Thursday, September 27, 2007

Amazon.com: Who Killed HealthCare?: America's $2 Trillion Medical Problem - and the Consumer-Driven Cure: Books: Regina Herzlinger

Amazon.com: Who Killed HealthCare?: America's $2 Trillion Medical Problem - and the Consumer-Driven Cure: Books: Regina Herzlinger: "'Four armies are battling to gain control [of health care]: the health insurers, hospitals, government, and doctors. Yet you and I, the people who use the health care system and who pay for all of it, are not even combatants. And the doctors, the group whose interests are most closely aligned with our welfare, are losing the war.'

What to do? Herzlinger's convincing, indeed compelling and eloquent response to that question is best revealed within her narrative. However, for present purposes, here are a few key recommendations:

1. Consumers must take back the money their employers and government now take from their salaries and taxes to buy health insurance on their behalf so they can make their own purchase decisions.
2. Physicians must be empowered to design better, cheaper health care.
3. The destitute must be subsidized by 'the rest of us' so that can purchase health insurance 'like everybody else.'
4. The federal government must help subsidize the destitute, provide transparency (a key factor for all consumers, actually), and prosecute fraud and abuse."

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