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

The Healing of America: A Global Quest for Better, Cheaper, and F...

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Editorial Reviews

Bestselling author T. R. Reid guides a whirlwind tour of successful health care systems worldwide, revealing possible paths toward U.S. reform.

In The Healing of America, New York Times bestselling author T. R. Reid shows how all the other industrialized democracies have achieved something the United States can't seem to do: provide health care for everybody at a reasonable cost.

In his global quest to find a possible prescription, Reid visits wealthy, free market, industrialized democracies like our own-including France, Germany, Japan, the U.K., and Canada-where he finds inspiration in example. Reid shares evidence from doctors, government officials, health care experts, and patients the world over, finding that foreign health care systems give everybody quality care at an affordable cost. And that dreaded monster "socialized medicine" turns out to be a myth. Many developed countries provide universal coverage with private doctors, private hospitals, and private insurance.

In addition to long-established systems, Reid also studies countries that have carried out major health care reform. The first question facing these countries-and the United States, for that matter-is an ethical issue: Is health care a human right? Most countries have already answered with a resolute yes, leaving the United States in the murky moral backwater with nations we typically think of as far less just than our own.

The Healing of America lays bare the moral question at the heart of our troubled system, dissecting the misleading rhetoric surrounding the health care debate. Reid sees problems elsewhere, too: He finds poorly paid doctors in Japan, endless lines in Canada, mistreated patients in Britain, spartan facilities in France. Still, all the other rich countries operate at a lower cost, produce better health statistics, and cover everybody. In the end, The Healing of America is a good news book: It finds models around the world that Americans can borrow to guarantee health care for everybody who needs it.

Customer Reviews

eye opener!

Reviewed by Crazy Horse, 2010-03-02

That should be required reading for every college student. We need to stop the tide of misinformation on the issue of health care!

Amazing in its Simplicity and Depth

Reviewed by Scott Knight, 2010-02-27

This book should be required reading for every high school student and adult. It succinctly describes the health care system in the US and around the world in a way that anyone can understand. It does not go into the politics of this politically charged subject, but instead takes an analytic look at what differences exist and provides a path forward. Truly a masterpiece of non-fiction on today's most important topic in America. The final comment is a question, does everyone in a country as great as the US deserve to have at least a basic level of health care? Read the book to find out how that can happen.

Good Book!

Reviewed by Michael W. Morris, 2010-02-26

Great book, which explains that there are a multitude of ways to change (and vastly improve) our health care system. The health care system in the United States is a disaster. Canada's system does not appear to be much better; and, as Reid points out, none of the health care systems in the other (15 or so) industrialized countries are without problems, but none of the health care systems in other industrialized countries are anywhere near as messed up as the system in the USA, with the possible exception of Canada.

As Reid points out very clearly, our health care systemm is so expensive and inefficient largely (but not solely) because of cherry picking "for profit" health insurance companies; many of the other industrialized countries administer healh care costs through health insuance companies too, but none of them allow insurance companies to operate on a "for profit" basis. Anyway, very good book.

I would highly recommend it to anyone interested in the health care debate.

Reviewed by Gary D. Cope, 2010-02-19

I recently finished The Healing of America: A Global Quest for Better, Cheaper and Fairer Health Care, by T. R. Reid. While Mr. Reid's inability to understand free markets is slightly annoying, The Healing of America is a very readable analysis of how all other advanced countries have managed to provide universal health-care. I would highly recommend it to anyone interested in the health care debate.

First of all, health care is a moral question. Should all citizens have access to affordable health care? The United States is the only industrialized nation that, so far, has answered no. All others have come up with ways to make health-care possible.

What is important is that there are many different systems and an intelligent approach would be to borrow parts of these models that would work best for the United States. Most are not "socialized medicine" and many are not single payer. France has fourteen insurance plans, Germany over two hundred and Japan about thirty five hundred. Health care providers and insurers are often private entities, sometimes for profit and sometimes not. While some, notably Canada, have excessive waiting lists for some procedures, this is usually not the case.

