Miracle Cure: How to Solve America's Health Care Crisis and Why Canada Isn't the Answer

by Sally C. Pipes

America has wealth, innovation, and access to the best of everything. So why is our health-care system so broken? Why does it cost more than ever and deliver less? How do we solve the problems of the... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0936488921
• ISBN13: 9780936488929
• Release Date: September 2004
• Publisher: Pacific Research Institute
• Length: 219 Pages
• Weight: 0.85 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Review the CONTENT of the Book

Interesting that the One-Star reviews below are from people who did not read the book and do not comment on its actual contents. If the writer has a particular viewpoint -- golly, maybe that's what motivated her to WRITE A BOOK. Duh. It would be a pretty bleak literary world if writers were not allowed to have opinions, or to write as a response to their own intellectual motivations. Those of you who'd slam her simply becuase you can verify that her political and economic opinions vary from yours, might actually learn something from considering another viewpoint and indulging in the information that supports that viewpoint. If you read her book, and can spar with its content, fine, knock youself out.

Road map for a solution

I love when a writer nails a problem and also recognizes the political and social difficulties we will face in trying to effect the solution. This Pipes has done well. As a young physician, I soon realized that the health of my community depended more on how I VOTED than how well I was trained. Now as a physician of 20 years, I have seen first hand how the current health care system fosters a sense of entitlement to "free" care with no accountability or responsibility on the part of the consumer(patients): here in the US not Canada! The solution is NOT more of the same government intervention and insulation of patients from their health care decisions. But try telling this to the media, academia or even politicos who are either ignorant of the facts or fearful of their constituents. Should be required reading for all MDs in training.

The book that can save two health care systems

Sally Pipes's clear-eyed analysis of the problems with both the US and Canadian health care systems is exactly what is needed to cut through the campaign rhetoric of this season. As a Canadian who lives in the US, Pipes is able to weigh the pluses and minuses of both systems -- finding more fault in Canada's sclerotic single-payer system, where waiting lists delay patients' access to life-saving treatments, but not giving either system a clean bill of health. I strongly recommend this short, but thorough and anecdote-packed, look at how to fix two great countries' inadequate health care systems.