Health Care Half-Truths

Too Many Myths, Not Enough Reality

By (author) Arthur Garson Jr., Carolyn L. Engelhard

Not available to order

Publication date:

26 March 2007

Length of book:

314 pages

Publisher

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

ISBN-13: 9780742565913

Are you tired of hearing that the American health care 'system' is broken? Well, it is. You can't understand your bill—or pay it; you wait an hour before seeing the doctor for ten minutes; and that was your child who was just laid off, and whose family has no health insurance. Health Care Half-Truths shows the ways in which American health care is tarnished and ways in which it shines, explaining that if we are going to make our health care system work for us we must begin with a common set of information. Unfortunately, our current information comes from sound bites that on their surface seem perfectly reasonable, but on closer examination are wrong. Health Care Half-Truths untangles the misinformation, misperceptions, and confusion that have confounded the American public and our elected officials. Dr. Arthur Garson identifies twenty myths about the U.S. health care system and uses his extensive knowledge and keen insights to blow them apart.

Chapter 1 Introduction
Chapter 2 I. Our Country and the World
Chapter 3 1. American Medical Care Is Second-Rate Compared to Other Countries
Chapter 4 2. American Health Care Is the Most Expensive in the World
Chapter 5 II. Cost: The Expensive Care Myths
Chapter 6 3. America Wastes One-Half of its Medical Care Dollars
Chapter 7 4. Most Medical Care Dollars Are Spent in the Last Six Months of Life
Chapter 8 5. Better Quality Saves Money
Chapter 9 6. Preventive Care Saves Money
Chapter 10 7. America Will Not Ration Health Care
Chapter 11 III. Quality: The Good Care Myths
Chapter 12 8. Science Drives Most Medical Decisions
Chapter 13 9. High Quality Care Cannot Be Defined
Chapter 14 10. Consumers Can Make the Best Decisions about Their Medical Care
Chapter 15 11. Fewer Doctors Will Be Needed As Medicine Changes
Chapter 16 12. The Current Malpractice System Helps Patients
Chapter 17 13. Managing Care Is Evil
Chapter 18 IV. Coverage: The Insurance, Underinsurance, and Uninsurance Myths
Chapter 19 14. In America, There Is a Safety Net of Government Programs Providing Health Care for the Poor
Chapter 20 15. People Who Work Can Afford Health Insurance
Chapter 21 16. Provision of Health Insurance for Employees Has Always Been the Employer's Responsibility, and Will Continue That Way
Chapter 22 17. The Uninsured Get the Care They Need in Emergency Rooms
Chapter 23 18. No Additional Funding Is Needed to Cover the Uninsured; the Money is Available in the System
Chapter 24 V. The Future
Chapter 25 19. All Other Countries Provide Health Care Coverage for Everyone; We Should Be No Different
Chapter 26 20. Major Change in the American Health Care System is Impossible

Health care now accounts for one-sixth of the entire US economy, yet it is misunderstood by almost everyone. By challenging common myths about health care, Garson and Engelhard artfully help readers of all levels of expertise gain a far better appreciation of the strengths as well as the problems of our health care system....