Key Insights From:
The Price We Pay: What Broke American Health Care―And How to Fix It
By Marty Makary
Key Insights From:
The Price We Pay: What Broke American Health Care―And How to Fix It
By Marty Makary
What You'll Learn:
The American healthcare system has seen better days. Costs of even routine medical procedures are astronomical and continue to skyrocket, which raises insurance premiums. One in five Americans has an outstanding medical debt. Many of them are hounded by debt collectors and face financial insolvency. Ordinary citizens are caught up in (and weighed down by) a game that forces them to pay out large sums to hospitals, insurance companies, or both. The burden is becoming increasingly unmanageable, and politicians get mired in debates that only scratch the topsoil.
After interviewing CEOs of hospitals, insurance company executives, politicians, doctors, nurses, and lots of patients in 22 US cities, Johns Hopkins University surgeon and professor Marty Makary sheds light on the imbroglio and proposes solutions. He argues that while the medical system has its share of crooks and opportunists, most professionals are good people who wish to do good but struggle against a dysfunctional system. Makary also draws our attention to a burgeoning social movement that aims to return patients to the forefront of care.
Key Insights:
- Passively letting experts continue to mismanage the health care system will work about as well as trusting banks in 2007.
- One of the major problems with American health care is not just lack, but waste.
- Pricing for major surgeries varies widely and is often arbitrary, even if the quality of care is exactly the same.
- Markups on medical bills continue to escalate because of a secretive, elaborate game between hospitals and health insurance companies.
- A growing army of bureaucratic middlemen stands in the way of doctors caring for patients well and patients understanding what is happening.
- A lack of price transparency removes competition and allows hospitals to charge exorbitant prices.
- Some hospitals are beginning to prioritize the patient again, and they reap the rewards in increased patient volume, patient trust, and revenue.
Similar Titles
