the healing of america a global quest for better

For example, Reid asserts that infant mortality, a statistic for which the US rates poorly, is caused primarily by the absence of universal coverage. The conclusions he draws from his few data are dubious.

Because a primary component of these quality ratings is whether a country has universal health care, the US cannot rate well. They do not consist primarily of raw data - the stuff of genuine scientific analysis - but rather of other people’s opinions of what constitutes excellence. The statistics Reid offers are thin gruel. Reid also ignores the fact that more than 10% of the population in single-payer countries such as the UK and Spain spurn single-payer coverage, opting instead to buy private health insurance that enables them to use private sector medical care providers. As the British and Canadian governments have long openly bemoaned, universal coverage does not mean equal access. Reid’s data about the quality of health care consist mostly of his personal encounters, but can Reid, a well-seasoned journalist, be so naive as to believe that the medical care he receives as the employee of a world-famous newspaper is similar to that of the average Joe, Abir, or Heinz? Perhaps for this reason, Reid ignores the brutal inequity of the government-controlled health-care systems he so admires: rich, well-connected, and articulate people have much better access to health care. His vignettes of some of the important, colorful figures who shaped national health care systems, such as Germany’s Iron Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, also add zest.īut where Reid succeeds in the journalist’s metier - stories about personal encounters and people - he overreaches when he attempts to weave these episodes into a compelling comparison of the value for money of different health care systems. The cures he encounters range from a Tibetan-style urine tasting and Ayurvedic therapy in India, to the “wait and see” attitude of the Brits, to the surgical zeal of the US, the arch villain of the piece.

His book details his international quest for relief for his stiff shoulder.

It is engaging because Reid, a long-time correspondent for the Washington Post, knows how to tell a good story. Reid’s The healing of America is an engaging but thin epistle for universal health insurance coverage in the US.

The healing of america a global quest for better