The Battle Over Health Care: What Obama's Reform Means for America's Future
Rosemary Gibson and Janardan Prasad Singh, the authors ofThe Battle Over Health Care, have spent more than 30 years working in the health care policy field, so they are extremely well-qualified to unravel the health care onion, which has many layers and many tearful moments, and to recommend solutions on reform....[The authors] raise a lot of important issues, and the book is worthy of a read.(The Washington Times)Health care expert Gibson and World Bank economist Singh (coauthors ofWall of Silence) present a well-argued view that the heralded Obama health care reforms may be adverse to the public interest, since by “plowing even more funding into health care, the reform law cements inefficiency in the system.” The reforms increase insurers’ market share, giving them access to 16 million new customers beginning in 2014, but proposed subsidies for individual insurance policies simply foster greater demand, enabling continuing cost increases. By 2030, the authors estimate that health care will consume 25 percent of the country’s income, and comprehensive insurance will be unaffordable, even with subsidies. In passionate language, they prescribe possible remedies, but many are the usual suspects, for example, tackling fraud in health care spending. Meanwhile, the prognosis that the baby boomers will overwhelm Medicare might induce the despairing reader to take two aspirins. But don’t call the doctor in the morning; “a conservative estimate is that 225,000 people die every year from preventable harm in the health care system.” As one observer says: “‘They harm you and they bill you for it.’”(Publishers Weekly)Health-care expert Gibson and World Bank economist Singh (coauthors,Wall of Silence: The Untold Story of the Medical Mistakes That Kill and Injure Millions of Americans) have produced a timely, cogent analysis of the high-stakes debate over health-care reform legislation. Veterans of conservative think tank the American Enterprise Institute, the authors parse critical policy concerns in this well-reasoned five-part book. Part 1 addresses the expedient political deals made by the Obama administration and the health-care industry that resulted in a significantly compromised version of the legislation. Part 2 cautions that the current health-care system cannot accommodate the increase in newly insured patients. In Part 3, the authors analogize the collapse of the banking industry and the imminent collapse of the health-care industry, both fueled by dangerous bubbles. Part 4 ties economic security to health-care security, while Part 5 asserts that, like its finance counterpart, the health-care industry privatizes gains and socializes losses. Finally, the authors advocate “careful pruning of the enormous inefficiency and waste in health care.”VERDICTA provocative, informative book directed toward a general audience, but especially policymakers and health-care professionals.(Library Journal)Critics of President Obama’s health care reform will find much to love in this book by two alumni of the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank. The duo give depressing accounts of backstage deals that Democrats made with insurers and pharmaceutical companies to get the legislation through Congress. A typical line is “the White House was willing to give lucrative favors to the health care industry in return for support of the president’s gamble to reform health care.” (Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act on March 23, 2010.) They do note a few immediate benefits, such as no lifetime limits on benefits for sick people. But mainly, they point out flaws in health care reform and in the U.S. medical system, such as that Medicare’s payments favor expensive specialists over primary care doctors, which leads to spiraling health care costs. The book is full of interesting statistics (e.g., about $8,000 is spent per person per year on health care). Though biased, this treatise will make even hard-core liberals pause and say, “Goodness!”(Booklist)Any well informed person who is absolutely convinced that neither they nor any member of their family, nor anyone close to them, will ever have need of a doctor, hospital, or prescription drugs during the next one hundred years can ignore this book. The same goes for anyone who has no interest whatsoever in how or whether the American system of self-government works. Otherwise,The Battle Over Health Care: What Obama’s Reform Means for America’s Futureshould top everyone’s reading list. It is a thoroughly researched and well-written discussion of the most serious issues currently facing this country. Rosemary Gibson is a recognized leader in health care reform. She is the author of several books on the subject, including the notedThe Wall of Silence,also co-authored by Janardan Prasad Singh, an economist at the World Bank who has been a member of an advisory council to several prime ministers of India. The authors say, “We wrote this book for the American people. They are the only special interest we represent.”Gibson and Singh go on to demonstrate that their audience is the only group that was not part of the debate over health-care reform resulting in the passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, also known derisively as “Obamacare.”The Battle Over Health Careis divided into five parts. Initially, the authors describe the process by which the dominant players in the health-care industry wrangled favorable concessions from congress and the White House. The next part explains how the current health-care system is deficient in providing quality, affordable health care to Americans and how it will be overwhelmed by the demands of the newly insured. Section three compares the health-care system to Wall Street, wherein Gibson and Singh indict the pharmaceutical companies, hospitals, doctors, and health insurance companies for being more interested in profits than in delivering better health care to patients. “For all the money spent on health care in the United States, life expectancy is no better than that of Cuba.” Gibson and Singh take on conventional wisdom in part four, dealing with the relationship of the national debt to health-care costs. They assert: “Progress to reduce the ominous burden of the federal debt can be made only if health-care spending is reduced.” In the final part the case is made for real reform in the health-care system. Gibson and Singh propose ten steps toward that end, including authorizing the federal government to negotiate drug prices and more regulation of the health-care industry patterned after that used for aviation and highway safety. “The solution,” they believe, “is to reduce the health care industry’s dependency on the blind generosity of the public.” The battle over health-care reform will rage on. It likely will be a major issue in the 2012 elections. Every citizen should be informed on these complicated, crucial issues. Gibson and Singh’s contribution is a wonderful place to start that education.(ForeWord Reviews)Bravo to Gibson and Singh who have managed to discuss complexity and keep it simple enough to remain engaging. Who should read this book -- everyone. Read it to find out how American taxpayers, insurance premium payers, and patients are literally getting mistreated....No one is spared from this clean analysis of the U.S. health care morass and that makes it a fair nonpartisan review of an important national resource.(New York Journal of Books)This book is excellent reading and gives anyone pause who thinks that monopolies will allow industry to improve quality and lower costs for the consumers.(Courier–Journal)Gibson and Singh have offered an incisive diagnosis of the problems surrounding health care in America, the urgency of dealing with them, and an outline of steps that could get us on a better footing.(Health Affairs)“The News that Eastern Maine Medical Center plans to sell its three outpatient dialysis clinics to one of the country’s largest for-profit dialysis companies raises issue that will affect the health and well being of Mainers”“Health care is personal and all the more reason that Mainers should know the facts”(Bangor Daily News)“It would be well for those truly interested in the health-care debate to read the nonpartisan and highly informative bookThe battle Over Health Care: What Obama’s Reform Means for America’s Futureby Rosemary Gibson and Janadan Singh”“This book will be an eye-opener for anyone who reads it”(The Columbus Dispatch)