Great book, but read other sources as well.

Reviewed by B. Mihm Jr., 2010-02-17

TR Reid does an excellent job of comparing the various health care programs from around the world. He correctly points out that we can always get good ideas by looking at what others have done. The book is easily read, thorough, and informative. The author uses both statistics and personal experience to support his views. I agree with his oft stated opinion that we in the United States should have universal coverage for all of our citizens just as other developed countries do.
Other great ideas from other developed countries that we could incorporate in our system include:
* Everyone insured at approximately the same rate regardless of their pre existing conditions, just like we already do in group health plans in many states.
* Laws which prohibit insurance companies from canceling insurance when a policyholder becomes sick.
* Doctors following established written procedures can not be sued for malpractice. This is a great idea from the UK.
* People who cannot afford the full price of insurance are subsidized with tax dollars.
* Regional or national exchanges where insurance companies publish rates and coverages and consumers can make intelligent choices.
* Portability where insurance follows the individual, regardless of their employment.

Mr Reid has some well-formed opinions on the subject and he continually repeats facts that support his point of view. On the negative side, he does not raise as many important questions or include other facts when they contradict his opinion. Here are a few examples:

The fact that Japan has a higher life expectancy than the US is well established. Mr Reid repeats this many times. However, Mr Reid fails to mention that Japanese Americans not only have a much higher life expectancy than other Americans, they have a longer life expectancy than Japanese who live in Japan. How much of this increased longevity is the result of genetics and lifestyle choices?

Mr Reid generally fails to include life style choices as part of the country health care comparison. For example, it is well established that obesity contributes to health care costs. Mr Reid does not have a single mention of the obesity rates. It seems to me that the American obesity rate of two times that of Germany, three times that of France, and ten times that of Japan is a contributing factor in health care costs and longevity.
When I was in Munich last summer, the number of people of all ages riding bicycles to work was just incredible compared to here in DC. Could this also be a contributing factor to a longer German longevity?

Mr Reid makes much of the low overhead of Medicare vs. private insurance. It is true that Medicare has lower overhead costs per dollar spent but Medicare has a much higher overhead cost per person insured than private insurance companies. Isn't it important for an investigative book to state both of these facts and not just the one that supports the authors point of view?

Amazingly, Mr Reid overlooks the Federal Employees Health Benefit Plan, which already insures millions of Americans, including members of Congress . In the FEHBP, members of Congress can choose from a wide variety of private health plans offered by insurance companies that compete for business at competitive rates and service. The book also overlooks the well known Healthy Americans Act (HAA) proposed by Democrat Ron Wyden and Republican Robert Bennett. The HAA is somewhat similar to the Bismarck plan used in Germany but, since it relies the existing Federal Employees Health Benefit Plan, it would be much more easily accepted and implemented in the US.

Mr Reid seems to be intrigued that other countries do not allow profit by insurance companies. Perhaps he is not aware that many US health insurance companies (including the largest in the mid Atlantic) as well as many hospitals, are non profit. They are already among the choices that are available to most Americans now and all Americans if the HAA in some form is adopted. Personally, I could care less about a company's profit level. I am only concerned about the product and the cost to me.

Lastly Mr Reid reports on the Beveridge system, which is a government run single payer system that the UK and Canada base their system on. However, I don't see this being a viable option in the US for a number of reasons. Mr Reid points out that, in Canada, it is illegal for patients to buy medical services on their own. I think that Americans value freedom and the free enterprise system too much to allow that here.

I don't know much about the Canadian government spending and taxing habits but I would bet the US is different. Can you imagine a financially responsible insurance company being managed by Nancy Pelosi, Mitch McConnell, Richard Shelby, and Barney Frank? Maybe this is why a government run insurance company (i.e. public option) is NOT among the choices that Congress currently has for its own members.

Mr Reid's book is well worth reading but it is important not to use this book as your only source of health care information.