Random House New Releases - Medical - Health Policy

Catastrophic Care by David Goldhill

2013-10-08T00:30:00-05:00

Catastrophic Care What's Wrong with American Health Care and How we Can Fix It
Written by David Goldhill

Trade Paperback, 384 pages | Vintage | Medical - Health Policy; Business & Economics - Insurance - Health; Political Science - Social Policy | $15.95 | 978-0-345-80273-6 (0-345-80273-X)

A visionary investigation that will change the way we think about health care: how and why it is failing, why expanding coverage will actually make things worse, and how our health care can be transformed into a transparent, affordable, successful system.
In 2007, David Goldhill’s father died from infections acquired in a hospital, one of more than two hundred thousand avoidable deaths per year caused by medical error. The bill was enormous—and Medicare paid it. These circumstances left Goldhill angry and determined to understand how world-class technology and personnel could coexist with such carelessness—and how a business that failed so miserably could be paid in full. Catastrophic Care is the eye-opening result.

Blending personal anecdotes and extensive research, Goldhill presents us with cogent, biting analysis that challenges the basic preconceptions that have shaped our thinking for decades. Contrasting the Island of health care with the Mainland of our economy, he demonstrates that high costs, excess medicine, terrible service, and medical error are the inevitable consequences of our insurance-based system. He explains why policy efforts to fix these problems have invariably produced perverse results, and how the new Affordable Care Act is more likely to deepen than to solve these issues.

Goldhill steps outside the incremental and wonkish debates to question the conventional wisdom blinding us to more fundamental issues. He proposes a comprehensive new way, where the customer (the patient) is first—a system focused on health and maintaining it, a system strong and vibrant enough for our future.

If you think health care is interesting only to institutes and politicians, think again: Catastrophic Care is surprising, engaging, and brimming with insights born of questions nobody has thought to ask. Above all it is a book of new ideas that can transform the way we understand a subject we often take for granted.

The Greenprint for a Healthy America by Bill McKibben

2013-07-30T00:30:00-05:00

The Greenprint for a Healthy America A bold, innovative approach to transforming the way we consider health, transportation, and community
Written by Rebecca Jones, M.D.
Foreword by Bill McKibben

Trade Paperback, 256 pages | Hatherleigh Press | Nature - Environmental Conservation & Protection; Medical - Health Policy | $15.95 | 978-1-57826-450-6 (1-57826-450-2)

The Greenprint for a Healthy America by Bill McKibben

2013-07-30T00:30:00-05:00

The Greenprint for a Healthy America A bold, innovative approach to transforming the way we consider health, transportation, and community
Written by Rebecca Jones, M.D.
Foreword by Bill McKibben

eBook, 256 pages | Hatherleigh Press | Nature - Environmental Conservation & Protection; Medical - Health Policy | $9.99 | 978-1-57826-451-3 (1-57826-451-0)

Catastrophic Care by David Goldhill

2013-01-08T00:30:00-05:00

Catastrophic Care How American Health Care Killed My Father--and How We Can Fix It
Written by David Goldhill

Hardcover, 384 pages | Knopf | Medical - Health Policy; Business & Economics - Insurance - Health; Political Science - Social Policy | $25.95 | 978-0-307-96154-9 (0-307-96154-0)

Catastrophic Care by David Goldhill

2013-01-08T00:30:00-05:00

Catastrophic Care How American Health Care Killed My Father--and How We Can Fix It
Written by David Goldhill

eBook, 384 pages | Knopf | Medical - Health Policy; Business & Economics - Insurance - Health; Political Science - Social Policy | $13.99 | 978-0-307-96155-6 (0-307-96155-9)

Catastrophic Care by Dean Sluyter

2013-01-08T00:30:00-05:00

Catastrophic Care How American Health Care Killed My Father--and How We Can Fix It
Written by David Goldhill
Read by Dean Sluyter

Unabridged Audiobook Download | Random House Audio | Medical - Health Policy; Business & Economics - Insurance - Health; Political Science - Social Policy | $22.50 | 978-0-385-36402-7 (0-385-36402-4)

Overdiagnosed by Steve Woloshin

2012-01-03T00:30:00-05:00

Overdiagnosed Making People Sick in the Pursuit of Health
Written by H. Gilbert Welch, Lisa Schwartz and Steve Woloshin

Trade Paperback, 248 pages | Beacon Press | Medical - Diagnosis; Medical - Health Policy; Medical - Ethics | $15.00 | 978-0-8070-2199-6 (0-8070-2199-7)

A complex web of factors has created the phenomenon of overdiagnosis: the popular media promotes fear of disease and perpetuates the myth that early, aggressive treatment is always best; in an attempt to avoid lawsuits, doctors have begun to leave no test undone, no abnormality overlooked; and profits are being made from screenings, medical procedures, and pharmaceuticals. Revealing the social, medical, and economic ramifications of a health-care system that overdiagnoses and overtreats patients, Dr. H. Gilbert Welch makes a reasoned call for change that would save us pain, worry, and money.

