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Catastrophic Care: How American Health Care Killed My Father--and How We Can Fix It Hardcover – January 8, 2013

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4.3 out of 5 stars 95 customer reviews
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"The Underground Railroad" by Colson Whitehead is a magnificent novel chronicling a young slave's adventures as she makes a desperate bid for freedom in the antebellum South. See more

Product Details

  • Hardcover: 384 pages
  • Publisher: Knopf; 1 edition (January 8, 2013)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0307961540
  • ISBN-13: 978-0307961549
  • Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 1.3 x 7.8 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (95 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #793,294 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Top Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 starsThe word is out - 'the Emperor (health care debate) has no clothes'
By Ilya Valkovsky on November 11, 2013
Format: Kindle Edition Verified Purchase
Written for a general (but thinking) audience, this book could really turn around all public discourse on health care and become a seminal work on the subject.

The divisive health care debate of recent years is centered over WHO should shoulder astronomic medical costs. The issue of taming the exorbitant prices and costs is relegated to the side issue of waste and abuse. David Goldhill takes a new and different approach. He puts aside the standard assumption that health care is somehow exempt from the normal rules of economic activity. He focuses on WHY the costs became so exorbitant in the first place. Goldhill shows persuasively that the costs are the result of the very design of our current medical system, and the only way to bring the costs down to earth is to REPLACE entirely the current economic arrangements of our medicine - both the private insurance system and Medicare/Medicaid.

That's a book of new ideas. These ideas are breakthrough innovative, brilliant, deeply thought through; analysis superb. As with all things new and complex, it requires an effort to understand. If you have any background or interest in economics, even the economics of everyday life, give it more consideration.
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5.0 out of 5 starsAn author that really knows and understands the complexities of the healthcare (sickcare) industry
By Dwight Clark on May 1, 2013
Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase
I was a practicing cardiologist in the US for over 30 years. I, as most other practicing cardiologist, was trained and fully believed the prevailing methods of diagnosis and treatment were not only correct but absoluely necessary. Several decades of experience taught me this is not close to being accurate. The majority of medical tests, and much of the treatment,is not only unnecessary, but harmful and/or dangerous. The goal of the majority of providers is to increase total "sales" by ordering many procedures and or drugs that are not needed. Much of this is done from ignorance and is not necessarily indicative of a purely capitalistic motive.

David Goldhill is one of the few authors that have experienced this travesty and is educated and intelligent enough to understand the consequences of this nationwide epidemic and the needless, wasteful, and dangerous care. His ability to sort through all of the "noise" prevalent in the governmental and media diatribe and isolate the real problem as full insurance for everyone is unique. This system is doomed for failure. There will never be enough resources to fund medical care as long as the consumer is not the payer. They will always demand more and the providers are happy to accomodate them.

I have left the US and am presently living in Beijing, China, attempting to establish purely preventive heartcare clinics. This is more general education regarding diet, smoking, sedentary lifestyle, and alcohol abuse. than traditional western medicine. Less income, but certainly more satisfying.
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5.0 out of 5 starsExcellent primer on the unintended consequence of our health care system
By Muness Alrubaie on March 11, 2013
Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase
Who could be against health care for all?! The problem is that the system we have and pushed further in ACA, decouples decisions from individuals and instead gives them to surrogates with strong political pressures to approve any and all procedures. And many other consequences that lead to an ineffective, even harmful health care system and an incredibly expensive one with lots of opportunity for abuse.

This book is an excellent primer and should be required reading for all those in the legislature who make health care decisions. I have no idea if the prescription offered in the book as an alternative is a reasonable one, but I do know it opened up my eyes to some of the devastating problems with the status quo.
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5.0 out of 5 starsA businessman's brilliant takedown of our healthcare system
By Amazon Customer on January 8, 2013
Format: Hardcover
We aren't going to solve our nation's fiscal problems without fresh thinking on health care, which consumes almost 18% of our GDP, with no end in sight to its enormous growth. This brilliant new book reframes the national conversation about health care. Currently the debate is framed around health coverage: who gets covered, how plans compete, what Medicare/Medicaid should and shouldn't pay for, etc. This framing assumes that paying for health care through a surrogate, like a health plan or Medicare, is a priori the only way of doing business in health care.

David Goldhill believes that assumption is in fact the root cause of the problems in health care. A businessman in the entertainment industry, he was blissfully unaware of some of the failings of our health care system--until he encountered them full force with his father's hospitalization and death from infection. He wondered why the healthcare system played by an entirely different set of rules than he did in the business world.He studied the problem for a few years, and this book is the result.

He makes a strong case that surrogates drive costs up and quality down, and our health care system is on a crash-course to devastate our economy. He says that we as Americans cherish the myth that we don't really pay for our own health care, our health plan or Medicare does. That myth, says Goldhill, is the core of the problem in our health care system, and the seed of the solution.

Goldhill's perspective and his proposed solutions are unorthodox and will likely generate some controversy. But given the serious problems in our health care system, this incisive book is critical and a must-read for policymakers on both sides of the aisle.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 starsfew books have so dramatically changed my mind

By profession, I think and talk about health care quite a bit. Sure, it's insanely expensive; sure, it's dangerous; sure, it's appallingly inaccessible, even to people with money... Read more

Published 2 months ago by Ash
5.0 out of 5 starsA fantastic tour of a broken system

This book should be required reading for anyone who's ever wondered, "well, what exactly is so bad about our healthcare system? Read more

Published 3 months ago by barrosd12
5.0 out of 5 starsInterested in healthcare? Interested in the future of America? Read...

Absolutely my favorite healthcare book I've ever read (and I've read dozens). Never has such a seemingly boring topic been so riveting and thought-provoking. Read more

Published 4 months ago by Adam Schaefer
5.0 out of 5 starsFive Stars

Provocative and enlightening.

Published 6 months ago by Glen E. Vaughn
5.0 out of 5 starsOne of the best "how to solve our health care crisis" books ever...

Clear, backed by great research. Some of the comments will make you say, Duh!" But now it's time to help David implement these necessary changes. Read more

Published 7 months ago by Larry Aldrich
5.0 out of 5 starsRequired reading!

Incredible book! best breakdown of how paying for medical care through insurance has destroyed our healthcare system and threatens our economy. Read more

Published 11 months ago by C. Savage
5.0 out of 5 starsthere is no better read then Catastrophic Care

for those interested in the health care system, and the current structures responsible for both the unsustainable expense and the deteriorating health in our nation, there is no... Read more

Published 12 months ago by alex lubarsky
4.0 out of 5 starsRead it.

Lots of good information. A common sense study of a massive problem.

Published 12 months ago by Chris Kalmbach
5.0 out of 5 starsFinally someone proposing an actual alternative plan to the ACA, which...

I would give it 6 stars if I could! I have bought 6 extra copies to give to friends, and plan to buy more. Read more

Published 12 months ago by Marizel
5.0 out of 5 starsLOOK TO SINGAPORE

The health industry is probably the most mysterious industry in the United States. It somehow manages to be the most expensive in the world, at $2. Read more

Published 15 months ago by The Curmudgeon

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