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Written by 
- Format: Trade Paperback, 288 pages
- Publisher: Broadway
- On Sale: October 11, 2005
- Price: $15.99
- ISBN: 978-0-7679-1075-0 (0-7679-1075-3)
about this book
In Critical Condition, award-winning investigative journalists Donald L. Barlett and James B. Steele examine the current, and problematic, state of health care in America.
Barlett and Steele profile patients and doctors seemingly trapped by the system, in the process illuminating what's wrong with the system overall. For instance, doctors recount instances of being second-guessed and undermined by health care insurers; nurses recall tales of hospital meltdowns; and patients explain how they’ve been victimized by a system that is meant to care for them.
The authors also argue that drug companies profit by selling pills in the same manner that Madison Avenue sells soap, while Wall Street rakes in billions by decimating health care businesses, and politicians pass legislation perpetuating the injustices and out-right fraud that the system encourages.
By analyzing the industry and offering an insightful prescription for getting it back on the right track, Critical Condition is an enormously compelling investigative work that should be of interest to students of contemporary politics and business, as well as for those studying to work in the health care field.
"Bestselling investigative journalists Bartlett and Steele deliver a devastating indictment, supported by excellent research, of a health-care system that they say is failing to provide first-rate services to its citizens, 44 million of whom are without insurance.... The authors, who strongly advocate a single payer plan, successfully depict a health-care system in crisis."
—Publisher's Weekly