Power, Politics, and Universal Health Care by Stuart Altman

2011-09-27T00:30:00-05:00

Power, Politics, and Universal Health Care The Inside Story of a Century-Long Battle
Written by Stuart Altman

eBook | Prometheus Books | Political Science - Social Policy; Social Science; Medical - Health Policy | $11.99 | 978-1-61614-457-9 (1-61614-457-2)

Why was the Obama health plan so controversial and difficult to understand? In this readable, entertaining, and substantive book, Stuart Altman—inter-nationally recognized expert in health policy and adviser to five US presidents—and fellow health care specialist David Shactman explain not only the Obama health plan but also many of the intriguing stories in the hundred-year saga leading up to the landmark 2010 legislation. Blending political intrigue, policy substance, and good old-fashioned storytelling, this is the first book to place the Obama health plan within a historical perspective. The authors describe the sometimes haphazard, piece-by-piece construction of the nation’s health care system, from the early efforts of Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman to the later additions of Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush. In each case, they examine the factors that led to success or failure, often by illuminating little-known political maneuvers that brought about immense shifts in policy or thwarted herculean efforts at reform. Despite its importance in history, few people know that Richard Nixon marshaled the best attempt to enact universal health care; or that he arranged secret health policy meetings with aides to Ted Kennedy in the basement of a Washington, DC, church. Who knew that the American Medical Association (AMA) publicly questioned the surgeon general’s report that tobacco was harmful in order to defeat the Medicare bill, or that three separate sex scandals obstructed the road to universal health care? The authors look at key moments in health care history: the Hill–Burton Act in 1946, in which one determined poverty lawyer secured the rights of the uninsured poor to get hospital care; the "three-layer cake" strategy of powerful House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Wilbur Mills to enact Medicare and Medicaid under Lyndon Johnson in 1965; the odd story of how Medicare catastrophic insurance was passed by Ronald Reagan in 1988 and then repealed because of public anger in 1989; and the fact that the largest and most expensive expansion of Medicare was enacted by George W. Bush in 2003. President Barack Obama is the protagonist in the climactic chapter, learning from the successes and failures chronicled throughout the narrative. The authors relate how, in the midst of a worldwide financial meltdown, Obama overcame seemingly impossible obstacles to accomplish what other presidents had tried and failed to achieve for nearly one hundred years. This book is essential reading for every American who must navigate the US health care system.

Power, Politics, and Universal Health Care by Stuart Altman

2011-09-20T00:30:00-05:00

Power, Politics, and Universal Health Care The Inside Story of a Century-Long Battle
Written by Stuart Altman

Hardcover, 429 pages | Prometheus Books | Political Science - Social Policy; Social Science; Medical - Health Policy | $26.00 | 978-1-61614-456-2 (1-61614-456-4)

Profit Is Not the Cure by Maude Barlow

2011-02-18T00:30:00-05:00

Profit Is Not the Cure A Citizen's Guide to Saving Medicare
Written by Maude Barlow

eBook | McClelland & Stewart | Political Science - Social Services & Welfare; Health & Fitness - Health Care Issues; Medical - Health Policy | $9.99 | 978-1-55199-526-7 (1-55199-526-3)

On July 12, 1966, the Medical Care Insurance Act was passed by the federal House of Commons after a ferocious public debate that pitted the vast majority of Canadians against a powerful alliance of business, insurance companies, and doctors.

More than thirty years later, the same battle is being fought all over again. Only now, the forces opposed to medicare are more ideologically unified, more richly endowed, and tied to transnational corporations whose power exceeds that of entire countries.

In Profit Is Not the Cure, Maude Barlow traces the history of medicare in Canada. She compares it with both public and private systems in other parts of the world. And she contrasts it with the brutally divisive system that exists in the United States, where forty-four million people have no medical insurance, and millions more get minimal care through profit-driven health maintenance organizations.

From the point of view of most patients, the United States health-care model is a disaster. But the proponents of privatization in Canada, supported by the right-wing media and corporate lobbyists, are determined to impose American-style “reforms” on the Canadian public. Three provinces – British Columbia, Alberta, and Ontario – are moving ahead rapidly to enlarge the role of commerce in the provision of health-care services. They are introducing user fees, delisting procedures that previously were covered, and encouraging private corporations to move into areas that used to be the exclusive domain of the public system.

