Good books to read about current situation and challenges of the US medical system

[Dr panda]

---

Members do not see this ad.

Hi everyone. I would like to get more knowledge regarding US healthcare system (it’s history, structure, challenges etc), there are a lot of good articles and documentary films, but I am a bit old school and prefer hard cover books. What are the good books to read about it?

 

[deleted480308]

Any book would be out of date by the time it was printed

 

[Obnoxious Dad]

Read everything by Atul Gawande. Start with his articles in the New Yorker. Here you go:

Atul Gawande

Atul Gawande joined The New Yorker as a staff writer in 1998. He stepped down from the post in January, 2022, after being appointed by the Biden Administration to lead global health at USAID. Gawande is the author of four best-selling books: “Complications,” a finalist for the National Book...

www.newyorker.com

 

[ChymeofPassion]

Healthcare Disparity by Donald Barr

 

[LizzyM]

Any book would be out of date by the time it was printed

I agree. Kaiser has a good health care news portal. Health Law might be a good place to start but it's all good:

The Health Law Archives - KFF Health News

khn.org

The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times are two opposing viewpoints and there are stories periodically that are worthwhile to peruse. Buying online access is affordable and you can then go into archived stories and catch up over the past year or so.

 

[deleted927529]

An American Sickness by Dr. Elisabeth Rosenthal is very thorough and might interest you

 

[JoaoMoutinho]

I agree with sb247 and LizzyM, but a book that I found interesting was Remedy and Reaction by Paul Starr. This book is a bit more historical (and political) and outlines the history of many of the issues from a political perspective starting in the early 1900s, and large chunks of the book focus on the time period starting with the Clinton administration's attempt at healthcare reform through the passage of the ACA. The author himself notes that it is impossible for him to remain unbiased as he was a key policy advisor for Clinton, but nevertheless I thought the book did a great job of giving political and historical context to the current system.