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    An American Sickness: How Healthcare Became Big Business and How You Can Take It Back
    Unavailable
    An American Sickness: How Healthcare Became Big Business and How You Can Take It Back
    Unavailable
    An American Sickness: How Healthcare Became Big Business and How You Can Take It Back
    Audiobook13 hours

    An American Sickness: How Healthcare Became Big Business and How You Can Take It Back

    Written by Elisabeth Rosenthal

    Narrated by Nancy Linari

    4.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    At a moment of drastic political upheaval, An American Sickness is a shocking investigation into our dysfunctional healthcare system—and offers practical solutions to its myriad problems.

    In these troubled times, perhaps no institution has unraveled more quickly and more completely than American medicine. In only a few decades, the medical system has been overrun by organizations seeking to exploit for profit the trust that vulnerable and sick Americans place in their healthcare. Our politicians have proven themselves either unwilling or incapable of reining in the increasingly outrageous costs faced by patients, and market-based solutions only seem to funnel larger and larger sums of our money into the hands of corporations. Impossibly high insurance premiums and inexplicably large bills have become facts of life; fatalism has set in. Very quickly Americans have been made to accept paying more for less. How did things get so bad so fast?

    Breaking down this monolithic business into the individual industries—the hospitals, doctors, insurance companies, and drug manufacturers—that together constitute our healthcare system, Rosenthal exposes the recent evolution of American medicine as never before. How did healthcare, the caring endeavor, become healthcare, the highly profitable industry? Hospital systems, which are managed by business executives, behave like predatory lenders, hounding patients and seizing their homes. Research charities are in bed with big pharmaceutical companies, which surreptitiously profit from the donations made by working people. Patients receive bills in code, from entrepreneurial doctors they never even saw.

    The system is in tatters, but we can fight back. Dr. Elisabeth Rosenthal doesn't just explain the symptoms, she diagnoses and treats the disease itself. In clear and practical terms, she spells out exactly how to decode medical doublespeak, avoid the pitfalls of the pharmaceuticals racket, and get the care you and your family deserve. She takes you inside the doctor-patient relationship and to hospital C-suites, explaining step-by-step the workings of a system badly lacking transparency. This is about what we can do, as individual patients, both to navigate the maze that is American healthcare and also to demand far-reaching reform. An American Sickness is the frontline defense against a healthcare system that no longer has our well-being at heart.

    Editor's Note

    Midterms…

    A timely and provocative examination of the current state of medicine and healthcare in America from a former doctor and award-winning journalist. While her diagnosis may leave you feeling queasy, her prescription offers patients concrete steps to navigate the ailing system.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateApr 11, 2017
    ISBN9781524735050
    Unavailable
    An American Sickness: How Healthcare Became Big Business and How You Can Take It Back

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    Reviews for An American Sickness

    4.5/5

    50 ratings9 reviews

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    • 5/5
      I saw and listened to the author when she was on C-SPAN prior to reading her book. I was so impressed by her knowledge and empathy on C-SPAN that I was anxious to read her thoughts on healthcare. I borrowed this book from the library. However, I would encourage people to buy the book as it is an excellent resource if you are dealing with personal medical and healthcare issues.

      Ms Rosenthal looks at the entire healthcare system. She shares many stories on how the system affects patients, doctors, hospitals and health related companies. Many of her stories will anger you, particularly the ones where patients receive poor treatment and huge medical costs that often lead them to personal bankruptcy. What is very distressing is that many other countries are offering health related services similar to ours at a much lower cost and without all the hassles.

      The author also has a section which is a great reference if you are a patient and are looking for a doctor. There is a very informative checklist on how to choose the best physician for your needs and income. There is very useful information on just about every page of this book – – that is why I think it belongs in every reader's personal library.

      This lady, not Ben Carson, deserves to be in a leadership role regarding healthcare and health insurance related issues.

