What's wrong with America's Health Care System...

Money-Driven Medicine: The Real Reason Health Care Costs So Much by Maggie Mahar


My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Maggie Mahar's fascinating and compelling book, Money-Driven Medicine:  The Real Reason Health Care Costs So Much, contributes much to our understanding of the current health care crisis.  Mahar takes the reader behind the hysterical ranting about "pulling the plug on grandma" and "socialized medicine."  In doing so, she provides the reader with a clear and accessible analysis of why we pay more, for less. 

The disciples of the "free market" would have us believe that competition between insurance companies serves to dampen soaring prices.  Unfortunately, as Mahar shows, the fiercely competitive health care arena pits doctors against doctors and hospitals against hospitals.  In the current system, everyone gets paid on a piece rate basis.  The more procedures, prescriptions, surgeries provided, the higher the profit.  The problem with this kind of arrangement is that often times, more is not necessarily better.  That is, more treatment does not result in better health outcomes for patients.

Mahar is at her best when she presents strong evidence for the failure of more treatment to foster greater health.  She details examples of how the flurry of unproven treatments, unnecessary tests, and defective medical devices actually threatens patients' well-being. 

Money-Driven Medicine should be required reading for every member of Congress as well as all Americans.  We need to move beyond distracting and obfuscating hyperbole toward a thorough accounting of exactly how our health care system works and doesn't work.  Only then will we be able to develop more rational and effective policy options to ensure the health and well-being for all. 

For those interested in seeing the film based on Mahar's book, go to the link www.moneydrivenmedicine.org for more information.