Nonfiction Book Award Status: GOLD
Synopsis
Profiteering, corruption, and fraud are emblematic of our profit-driven, corporatized marketplace and so-called health care system. The three bleed into each other in an entangled way.
We have to ask and answer: who is the health care system for– profits for health care corporations, their shareholders, and Wall Street traders and investors? For the corrupt and fraudulent scammers? Or for patients, their families, and taxpayers? The urgent need for health care reform is at an all-time high as the U. S. struggles to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic and the accompanying economic downturn. We are far behind other advanced nations with one or another system of universal coverage.
Incremental attempts to reform U. S. health care have failed for many years. Our broken system is no longer affordable for patients, families, and taxpayers. This book updates where we are with the untenable status quo and compares three major alternatives for reform–rebuilding on the Affordable Care Act, a public option, and Medicare for All.
Author Bio
John Geyman is professor emeritus of family medicine at the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle, where he served as Chairman of the Department of Family Medicine from 1976 to 1990. As a family physician, he has been in academic medicine for 21 years, in rural practice for 13 years, and editor of family practice journals for 30 years.
He has published 19 books on health policy and health care reform over the years, served as president of Physicians for a national health program from 2005 to 2007, and is a member of the National Academy of Medicine.