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Critical Condition: How Health Care in America Became Big Business--and Bad Medicine

Description

Exposing the most controversial, little-known practices of America’s most flawed system, Time magazine’s Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative team pulls back the curtain on the health care industry to explain exactly how things grew so out of control.

Dirty examination and operating rooms in doctor’s offices and hospitals . . . Health care executives pulling in millions in bonuses for denying treatment to the sick . . . More than 100 million people with inadequate or no medical coverage . . . This may sound like the predicament of a third-world nation, but this is America’s health care reality today. The U.S. spends more on health care than any other nation, yet our benefits are shrinking and life expectancy is shorter here than in countries that spend significantly less per capita. Meanwhile, HMOs, pharmaceutical companies, and hospital chains reap tremendous profits, while politicians—beholden to insurers and drug companies—enact legislation for the benefit of the few rather than the many, while the entire system is on the verge of collapse.

In Critical Condition, award-winning investigative journalists Donald L. Barlett and James B. Steele expose the horror of what health care in America has become. They profile patients and doctors trapped by the system and offer startling personal stories that illuminate what’s gone wrong. Doctors tell of being second-guessed and undermined by health care insurers; nurses recount chilling tales of hospital meltdowns; patients explain how they’ve been victimized by a system that is meant to care for them. Drug companies profit by selling pills in the same manner that Madison Avenue sells soap, while Wall Street rakes in billions by building up and then tearing down health care businesses. And politicians pass legislation perpetuating the injustices and out-right fraud the system encourages.

By analyzing the industry and offering an insightful prescription for getting it back on the right track, Critical Condition is an enormously compelling investigative work that addresses the concerns of every American.

Reviews

Rating: 5 / 5
Date: 2010-09-04
Summary: "Critical Condition: How Health Care in America Became Big Business and Bad Medicine"

This should be required reading for every American. Before my auto crash, like most Americans, I, now and then, briefly brushed up against America's health care system and sensed something wrong. Yet I really had no clue what the facts were arousing my suspicion and prompting my intuition. Critical Condition places the facts together like a large jigsaw puzzle, providing a very clear picture of what is going on right under our noses. The authors provide a very practical and healthy solution at the end of the book. It is my hope that America could follow Europe's lead in being a "we" nation instead of a "me" nation. But I'm not sure that's possible.
Critical Condition: How Health Care in America Became Big Business--and Bad Medicine

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Rating: 5 / 5
Date: 2009-09-12
Summary: "review:Critical Condition"

This analysis of the health care state in this country is complete and shocking. I thoroughly enjoyed the text, and recommend it to anyone who would like to learn about where the money is going in health care at the expense of the average patient's health.

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Rating: 4 / 5
Date: 2009-07-25
Summary: "good addition to the debate"

I wish more people would read this book today to be more familiar with some of the complexities of health care problems and need for reform.

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Rating: 5 / 5
Date: 2009-01-11
Summary: "MUST READ"

A well written and obviously well reseached book that everyone should read. A real eye-opener on many aspects of the USA health care system. The kind of book that will help form an informed opinion on how we go forward in the country with obviously needed (even more so, after reading this book) health care reform. Should be mandatory reading for all. Covers many aspects of the system, pharmaceutical advertising and sales practices, hospital policy, billing by hospitals and coverage by HMOs. The FDA and how it may not always operate in the best interest of the American public. Just a host of things. A final chapter with some recommendations to improve the system in the future. I will reread this book and keep it as a reference.

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Rating: 5 / 5
Date: 2008-09-03
Summary: "The Numbers Say It All"

Yep, I thought so--pharmaceutical advertising and the corporatization of our health system aren't helping any. This book covers those aspects plus many more. The authors draw numbers and statistics from many different agencies, from the WHO to the AMA, to paint a vivid history of health care in America. As a person who has gone without insurance, I knew that I paid more for the same services as someone who did have insurance, but I wasn't aware of the full range of the insured/uninsured pricing scale. When you start getting into the actual numbers, it's pretty amazing. And when you look at the basic stats--average life expectancy per country and how much individual countries spend on health care per year--you'll be (to paraphrase our erstwhile Michigan governor) blown away. Seriously. I had fallen prey to that "but we have the best health care in the world!" syndrome, but I can't see how that's the case when we spend SO much more on it, yet don't live as long as other countries who spend much, much less. The numbers say it all.