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

This journalist reported on America healthcare and compared with other democratic countries and US rated 37 in UN. Who is responsible for this dire status, the government, health insurance, clergy, medical doctor, fast food industry, junk food dealer, dope pushers, or YOU? Who is fleecing Americans with the same medicine by US companies sold across the borders 40% off? The chip medical ID in Europe stored the medical record to avoid duplicate tests and malpractice legal liability. Medicare name and system were conveniently borrowed from our north neighbor. The term, “Socialize medicine” was coined by medical organization during Truman Administration. Why healthcare cost so much and it can push citizen into bankruptcy. Covid 19 2020 witness the failure of Trump, the shaman with his voodoo medicine. This book opens eyes to see the rest of the world and find out who is number one.

Toward the end of the book, the author makes up a story that involves two American women of similar ages, but differing economic levels. Both have malignant tumors in the ovaries. For the woman with health care insurance, the tumor is found early, surgery is performed, and recovery is complete. For the woman without health care insurance, the malignancy is "discovered" at an emergency room examination, but the cancer has spread too far to be treated. The woman is sent home with pain pills to die. Per the author, no one is suggesting that the United States become an egalitarian society throughout. We expect differences in incomes and living standards. But all developed countries have decided to not tolerate inequality in health care. All except the United States. The result is that more than 20,000 U.S. residents die each year because they do not have health insurance and cannot get the coverage they need to live. This result, in itself, means that the richest nation in the world does not have the best health care system in the world. But author T.R. Reid feels that "the stars are aligned and the timing is propitious for the United States to establish a new national health care system." And the thesis of his book, he says, is "that we can bring about fundamental change by borrowing ideas from foreign models of health care." He has a bum shoulder, one that has been operated on and fixed in the past. As a guise to evaluate various health care models around the world, he seeks advice from each for his shoulder. In the end, he gets a variety of advice for his shoulder, but does not find one country that has the perfect system for the United States to adopt. What he does find are four basic models of coverage: 1) The Bismarck Model: Both health care providers and payers are private entities. Private health insurance companies, which are financed by employer and employee contributions, do not make a profit. There are tight controls on the costs of medical services and fees. (Germany, France and Japan use this model.) 2) The Beveridge Model: Health care is provided by the government. It is financed by taxes. All hospitals and clinics are owned by the government. Most doctors work only for the government. (Great Britain, Spain, Italy, most of Scandinavia, Hong Kong and Cuba use this model.) 3) The National Health Insurance Model: The providers of health care are private, but they are paid only by the government; thus, this is a single-payer system. The system is financed by monthly premiums. (Canada, Taiwan and South Korea use this model.) 4) The Out-of-Pocket Model: Those with money pay for medical care; those without money stay sick and/or die. The government is too poor and/or disorganized to provide universal health care. There are few or no private insurance companies or plans. (Approximately 160 countries in the world use this model.) Reid tells us that the U.S. uses all four models at the sam

A non-partisan, factual and well-researched book. Written by a true journalist who does his homework. Knows what he is talking about. To me, this one lays out the case well on why the US and this new administration in DC needs to really "redo" not just "revise" healthcare in America. Let's take our time and really get to the right answer. Not one that is just politically expedient for Obama and 2010 congressional election cycle. He's right it doesn't make sense that our healthcare system is so ineffective and costly - why does ours spend 20c of every dollar on non-medical stuff like paperwork, marketing, admin? Author also makes the point that socialized medicine terminology that has prevented true reform isn't actually true of foreign models. The US is more "socialized" than many of them already. This is a great book and must read if you care about the topic. (Learned a lot more reading this book than than watching the talking heads on CNN, Fox, etc.). BTW I have also read two other of Reid's books, Confucious Lives Next Door Confucius Lives Next Door: What Living in the East Teaches Us About Living in the West and The US of Europe The United States of Europe: The New Superpower and the End of American Supremacy - neither likely as popular given timing of this one - but both excellent reads and similarly well-researched.

I bought this book after reading Jacob Weisberg's review in Newsweek. It is the best thing on the subject for the following reasons: 1. It is well written even funny in places. 2. It is very informative. 3. It presents comparative data both as to health outcomes and also ways of paying for health care 4. It is non-partisan, even though by the end one wonders why we Americans are paying so much for health outcomes that are actually worse than any comparable country. 5. It is revealing as to the complexity of the US; for example, I didn't know that as many as 80 million Americans are already covered by systems nearly identical to the British or Canadian, i.e. medicaid, medicare, military, veterans and Department of Indian Affairs - who would have thought that? But 45 million others are not covered at all. Everyone else is covered, more or less, by insurance and so are the Germans, French and Japanese etc. But what a difference in the insurance systems! In the other countries you get insurance just like here EXCEPT THAT 1. you cannot be denied 2. you cannot be cancelled 3. everyone is covered and 4. your premiums are regulated by government which of course is what the entire debate is about. Because here the insurance industry is for profit and the premiums reflect that fact, the amazing fact that US health is the USA's largest industry by far, larger that the State of California, four times larger that the military, in fact US health would be the world's 8th largest country. No wonder the debate is so fierce. This excellent books set it all out readably and comprehensively.

I am a nursing student. I returned to college after 20 years in hospitality and project management in order to realize my dream of a career focused not on money but on providing care to the most vulnerable. One disturbing pattern has cropped up in my education- the emphasis (when studying the importance of avoiding potentially life threatening errors) placed more on avoiding liability than on the well-being of the patient (or "client" as we are now taught, in this money-driven society). It also strikes me that I have never heard it suggested that a health care professional should be painstaking in her work in order to prevent avoidable errors that would bring dishonor to herself or her profession. The focus is on avoiding "costly" errors. This is where Mr. Reid's book is a most welcome addition to the conversation on health care in America. He shows us that it is possible to have an excellent health care system that is focused on the well-being of the patient and not the all-mighty dollar. He also breaks down a complicated subject into an enjoyable reading experience, with prose that is clear and intelligent and often humorous. I find it extremely disappointing that so many Americans blindly buy into the myths about the "poor" health care available in other rich, developed nations (every one of which, with the sole exception of the U.S., provide universal health care) while touting false grandiose statements about the superiority of American medicine. Mr. Reid explains the reality of the better and cheaper health care systems of nations like Switzerland and Japan in terms (to paraphrase Thomas Jefferson) "so plain and firm as to command their assent." He also introduces us to health care professionals who are driven not by monetary motives but by a desire to heal and prevent illness. If you believe that access to health care (note, I did not say free health care) is a basic human right, then buy this book. Actually, if you are simply interested in learning the honest facts on the ground- buy this book.

I can't vouch for the accuracy of all of Reid's accounts, but as an American expat who lived in Germany and the UK for a total of 28 years, I can confirm that his descriptions of the health care systems in those two countries are both accurate and fair. The timing of this book is uncanny. Everyone who cares one whit about health care in the US should read it... and LISTEN to what it has to tell us.