The Healing of America

Bestselling author T. R. Reid guides a whirlwind tour ofsuccessful health care systems worldwide, revealing possible pathstoward U.S. reformIn The Healing of America, New York Timesbestselling author T. R. Reid shows how all the otherindustrialized democracies have achieved something the UnitedStates can’t seem to do: provide health care for everybody at areasonable cost.In his global quest to find a possible prescription,Reid visits wealthy, free market, industrialized democracieslike our own—including France, Germany, Japan, the U.K.,and Canada—where he finds inspiration in example. Reidshares evidence from doctors, government officials, health careexperts, and patients the world over, finding that foreign healthcare systems give everybody quality care at an affordable cost.And that dreaded monster “socialized medicine”turns out to be a myth. Many developed countries provideuniversal coverage with private doctors, private hospitals, andprivate insurance.In addition to long-established systems, Reid alsostudies countries that have carried out major health carereform. The first question facing these countries—and theUnited States, for that matter—is an ethical issue: Is healthcare a human right? Most countries have already answered witha resolute yes, leaving the United States in the murky moralbackwater with nations we typically think of as far less just thanour own.The Healing of America lays bare the moral questionat the heart of our troubled system, dissecting the misleadingrhetoric surrounding the health care debate. Reid sees problemselsewhere, too: He finds poorly paid doctors in Japan, endlesslines in Canada, mistreated patients in Britain, spartan facilitiesin France. Still, all the other rich countries operate at a lowercost, produce better health statistics, and cover everybody.In the end, The Healing of America is a good news book: Itfinds models around the world that Americans can borrow toguarantee health care for everybody who needs it.