Who killed health care?: America’s $2 trillion medical problem — and the consumer-driven cure

Abstract

One of the nation's most respected health care analysts, Herzlinger exposes the motives and methods of those who have crippled America's health care system - figures in the insurance, hospital, employment, governmental and academic sectors. She proves how our current system, which is organized around payers and providers rather than the needs of its users, is dangerously eroding patient welfare and is pushing costs out of the reach of millions. Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- pt. 1. Who killed health care? -- ch. 1. The day health care died -- pt. 2. Death by a thousand cuts -- ch. 2. Killer number 1: the health insurers, death at the hands of a dysfunctional culture -- ch. 3. Killer number 2: the general hospitals, death at the hands of empire builders -- ch. 4. Killer number 3 : the employers, death at the hands of a "choice" of one -- ch. 5. Killer number 4 : the U.S. Congress, death at the hands of those elected to represent us -- ch. 6. Killer number 5 : the academics, death at the hands of the elite policy makers -- pt. 3. The right medicine : consumer-driven health care -- ch. 7. How it works -- ch. 8. Consumer-driven benefits : lessons from other countries and industries -- pt. 4. How to make it happen : the carrots, the sticks, the laws -- ch. 9. The carrots : let medical business entrepreneurialism bloom -- ch. 10. The sticks : let information flow -- ch. 11. A bold new consumer-driven health care system : the laws and their legislators -- Notes -- Index.