    • 4/5
      This was a tough read because it's easier to keep my head in the sand, but it was well-reviewed and well-researched. Our current model is unsustainable and as the book showed you can't point the finger at one part of the industry. The last 100 pages are about what each of us can do to right the ship because as many of us have experienced our healthcare system still does have a lot of good in it.
    • 5/5
      An American Sickness is a gripping, fast paced and revolting dive from 50,000 feet above into the morass of what passes for healthcare in the USA. Patients are barely tolerated in a system optimized to pass money from bank accounts to providers. The industry is mean, nasty and greedy, with worse results than comparable nations - for far more cost. Everything you feared is true, and there is much more in these 400 pages. Because Rosenthal (an MD herself) was a columnist for the New York Times, she received thousands of contacts over the years. She researched them and they provide the vivid and shameful examples of financial abuse in the industry (with real names). She has distilled them into a perverse list of principles of US healthcare that explains everything and forms the backbone of the book:1. More treatment is always better. Default to the most expensive treatment.2. A lifetime of treatment is preferable to a cure.3. Amenities and marketing matter more than good care.4. As technologies age, prices go up rather than fall.5. There is no free choice. Patients are stuck. And they’re stuck buying American.6. More competition vying for business doesn’t mean better prices. It can drive prices up, not down.7. Economies of scale don’t translate to lower prices. With their market power, big providers can simply demand more.8. There is no such thing as a fixed price for a procedure or test. And the uninsured pay the highest prices of all.9. There are no standards for billing. There’s money to be made in billing for anything and everything.10. Prices will rise to whatever the market will bear.As the American economy freefalls into dysfunction, doctors and nurses have become “independent contractors”, just like everyone else. They must look out for themselves first. Administrators are no longer senior caregivers but numbers people who must limit the poorly insured and maximize the profit on every square foot. What becomes obvious is that the “market” system has failed utterly and completely. Health cannot be left to capitalists, be they doctors, hospitals or manufacturers. The rest of the western world and history are the proof: “If the March of Dimes was operating according to today’s foundation models, we’d have iron lungs in five different colors controlled by iPhone apps – but we wouldn’t have a cheap polio vaccine,” Rosenthal quotes Dr. Michael Brownlee. The incentives are all wrong.An American Sickness is a public service. It gathers, for the first time I know of, the various scams used by the professions to jack up bills. It explains the why and the how of all those bills being so high. It is well organized, clear and it puts everything into perspective as part of a greater scheme. It identifies what to look out for, what to ask, and how to skirt the event horizon. Rosenthal provides really useful links and sample letters, because customers are all in this same situation – ignorant and powerless. I particularly like her examination of prices for the same procedures around the world. You can afford to have treatments elsewhere, because the costs are so much less, that you can throw in the travel – for two – and still come out well ahead. This book is worth far more than a month’s health insurance; it can save you a fortune, and give you back your life.David Wineberg
    • 5/5
      This is a must-read book for anyone involved with or interested in the American health care system, which means most of us. Ms. Rosenthal is a medical doctor as well as a New York Times reporter. In this book, she examines American health care in all its gory detail, achieving a clear and compelling explanation of why we pay twice as much for healthcare as other rich countries, and get far worse results. The answer is simple and straightforward: money, as the author shows in detail, via overall statistics, and via personal anecdotes. The book also provides an extraordinary amount of information that will be of use to patients -- or more accurately in the current context, consumers of medical care. Finally, Ms. Rosenthal proposes a number of steps that we as individuals, as groups, and as a society could do to change things. The book can be depressing, upsetting, or angry-making in places, when it makes it clear how much the conversion of healthcare into a business has shaped and distorted our system, and how much damage that has done to individuals. Overall, however, it is a very valuable effort. I expect to consult it before future encounters with the medical system.
    • 4/5
      If you have had any thought about the high cost of healthcare in America, then you owe yourself the benefit of reading this book. Imagine yourself needing (only wanting?) $20 desperately. Not having anyone you know willing to just give it to you, you could take a gun or knife and try to rob someone for it. You could sit on the sidewalk and beg for it from passers-by. You could simply walk around all day looking for money lost on the ground hoping to find enough. Or, you could follow the fundamental model of many modern American healthcare businesses and prearrange for a local clothing store to sell only pants with holes in the pockets and then follow along behind people waiting for their money to fall out and for you to pick it up, and, if someone catches you doing that and complains, you can have your other prearrangement with the police result in your victim being arrested for flagrant littering. Okay, maybe American healthcare isn't quite that bad. Most probably aren't. Probably. But some are occasionally worst. Read the book. The author leaves no stone left unturned in pointing out the many ways all aspects of the American healthcare system find ways to make some revenue even more revenue. Doctors, hospitals, ancillary providers, drug companies, insurance companies, medical societies, foundations, device manufacturers...am I leaving anybody out? This portion of the book is outstanding. Fortunately, she goes on to show the reader how to avoid many of these financial pitfalls, or, at least, to not fall so far down the financial holes. Unfortunately, she is only moderately successful in this task, because many "prearrangements" have been made to make this task very difficult for us. This is essential reading, if only to get you realize what all of us are up against, including those of us actually working in healthcare.
    • 5/5
      A thorough and devastating look at what's gone badly wrong in the USA's healthcare industry and why, with some suggestions about improvements possible.Mostly, what's gone wrong is greed and profiteering from everyone who collects payment for dealing with the ill or wounded. At this point, it is mostly structural- which means that no individual can do much to fight it.Basically, the "health care industry" has a captive audience that often cannot afford to spend the time to shop around for the best prices... and when we can, they make sure that such information is not available, making a mockery of an "informed consumer" for their products.Remember their "products" consist of life and health, literally.One of the most valuable aspects of Rosenthal's analysis shows how- unlike in most industries- health care can make competition a race to the MOST expensive rather than the least expensive prices possible. It's not just PharmaBro, though he's a perfect example of the phenomenon; it's everyone involved in the industry, at least in a decision-making capacity.
    • 4/5
      This is an education into the economics of a big pot of insurance money that all Americans put money into for healthcare. The outflow from that big pot is what this book is all about. Hospitals, doctors, specialists, labs, clinics, pharma, etc. A historical look at changes in the industry and the strategies for maximizing payment for services. Not balanced by players passionate about helping others for reasonable compensation. Wraps up with some practical strategies for individuals to use in managing their personal healthcare expenses. An important book for understanding some things that you personally have to do to manage health care expenses. High deductible health care plans and health savings account put individuals squarely in the payor category vs relying on insurance only.
    • 5/5
      this book is eye opening and extremely educational. I highly recommend it
    • 1/5
      I really, really wanted to like this book. I agree with her on a lot of points, but either through ignorance or guile she's written a book that's easy to understand and fundamentally inaccurate. I'm sure she will sell a lot of copies. I'm also sure that such a simplistic approach to addressing the medical/industrial complex won't make any difference.

      Without understanding the economic forces at work and failing to work in the medical field in the US, fixing the pervasive issues are doomed to failure. At best, they'll be a band-aid. More likely, the futile attempt at solution will only make things worse. Dr. Rosenthal's focus on facile rabble-rousing will, I fear, do more harm than good.