∎ Read An American Sickness How Healthcare Became Big Business and How You Can Take It Back Random House Large Print Elisabeth Rosenthal 9781524756208 Books

An American Sickness How Healthcare Became Big Business and How You Can Take It Back Random House Large Print Elisabeth Rosenthal 9781524756208 Books

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An American Sickness How Healthcare Became Big Business and How You Can Take It Back Random House Large Print Elisabeth Rosenthal 9781524756208 Books

An American Sickness is a gripping, fast paced and revolting dive from 50,000 feet above into the morass of what passes for healthcare in the USA. Patients are barely tolerated in a system optimized to pass money from bank accounts to providers. The industry is mean, nasty and greedy, with worse results than comparable nations - for far more cost. Everything you feared is true, and there is much more in these 400 pages.

Because Rosenthal (an MD herself) was a columnist for the New York Times, she received thousands of contacts over the years. She researched them and they provide the vivid and shameful examples of financial abuse in the industry (with real names). She has distilled them into a perverse list of principles of US healthcare that explains everything and forms the backbone of the book:

1. More treatment is always better. Default to the most expensive treatment.
2. A lifetime of treatment is preferable to a cure.
3. Amenities and marketing matter more than good care.
4. As technologies age, prices go up rather than fall.
5. There is no free choice. Patients are stuck. And they’re stuck buying American.
6. More competition vying for business doesn’t mean better prices. It can drive prices up, not down.
7. Economies of scale don’t translate to lower prices. With their market power, big providers can simply demand more.
8. There is no such thing as a fixed price for a procedure or test. And the uninsured pay the highest prices of all.
9. There are no standards for billing. There’s money to be made in billing for anything and everything.
10. Prices will rise to whatever the market will bear.

As the American economy freefalls into dysfunction, doctors and nurses have become “independent contractors”, just like everyone else. They must look out for themselves first. Administrators are no longer senior caregivers but numbers people who must limit the poorly insured and maximize the profit on every square foot.

What becomes obvious is that the “market” system has failed utterly and completely. Health cannot be left to capitalists, be they doctors, hospitals or manufacturers. The rest of the western world and history are the proof: “If the March of Dimes was operating according to today’s foundation models, we’d have iron lungs in five different colors controlled by iPhone apps – but we wouldn’t have a cheap polio vaccine,” Rosenthal quotes Dr. Michael Brownlee. The incentives are all wrong.

An American Sickness is a public service. It gathers, for the first time I know of, the various scams used by the professions to jack up bills. It explains the why and the how of all those bills being so high. It is well organized, clear and it puts everything into perspective as part of a greater scheme. It identifies what to look out for, what to ask, and how to skirt the event horizon. Rosenthal provides really useful links and sample letters, because customers are all in this same situation – ignorant and powerless. I particularly like her examination of prices for the same procedures around the world. You can afford to have treatments elsewhere, because the costs are so much less, that you can throw in the travel – for two – and still come out well ahead. This book is worth far more than a month’s health insurance; it can save you a fortune, and give you back your life.

David Wineberg


Tags : An American Sickness: How Healthcare Became Big Business and How You Can Take It Back (Random House Large Print) [Elisabeth Rosenthal] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. <b>A  New York Times </i>bestseller/ Washington Post</i> Notable Book of 2017/NPR Best Books of 2017/ Wall Street Journal</i> Best Books of 2017  This book will serve as the definitive guide to the past and future of health care in America.”<b><b>—</b>Siddhartha Mukherjee,Elisabeth Rosenthal,An American Sickness: How Healthcare Became Big Business and How You Can Take It Back (Random House Large Print),Random House Large Print,1524756202,Insurance - Health,Public Policy - Social Policy,Large type books,Large type books.,Medical care,Medical care - United States,Medical care;United States.,Medical policy,Medical policy - United States,Medical policy;United States.,United States,BUSINESS & ECONOMICS Insurance Health,Business & Economics,Business & EconomicsInsurance - Health,BusinessEconomics,General Adult,HEALTH CARE POLICY,HEALTH INSURANCE,Large Print,MEDICAL Health Policy,MedicalHealth Care Delivery,Monograph Series, any,Non-Fiction,POLITICAL SCIENCE Public Policy Social Policy,Political SciencePublic Policy - Social Policy,healthcare; affordable care act; healthcare industry; obamacare; ACA; insurance; current affairs; american politics; doctor; doctors; patients; American healthcare system; healthcare system; health care; health insurance; insurance companies; trumpcare; politics; medicine; business; business books; health; money; public policy; political science; wellness; geopolitics; international politics; political books; medical books; world politics; economics; medical; finance; self help; psychology; retirement; criminology; military; drugs,healthcare;affordable care act;obamacare;ACA;insurance;current affairs;american politics;doctor;doctors;patients;healthcare system;health care;health insurance;insurance companies;medicine;business;economics;business books;health;money;public health;public policy;economy;government;political science;strategy;wellness;geopolitics;political philosophy;international politics;economics books;politics;political books;medical books;world politics;health books;medicare;medicine books,BUSINESS & ECONOMICS Insurance Health,Business & EconomicsInsurance - Health,MEDICAL Health Policy,MedicalHealth Care Delivery,POLITICAL SCIENCE Public Policy Social Policy,Political SciencePublic Policy - Social Policy,Health Care Policy,Health Insurance,Business & Economics,BusinessEconomics

