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Anyone know any good books on the topic of problems facing health care?
Books
- Thread starter trudub
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Where's Waldo
If you can't find him, how are you suppose to help him?
If you can't find him, how are you suppose to help him?
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You are awesome. You always know the perfect thing to say!!
A great primer on the various problems associated with the health care system in the U.S. is As Sick As It Gets by Rudolph Mueller, an internal medicine doc who practices in the Northeast. The book integrates an academic discussion of health care delivery issues (e.g., lack of health insurance) with anecdotes form Mueller's own experience as a physician. Great book. I highly recommend it.
Another good one is Health Care Meltdown by Robert Lebow, a highly accomplished physician with a strong background in public health. This book also provides a nice overview of all the major issues in health care. The prose is clear and concise; there are helpful summaries of major points at the end of each chapter, too. The great thing about this book is Lebow's emphasis of the emotional impact of being uninsured or underinsured--viz., that seeking "free" health care is humiliating and degrading.
Now, if you want a bona fide academic work on the subject of health care, then you must read The Social Transformation of American Medicine by Paul Starr, who is a professor of sociology at Harvard University. His book is a seminal work in the field; in fact, it won a Pulitzer. The book is filled with brilliant insights into the history and development (from a sociological perspective) of American medicine. If you want to gain a deeper understanding of why the status quo of the American health care system exists as it does today, then read this book. It will give you some insight into the roots of America's flawed system. Some interesting ironies.
If you want to see a whole bunch of statistics and graphs with brief commentaries, then read Bleeding the Patient: The Consequences of Corporate Health Care by David Himmelstein, et al.
Hope these suggestions help.
Another good one is Health Care Meltdown by Robert Lebow, a highly accomplished physician with a strong background in public health. This book also provides a nice overview of all the major issues in health care. The prose is clear and concise; there are helpful summaries of major points at the end of each chapter, too. The great thing about this book is Lebow's emphasis of the emotional impact of being uninsured or underinsured--viz., that seeking "free" health care is humiliating and degrading.
Now, if you want a bona fide academic work on the subject of health care, then you must read The Social Transformation of American Medicine by Paul Starr, who is a professor of sociology at Harvard University. His book is a seminal work in the field; in fact, it won a Pulitzer. The book is filled with brilliant insights into the history and development (from a sociological perspective) of American medicine. If you want to gain a deeper understanding of why the status quo of the American health care system exists as it does today, then read this book. It will give you some insight into the roots of America's flawed system. Some interesting ironies.
If you want to see a whole bunch of statistics and graphs with brief commentaries, then read Bleeding the Patient: The Consequences of Corporate Health Care by David Himmelstein, et al.
Hope these suggestions help.
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Thanks Elias!
