First published 2017
American healthcare has transformed into a predatory system that threatens patients rather than healing them. Dr. Elisabeth Rosenthal, an award-winning New York Times reporter, diagnoses how this transformation happened in just decades. She reveals hospitals managed by business executives that behave like predatory lenders, seizing patient homes. Research charities work secretly with pharmaceutical companies to profit from donations. Americans die from routine conditions while affordable treatments exist nearby. Rosenthal breaks down the monolithic industry into its components: hospitals, doctors, insurance companies, and drug manufacturers. She provides practical tools to decode medical doublespeak and navigate the system's pitfalls. The book explains how social and financial incentives created this immoral system organically in a short time span. Rosenthal offers concrete strategies for individual patients to get proper care and demand systemic reform.
Genres: medical, business, american, politics, non-fiction, health, current-affairs, academic
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: investigative-journalism, social-commentary
Setting: United States, New York
Period: 21st Century
416 pages · Hardcover · Penguin Press