselling author T. R. Reid guides a whirlwind tour of successful health care systems worldwide, revealing possible paths toward U. S. reform. In The Healing of America, New York Times bestselling author T. R. Reid shows how all the other industrialized democracies have achieved something the United States can’t seem to do: provide health care for everybody at a reasonable cost. In his global quest to find a possible prescription, Reid visits. . . More >>

The Healing of America: A Global Quest for Better, Cheaper, and Fairer Health Care

Tags: America, Better, care, Cheaper, Fairer, Global, Healing, Health, Quest
In: Health | 5 comments »

5 Comments »

If you’re open-minded enough to accept only Liberal/Progressive barf than this is the book for you! Don’t think, just “one click” order. It will raise your self-esteem, and as if that’s not enough, you might even enjoy assumptive proof that you are intellectually superior to anyone that has thoughts differing from your hippie college professors. Feel good, because it says it is “fairer” on the cover. Almost as good as celebrating Kwanzaa or taking a government paid (FREE) Prozac.
Rating: 1 / 5

Back Shaft on March 11th, 2010 at 12:26 am

I lived overseas in NZ for a year and worked as a senior MD in their system. Useful meds were denied, specialists were scarce, toilets in surgery were cleaned by patient families as they were too filthy—in short, it sucked. My wife, Cindy, had a condition that required back surgery (done well at the Mayo Clinic upon return in 2 months)—wait time 2 years. It wasn’t done—she lived in excrutiating pain. Private insurers abroad DO NOT cover pre-existing conditions ever.

Be careful what you ask for. Universal health insurance does not equal universal health care. ALL of the other countries in the world are parasites off of the research in the American system. We do more than the rest of the world put together, and it shows in the Nobels.
Rating: 1 / 5

Cindy R. Joseph on March 11th, 2010 at 12:29 am

If you are looking for information on what types of health care systems are available in other countries and how they work, this is an excellent read. However, if you are looking for an unbiased view as to a potential solution to America’s problem, this book is a waste of time.

The author spends a lot of time dissing the insurance companies. For example, he states that adminstrative costs add up to 20% of the cost of health care when in fact it is closer to 7%. Granted that is way higher than other countries, but not as skewed as he would lead you to believe.

He also states in the last chapter(s) that America ranks toward the middle (or end) when compared to health care. Yet, why is it that whenever anyone has a problem they always want to come to our hospitals? He glows continuously about how good other systems are but glosses over the negatives. For example, there is only a handful of references in the book about the long wait times in Canada (for his shoulded injury he mentions 18 months!), and yet he spends pages and pages discussing how great the system is. In Great Britain, there is one mention that the only solution to his shoulder problem is to “deal with it”. Is this a good system? From reading his book you would assume we should all rush out and implement their system.

But the biggest glaring omission is that he is very careful to never mention the word “rationing”. He does say that governments face “choices”, and must make “decisions” as to what care is available. Yet one thing that ALL of these systems have in common is that they use rationing. Is this a good solution? Is this something Americans would tolerate? The answer should be yes and the author makes a brief case for the quality of life. What he fails to mention is that the number one major cost to health care is the super human effort to keep people alive in the last 5 years of their life. Throw this statistic into the book and emphasize that the only way to have an affordable health care system in America is to ration care where it needs to be rationed and this would have been an excellent book.

However, since he is so skewed and biased toward making the case that we MUST have a system in America and that it is reprehensible that we don’t, I can’t give it many stars.
Rating: 1 / 5

Ed Schultz on March 11th, 2010 at 1:18 am

Ok — this is a newly released book and just had some publicity on “All Things Considered” on NPR. But. . .

Book price: $14. 27
Kindle price: $13. 70
Kindle savings: $0. 57

What a rip.

Exactly what is it that Kindle’s electronic version costs the publisher and Amazon? I won’t be buying either version, unless the Kindle version comes down in price.

Oh, and by the way, Barnes & Noble eReader version is $9. 99. Kindle premium is 37%.
Rating: 4 / 5

R. Sweeney on March 11th, 2010 at 3:35 am

This book may be helpful for rehabilitation after hip surgery or for preparation for undergoing hip surgery. It has little value for helping a person decide whether to have hip surgery, even less value for helping a person decide what kind of surgery to choose. Be not misled by the editors’ inclusion of a (very short) chapter entitled, “Hip Implant Surgery. ” It says little.

Leonard O’Brian
Rating: 2 / 5