Epidemic of Care: A Call for Safer, Better, and More Accountable Health Care

By George C. Halvorson and George J. Isham

Book Overview

Health care premiums in the U.S. are escalating from twelve to twenty percent a year-- with no end in sight. The impact of those cost increases on both employers and employees will be huge. Workers will see a direct cut in their take-home pay. Millions will lose health insurance coverage completely. Senior citizens on fixed incomes will be hit particularly hard, as premiums for their Medicare supplement plans and prescription drug costs climb. Frustrated and angry, people will soon be demanding a solution from their elected officials, and, for the first time in recent memory, the size of our unemployed population will become a real political issue rather than just the subject of energetic rhetoric. It is time to recognize that we are moving into a major health care crisis in this country, a crisis driven by the way we deliver, receive, and pay for care. Epidemic of Care offers a comprehensive assessment of the factors behind the cost crisis, how the crisis will escalate, and what can be done to improve the situation. A blueprint for getting to a coherent national health policy, this book calls for a collaboration between different parts of the private sector, state and local governments, and, at times, the federal government-- with a formula that can succeed no matter who rules Congress. Authors George C. Halvorson and George J. Isham, M.D.-- two individuals who have made an impressive impact on the national health care scene-- provide some practical, field-tested, sometimes controversial suggestions about how to make health care in this country more accountable, more efficient, more valuable, and more affordable.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0787968889
• ISBN13: 9780787968885
• Release Date: May 2003
• Publisher: Jossey-Bass
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 1.14 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.3" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Readable and timely

This is an intellegently written synopsis of the current state of affairs in U.S. healthcare. Halvorson and Isham analyse the strengths and faults of the major attempts to bring the run away cost of health care into some affordable limits. They point out the strengths and weaknesses of each approach. They also have some suggestions for the future so we will not repeat the errors of the past.Being in the Health Insurance business I have heard many alternatives proferred to correct our perceived need for health care reform. Mssrs. Halvorson and Isham have presented the best arguement I have seen so far for a workable solution.

Care Costs

We Americans are ambitious, aggressive, and full of self-interest. We want the best and the most, and we strive to achieve it. We are resourceful and clever, and we achieve a lot of what we set out to. Mr. Halvorson and Dr. Isham show how much we have accomplished in clinical science, especially in how doctors and institutions provide health care to individuals. But they also show how little regard we have to the financial cost of providing that care. They describe the fiscal and social trade-offs that occur in our medical economy all the time. Very few of us entrepreneurs, politicians, social leaders or patients are even minimally conscious of these costs. Reading this book will change how you listen to the next story about a premature baby or a liver transplant, and it ought to change how you think about the health care you consume.

Health care's diagnosis--and potential cure

In clear terms, Halvorson and Isham examine why the American health care "non-" system continues to deliver some of the best health care in the world-and some of the worst-at a price fewer and fewer people can afford. The authors do an excellent job of assessing the current health care landscape, how it got that way, and what health care decision-makers and consumers can do about it. In these days of "cost shifting" and "skinny" benefits, their emphasis on health care delivery redesign is a refreshing reminder that measuring and rewarding quality is the only way to truly solve the health care crisis.

an important take on health care

This was a highly informative take on a topic that is sure to become even more urgent as time goes on. A must-read for health care workers as well as any citizen interested in understanding how our health care system works and what it will take to improve it.