Unraveling U.S. Health Care


Book Description

Unraveling U.S. Health Care is a guidebook to the health care system that provides a timely and thorough explanation of U.S. health care, written in readable laymen’s terms. Roberta Winter educates and informs general readers about useful information that will empower their health care decision making. She makes sense of important health care issues, which are often filtered with political and financial stakeholder bias, confusing the health care consumer. Useful tips, explanatory charts, and statewide scorecards are included throughout to assist readers in choosing the best care they can receive. More than ever, patients must act as consumers of health care, balancing informed decisions with available resources. Keeping this in mind, Winter also explores other options available to patients, including seeking health care outside the United States, and provides a roadmap for medical tourists to the U.S. In addition, she includes Medicare enrollment tips, and a summary of the 2010 health care reforms and implementation guidelines. Bringing all this data together, this book will serve as a resource and guide for anyone who seeks to receive better care for both everyday issues and major health concerns alike.




Introduction to U.S. Health Policy


Book Description

Health care reform has dominated public discourse over the past several years, and the recent passage of the Affordable Care Act, rather than quell the rhetoric, has sparked even more debate. Donald A. Barr reviews the current structure of the American health care system, describing the historical and political contexts in which it developed and the core policy issues that continue to confront us today. This comprehensive analysis introduces the various organizations and institutions that make the U.S. health care system work—or fail to work, as the case may be. A principal message of the book is the seeming paradox of the quality of health care in this country—on the one hand it is the best medical care system in the world, on the other it is one of the worst among developed countries because of how it is organized. Barr introduces readers to broad cultural issues surrounding health care policy, such as access, affordability, and quality. He discusses specific elements of U.S. health care, including insurance, especially Medicare and Medicaid, the shift to for-profit managed care, the pharmaceutical industry, issues of long-term care, the plight of the uninsured, medical errors, and nursing shortages. The latest edition of this widely adopted text updates the description and discussion of key sectors of America’s health care system in light of the Affordable Care Act.




Unraveling the Mystery of Health


Book Description

Antonovsky's book challenges the health care community to reassess its approach to health. He asserts that the focus for too long has been solely on illness and the treatment of specific disease, with little or no attention directed at the factors and conditions necessary for health. The author offers a way to evaluate the psychological, social, and cultural factors that relate to health and well-being. Antonovsky presents a model that he calls the ``sense of coherence'' (SOC), suggesting that the way people make sense of the world is a major factor in their health. He provides, as an appendix, a questionnaire for assessing the SOC for individuals to evaluate and predict how well they manage stress and stay healthy. This model was presented by Antonovsky in an earlier work, but this volume provides more detail on both the theoretical and research database for the SOC. Insight is provided on how SOC affects neuroendocrine and immunological processes and thus overall health. The conceptual framework presented in this book is useful and important. The writing style, however, is often cumbersome, making for difficult reading. In addition, the author assumes readers are familiar with his earlier work, Health, Stress and Coping (CH, Jan '80); readers not acquainted with its content will find it difficult to follow the ideas being presented. In spite of these shortcomings, the book sets an important direction for thought in the evolution of health promotion strategies.




Unraveling Freedom


Book Description

In 1915, the United States experienced the 9/11 of its time. A German torpedo sank the Lusitania killing nearly 2,000 innocent passengers. The ensuing hysteria helped draw the United States into World War I—the bitter, brutal conflict that became known as the Great War and the War to End All Wars. But as U.S. troops fought to make the world safe for democracy abroad, our own government eroded freedoms at home, especially for German-Americans. Free speech was no longer an operating principle of American democracy. Award-winning author Ann Bausum asks, just where do Americans draw the line of justice in times of war? Drawing thought-provoking parallels with President Wilson’s government and other wartime administrations, from FDR to George W. Bush, Bausum’s analysis has plenty of history lessons for the world today. Her exhaustive research turns up astonishing first-person stories and rare images, and the full-color design is fresh and stunning. The result is a gripping book that is well-positioned for the run-up to the World War I centennial. National Geographic supports K-12 educators with ELA Common Core Resources. Visit www.natgeoed.org/commoncore for more information.




