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Home > Books > Public Health > The Healing of America: A Global Quest for Better, Cheaper, and Fairer Health Care
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 Reid is a journalist who has an excellent writing style, June 13, 2016
By S. Freeman
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A superb book. T.R. Reid is a journalist who has an excellent writing style. He identifies and examines all of the various types of health care systems in the world--Single Payer, which we are hearing so much about today and which our Medicare system is; the Bismarck Model of private (NON PROFIT) insurance companies; the Beveridge model, which is actual "socialized" medicine; the U.S. model, which actually is a dysfunctional conglomeration of the 3 previous models PLUS, the primary private for profit system that delivers substandard health care to a majority of the population.
As numerous studies have shown, even with "Obamacare", the U.S. has the least effective health care system in the developed world, with even some developing nations providing superior care to their populations than the current system provides citizens of the U.S. Though written before Obamacare, a careful reading of the book will tell readers, while an improvement over what we had, Obama care ultimately will not work, and will have to be restructured into one of the existing 3 national health care systems. While my personal preference probably is single payer, I think it would be easier to get citizens to accept the Bismarck model of NON PROFIT private insurance companies. While it will surprise people indoctrinated in the myth of the magic of the "free market", non profit insurance companies are very competitive; there actually are more health insurance companies per capita in Germany than in the U.S. France, which uses the Bismarck health care system generally is regarded as having the best health care system in the world. Germany's health care system, of course, is among the best too. Even though we have single payer Medicare, I think the Bismarck system would be an easier sell to people who have fallen prey to the Republicans' disingenuous arguments about national health care and "socialized" medicine.
Anyone truly interested in the nation's health care should read Reid's book, because it will be a genuine education on the various approaches to health care throughout the world.
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I feel that this should be required reading so that we understand what it could be like if we ever started treating heal, May 03, 2016
By Wesley Juett
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I bought this book for a class that I was taking. We were only required to read the first 5 or 6 chapters, but it was so engrossing that I finished the whole thing. As an American, I feel that this should be required reading so that we understand what it could be like if we ever started treating healthcare like a human right instead of the commodity that it currently is. While I don't think the answer is socialized healthcare, we need to be willing to make some compromises in order to better help our citizens. This book gives several different examples of how this could possibly work using Germany and Japan as examples that we could follow.
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Five Stars, April 29, 2016
By flafreethinker
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Great book. A must read for every person in the U.S.
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FYI...very informative, April 28, 2016
By kjforce
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Rec'd the book the next day...enjoying the read....highly recommend for anyone in the Healthcare field ....
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Early-on coverage of a very important topic, April 27, 2016
By jgh
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Everyone should read Mr. Reid's book, an early take on what is now a "major attention" issue, the cost, quality and access to healthcare around the world, providing food for thought on our own healthcare system. The same subject was covered in a PBS documentary with a similar name, that he appeared in and narrated. No one should miss the "bitter pill" article in Time magazine from a couple of years ago either. I do hope everyone will bear in mind that there are both good guys and bad guys in the healthcare system, we just need help in figuring out who is who to achieve real reform.
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it is a perfect gift for my student who is graduating with a ..., April 26, 2016
By ALLI NATHAN
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it is a perfect gift for my student who is graduating with a major in Public Health Policy at Providence College
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