While the prime minister and federal cabinet have paid lipservice to the principles of medicare, they have made it clear by their actions that they will do nothing to impede the destruction of those principles by the provinces. In fact, their enthusiastic support of NAFTA, and the impending Free Trade Agreement of the Americas (FTAA) and General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), has made the defence of medicare increasingly difficult.

Canadians overwhelmingly support medicare. Many, however, have been persuaded that it is a luxury we can no longer afford. Maude Barlow argues that this proposition is wrong. An earlier generation fought a bitter battle to bring medicare into existence. Another battle must be fought now to save it. But we owe it to the founders of the system, as well as to future generations, to take up the cause again. This important book shows the way.

From the Hardcover edition.

Dispatches from the Abortion Wars by Carole Joffe

2010-01-01T00:30:00-05:00

Dispatches from the Abortion Wars The Costs of Fanaticism to Doctors, Patients, and the Rest of Us
Written by Carole Joffe

Hardcover, 208 pages | Beacon Press | Social Science - Abortion & Birth Control; Health & Fitness - Women's Health; Medical - Health Policy | $27.95 | 978-0-8070-3502-3 (0-8070-3502-5)

Surprising firsthand accounts from the front lines of abortion provision reveal the persistent cultural, political, and economic hurdles to access

More than thirty-five years after women won the right to legal abortion, most people do not realize how inaccessible it has become. In these pages, reproductive-health researcher Carole Joffe shows how a pervasive stigma—cultivated by the religious right—operates to maintain barriers to access by shaming women and marginalizing abortion providers. Through compelling testimony from doctors, health-care workers, and patients, Joffe reports the lived experiences behind the polemics, while also offering hope for a more compassionate standard of women’s health care.

From the Trade Paperback edition.

Powerful Medicines by Jerry Avorn, M.D.

2008-12-10T00:30:00-05:00

Powerful Medicines The Benefits, Risks, and Costs of Prescription Drugs
Written by Jerry Avorn, M.D.

eBook, 480 pages | Vintage | Medical - Administration; Medical - Health Policy; Health & Fitness - Health Care Issues | $13.99 | 978-0-307-48975-3 (0-307-48975-2)

If you believe that the latest blockbuster medication is worth a premium price over your generic brand, or that doctors have access to all the information they need about a drug’s safety and effectiveness each time they write a prescription, Dr. Jerry Avorn has some sobering news. Drawing on more than twenty-five years of patient care, teaching, and research at Harvard Medical School, he shares his firsthand experience of the wide gap in our knowledge of the effectiveness of one medication as compared to another. In Powerful Medicines, he reminds us that every pill we take represents a delicate compromise between the promise of healing, the risk of side effects, and an increasingly daunting price. The stakes on each front grow higher every year as new drugs with impressive power, worrisome side effects, and troubling costs are introduced.

This is a comprehensive behind-the-scenes look at issues that affect everyone: our shortage of data comparing the worth of similar drugs for the same condition; alarming lapses in the detection of lethal side effects; the underuse of life-saving medications; lavish marketing campaigns that influence what doctors prescribe; and the resulting upward spiral of costs that places vital drugs beyond the reach of many Americans.

In this engagingly written book, Dr. Avorn asks questions that will interest every consumer: How can a product judged safe by the Food and Drug Administration turn out to have unexpectedly lethal side effects? Why has the nation’s drug bill been growing at nearly 20 percent per year? How can physicians and patients pick the best medication in its class? How do doctors actually make their prescribing decisions, and why do those decisions sometimes go wrong? Why do so many Americans suffer preventable illnesses and deaths that proper drug use could have averted? How can the nation gain control over its escalating drug budget without resorting to rationing or draconian governmental controls?
Using clinical case histories taken from his own work as a practitioner, researcher, and advocate, Dr. Avorn demonstrates the impressive power of the well-conceived prescription as well as the debacles that can result when medications are misused. He describes an innovative program that employs the pharmaceutical industry’s own marketing techniques to reduce use of some of the most overprescribed and overpriced products. Powerful Medicines offers timely and practical advice on how the nation can improve its drug-approval process, and how patients can work with doctors to make sure their prescriptions are safe, effective, and as affordable as possible.
This is a passionate and provocative call for action as well as a compelling work of clear-headed science.