Unraveled


Book Description

Six years after its enactment, Obamacare remains one of the most controversial, divisive, and enduring political issues in America. In this much-anticipated follow-up to his critically acclaimed Unprecedented: The Constitutional Challenge to Obamacare (2013), Josh Blackman argues that, to implement the law, President Obama has broken promises about cancelled insurance policies, exceeded the traditional bounds of executive power, and infringed on religious liberty. At the same time, conservative opponents have stopped at nothing to unravel Obamacare, including a three-week government shutdown, four Supreme Court cases, and fifty repeal votes. This legal thriller provides the definitive account of the battle to stop Obamacare from being 'woven into the fabric of America'. Unraveled is essential reading to understand the future of the Affordable Care Act in America's gridlocked government in 2016, and beyond.




The Social Transformation of American Medicine


Book Description

Winner of the 1983 Pulitzer Prize and the Bancroft Prize in American History, this is a landmark history of how the entire American health care system of doctors, hospitals, health plans, and government programs has evolved over the last two centuries. "The definitive social history of the medical profession in America....A monumental achievement."—H. Jack Geiger, M.D., New York Times Book Review




The Future of Health-care Delivery


Book Description

Approximately 100,000 deaths per year in the United States result from preventable medical errors. This figure is about twice the number of people who die in car accidents and five times the number of murder victims annually, and twenty times the number of servicemen and women killed in Iraq and Afghanistan since the start of hostilities in 2001. If you think Americans have the best health-care system in the world, think again. In this deeply researched and controversial book, Dr. Stephen Schimpff explains why our health-care delivery system serves us so poorly, why it costs so much, and why government policy over many decades has not only failed to improve care delivery but has actually made it worse. In the process, he dispels common misconceptions about medicine and health care. The Future of Health-Care Delivery provides timely information and a road map to achieve world-class care delivery, putting health care where it belongs--in the hands of the patient and medical professionals instead of the insurance companies and government.




The Unraveling


Book Description

When Emma Sky volunteered to help rebuild Iraq after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein in 2003, she had little idea what she was getting in to. Her assignment was only supposed to last three months. She went on to serve there longer than any other senior military or diplomatic figure, giving her an unrivaled perspective of the entire conflict. As the representative of the Coalition Provisional Authority in Kirkuk in 2003 and then the political advisor to US General Odierno from 2007-2010, Sky was valued for her knowledge of the region and her outspoken voice. She became a tireless witness to American efforts to transform a country traumatized by decades of war, sanctions, and brutal dictatorship; to insurgencies and civil war; to the planning and implementation of the surge and the subsequent drawdown of US troops; to the corrupt political elites who used sectarianism to mobilize support; and to the takeover of a third of the country by the Islamic State. With sharp detail and tremendous empathy, Sky provides unique insights into the US military as well as the complexities, diversity, and evolution of Iraqi society. The Unraveling is an intimate insider's portrait of how and why the Iraq adventure failed and contains a unique analysis of the course of the war. Highlighting how nothing that happened in Iraq after 2003 was inevitable, Sky exposes the failures of the policies of both Republicans and Democrats, and the lessons that must be learned about the limitations of power.




Unraveling AIDS


Book Description

Although billions of dollars are being spent to find a cure for AIDS, and many drugs are now available for its treatment, millions of people worldwide continue to suffer and die from this disease. Unraveling AIDS is a timely and well-researched book that addresses a wide range of issues regarding the AIDS pandemic. Perhaps most important, the authors explore alternative therapies that appear to be safer, more effective, and less costly than the current generation of AIDS pharmaceuticals.




Crisis of Abundance


Book Description

America's health care troubles largely stem from a great success: modern medicine can do much more today than in the past. So what's the trouble? How to pay for it. In easily comprehensible prose, MIT-trained economist Arnold Kling explains better ways of financing health care for the poor, workers, the disabled, and the elderly. Kling predicts relying less on government and more on private savings would improve health outcomes. A must-read for health care reformers.