
An American Sickness
How Healthcare Became Big Business and How You Can Take It Back
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Narrated by:
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Nancy Linari
About this listen
Award-winning New York Times reporter Dr. Elisabeth Rosenthal reveals the dangerous, expensive, and dysfunctional American health-care system and tells us exactly what we can do to solve its myriad of problems.
It is well documented that our health-care system has grave problems, but how, in only a matter of decades, did things get this bad? Dr. Elisabeth Rosenthal doesn't just explain the symptoms; she diagnoses and treats the disease itself. Rosenthal spells out in clear and practical terms exactly how to decode medical doublespeak, avoid the pitfalls of the pharmaceuticals racket, and get the care you and your family deserve. She takes you inside the doctor-patient relationship, explaining step by step the workings of a profession sorely lacking transparency. This is about what we can do, as individual patients, both to navigate a byzantine system and also to demand far-reaching reform.
Breaking down the monolithic business into its individual industries - the hospitals, doctors, insurance companies, drug manufacturers - that together constitute our health-care system, Rosenthal tells the story of the history of American medicine as never before. The situation is far worse than we think, and it has become like that much more recently than we realize. Hospitals, which are managed by business executives, behave like predatory lenders, hounding patients and seizing their homes. Research charities are in bed with big pharmaceutical companies, which surreptitiously profit from the donations made by working people. Americans are dying from routine medical conditions when affordable and straightforward solutions exist.
Dr. Rosenthal explains for the first time how various social and financial incentives have encouraged a disastrous and immoral system to spring up organically in a shockingly short span of time. The system is in tatters, but we can fight back. An American Sickness is the frontline defense against a health-care system that no longer has our well-being at heart.
©2017 Elisabeth Rosenthal (P)2017 Penguin AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
"An eye opening discussion ... [An] important book.... Rosenthal told an interviewer her goal was to 'start a very loud conversation' that will be 'difficult politically to ignore.' We need such a conversation - not just about how the market fails, but about how we can change the political realities that stand in the way of fixing it.” (The New York Times Book Review)
“In this in-depth analysis of a malfunctioning system, Rosenthal makes a compelling case against the hospital and pharmaceutical executives behind the 'money chase,' and it’s hard to imagine a more educated, credible guide...The patients she interviewed share mind-boggling stories...She builds her case with one damning statistic after another...Rosenthal presents solutions both personal and societal in this commanding and necessary call to arms.” (Booklist [starred])
"Provocatively analyzes...Rosenthal unveils with surgical precision the 'dysfunctional medical market'...a startling cascade.” (Publishers Weekly [starred review])
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The Innovator's Prescription
- A Disruptive Solution for Health Care
- By: Clayton M. Christensen, Jerome H. Grossman, Jason Hwang
- Narrated by: Scott Pollak
- Length: 13 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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Our health-care system is in critical condition. The Affordable Care Act has insured more Americans than ever, yet deductibles keep rising and costs continue to climb. Now more than ever, the industry needs a shot in the arm. It needs The Innovator's Prescription, the now-classic approach to efficient, affordable health care.
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Confused on the publishing date.
- By Anonymous User on 01-29-25
By: Clayton M. Christensen, and others
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Unaccountable
- What Hospitals Won't Tell You and How Transparency Can Revolutionize Health Care
- By: Marty Makary
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 7 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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Dr. Marty Makary is co-developer of the life-saving checklist outlined in Atul Gawande's best-selling The Checklist Manifesto. As a busy surgeon who has worked in many of the best hospitals in the nation, he can testify to the amazing power of modern medicine to cure. But he's also been a witness to a medical culture that routinely leaves surgical sponges inside patients, amputates the wrong limbs, and overdoses children because of sloppy handwriting. Over the last 10 years, neither error rates nor costs have come down, despite scientific progress.
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Everyone should read this book.
- By Julie on 06-11-16
By: Marty Makary
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The Health Gap
- The Challenge of an Unequal World
- By: Michael Marmot
- Narrated by: Chris Courtenay
- Length: 13 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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There are dramatic differences in health between countries and within countries. But this is not a simple matter of rich and poor. These health inequalities defy usual explanations. Conventional approaches to improving health have emphasised access to technical solutions – improved medical care, sanitation, and control of disease vectors; or behaviours – smoking, drinking – obesity, linked to diabetes, heart disease and cancer. These approaches only go so far.
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Chapters aren’t aligned
- By Anonymous User on 02-02-25
By: Michael Marmot
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Bottle of Lies
- The Inside Story of the Generic Drug Boom
- By: Katherine Eban
- Narrated by: Katherine Eban
- Length: 14 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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From an award-winning Fortune reporter, an explosive narrative investigation of the generic drug boom that reveals the life-threatening dangers posed by globalization - The Jungle for pharmaceuticals.
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overbearing self-righteous indignation
- By VB on 01-13-20
By: Katherine Eban
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Delay Deny Defend
- Why Insurance Companies Don’t Pay Claims and What You Can Do About It
- By: Jay M. Feinman
- Narrated by: Pat Grimes
- Length: 8 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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The denial of valid insurance claims is not occasional or accidental or the fault of a few bad employees. It's the result of an increasing and systematic focus on maximizing profits by major companies such as Allstate and State Farm. Citing dozens of stories of victims who were unfairly denied payment, the book explains how people can be more careful when shopping for policies and what to do when pursuing a disputed claim. It also lays out a plan for the legal reforms needed to prevent future abuses.
