About the Book

More and more Americans are finding themselves without health insurance or with coverage that is so inadequate they face financial ruin in the event they actually get sick. So they go without. Their children don't receive their immunizations. They allow that worrisome lump in their breast to grow so large that by the time the cancer has been detected it has spread beyond the ability to cure. Seniors can't pay their heating bills or even sustain adequate nutrition as the rising cost of their prescription drugs compels them to make difficult choices. Just how did our system become so dysfunctional and who is responsible? This book will tell you. Too often, discussions on the health care crisis focus a myopic lens on the usual suspects. We are all quick to point a finger at insurance companies who place profit over patients or the pharmaceutical industry which extorts obscene amounts of American dollars for the same drugs that cost 50 to 75 percent less when we cross our borders north or south. We blame trial lawyers who practice with a "lottery" mentality that protects neither the patient from negligent care nor good physicians from frivolous lawsuits. But the culpability for our crisis is more widespread. Hospitals have devolved from not-for- profit, community-based institutions to large, national for-profit chains. Doctors no longer spend time with their patients but instead rely on expensive and often times unnecessary tests and use physician extenders (such as P.A.s and nurse practitioners) to move patients along like cars on an assembly line. Politicians pass well-meaning laws as a knee-jerk reaction to a specific issue without understanding the unexpected consequences which, frequently, only exacerbate the problem. And they operate in a system of special interests and influence peddling that all but assures the failure of any meaningful health care reform. And while we all demand high quality health care, few actually take preventative measures that could keep them out of the system they deride. Thi

Product Details

Media: Hardcover Book, 284 pages

Language: English

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Edition: Unknown

ISBN-10: 1442214627

Publication Date: Apr. 16th, 2012

ISBN-13: 9781442214620

Dimensions: 6.30 x 9.10 x 1.10 inches

Shipping Weight: 1.15 lbs

• Categories: Health Care Issues Caregiving General Public Policy