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When Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and news editor Amanda Bennett learned her husband had cancer, she promised him that she would fight for his life and never give up. In The Cost of Hope she recounts exactly what the fight cost in human and financial terms. along the way, the reader learns a good deal about health care and some of the reasons that costs are spiraling out of control.

Bennett also asks searching questions about cancer treatment, drug studies that amount to "throwing the spaghetti against the wall to see what sticks" and whether the system helps or hurts sufferers. She wonders how families without her employer's excellent health insurance can even survive. She quantifies costs, compares them across hospitals and insurance companies and shows how difficult it is to make sensible cost decisions with minimal information.

The thread that binds this book together is Bennett's moving portrait of a family coping with long term medical crises over a period of years. So this is also a beautiful book about a young couple who fall in love in Beijing and raise a young family wherever her new jobs take them. We know the ending at the outset, which makes the chapters more poignant.

I highly recommend it to anyone interested in understanding why US health care is among the most expensive in the world with results that are markedly worse. ( )

When Amanda Bennett meets Terence Foley while on assignment in China, the last thing she expects is to marry him. Their marriage brings with it great passion, deep love and respect, two children, and a life together over two decades. Then comes a terrible illness, and the fight to win a longer life for Terence. This memoir chronicles the extraordinary measures Amanda and Terence take to preserve not only to save Terence's life but also the life of their family as well as their ongoing hope for life. After his death, Bennett uses her skills as investigative reporter to determine the cost of their mission of hope. What she discovers raises important questions many people face, and vital issues about the intricacies of America's healthcare system. At first I was reluctant to read this memoir—anticipating a deep sadness, but at times I found it surprisingly joyful. I believe that this memoir along with the Times article on the cost of heathcare by Steven Brill will help readers understand the complexity of our healthcare system both financially and emotionally. 4 ½ out of 5 stars. ( )

Heard about this on the Diane Rhem show. Ms. Bennett's husband's battle with cancer and all the treatments and expense that they pursued and later, as she grappled with all the aftermath, she wonders how many people go after treatments with so much false hope and end up costing all our systems so much. Also realized how many different systems there are for charging - insurance companies cut deals so they pay far less than uninsured people are charged, etc. Well written, interesting book. ( )

Good book. It’s a realistic love story – two interesting, head strong people finding each other and creating a life together. Foley is wonderfully eccentric, Amanda Bennett affectionately recalls the best and the worst. It is also timely, with our health services being under scrutiny – this book provides examples of medical care costs that are inconsistent and services that are over used. ( )