"The Healing of America" by T. R. Reid (Buzzflash Book Review) Looks like a good read.

[pinto]

This looks like a good read. Apparently Mr. Reid found that there are more ways than one to get to the goal of universal health care, evidenced by a number of different approaches he researched in countries around the world. ~ pinto

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

<snip>

"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."

Reid is an old school journalist who set out to ask the question what healthcare systems work best and most cost-effectively. He is fair and critical when the evidence warrants it. But no nation he visited, over all, provided as ineffective and costly a healthcare system as the United States for its citizens.

Whereas the right wing nutters spout nonsense, Reid actually analyzed the national healthcare systems and knows what he is talking about.

This is an accessible, well-written, responsible addition to the case for universal healthcare in the United States, although Reid did not write it as a polemic; he penned it as an inquiring journalist.

We heard Reid earlier in the year on a radio program and he is chock full of insights on healthcare delivery around the world, just fascinating details that he observed and researched.

http://www.buzzflash.com/store/reviews/1806

[question everything]

1. Funny, posted a similar reveiw

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x8610415

[pinto]

2. Yeah, saw that. It's worth spreading around.

:thumbsup:

[noel711]

3. He was interviewed by Terry Gross on "Fresh Air"

and was down-to-earth, sensible,
open minded, and honest about his own
health issues as they were dealt with
here in USA, and as advised by doctors
in other health systems.

Why isn't he on Keith/Chris/Rachel?

[question everything]

4. He will. Brand new book

On the other hand, I am not sure whether these three interview book authors. But he will be on Jon Stewart, no doubt.

[TexasObserver]

5. Recommend, because our health care system requires significant change.

We would do well to study and take lessons from our allies, instead of malign their systems, which function better and more efficiently than our own.