The Economic Evolution of American Health Care : From Marcus Welby to Managed Care

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Summary: Excellent overview of history and challenges of health care
Review: "The Economic Evolution of American Health Care" provides an excellent summary of the factors which have created our current health care system. Prof. Dranove clearly understands the complexities of health care and the dynamics which drive much of the public debate around it.

Rating:
Summary: Dry reading
Review: Certainly the economics of American healthcare is an issue that has risen into the social consciousness in the last several decades. The issues are complex, but important to anyone who may be a provider or consumer of healthcare. Since this includes all of us, you might expect this book to have broad appeal. However, I doubt that it will.

Do not let the lighthearted subtitle "From Marcus Welby to Managed Care" beguile you into thinking this is causal reading. It is not. It is a well-researched, well-written and scholarly look at changes in healthcare delivery in the last several decades. This does not lend itself to casual reading. While healthcare administrators and physicians may find this material worthy, it is not a book that many would read for enjoyment.

Mr. Dranove has done a very fine job of concisely summarizing the issues in a very complicated subject. The reader is not presented with any equations or formulas and numbers and jargon are kept to a minimum. This is a very nice conceptual presentation of the issues surrounding largely unsuccessful attempts to reform American healthcare delivery. Emphasis is placed on prior attempts to affect marketplace forces and how these efforts failed because of unforeseen variables. The dullness of the material is not the fault of the author. The material is actually very well presented; it is just a very dry subject.

If you are motivated to read this book, a better understanding of very important issues surrounding the economics of American healthcare will reward you. I found reading this book to be like taking bitter medicine. I'm better because of it, but I didn't enjoy it.

Rating:
Summary: Factually supported, succinct and accurate
Review: Dranove's book on managed care and the changes in healthcare delivery in the United States are well summarized in the opening chapters. Most importantly, however, is the author's insight into the core reasons for "deviations" in healthcare delivery, e.g. the economic incentives for offering healthcare services (or rationing of care) within managed care institutions, physicians and hospitals. Such understanding is truly critical to proposing any sort of rational solution to current managed care problems. Dranove's style and writing is excellent but buyer beware -- the non-medical reader should be aware that this topic in inherently dry despite its importance in our society. This book should be mandatory reading for all healthcare administrators, medical students and physicians.

Rating:
Summary: Easy to Read and Informative
Review: I am in Healthcare IT area and I learned lots of insights about the problems of the healthcare industry from this book for excelling our product offer to physicians. Great Book Great Author...

Rating:
Summary: Good, but not great
Review: there is no question that Dranove is an expert in the field of health care economics. His book is interesting and contains a great deal of good information.
Unfortunately, it also leaves out a great deal of critical information and occasionally he editorializes when he should be reporting facts.
For instance, Dranove refers to the changes in health care, saying that prior to the 1930s, most hospitals were of the for-profit variety and not-for-profits began to gain momentum in the '30s. He neglects to mention something that happened in 1929 that might have had some effect on the profitability of for-profits -- the stock market crash.
He also makes a statement that the era of big government ended with the inauguration of Ronald Reagan, but makes no attempt to substantiate the statement. In fact, the federal government was larger when Reagan left office, was spending far more and had hundreds of thousands more employees.
There are numerous examples of this kind of sin of omission in the book. It would have been much more enjoyable and legitimate had Dranove addressed some of these issues, even tangentially.
So, while Dranove's book is a good, thought-provoking read. It is by no means the final word on the issue.

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Summary: Healthcare economics from a expert in the field
Review: This book is an excellent primer that reviews the economics of healthcare. There is ample coverage of the history and the contemporary state of the subject that is organized and presented with clarity. Professor Dranove's conclusions are logically linked with fundamental economic principles that should enlighten both those with a healthcare background in the business aspects and those with a business background in the healthcare aspects of the largest market in the world. This is a "must-read" for people in any healthcare space and for business people desiring to increase their knowledge in the field presented in an easily digestible manner. I have derived much of this knowledge from various far-flung sources, but Professor Dranove's work does a better job of condensing valuable information on healthcare economics in a single manuscript than I was able to locate previously. I had the pleasure of Professor Dranove's instruction during my MBA studies at Kellogg and can attest to his expert knowledge and informed perspectives in both economic strategy and healthcare as presented here.

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Summary: A Good Primary Text for Physicians in Training
Review: This is an excellent book that covers the most important functional elements of health economics. I am a teaching Clinical Professor of Pediatrics in the University of Virginia Health System and I plan to incorporate this book as a primary text for discussion in our resident program. The only deficiency is a lack of discussion of past, present, and future insurance models such as classic and discounted fee for service, capitation, defined benefit versus defined contribution, and medical savings accounts.