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The American Health Care Paradox: Why Spending More is Getting Us Less
The American Health Care Paradox: Why Spending More is Getting Us Less
The American Health Care Paradox: Why Spending More is Getting Us Less
Audiobook8 hours

The American Health Care Paradox: Why Spending More is Getting Us Less

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

3.5/5

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About this audiobook

For decades, experts have puzzled over why the US spends more on health care but suffers poorer outcomes than other industrialized nations. Now Elizabeth H. Bradley and Lauren A. Taylor marshal extensive research, including a comparative study of health care data from thirty countries, and get to the root of this paradox: We've left out of our tally the most impactful expenditures countries make to improve the health of their populations-investments in social services.

In The American Health Care Paradox, Bradley and Taylor illuminate how narrow definitions of "health care," archaic divisions in the distribution of health and social services, and our allergy to government programs combine to create needless suffering in individual lives, even as health care spending continues to soar. They show us how and why the US health care "system" developed as it did; examine the constraints on, and possibilities for, reform; and profile inspiring new initiatives from around the world.
LanguageEnglish
Release dateMay 1, 2018
ISBN9781977376817
The American Health Care Paradox: Why Spending More is Getting Us Less

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Rating: 3.611111 out of 5 stars
3.5/5

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  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Interesting look at the US Health Care and how spending more is not answering the problem of healthcare in this country. Looking at other countries who have lowered healthcare costs by taking care of social economics of individuals and filling those needs is leading to healthier individuals. A little dry to start but then gets into the meat of the problem with possible solutions. Now only if those in authority would take the time to read this book.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This book is the expansion and explanation of a research study conducted by the authors to try to figure out the American health care paradox - why the U.S. spends the most on health care but has some of the worst results. The authors found this is due to not accounting for money spent on social services, i.e. providing housing, food, etc... What I really liked about this book is that the authors are not preaching that the U.S. has to change our healthcare system to look exactly like the Scandinavian countries (all have the highest measures of good health), but that there are other options to consider and that these services need to be figured into the health care equation, providing examples of health care systems and providers here in the U.S. that have included this aspect and had great results!
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This book asks why we spend so much on health care without getting very impressive results, and argues that it is because we spend so little on non-medical social services. In the US, of course, per capita spending on health care is almost double the industrial country average. Our spending on social services, however, is drastically lower. The authors argue, convincingly I think, that these two statistics are not unrelated. So far so good, and the book is certainly worth reading for this insight alone. Where it falls short, I think, is in the realm of solutions. That may be because the low level of social spending in the US reflects hundreds of years of history and strong political habits of mind, which aren't easy to change. All in all, an important book, if not an entirely satisfactory one.