Books like An American sickness by Elisabeth Rosenthal

In June 2009, Wendell Potter made national headlines with his scorching testimony before the Senate panel on health care reform. This former senior VP of CIGNA explained how health insurers make promises they have no intention of keeping, how they flout regulations designed to protect consumers, and how they skew political debate with multibillion-dollar PR campaigns designed to spread disinformation. Potter had walked away from a six-figure salary and two decades as an insurance executive because he could no longer abide the routine practices of an industry where the needs of sick and suffering Americans take a backseat to the bottom line. The last straw: when he visited a rural health clinic and saw hundreds of people standing in line in the rain to receive treatment in stalls built for livestock. In Deadly Spin, Potter takes readers behind the scenes to show how a huge chunk of our absurd healthcare spending actually bankrolls a propaganda campaign and lobbying effort focused on protecting one thing: profits. Whatever the fate of the current health care legislation, it makes no attempt to change that fundamental problem.

We spent our first years of medical school struggling to educate ourselves about health care in the United States. Every source we found was biased, overly academic, or narrowly focused. It was too hard for a beginner to get a clear picture of the system. So we decided to write the book we wished we'd had: an explanation of the U.S. healthcare system in one simple, practical, and neutral overview. After thousands of research hours and consulting with dozens of experts, we wrote a one-stop guide in just 256 pages. And, with help from a grant, we were able to keep the book's price low -- making it accessible for students like us. Now, we're excited to share the 2nd edition. We've worked hard to keep on top of the turbulent health care system and added in some great new sections covering health IT, health care teams and more. Published by Washington University and funded by a grant from the Missouri Foundation for Health, The Health Care Handbook is essential reading for health care professionals, students, and anyone interested in health care or public policy. The Handbook includes a foreword by Dr. William Peck, former chair of the Association of American Medical Colleges and former dean of the Washington University School of Medicine. - The authors.

Bestselling author T. R. Reid guides a whirlwind tour ofsuccessful health care systems worldwide, revealing possible pathstoward U.S. reformIn The Healing of America, New York Timesbestselling author T. R. Reid shows how all the otherindustrialized democracies have achieved something the UnitedStates can’t seem to do: provide health care for everybody at areasonable cost.In his global quest to find a possible prescription,Reid visits wealthy, free market, industrialized democracieslike our own—including France, Germany, Japan, the U.K.,and Canada—where he finds inspiration in example. Reidshares evidence from doctors, government officials, health careexperts, and patients the world over, finding that foreign healthcare systems give everybody quality care at an affordable cost.And that dreaded monster “socialized medicine”turns out to be a myth. Many developed countries provideuniversal coverage with private doctors, private hospitals, andprivate insurance.In addition to long-established systems, Reid alsostudies countries that have carried out major health carereform. The first question facing these countries—and theUnited States, for that matter—is an ethical issue: Is healthcare a human right? Most countries have already answered witha resolute yes, leaving the United States in the murky moralbackwater with nations we typically think of as far less just thanour own.The Healing of America lays bare the moral questionat the heart of our troubled system, dissecting the misleadingrhetoric surrounding the health care debate. Reid sees problemselsewhere, too: He finds poorly paid doctors in Japan, endlesslines in Canada, mistreated patients in Britain, spartan facilitiesin France. Still, all the other rich countries operate at a lowercost, produce better health statistics, and cover everybody.In the end, The Healing of America is a good news book: Itfinds models around the world that Americans can borrow toguarantee health care for everybody who needs it.

Brill expands his award-winning Time magazine piece on how the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare) was written, how it is being implemented, and, most important, how it is changing -- and failing to change -- rampant abuses in the healthcare industry.