Customer Reviews

Health and Health Care 2010: The Forecast, The Challenge, 2nd Edition

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Where is our nation's health-care system headed in the next decade? And how will we cope with the inevitable collision of rising costs, politics and human needs?

This excellent book is one of the best overviews I've read on the topic. First published in late 2001, it's now available in an updated 2nd edition. It was funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and compiled by the Institute for the Future. Even if you don't agree with all of the predictions, you will respect the honesty and thoroughness of the editors' work.

Unlike works of social criticism and political diatribe, this volume avoids most partisan positions in favor of evidence-based conclusions on the following main topics:

1. America's changing demographic structure (not just age, but also ethnicity, socio-economic status and other variables)
2. The changing role of hospitals and related health-care institutions
3. Political and economic pressures on rising health-care costs
4. The rise of tiered health-care and insurance changes
5. New directions for health-care technologies, such as targeted pharmaceuticals and imaging
6. Patterns in health-care employment and professional training

This well-written book is packed with valuable charts, graphs, source-notated facts and objective statistics from a wide variety of reliable sources. No matter what your position on each issue, you'll find this a volume a tremendous resource for analysis and discussion. Well done!

This text book is out of date even though it is a forecast up to 2010. The copywrite on it is 2000. Some of the issues the author presents are current for the year 2005 and this is already 2007.

Very fast shipping. I got my book faster than I expected, and it was exactly the way it was described. Would definitely buy from this user again.

The book was in excellent condition, like new. It took roughly 2 weeks to arrive, I was hoping for a bit quicker delivery.

Anyone who writes about the future of anything takes risks that it will be dated before the ink is dry. This books moves beyond the usual futuristic predictions and gives good direction for the future. of course, reading it in 2008, when the book is written for predictions only to 2010 it had few surprises. But worthy of a read.