As Sick as It Gets: The Shocking Reality of America's Healthcare, a Diagnosis and Treatment Plan

by Rudolph J. Mueller

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• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0967235782
• ISBN13: 9780967235783
• Release Date: November 2001
• Publisher: Olin Frederick
• Length: 229 Pages
• Weight: 1.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.3" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

A wonderful, veritable font of very important information

I want to express my heartfelt gratitude to Dr. Mueller for having the wisdom and courage (as well as the stamina) to make the valiant effort to get the information in this book to the American people. I am a psychologist, licensed in PA, living and working in my hometown of Erie, PA. I have had some experience with the awful frustrations that have gone along with trying to provide a humanitarian service that has been inexorably forced into a format of narrow self-interest-especially the "managed" "care" so-called system. Discovering Dr. Mueller's book, I am somehow amazed that someone nearby has produced such a valuable resource. I am amazed, not about someone just coming from Jamestown (!), but to find that I am really not as alone as I thought I have been-even around here--in my intense concern about what has become of health care delivery in this country. I was also delightedly surprised that a small publishing house such as Olin Frederick is practically right up the road, producing such socially responsible works for our time. I work in affiliation with two of the major hospitals in Erie-Hamot and St. Vincent, and I am tempted to send copies of Dr. Mueller's book to the CEOs of each institution. An emergency room physician friend of my recommended an older book--"The Social Transformation of American Medicine" by Paul Starr (BasicBooks, 1982)--that has put some perspective on the historical development of health care in the U.S., and it leaves off in the early 1980s with some fairly accurate predictions about trends in the future, which is our right now. Dr. Mueller's book is a wonderful, veritable font of very important information that brings awareness about the state of health care delivery right up to date. I know that many people are very unhappy with how health care delivery has been twisted from fulfilling need to satisfying greed. It has always mystified me that so many individuals can be so dissatisfied (to say the least), as well as clearly aware that science and technology have progressed so far beyond a frontier mentality, that more people are not declaring access to health care for all as an obvious reality and collectively making their feelings known about it. As Dr. Mueller points out in stark detail in his book, the people in many other advanced, highly developed, industrialized nations have already done so. Of course, as Dr. Mueller also clearly shows, my mystification should be readily cleared by considering the power of not "market forces" but "marketing forces" in this country. This situation has been almost despairing for me at times, but I have been highly encouraged by knowing that people like Dr. Mueller still give a damn about the right things and making things right. I cannot remember the source, but I once heard a comment on this situation that I have never forgotten. It was derived from a concept in Adam Smith's "The Wealth of Nations" (considered the first major treatise on the capitalist sys

A careful assessment of our diseased system for health care

Dr. Mueller's book defines a system for health care in the United States that is (a) diseased and deteriorating rapidly, (b) ranked by the World Health Organization Report 2000 as thirty-seventh in the world in "overall health system performance" but first in "health expenditure per capita," (c) ignored by most until they become ill, and (d) supported and in large measure controlled by a for-profit business in which patients' welfares and physicians have become commodities. In contrast to many publications that have addressed this important area, Dr. Mueller's book cites publications that document all of the facts that lead him to his very rational conclusions. His description of our problems and his proposed solutions are clearly presented in a fashion that is easily comprehensible to laymen who are not experts in this area. We are all beneficiaries of Dr. Mueller's scholarly, informed, incisive, critical, creative, and uninhibited thinking. As a physician who teaches in a large university medical center, I have often found physicians in my metropolitan area intimidated by the administrators of health systems and by insurance companies. Many believe that these administrators and insurance companies (a) often have an enormous conflict of interest in appearing to be more interested in dollars than in patients, (b) control a large and increasing proportion of the physicians' and patients' medical choices, and (c) spend enormous amounts of money on cosmetic public relations to cover their tracks. In my opinion as a physician, this is almost as true in the "non-profit" university medical center in which I work as in the "for-profit" centers i.e., the term "non-profit" can confuse the layman and does little to guarantee the qualities that I value as a physician and as a patient. Dr. Mueller has analyzed the problems that exist in the current system in great depth, has illustrated the injurious consequences of these problems by presenting true stories about patients, and has proposed carefully considered cures for the sickness of our system for health care. The enormous bureacracy that is currently supported by our system will spend billions of dollars to oppose Dr. Mueller's proposed solutions. Patients will benefit enormously if these corporations lose and Dr. Mueller's solutions become an important part of the cure.

