The healing of America
a global quest for better, cheaper, and fairer health care
by T. R. Reid · first published 2009
88% recommend13% neutral
Why HN recommends it
An American visits several nations to see how their healthcare treatment and insurance work, comparing the systems. Recommended for anyone wanting to understand US healthcare options and tradeoffs.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
Bestselling author T. R. Reid guides a whirlwind tour ofsuccessful health care systems worldwide, revealing possible pathstoward U.S. reformIn The Healing of America, New York Timesbestselling author T. R. Reid shows how all the otherindustrialized democracies have achieved something the UnitedStates can’t seem to do: provide health care for everybody at areasonable cost.In his global quest to find a possible prescription,Reid visits wealthy, free market, industrialized democracieslike our own—including France, Germany, Japan, the U.K.,and Canada—where he finds inspiration in example. Reidshar
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The book The Healing of America by T.R. Reid, 2010 was a phenomenal look at this subject and the conclusion was this: we are the only developed nation whose government allows for-profit health insurance companies to exist with ZERO…
on “The US spends more on healthcare for no gain says new report from Johns Hopkins” ↗A good book to continue your reading is The Healing of America by T.R. Reid. The author traveled to eight countries, checking out treatment options for his bum shoulder and learning about their healthcare systems. Canada was one and did have some advantages. He…
on “What Startups Need To Know About Health Insurance in 2013” ↗…system in the U.K. Instead of having a national health service that employs the doctors, they have a system a lot like Obamacare, but with national price controls. For details on the French system see The Healing of America by T.R. Reid. It also covers the U.K. and several other countries.
on “I had a health crisis in France” ↗Similarly, a Frontline episode: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/sickaroundtheworld/ An excellent book on the subject ("The Healing of America: A Global Quest for Better, Cheaper, and Fairer Health Care"): https://www.amazon.com/Healing-America-Global-Better-Cheaper... And a comparison by The Commonwealth Fund: http://international.commonwealthfund.org/…
on “People Lose Their Employer-Sponsored Insurance Constantly” ↗…design for that country, based on how it would be used. What I can recommend is a great book that compares all the systems, through the lens of an American with the same question you have, called The Healing of America by T.R. Reid. Highly recommended.
on “Ill in England? Your Location Can Determine If You Live or Die” ↗…number of healthcare programs across the world and every country has a variety of different problems. There are no silver bullets. If you want a great read about a few different countries, I recommend The Healing of America by T.R. Reid. It has some suggestions, but in general it is great at illustrating how treating the same illness in different countries can be varied in terms of treatment and cost.
on “Taxpayers spend 22% more per patient to support Medicare Advantage” ↗…nonprofit insurance, an effective mandate, a national price list for health services, and a prohibition of claim denials for anything on the list. A great book comparing eight national systems in The Healing of America by T.R. Reid. It references stats showing the French-style systems get the highest quality results, with reasonable cost. Japan and Germany have similar systems.
There is a middle ground here. Many European countries do not actually have single-payer, but still perform better than the US. It's a bit out of date now but the book The Healing of America found that Germany, France, and Japan had world-leading healthcare results, measured by things like survival time after major disease diagnosis, but spent much less of a percentage of their GDP on healthcare.…
on “Using AI to negotiate a $195k hospital bill down to $33k” ↗…every day. For the majority, this is simply not the case. I'm sure there are exceptions as our country is very large, but most people's experience would be very similar to the OPs. I'd suggest reading Healing of America by T.R. Reed if you're interested in the working of US compared to other systems.
on “My adventures in medical tourism” ↗…healthcare is bloated, costly and inefficient in the sense that a whole lot of money is spent with nothing to show of it (patients are not getting any better services). For more information on this read "The Healing of America: A Global Quest for Better, Cheaper, and Fairer Health Care" Also is the use of 'sic' really necessary? I find it to be pretentious.
on “Britain to Foreign Workers: If You Don't Make $50,000 a Year, Please Leave” ↗If you're interested in US Healthcare, I can recommend "The Healing of America: A Global Quest for Better, Cheaper, and Fairer Health Care". I was surprised to learn that France, for example, has private doctors, private hospitals, and private insurance companies (gee, somehow…
on “We've Spent Billions to Fix Our Medical Records, and They're Still a Mess” ↗…Germany, France, and Japan. Germany spends about 13% of their GDP on healthcare, Japan spends 6%, and France is in the middle. The U.S. spends 17%, and falls far behind the others in results. Source: The Healing of America by T.R. Reid.
on “Can the Government Force Us to Buy Health Insurance?” ↗…has nonprofit private insurers, an individual mandate, and no exclusions for preexisting conditions. It adds good electronic medical records and a national price list for medical services. Source: The Healing of America by T.R. Reid.
on “The Affordable Care Act: Who Was Helped Most” ↗The book The Healing of America examines eight different national healthcare systems. Three of the best (France, Germany, Japan), in objective terms like health outcomes and percentage of GDP spent, have a lot in common with the ACA,…
on “The prices hospitals negotiate with private insurers for patient services” ↗There are quite a few countries that do not have single-payer and do just fine. According to the book The Healing of America, these include France, Germany, and Japan, all of which get top-ranked results at much lower cost. The key difference is that the government sets the price list for all services. That would be a big…
on “Surgery estimated cost $1,300. Then the Bill Came: $229,000” ↗