Biomedical Ethics by Howard B. Radest

2006-10-30T00:30:00-05:00

Biomedical Ethics Humanist Perspectives of Humanism Today
Written by Howard B. Radest

Hardcover, 236 pages | Prometheus Books | Philosophy - Ethics & Moral Philosophy; Science - Biology; Medical - Health Policy | $30.99 | 978-1-59102-423-1 (1-59102-423-4)

Biomedical ethics raises a host of humanistic issues. Among these are human dignity, personal autonomy, quality of life, and access to care for all. Now, more than ever, scientific discoveries and medical technologies prompt us to rethink older perspectives. Humanists have an unprecedented opportunity to shape the moral agenda of the future. In this collection of thoughtful articles from the Humanist Institute, humanist scholars from various fields explore a number of critical issues in bioethics. The moral status of the human embryo, scientific medicine versus Eastern concepts of caregiving, the human genome project, eugenics, contraception, and the economics of healthcare are just some of the topics considered in this enlightening volume. The contributors include: Berit Brogaard, Vern Bullough, Carmela Epright, Faith Lagay, Mason Olds, Howard B. Radest, Philip Regal, Andreas S. Rosenberg, Harvey Sarles, David Schafer, Robert B. Tapp, Stephen P. Weldon, and Michael Werner. For students of ethics, healthcare practitioners and policy makers, and everyone who wishes to participate intelligently in decisions involving cure and care, this work is of great value.

Trust is Not Enough by Sheila M. Rothman

2006-06-06T00:30:00-05:00

Trust is Not Enough Bringing Human Rights to Medicine
Written by David J. Rothman and Sheila M. Rothman

Hardcover, 240 pages | New York Review Books | Political Science - Social Services & Welfare; Medical - Health Policy | $24.95 | 978-1-59017-140-0 (1-59017-140-3)

Addresses the issues at the heart of international medicine and social responsibility.

During the last half-century many international declarations have proclaimed health care to be a fundamental human right. But high aspirations repeatedly confront harsh realities, in societies both rich and poor. To illustrate this disparity, David and Sheila Rothman bring together stories from their investigations around the world into medical abuses. A central theme runs through their account: how the principles of human rights, including bodily integrity, informed consent, and freedom from coercion, should guide physicians and governments in dealing with patients and health care.

Over the past two decades, the Rothmans have visited post-Ceausescu Romania, where they uncovered the primitive medical practices that together with state oppression caused hundreds of orphans to develop AIDS. They have monitored the exploitative international traffic in organs in India, China, Singapore, and the Philippines. One of the most controversial questions they explore is experimentation on human beings, whether in studies of the effects of radioactive iron on pregnant women in 1940s Tennessee or in contemporary trials of AIDS drugs in the third world. And they examine a number of rulings by South Africa’s Constitutional Court that have suggested practical ways of reconciling the right to health care with its society’s limited resources.

Whether discussing the training of young doctors in the US, the effects of segregation on medicine in Zimbabwe, or proposals for rationing health care, David and Sheila Rothman conclude that an ethical and professional concern for observing medicine’s oldest commandment—do no harm—must be joined with a profound commitment to protecting human rights.

Powerful Medicines by Jerry Avorn, M.D.

2005-08-09T00:30:00-05:00

Powerful Medicines The Benefits, Risks, and Costs of Prescription Drugs
Written by Jerry Avorn, M.D.

Trade Paperback, 480 pages | Vintage | Medical - Administration; Medical - Health Policy; Health & Fitness - Health Care Issues | $15.95 | 978-1-4000-3078-1 (1-4000-3078-1)

Powerful Medicines by Jerry Avorn, M.D.

2004-08-17T00:30:00-05:00

Powerful Medicines The Benefits, Risks, and Costs of Prescription Drugs
Written by Jerry Avorn, M.D.

Hardcover, 464 pages | Knopf | Medical - Administration; Medical - Health Policy; Health & Fitness - Health Care Issues | $27.50 | 978-0-375-41483-1 (0-375-41483-5)

Profit Is Not the Cure by Maude Barlow

2003-10-07T00:30:00-05:00

Profit Is Not the Cure A Citizen's Guide to Saving Medicare
Written by Maude Barlow

Trade Paperback, 296 pages | McClelland & Stewart | Political Science - Social Services & Welfare; Health & Fitness - Health Care Issues; Medical - Health Policy | $13.95 | 978-0-7710-1084-2 (0-7710-1084-2)

Random House New Releases - Medical - Health Policy

Catastrophic Care by David Goldhill

Catastrophic Care What's Wrong with American Health Care and How we Can Fix ItWritten by David Goldhill

The Greenprint for a Healthy America by Bill McKibben

The Greenprint for a Healthy America A bold, innovative approach to transforming the way we consider health, transportation, and communityWritten by Rebecca Jones, M.D. Foreword by Bill McKibben

