Wes of Walk in Brain is doing a book club of the blogs this week on "Uninsured in America: by Susan Starr Sered and Rushika Fernandopulle. I thought I’d chime in with some thoughts on this powerful and painful book. This book presents the real-life stories of a number of people who have slipped through the ever-widening cracks in our patchwork of health care. They argue that to even call it a "system" is not accurate, since there is no organizing principle behind the assortment of state, local, private and public providers of health care that folks have to contend with. The authors organize the book around a few concepts, most importantly the "Death Spiral": In our employer- and family-based health care system, if one is disconnected from these lifelines through job loss, inadequate coverage offered by the employer, or divorce or abuse, it becomes that much harder to stay healthy, which leads to dimmed job prospects, worsening health, and so forth. If they’re available — and they often are not — the safety nets of Medicaid, workman’s comp, and charity care are generally inadequate to the task of actually making people healthy enough to pursue employment at full strength. [...]
Reading list for health care week
This is something of a repeat of an earlier post, but in light of Health Care Week on the Blogs, it’s timely. This is a brief list of things I’ve been reading about health care in the last year: Uninsured in America, by Rushika Fernandopulle and Susan Starr Sered. (Read a review here.)Just a tough, tough book. The authors meet a number of folks who have been sucked into the "death spiral": hard times (divorce, job loss, etc) + medical problems = more hard times + worse medical problems. Did you hear the one about the guy who uses an electric sander on his bone spurs? Oh, well, it’s not that funny anyway. The Moral Hazard Myth, Malcolm Gladwell in the New Yorker.You feel lucky, punk? Well, do ya? Gladwell shows how we’re distributing risk, and the human cost. The Best Care Anywhere, Phillip Longman in the Washington Monthly."Ten years ago, veterans hospitals were dangerous, dirty, and scandal-ridden. Today, they’re producing the highest quality care in the country. Their turnaround points the way toward solving America’s health-care crisis." The Quality Cure? NYT Magazine profile of Harvard prof David Cutler’s ideas about health care reform: Quality, Knowledge, not Price (that’s nice). [...]
