Understanding Health Policy, Fifth Edition
May 22, 2010 by Jim Made
Filed under Easy Fitness Ideas
- ISBN13: 9780071496063
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Product Description
An engaging and clinically applicable work on the principles and structure of the U.S. healthcare system A Doody’s Core Title ESSENTIAL PURCHASE! “Eminently readable…Anyone wanting to gain insight into the forces that shaping health policy and the future of health care will appreciate this book.”–Critical Care Nurse Magazine Understanding Health Policy is the best-written, most informative book available on the subject–and it’s the #1 choi… More >>
Understanding Health Policy, Fifth Edition
Beware: This is an highly ideological text that starts with the assumption that health care is a right! It than goes on to say that in order to fulfill that right it is necessary to control the costs of health care. Obviously, cost control is a very problematic economic proposition that calls for state intervention and that sometimes has consequences that are the opposite of what is desired.
In the UK, where health care is a right, cost control has led to shortages, waiting lists and an overall degradation of health care. The UK, currently, has the highest mortality rates for oncological problems of all the EU countries and British people got used to flying to France and India for medical care. Canadians also have shortages and Canadians resort to the US.
Sometimes a “right” can easily turn into a “incorrect”!
Rating: 1 / 5
Thanks for the quick service. My school couldn’t get me the books in time for classes. Thanks.
Rating: 5 / 5
I am reading this book for a course I am currently taking. While there is a excellent deal to be learned in terms of information, you have to be careful to separate the authors’ opinions from facts practically throughout. The authors are at least kind enough to warn the reader at the outset that they “believe that health care should be a right loved equally by everyone”. In Chapter 13, which is on ethics, they advocate the thought of “distributive justice”. The authors use many “vignettes” throughout the text to illustrate their points as well, but they tend to cloud reason because they are often emotionally charged. There are many ways in which liberal ideology insinuates itself throughout the text. Fine if you already have a liberal point of view, I suppose, but annoying to the student trying to separate fact from liberal-oriented opinion. I do not recommend this book.
Rating: 1 / 5
As another reviewer noted, this book starts from the premise that health care is a right. As a result of this perspective, the first several chapters feature “sob tales” on nearly every page detailing hypothetical examples of people who are place in a terrible situation in our current system. Now, our current system is deeply flawed and any unbiased observer would concede this point, but it struck me as odd that the authors would commenti so heavily on the shortfalls of the American system, and so small on the shortfalls of “universal models” of the type they advocate (long waiting time for the majority of procedures, crowded emergency rooms, less use of advanced technologies, health care rationing, and many of the best doctors leaving the country).
In summary, this is a very well researched book and there is small if anything stated here that isn’t right. There is, but, a fantastic deal that is deemphasized or simply unsaid because it does not support the authors preconceived thoughts of what an thought health care model ought to look like.
Rating: 3 / 5
This book turned out to be worth more than I paid for. It’s an simple read – and gives you fictional tales explaining the concepts behind health care issues and scenarios to help you place into perspective what the author is talking about. The tales are extremely helpful if you are a newbie to public health and health care issues. Should be one of the books you keep on the shelf to refer to from time to time. You cant go incorrect with this book.
Rating: 5 / 5