The Greenprint for a Healthy America by Bill McKibben

The Greenprint for a Healthy America A bold, innovative approach to transforming the way we consider health, transportation, and communityWritten by Rebecca Jones, M.D. Foreword by Bill McKibben

Catastrophic Care by David Goldhill

Catastrophic Care How American Health Care Killed My Father--and How We Can Fix ItWritten by David Goldhill

Catastrophic Care by David Goldhill

Catastrophic Care How American Health Care Killed My Father--and How We Can Fix ItWritten by David Goldhill

Catastrophic Care by Dean Sluyter

Catastrophic Care How American Health Care Killed My Father--and How We Can Fix ItWritten by David Goldhill Read by Dean Sluyter

Overdiagnosed by Steve Woloshin

Overdiagnosed Making People Sick in the Pursuit of HealthWritten by H. Gilbert Welch, Lisa Schwartz and Steve Woloshin

Power, Politics, and Universal Health Care by Stuart Altman

Power, Politics, and Universal Health Care The Inside Story of a Century-Long BattleWritten by Stuart Altman

Power, Politics, and Universal Health Care by Stuart Altman

Power, Politics, and Universal Health Care The Inside Story of a Century-Long BattleWritten by Stuart Altman

Profit Is Not the Cure by Maude Barlow

Profit Is Not the Cure A Citizen's Guide to Saving MedicareWritten by Maude Barlow

Dispatches from the Abortion Wars by Carole Joffe

Dispatches from the Abortion Wars The Costs of Fanaticism to Doctors, Patients, and the Rest of UsWritten by Carole Joffe

Powerful Medicines by Jerry Avorn, M.D.

Powerful Medicines The Benefits, Risks, and Costs of Prescription DrugsWritten by Jerry Avorn, M.D.

Biomedical Ethics by Howard B. Radest

Biomedical Ethics Humanist Perspectives of Humanism TodayWritten by Howard B. Radest

Trust is Not Enough by Sheila M. Rothman

Trust is Not Enough Bringing Human Rights to MedicineWritten by David J. Rothman and Sheila M. Rothman

Powerful Medicines by Jerry Avorn, M.D.

Powerful Medicines The Benefits, Risks, and Costs of Prescription DrugsWritten by Jerry Avorn, M.D.

Powerful Medicines by Jerry Avorn, M.D.

Powerful Medicines The Benefits, Risks, and Costs of Prescription DrugsWritten by Jerry Avorn, M.D.

Profit Is Not the Cure by Maude Barlow

Profit Is Not the Cure A Citizen's Guide to Saving MedicareWritten by Maude Barlow

Catastrophic Care What's Wrong with American Health Care and How we Can Fix It
Written by David Goldhill

The Greenprint for a Healthy America A bold, innovative approach to transforming the way we consider health, transportation, and community
Written by Rebecca Jones, M.D.
Foreword by Bill McKibben

The Greenprint for a Healthy America A bold, innovative approach to transforming the way we consider health, transportation, and community
Written by Rebecca Jones, M.D.
Foreword by Bill McKibben

Catastrophic Care How American Health Care Killed My Father--and How We Can Fix It
Written by David Goldhill

Catastrophic Care How American Health Care Killed My Father--and How We Can Fix It
Written by David Goldhill

Catastrophic Care How American Health Care Killed My Father--and How We Can Fix It
Written by David Goldhill
Read by Dean Sluyter

Overdiagnosed Making People Sick in the Pursuit of Health
Written by H. Gilbert Welch, Lisa Schwartz and Steve Woloshin

Power, Politics, and Universal Health Care The Inside Story of a Century-Long Battle
Written by Stuart Altman

Power, Politics, and Universal Health Care The Inside Story of a Century-Long Battle
Written by Stuart Altman

Profit Is Not the Cure A Citizen's Guide to Saving Medicare
Written by Maude Barlow

Dispatches from the Abortion Wars The Costs of Fanaticism to Doctors, Patients, and the Rest of Us
Written by Carole Joffe

Powerful Medicines The Benefits, Risks, and Costs of Prescription Drugs
Written by Jerry Avorn, M.D.

Biomedical Ethics Humanist Perspectives of Humanism Today
Written by Howard B. Radest

Trust is Not Enough Bringing Human Rights to Medicine
Written by David J. Rothman and Sheila M. Rothman

Powerful Medicines The Benefits, Risks, and Costs of Prescription Drugs
Written by Jerry Avorn, M.D.

Powerful Medicines The Benefits, Risks, and Costs of Prescription Drugs
Written by Jerry Avorn, M.D.

Profit Is Not the Cure A Citizen's Guide to Saving Medicare
Written by Maude Barlow