The Healing of America: A Global Quest for Better, Cheaper, and Fairer Health Care
by T.R. Reid, 2010
This wonderful little book vividly describes what the mainstream media has been hiding from the American people – exactly why other developed countries have both better overall health and far cheaper health care systems than the US. Using a personal quest to fix his sore shoulder, renowned reporter Reid shows how health care actually works in France, Germany, Japan, England, Canada, India, and more. Each system is different, yet they all work better than in the US because they provide universal coverage and eliminate the profit motive. Ironically, the US provides examples of all types health care systems. Medicare is a single payer system (Canada), the VA system is government run (England), employer coverage is the Bismarck model (Germany and Japan), and millions pay out-of-pocket (India).
The details really matter, but the final results are very similar, given a common moral basis: health care is a human right. In France, everyone has a smart card that contains their entire medical history. No clerical staff needed. In the UK, all care is free (the most loved system in the world – all paid for by taxes), and doctors have strong incentives to keep people healthy. Japan severely limits costs by government mandate but has thousands of private, non-profit insurance plans, which must accept all applicants and pay every bill. France and Japan have strictly limited co-pays, except none for the needy. In Germany unemployment benefits include automatic health care. The rich may opt out.
Find the book here.