An American Sickness How Healthcare Became Big Business and How You Can Take It Back Random House Large Print Elisabeth Rosenthal 9781524756208 Books Reviews

Dr. Rosenthal's background makes her uniquely qualified to write this well-researched book. Frightening, disturbing, but with a ray of hope...it is simply a must-read book for anyone needing healthcare in the U.S. Or, if you have friends or relatives who do, or will.
A well written and detailed analysis of the origins and possible solutions of the disastrous state of US healthcare. As a practicing physician specializing in diabetes I see the effects of a dehumanized system where every segment is focusing in getting the biggest possible piece of the pie. You may not agree on every point but the analysis is solid and well documented. An analysis of why Americans are so poorly educated and gullible on healthcare issues would have added additional value
Not a subject matter I would normally be interested in, but in the current political climate I felt I should get a better understanding of what is going on in the healthcare industries. The four chapters on the history of the American heath insurance industry, hospitals, doctors and pharmaceutical industry alone make the book worthwhile to read.

I am not a big fan of the government getting involved in healthcare, however if we are going to let free enterprise control the costs I think it is important to know if the healthcare industries will respond to true competition like other industries such as the telecommunication and automotive industries. This book says it will not because it is functionally different. For example only 18% of hospitals are for profit. The 62% majority are nonprofit hospitals that get billions of dollars in tax breaks if they use their profits to help the poor. The government runs the other 20%. If nonprofits make too much money they just spend more. As court case after court case indicates they do not always spend those big profits to help the poor. You also learn the average of how much the pharmaceutical companies actually spend on research and development of a new drug. It is not always the billion dollar figure you hear so much about.

I am sure once conservatives learn that the author is a Harvard Medical School trained doctor that now writes for the New York Times they will discount it as biased against business and not accurate. However, the question is not the author's political leanings, but is the information correct? I have checked some, but not all, of what the author has stated and so far it checks out.
I have been a nurse since 1978 and have had a front row seat to the changes in health care in the ensuing decades. I teach health policy and am amazed at what I didn't know about the way our health care system is financed. It is appalling. You should be scared. You should read this book and work for change.
An American Sickness is a gripping, fast paced and revolting dive from 50,000 feet above into the morass of what passes for healthcare in the USA. Patients are barely tolerated in a system optimized to pass money from bank accounts to providers. The industry is mean, nasty and greedy, with worse results than comparable nations - for far more cost. Everything you feared is true, and there is much more in these 400 pages.

Because Rosenthal (an MD herself) was a columnist for the New York Times, she received thousands of contacts over the years. She researched them and they provide the vivid and shameful examples of financial abuse in the industry (with real names). She has distilled them into a perverse list of principles of US healthcare that explains everything and forms the backbone of the book

1. More treatment is always better. Default to the most expensive treatment.
2. A lifetime of treatment is preferable to a cure.
3. Amenities and marketing matter more than good care.
4. As technologies age, prices go up rather than fall.
5. There is no free choice. Patients are stuck. And they’re stuck buying American.
6. More competition vying for business doesn’t mean better prices. It can drive prices up, not down.
7. Economies of scale don’t translate to lower prices. With their market power, big providers can simply demand more.
8. There is no such thing as a fixed price for a procedure or test. And the uninsured pay the highest prices of all.
9. There are no standards for billing. There’s money to be made in billing for anything and everything.
10. Prices will rise to whatever the market will bear.

As the American economy freefalls into dysfunction, doctors and nurses have become “independent contractors”, just like everyone else. They must look out for themselves first. Administrators are no longer senior caregivers but numbers people who must limit the poorly insured and maximize the profit on every square foot.

What becomes obvious is that the “market” system has failed utterly and completely. Health cannot be left to capitalists, be they doctors, hospitals or manufacturers. The rest of the western world and history are the proof “If the March of Dimes was operating according to today’s foundation models, we’d have iron lungs in five different colors controlled by iPhone apps – but we wouldn’t have a cheap polio vaccine,” Rosenthal quotes Dr. Michael Brownlee. The incentives are all wrong.

An American Sickness is a public service. It gathers, for the first time I know of, the various scams used by the professions to jack up bills. It explains the why and the how of all those bills being so high. It is well organized, clear and it puts everything into perspective as part of a greater scheme. It identifies what to look out for, what to ask, and how to skirt the event horizon. Rosenthal provides really useful links and sample letters, because customers are all in this same situation – ignorant and powerless. I particularly like her examination of prices for the same procedures around the world. You can afford to have treatments elsewhere, because the costs are so much less, that you can throw in the travel – for two – and still come out well ahead. This book is worth far more than a month’s health insurance; it can save you a fortune, and give you back your life.

David Wineberg