Please Read This Book

With each passing year, with each new change in employment status or insurance carrier, more Americans feel trapped in a healthcare system they neither understand nor trust. Lobbyists and politicians help to create the confusion with fudged statistics, convenient scapegoats (often the sick patients themselves!), fear (of "socialized" medicine), and propaganda ("We have the best of all possible healthcare systems.") And HMOs contribute to the erosion of trust when they insert the word "care" or "security" in their names but offer neither, and instead make it increasingly difficult to receive a recommended test or medicine, or to even find a physician who will agree to see you. This is a system over which many individuals feel powerless. In their desperation, they seek individualized and futile solutions to the problems the system often creates rather than addresses: they put off seeing a doctor, or they cut each pill into five smaller ones, or they hope that they will somehow find a better job with a better insurance plan, or they eat less, or they pray.In AS SICK AS IT GETS: A DIAGNOSIS AND TREATMENT PLAN, Dr. Rudolph Mueller offers readers an accessible primer on the shortcomings of our healthcare system. In doing so, he helps us to better understand the nature and the nuances of this institutionalized trap, this incredibly expensive system that fosters pharmaceutical company bribes, insurance company intimidation, physician and patient deceit, and rampant greed.His analysis begins with his patients. He shares with us the stories of many proud, hard working, often older, men and women who, at their most vulnerable, are too frequently ignored, mislead, humiliated, and harassed by a healthcare system that may indeed be a disgrace to the world's wealthiest society. It is emtionally difficult to read the details of these lives that are marked by pain and fear, especially when it becomes clear that much of it is unnecessary. Sympathy is overcome by anger as Dr. Mueller uncovers the linkages between what at first seems a private, individual misfortune and the profit-motivated core of our healthcare system. (Though I do not know Dr. Mueller, I do happen to live in the same small town in which he practices internal and geriatric medicine. And while I may not know the specific patients about whom he writes, I do know the kind of people they are: farmers and factory workers who labored hard their entire lives, too proud to accept anything they see as a "handout"; grandmothers who sacrificed much for their families and communities who now refuse to become a "burden" to either.)After discussing the everyday healthcare concerns of his patients, Dr. Mueller moves on to a broad analysis of our "market-driven system" and the alternative systems in other industrialized societies. His discussion is bolstered by statistics, many of which he represents through charts and graphs. Some readers may not find this macro-analysis particularly exciting, but it is neces

A Very Carefully Reasoned "Diagnosis and Treatment"

Both Dr. Mueller's scientific training and his compassion show in this carefully reasoned analysis of what ails the American healthcare system and what we should do about it.Mueller's book addresses the enormous financial costs of the present commercialized healthcare system as well as the moral blight of a system that allows Americans to suffer and die needlessly.Here is some of the shocking reality that Dr. Mueller depicts --o We are failing to prevent and control disease in the 85 million uninsured and underinsured Americans. "There is no question that there are numerous Americans who are sick who would not be if they lived in Europe, Canada, or Japan, where they would have had accessible primary and preventative care."o Americans spend approximately $160,000,000,000 (160 billion dollars) in excess costs each year treating late-stage diseases that could have been prevented or controlled at an early, less-acute stage.o The infant mortality rate in the United States is 7.2 per 1,000 live births. By comparison, the number is 5.7 in the Britain; 5.5 in Canada; 5.2 in the Netherlands; 5.0 in Spain and Australia; 4.7 in Germany and France; 3.6 in Japan. Unlike the United States, these countries insure appropriate care for all women in early pregnancy. o "The 2000 World Health Organization Review of 191 nations ranked the United States as 37th overall in health system performance, but number one in healthcare costs" (at $4,187 per capita in spending). Since we are paying the highest price for an inferior system, Dr. Mueller quite rightly asks, WHERE IS ALL THE MONEY GOING?o At least 1,500,000 Americans are employed to process the complicated paperwork generated by our patchwork of for-profit healthcare organizations. Dr. Mueller wants these people re-trained as health-care workers. While other developed countries recognize optimum health care as a human right, the United States does not do so. The author argues that a reformed system could be achieved through the careful, businesslike approach he outlines. In one decisive year, a single national system could be developed from our present Medicare program, replacing the patchwork of private businesses and the tons of non-standard insurance forms. Under the new system those presently uninsured and underinsured could receive medical attention and needed prescription drugs; all citizens could receive basic dental care; patients could be free to select their own doctors; out-of-pocket health costs could be limited to 10 percent of a family's income; home health-care services could be expanded; education costs for dental and medical students could be covered; doctors could be well-paid for the vital services they perform; incentives could be retained for those who develop new medicines and medical equipment.Other countries have done it. So can we.We need to be united and strong as we face the present international crisis. Yet our nation is divided by a bad healthcare system. that keeps millions of medical

A Prescription for a More Rational Health Care System

In his book, "As Sick As It Gets", Dr. Rudolph Mueller makes a compelling case for a better health care system for the U.S . "Harry and Louise" made us think we have the best system in the world. Dr. Mueller shows otherwise. Using anecdotes from his own medical experience and figures comparing our healthcare system with that of other industrialized nations, he shows the sorry state and high costs of America's healthcare system. In other nations, healthcare is considered a basic human right. The American system is based on market-driven principles that leave millions of people uninsured ,and others with huge medical bills . "The market-driven concept...brings inherent injustices to the people of the United States, allowing 43 million Americans to live without health insurance." Dr. Mueller makes specific reccommendations for a National Health Program with federal funding of a single-payer heath care plan under Medicare. This plan would still allow patients to choose their own health care providers, would assure sufficient profits for doctors, and would provide adequate health care to every citizen. I highly reccommend this book , written by a doctor who is compassionate and dedicated to his profession and his patients. Everyone should read it and get involved to cure our sick health care system.