In addition to shopping the sales, eating way too much, trying some really lovely wines, anticipating using my new baking pans, and scraping bathroom woodwork, I picked up a stack of books from the library. Perusing through nonfiction in a vain attempt to locate the Omnivore's Dilemma, I picked up Sick, by Jonathan Cohn. I've read his healthcare-related articles before, and I've been impressed with his ability to distill complicated elements into a simpler, easier-to-understand larger picture.
So, I've been pretty steadily tearing through this book, which illustrates the myriad failures of our healthcare system, using examples of individuals for whom the system has failed. He also nicely provides historical context throughout, which gives a good background understanding without overwhelming the larger narrative or turning the book into an eye-popping treatise on the history of health policy in the United States.
It's depressing but illuminating reading. And from the Chicago perspective, it's quite enlightening to read about the strong-arm collection tactics of nonprofit Catholic hospitals, which seem to have bought out a lot of the remaining hospitals around here. You know what seems like a bad move from a PR perspective? A Catholic hospital suing a destitute former nun for unpaid hospital bills. Just one illustration of how we're living with the best healthcare system in the world, baby!
I should add, a point that he stresses throughout is that people with insurance tend to assume that there is a safety net available for the most needy (a perception shared and reinforced at high levels of government). This turns out not to necessarily be the case.
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