Lauren A. Taylor

This book is the expansion and explanation of a research study conducted by the authors to try to figure out the American health care paradox - why the U.S. spends the most on health care but has some of the worst results. The authors found this is due to not accounting for money spent on social services, i.e. providing housing, food, etc... What I really liked about this book is that the authors are not preaching that the U.S. has to change our healthcare system to look exactly like the Scandinavian countries (all have the highest measures of good health), but that there are other options to consider and that these services need to be figured into the health care equation, providing examples of health care systems and providers here in the U.S. that have included this aspect and had great results!… (altro)

This book asks why we spend so much on health care without getting very impressive results, and argues that it is because we spend so little on non-medical social services. In the US, of course, per capita spending on health care is almost double the industrial country average. Our spending on social services, however, is drastically lower. The authors argue, convincingly I think, that these two statistics are not unrelated. So far so good, and the book is certainly worth reading for this insight alone. Where it falls short, I think, is in the realm of solutions. That may be because the low level of social spending in the US reflects hundreds of years of history and strong political habits of mind, which aren't easy to change. All in all, an important book, if not an entirely satisfactory one.… (altro)