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

I think part of the problem is really that people are looking at only granular parts of problems today and don't have enough historical context. Its useless to follow every story about everyone and every little thing. There are lots of ups and downs in politics and there's no reason to be so reactionary to every single new and probably manufactured "scandal".... that's what's exhausting. I like to keep updated on a few big issues, I follow the careers of a few people I find inspiring (and follow a few that do things that worry me), and spend the rest of the time reading up on topics in book form... they have the advantage of being written over time, and with more vigorous standards for accuracy. The news, while still important where immediate info is necessary, is essentially click bait now. You don't need to get caught in the rip tides that pull you everywhere constantly, just understand the general trajectory of the important things.

edit: to those curious about some book recommendations: I'm by no means an expert in anything really, and the books you read should really be about the topics you personally are interested in, so don't take my word as gospel (or any author's). I like American history, ancient history, international relations, and though I think they're more boring I force myself to read about the health care system and the American education system because I feel they're important. I'm also looking to read some books on the military industrial complex and cyber security/ big data because I don't really know anything about them other than the stuff I see in passing on the news or here on Reddit. So if anyone knows a good overview of those issues, feel free to let me know.

• For a good start on human history and the beginnings of modern economics/ intl relations (basically why the West has historically dominated), try Guns, Germs, and Steel I believe there's also a documentary if the book is too dense for your taste (it is pretty dense).
  
  
• Perhaps if you're interested in why people get so damn heated talking politics, The Political Brain: The Role of Emotion in Deciding the Fate of the Nation
  
  
• If you wonder why people vote against their own social and economic interest: What's the Matter with Kansas? How Conservatives Won the Heart of America Full disclosure: I liked this book, but I lean left. I'm not sure if it matters, the point of the book is just to track how the Republican party went from being the party of elites, to the party of blue collar workers.
  
  
• If the Supreme Court interests you at all, I liked Jeffrey Toobin's, The Nine
  
  
• The achievement gap? Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria
  
  
• Health care? There's a lot, but this one is an easy read and it compares the systems of Britain, Japan, Germany, and I believe Cuba (which is very good for their GDP!) and the US's. The Healing of America: A Global Quest for Better, Cheaper, and Fairer Health Care by T.R. Reid
  
  This is just some stuff I've listed off the top of my head. Another thing that I find helpful to better understanding intl relations are books about the major genocides of the past few decades, which are hard to get through (because of the brutal content) but... What is the What (Sudan), First they killed my father (Cambodian genocide), Girl at War (more of a autobiography, but still chilling) there's a couple of others I've read that I can't remember now.
  
  Anyway, just go to Good Reads and look at Contemporary Politics. Perhaps Great Courses has a political philosophy course too that you can draw from if you wanna go even farther back into the origins of society's structure and political thought.
  
  Also podcasts! I've just discovered these but there's a lot of audio content (FREE!) that you can listen to on your commute and whatnot. I like Abe Lincoln's Top Hat right now.
  
  Edit edit: wow thanks for the gold!!

EVERY other modern civilized country in the world guarantees basic health care for ALL citizens. And they do it for a fraction of the cost (in terms of both GDP and average income) that we in the U.S. pay for our sub-par system that unfairly excludes tens of millions, including millions of children.

Are you saying that the U.S. is just incapable of achieving anything close to what every other modern industrialized country already has?

Edit: source

Hi there. Several years ago during his first run, taking a look at Bernie Sanders and his policies ultimately converted me from a social moderate/economic conservative to full-blown progressive. The "straw that broke the camel's back" so to speak for me was the issue of healthcare. I had continually felt that the Affordable Care Act's mandate for people to buy health insurance was wrong/unconstitutional. However, I am a nurse, so I could clearly see that our healthcare system in this country is broken and in need of fixing.

So I did research. I actually posted on Reddit on /r/changemyview regarding the healthcare issue. I read the book Healing of America by T. R. Reid and realized something that has ultimately changed my worldview.

My vote hinges on a candidate's view of healthcare. Medicare for All as proposed by Bernie Sanders is the path to providing healthcare to all citizens. This sounds like a radical idea, but it's not. In fact, it is the financially conservative option. As a nation we spend roughly twice as much on healthcare per person per year than any other nation, yet our outcomes are poorer. Our people are obese and ill compared to pretty much every other nation. Our newborn death rate and maternal death rates are high, and for the first time recently our life expectancy in this country is dropping because our health is so poor. Despite the massive amount of money we spend to get healthcare, our care sucks. Health insurance does not improve anything--insurance companies are the middle man. They love to take money but hate to pay out for care.

With Medicare for All, we will be bringing national spending in line with other developed nations. Eliminating insurance companies will eliminate co-pays both for employers and for individuals. Drug prices and treatment prices will by necessity go down because of the power of collective negotiating, and the American public will be the largest negotiating power you can imagine, keeping prices low and affordable. Individuals will not have to pay exorbitant insurance premiums as well as co-pays or co-insurance amounts, which will stimulate the economy by putting money back in your paycheck. Businesses will likewise not have to pay premiums for their employees, which could enable them to pay employees more (not likely but possible) or would give business additional profit (a lot more likely and business-friendly).

Yes, taxes would go up, but it would still be less than your insurance costs now equating to more money in your pocket. Additionally EVERY doctor, EVERY hospital, and pretty much EVERY treatment would be covered. More to the point, people would be able to seek preventative care and manage chronic illnesses, emergency department/hospital utilization would go down, people would be healthier overall, could work longer in their lives and contribute to productivity if that's an argument that appeals to you.

