False Hopes: Overcoming the Obstacles to a Sustainable, Affordable Medicine

Rating:
Summary: A stark and sober view of the future of health care.
Review: This is one the best books I've read this year, a year in which I've completed an MBA in Medical Group Management after being confronted with a concentrated dose of the issues facing healthcare today. I've been a practicing physician for 27 years and couldn't overstate how well this book lays out the problems we face in the delivery of health care. There will be many objections to the ideas and recommendations contained in this book, especially from the special interests who offer us naught but "False Hopes" for a utopian future; but, in the final analysis our future depends in large part on a devolution in health care to an affordable steady state which can serve the basic needs of our society--our whole society. If you want a stark yet sober answer to our overall healthcare conundrum, rather than a mere list of the problems we face, read this book. It's reminiscent of Schumacher--it's "Small is Beautiful" for health care.