Uninsured in America, Updated: Life and Death in the Land of Opportunity

by Susan Sered, Rushika Fernandopulle, Susan Starr Sered

Book Overview

Uninsured in America goes to the heart of why more than forty million Americans are falling through the cracks in the health care system, and what it means for society as a whole when so many people suffer the consequences of inadequate medical care. Based on interviews with 120 uninsured men and women and dozens of medical providers, policymakers, and advocates from around the nation, this book takes a fresh look at one of the most important social...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0520250060
• ISBN13: 9780520250062
• Release Date: October 2006
• Publisher: University of California Press
• Length: 295 Pages
• Weight: 1.12 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.1" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

If you want to know what is happening in our country...buy it now!

This is not a work of fiction, it is horrifyingly real and it will keep you up at night unable to put the book down. Each chapter contains real-life situations that people across the country face as they struggle to survive without health insurance. These are facts you think can only happen to "other" people, but these others are looking more and more like us. Somehow, their lives still remain hidden from the general public, but this book deserves to be discussed on 60 minutes to make people aware of what is happening in our country. This book terrified me more than any horror novel ever could, because it could happen to any one of us at any time.

the rise of a "caste system" in the US

The authors strongly couch their presentation as attesting to the rise of a caste system in the United States. Where the caste consists of the chronically ill, infirm and marginally employed. Several members of this group are interviewed. In the MidWest, Mississipi and other regions. A common symptom is a death spiral, whereby working class individuals, who might indeed have worked very hard, but then suffered injuries, fall into a feedback loop. Where they can barely afford health case. Except for emergency room admissions. A cruel paradox. The book goes into how the stress of poverty and being ill can feed into and reinforce each other. Another ironic aspect shown is how caregivers can often lack health insurance. A bitter scenario that is all too common.

The Death Spiral Of Persons Who Lack Health Insurance

40,000,000 - 50,000,000 Americans have no health insurance and another group of Americans of equal size are underinsured. Americans have to choose between food and medicine. Americans live in a land of opportunity until they have a challenge to their health. If you have a challenge to your health and if you do not have the best private health insurance you will enter a death spiral as the change in your health will drain away your money and your hope. It is a sad day - only in America, the land of no national health insurance.