Start with Fresh Medicine by Philip Bredesen. (It’s even a bargain book at Amazon.com and I’m tempted to buy this since I’ve only read the library’s copy so far. ** Note that I’m not recommending Amazon.com in particular but it’s convenient to link to them.)
Bredesen basically puts forth a model of what Obamacare should have been, using the tools of government carrots and sticks to insist that private healthcare insurers and providers provide genuinely coordinated care. There were some quibbles I had with his proposal, but not too many, in the grand scheme of things.
Then move on to How We Do Harm: A Doctor Breaks Ranks About Being Sick in America by Otis Webb Brawley. This one is really eye-opening, about the countless ways in which doctors provide healthcare that doesn’t actually heal their patients, either because it’s profitable to them, or because they don’t actively think hard enough about what really works, or follow the latest trends, or for multiple reasons.
I have in mind to reread both of these and undertake the exercise of typing up more comprehensive summarizes, but anyone who wants to understand the problems with our healthcare system should start with these two books.
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