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How American Health Care Killed My Father--and How We Can Fix It
Knopf
January 2013
On Sale: January 8, 2013
384 pages ISBN: 0307961540 EAN: 9780307961549 Kindle: B00957T4QK Hardcover / e-Book
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Non-Fiction
A visionary investigation that will change the way we think
about health care: how and why it is failing, why expanding
coverage will actually make things worse, and how our health
care can be transformed into a transparent, affordable,
successful system. In 2007, David Goldhill’s father died from infections
acquired in a hospital, one of more than two hundred
thousand avoidable deaths per year caused by medical error.
The bill was enormous—and Medicare paid it. These
circumstances left Goldhill angry and determined to
understand how world-class technology and personnel could
coexist with such carelessness—and how a business that
failed so miserably could be paid in full. Catastrophic Care
is the eye-opening result. Blending personal anecdotes and extensive research, Goldhill
presents us with cogent, biting analysis that challenges the
basic preconceptions that have shaped our thinking for
decades. Contrasting the Island of health care with the
Mainland of our economy, he demonstrates that high costs,
excess medicine, terrible service, and medical error are the
inevitable consequences of our insurance-based system. He
explains why policy efforts to fix these problems have
invariably produced perverse results, and how the new
Affordable Care Act is more likely to deepen than to solve
these issues. Goldhill steps outside the incremental and wonkish debates
to question the conventional wisdom blinding us to more
fundamental issues. He proposes a comprehensive new way,
where the customer (the patient) is first—a system focused
on health and maintaining it, a system strong and vibrant
enough for our future. If you think health care is interesting only to institutes
and politicians, think again: Catastrophic Care is
surprising, engaging, and brimming with insights born of
questions nobody has thought to ask. Above all it is a book
of new ideas that can transform the way we understand a
subject we often take for granted.
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