Insurance companies would largely fall by the wayside, but Sanders has plans for transitioning these employees into other/related fields, and some insurance companies might still exist as they do in other countries in order to pay for cosmetic or elective surgeries, etc. Medicare for All would also cover vision and dental, which currently even with insurance are expensive and have poor coverage. As someone with both vision and dental chronic issues that is huge for me as well.

People could get whatever medical care they need without having to worry about money. That is extremely powerful to me as someone who sees people die from lack of being able to afford insulin, chemotherapy, or medications for chronic manageable diseases. I would be willing to pay more in taxes than I am now if I knew everyone would benefit from universal healthcare. But the great thing is, I'd end up paying LESS than I am now and so would my employer.

While I like almost everything Bernie has to say, this is my premier issue upon which he originally earned my vote and has kept it and will continue to keep it if he has to run again in the future. I'd love to speak more about it and can definitely answer questions.

I commend you for seeking information in an open-minded and courteous way. I will warn you that if you look more into things Bernie has been saying for years, you may find your current worldviews challenged as I did. You may find yourself afraid/uncertain as I did. You may find yourself changing just by learning more about all these issues as I did. Keep an open mind, keep learning, keep asking questions.

i recommend this book to help with a rational basis for your counter-arguments. it's an autobiography about a guy who travels around the world sampling healthcare systems trying to fix a chronic shoulder injury, and compares and contrasts those systems to each other

Indeed. Here's a decade old Frontline episode ("Sick Around the World") which examined how five capitalist democracies do it:

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/sickaroundtheworld/

Germany or Switzerland are probably the models which would work best in the US.

Here also is an excellent book on the subject ("The Healing of America: A Global Quest for Better, Cheaper, and Fairer Health Care"):

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0143118218/

Try the book "The Healing of America" by T.R. Reid. Excellent, unbiased perspective on America's healthcare (including recent ACA work) that compares it to other countries' structures.

Amazon link:
http://www.amazon.com/Healing-America-Global-Better-Cheaper/dp/0143118218/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1420220931&sr=1-1&keywords=the+healing+of+america

I really suggest everyone read this book on the subject.

We are capable of doing such a thing, and I think we'd be happy doing so. It's just a matter of getting people accustomed to the idea and accepting it as a social good and not a societal attack against everyone.

This is not legally oriented, but for a great overview of contrasting healthcare systems, check out The Healing of America by T.R. Reid.

https://www.amazon.com/Healing-America-Global-Better-Cheaper/dp/0143118218

This is a really good read if you want to know what other countries do to deliver healthcare. The Healing of America

Not surprised. Look at any other market in the US and you will see the same trend.

What pisses me off is the United States is this:

"The US is the only country in the developed world that allows private insurance companies to make a profit off of basic health care. Although some European countries with lower rates of health care inflation do deliver basic health care through private insurance companies, they have imposed regulations preventing such plans from yielding great profit (Reid 2010)"

Which is really derived from this new york times best seller: The Healing of America: A Global Quest for Better, Cheaper, and Fairer Health Care

We cannot expect to see any different results than what we are seeing... In addition, those discrepancies are far greater when comparing the same procedures to countries around the world. While yet our costs are far more staggering the results aren't any better...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/03/26/21-graphs-that-show-americas-health-care-prices-are-ludicrous/

http://www.reuters.com/article/2010/06/23/us-usa-healthcare-last-idUSTRE65M0SU20100623

read the healing of america by T. R. Reid.

that's all you need to know.

A couple of quick points on German Healthcare System

It is likely the most compatible healthcare model with America. You have various "sickness funds"(some 240 different funds) which are basically the same as insurers except for they are tightly regulated, cannot deny for preexisting conditions, and MUST be non-profit. Many sickness funds compete for patients through adding additional incentives that others don't. It is not single-payer but the government is certainly very much involved in how they are run and does so to help control costs.

Here is a basic overview of the main healthcare models across the globe
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/sickaroundtheworld/countries/models.html

Also, a great book for those interested in comparative healthcare
T.R. Reid's The Healing of America: A Global Quest for Better, Cheaper, and Fairer Health Care

http://www.amazon.com/The-Healing-America-Global-Cheaper/dp/0143118218/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1345913387&sr=8-1&keywords=tr+reid

Everyone should read https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0143118218/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1 The Healing of America: A Global Quest for Better, Cheaper, and Fairer Health Care: T. R. Reid: 8601400310083: Amazon.com: Books

It compares all the different universal healthcare systems and the radically different ways they achieve that

An interesting book on the topic. Why not piece together what is working in other countries? (because this has to be better than what we have now- I pay $457 out of pocket per month for one necessary medication!) Let’s not take a guess as to what the outcome will be, it’s much too complicated an issue to say for sure one way or another.

Actually they do - in the form of having to go to a general practice doctor for everything. You can read T.R. Reid's book in which he chronicles getting his shoulder looked at. In Canada for example, because his pain was low-grade and livable, he waited a few months to see the specialist, then another month waiting for the test results. So we can either have a system like that, or a system like now where we go to the specialist directly. With this latter system, we would have to figure out how to ration care. And since we simply don't have enough GP's in the US to handle the 300M of us that would potentially need one, we end up with option #2. Plus, it would be seen as a step-back from our current system and make it politically unviable.

Grab a copy of R.T. Reids New York Times Bestseller


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

Two really big topics I have started to get very interested in, a lot in part due to reddit actually.

[The Healing of America by T.R Reid] (http://www.amazon.com/The-Healing-America-Global-Cheaper/dp/0143118218)

[Republic Lost by Lawrence Lessig] (http://www.amazon.com/Republic-Lost-Money-Corrupts-Congress/dp/0446576433/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&sr=&qid=)