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prolonged and dry
- By Robert Katuna on 05-20-25
By: Jay M. Feinman
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Blind Spots
- When Medicine Gets It Wrong, and What It Means for Our Health
- By: Marty Makary MD
- Narrated by: Marty Makary MD
- Length: 10 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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In Blind Spots, Dr. Makary explores the latest research on critical topics ranging from the microbiome to childbirth to nutrition and longevity and more, revealing the biggest blind spots of modern medicine and tackling the most urgent yet unsung issues in our $4.5 trillion health care ecosystem. The path to medical mishaps can be absurd, entertaining, and jaw-dropping—but the truth is essential to our health.
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Hindsight is 20/20
- By LawyerLady on 10-09-24
By: Marty Makary MD
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Better
- A Surgeon's Notes on Performance
- By: Atul Gawande
- Narrated by: John Bedford Lloyd
- Length: 7 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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The struggle to perform well is universal: each one of us faces fatigue, limited resources, and imperfect abilities in whatever we do. But nowhere is this drive to do better more important than in medicine, where lives are on the line with every decision. In this book, Atul Gawande explores how doctors strive to close the gap between best intentions and best performance in the face of obstacles that sometimes seem insurmountable.
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A MUST read . . .
- By Kathy in CA on 08-11-14
By: Atul Gawande
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Dopesick
- By: Beth Macy
- Narrated by: Beth Macy
- Length: 10 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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In this extraordinary work, Beth Macy takes us into the epicenter of a national drama that has unfolded over two decades. From the labs and marketing departments of big pharma to local doctor's offices; wealthy suburbs to distressed small communities in Central Appalachia; from distant cities to once-idyllic farm towns; the spread of opioid addiction follows a tortuous trajectory that illustrates how this crisis has persisted for so long and become so firmly entrenched.
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Useful, but recommend Dreamland instead
- By Sarah on 08-27-18
By: Beth Macy
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Lawless
- How the Supreme Court Runs on Conservative Grievance, Fringe Theories, and Bad Vibes
- By: Leah Litman
- Narrated by: Leah Litman
- Length: 7 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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With the gravitas of Joan Biskupic and the irreverence of Elie Mystal, Leah Litman brings her signature wit to the question of what’s gone wrong at One First Street. In Lawless, she argues that the Supreme Court is no longer practicing law; it’s running on vibes. By “vibes,” Litman means legal-ish claims that repackage the politics of conservative grievance and dress them up in robes. Major decisions adopt the language and posture of the law, while in fact displaying a commitment to protecting a single minority: the religious conservatives and Republican officials.
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Wonderful book, may leave you depressed and defeated
- By David Romero on 06-18-25
By: Leah Litman
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The Gene
- An Intimate History
- By: Siddhartha Mukherjee
- Narrated by: Dennis Boutsikaris
- Length: 19 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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The extraordinary Siddhartha Mukherjee has written a biography of the gene as deft, brilliant, and illuminating as his extraordinarily successful biography of cancer. Weaving science, social history, and personal narrative to tell us the story of one of the most important conceptual breakthroughs of modern times, Mukherjee animates the quest to understand human heredity and its surprising influence on our lives, personalities, identities, fates, and choices.
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It's a Wonderful Book
- By JKC on 06-02-16
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I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
- By: Maya Angelou
- Narrated by: Maya Angelou
- Length: 10 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Sent by their mother to live with their devout, self-sufficient grandmother in a small Southern town, Maya and her brother, Bailey, endure the ache of abandonment and the prejudice of the local “powhitetrash.” At eight years old, Maya is attacked by a man many times her age - and has to live with the consequences for a lifetime. But years later, she learns about love for herself and the kindness of others, her own strong spirit, and the ideas of great authors.
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Emotional & Powerful
- By Miss Toni on 06-30-13
By: Maya Angelou
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Empire of AI
- Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman's OpenAI
- By: Karen Hao
- Narrated by: Karen Hao
- Length: 17 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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When AI expert and investigative journalist Karen Hao first began covering OpenAI in 2019, she thought they were the good guys. Founded as a nonprofit with safety enshrined as its core mission, the organization was meant, its leader Sam Altman told us, to act as a check against more purely mercantile, and potentially dangerous, forces. What could go wrong?
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Well-researched. Timely. Informative. Karen is brilliant and kind!
- By Kahlil Andrews on 05-25-25
By: Karen Hao
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Money, Lies, and God
- Inside the Movement to Destroy American Democracy
- By: Katherine Stewart
- Narrated by: Patricia Rodriguez
- Length: 11 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Why have so many Americans turned against democracy? In this deeply reported book, Katherine Stewart takes us to conferences of conspiracy-mongers, backroom strategy gatherings, and services at extremist churches, and profiles the people who want to tear it all down.
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Describes a well funded international fascist cult
- By marwalk on 03-24-25
Outstanding summary of our current healthcare situation
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learned a lot!
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Information packed
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Good book. Sickening details.
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A true call to arms against financial abuses
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My favorite book of 2017
Brilliant and enticing
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it's beyond comprehensible that a system like this is allowed to exist
i'm especially disgusted with so many beyond greedy doctors for whom the Hippocrates Oath is clearly a massive joke
i cannot believe that people in the states actually agree to put up with that
my family and i live in Israel and the health-care system here is incredible compared to the one in the USA
i'm beyond disgusted!!!!!!!!
must read, utterly disgusting
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People need to practice preventive health and eat responsibly because NO one can afford chronic care. Very very sad.
SICK Healthcare
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A MUST Read
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Give how much good information is in this book - I did feel there as a major hole in that it was kind of one sided. When I spoke about some of the ideas in this book with some healthcare leaders I work with, they had some things to say that provided a different perspective. So just keep that in mind when reading.
A Fascinating Must Read - Is it Onesided?
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