Money-Driven Medicine: The Real Reason Health Care Costs So Much
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.28 (638 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 006076533X |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 480 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2014-08-10 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
Rather than thinking about long-term collective goals, the imperatives of an impatient marketplace force health care providers to focus on short-term fiscal imperatives. And so investments in untested bleeding-edge medical technologies crowd out investments in information technology that might, in the long run, not only reduce errors but contain costs.In theory, free market competition should tame health care inflation. Why is medical care in the United States so expensive? For decades, Americans have taken it as a matter of faith that we spend more because we have the best health care system in the world. But in the health care industry, as the number and variety of drugs, devices, and treatments multiplies, demand rises to absorb the excess, and prices climb. Normally, when supply expands, prices fall. Rather than sharing knowledge, drugmakers and device makers divide value. Today, she observes, "physicians have been stripped of their standing as professionals: Insurers address them as vendors ('Dear Health Care Provider'), drugmakers and device makers see
From Publishers Weekly Mahar, a financial journalist whose previous book (Bull!) tracked the history of the stock market from 1982 to 1999, here applies her keen analytic talents and economic savvy to America's complicated and increasingly dysfunctional health-care system. No one is spared in Mahar's thoroughly researched and carefully reasoned study: she criticizes frustrated (and increasingly money-minded) physicians, self-serving insurance companies, for-profit hospital chains and pharmaceutical companies driven by inflated Wall Street expectations. All rights reserved. But her goal is not to offer any programmatic solution. Instead, she wants to show why the most common economic assumptions about health care—especially those that extol the magic power of free markets—are false and stand in the way of real reform. She traces how today's ma
"Excellent!" according to Loyd Eskildson. Mahar begins by reviewing health care trends: In 1970, health care spending was 7.1% of GDP; by 2005 it was 16%, and is predicted to reach 21% by 2020. At the same time, in 2005 nearly Excellent! Loyd Eskildson Mahar begins by reviewing health care trends: In 1970, health care spending was 7.1% of GDP; by 2005 it was 16%, and is predicted to reach 21% by 2020. At the same time, in 2005 nearly 48 million had no health insurance, including about 1 in 3 households earning over $50,000. (A 2002 IOM report concluded that lack of insurance was associated with a 25% greater chance of dying - 18,000/year.) The average premium for a family was $10,880 and only 59% of companies with less than 200 employees offered health benefits - down from 68% five years prior. Even having health insurance is often not enough - in 2005 nearly two-thirds of families. 8 million had no health insurance, including about 1 in Excellent! Mahar begins by reviewing health care trends: In 1970, health care spending was 7.1% of GDP; by 2005 it was 16%, and is predicted to reach 21% by 2020. At the same time, in 2005 nearly Excellent! Loyd Eskildson Mahar begins by reviewing health care trends: In 1970, health care spending was 7.1% of GDP; by 2005 it was 16%, and is predicted to reach 21% by 2020. At the same time, in 2005 nearly 48 million had no health insurance, including about 1 in 3 households earning over $50,000. (A 2002 IOM report concluded that lack of insurance was associated with a 25% greater chance of dying - 18,000/year.) The average premium for a family was $10,880 and only 59% of companies with less than 200 employees offered health benefits - down from 68% five years prior. Even having health insurance is often not enough - in 2005 nearly two-thirds of families. 8 million had no health insurance, including about 1 in 3 households earning over $50,000. (A 2002 IOM report concluded that lack of insurance was associated with a 25% greater chance of dying - 18,000/year.) The average premium for a family was $10,880 and only 59% of companies with less than 200 employees offered health benefits - down from 68% five years prior. Even having health insurance is often not enough - in 2005 nearly two-thirds of families. households earning over $50,000. (A 2002 IOM report concluded that lack of insurance was associated with a 25% greater chance of dying - 18,000/year.) The average premium for a family was $10,880 and only 59% of companies with less than 200 employees offered health benefits - down from 68% five years prior. Even having health insurance is often not enough - in 2005 nearly two-thirds of families. Clear and often gripping Paul Gross As a family physician who has seen the shortcomings of our health care system from both ends--as a doctor and as a patient--I found Money-Driven Medicine to be a terrific read.If you've ever tried to decipher a hospital bill, had an insurance claim denied or wrangled with a managed care company over the phone, you know how hard it is to talk about our medical system without becoming overwrought. By keeping a reporter's eye on a very simple question--Why does US health care cost so much?--Maggie Mahar manages to avoid that trap, producing a book that is instructive, well reasoned and engaging.Ms. Mahar is to be commended for (a) doing. From a Patient's Point of View Cornelia D. Emerson First, a full disclosure: Maggie Mahar and I started at the same university at the same time on the same career path--far away from the Medical School. Both of us changed careers, we lived on opposite coasts, and lost touch over the years. But that's not why I bought this book. I bought it because I've had some serious chronic illnesses to manage for the past ten years, I've had more contact with the American medical system than most people, and I'm always asking questions. Most are questions about my own care. But I'm interested in the larger questions too, and this book gives some interesting answers.As patients go, I'm one of the