Using the story of Nikki White, a young American woman who died of a curable disease – lupus – because she was denied coverage by her insurer, as a metaphor of everything that is wrong with U.S. Reid sets out to find a cure both for his ailing shoulder and for America's troubled health care system while attempting to solve a conundrum: why is the U.S., the world leader in so many areas, doing worse than many other countries (including developing countries) in terms of health care costs, access, quality, and even choice? The result is an instructive, lively, and highly readable primer on the history and current features of major health systems, and a vibrant call for radical change at home. Even the mainstream press now regularly features accounts of the quality and accessibility of the care available under systems that used to be considered inferior to that of “the best in the world.”ģ Through his tour of several rich industrialized countries’ hospitals and doctors’ offices and his interviews with health authorities, Washington Post journalist T.R. researchers’ interest in cross-national comparative studies has increased in recent years, and scholarly journals such as Health Affairs and the Journal of Health Politics Policy and Law regularly devote space to analyses of health care financing and delivery in developed countries.

So why not borrow from foreign models to reform the most expensive and inequitable health care system in the developed world?Ģ U.S. Sushi and pizza have become some of America’s favorite foods. Interstate Highway System was inspired by Germany’s.

The Healing of America by T.R. Reid