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Catastrophic care : how American health care killed my father--and how we can fix it / David Goldhill.

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 2013Description: viii, 369 pages ; 20 cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 0307961540 (hardback)
  • 9780307961549 (hardback)
Subject(s):
Contents:
How American health care killed my father -- Island-speak. Eleven strange things we all believe about health care -- The hidden beast. The myth of affordable care -- The disconnect. The absence of consumers in health care -- The fallacy. Why we always think we need more health care -- The seduction. Forty-five years of Medicare -- The mirage of efficiency. Why the cost curve won't bend -- The tyranny of rules. Why everything is so complicated -- Last gasp. The ACA and the insurance fixation -- In search of balance. How should we pay for health care? -- Green shoots. Foundations of a better system -- Transition. Can we get there from here? -- Mae West didn't know health care -- Appendix 1. Unintended consequences -- Appendix 2. Déjà vu -- Appendix 3. Shifting the government's focus to better health.
Summary: "A visionary and completely original investigation that will change the way we think about health care: how and why it is failing, why expanding insurance coverage will only make things worse, and how it can be transformed into a transparent, affordable, successful system"-- Provided by publisher.Summary: "A visionary and completely original investigation that will change the way we think about health care: how and why it is failing, why expanding insurance coverage will only make things worse, and how it can be transformed into a transparent, affordable, successful system. In 2007, David Goldhill's father died from a series of infections acquired in a well-regarded New York hospital. The bill was for several hundred thousand dollars--and Medicare paid it. These circumstances left Goldhill angry and determined to understand how it was possible that world-class technology and well-trained personnel could result in such simple, inexcusable carelessness--and how a business that failed so miserably could be rewarded with full payment. Catastrophic Care is the eye-opening result. Goldhill explicates a health-care system that now costs nearly $2.5 trillion annually, bars many from treatment, provides inconsistent quality of care, offers negligible customer service, and in which an estimated 200,000 Americans die each year from errors. Above all, he exposes the fundamental fallacy of our entire system--that Medicare and insurance coverage make care cheaper and improve our health--and suggests a comprehensive new approach that could produce better results at more acceptable costs immediately by giving us, the patients, a real role in the process. "-- Provided by publisher.
Fiction notes: Click to open in new window
Holdings
Item type Home library Collection Call number Materials specified Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Adult Book Adult Book Main Library NonFiction 362.1042 G618 Available 33111007059443
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

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.

How American health care killed my father -- Island-speak. Eleven strange things we all believe about health care -- The hidden beast. The myth of affordable care -- The disconnect. The absence of consumers in health care -- The fallacy. Why we always think we need more health care -- The seduction. Forty-five years of Medicare -- The mirage of efficiency. Why the cost curve won't bend -- The tyranny of rules. Why everything is so complicated -- Last gasp. The ACA and the insurance fixation -- In search of balance. How should we pay for health care? -- Green shoots. Foundations of a better system -- Transition. Can we get there from here? -- Mae West didn't know health care -- Appendix 1. Unintended consequences -- Appendix 2. Déjà vu -- Appendix 3. Shifting the government's focus to better health.

"A visionary and completely original investigation that will change the way we think about health care: how and why it is failing, why expanding insurance coverage will only make things worse, and how it can be transformed into a transparent, affordable, successful system"-- Provided by publisher.

"A visionary and completely original investigation that will change the way we think about health care: how and why it is failing, why expanding insurance coverage will only make things worse, and how it can be transformed into a transparent, affordable, successful system. In 2007, David Goldhill's father died from a series of infections acquired in a well-regarded New York hospital. The bill was for several hundred thousand dollars--and Medicare paid it. These circumstances left Goldhill angry and determined to understand how it was possible that world-class technology and well-trained personnel could result in such simple, inexcusable carelessness--and how a business that failed so miserably could be rewarded with full payment. Catastrophic Care is the eye-opening result. Goldhill explicates a health-care system that now costs nearly $2.5 trillion annually, bars many from treatment, provides inconsistent quality of care, offers negligible customer service, and in which an estimated 200,000 Americans die each year from errors. Above all, he exposes the fundamental fallacy of our entire system--that Medicare and insurance coverage make care cheaper and improve our health--and suggests a comprehensive new approach that could produce better results at more acceptable costs immediately by giving us, the patients, a real role in the process. "-- Provided by publisher.

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