Health at risk : America's ailing health system--and how to heal it /

This excellent collection of articles is a great resource for understanding the development, problems, and possible solutions to health care in the US. In chapter 1, Quadagno and McKelvey describe how health care developed in the US. In chapter 2, Swartz looks at the uninsured and the cost of health care that leaves out "middle- and working-class Americans, much less the poor, to finance reliably on their own." In chapter 3 Warren and Thorne find that "medical costs and crises are a leading (and probably increasing) cause of bankruptcy filings." In chapter 4 Meltzer, McGlynm, and Hacker discuss the quality of health care in America and find "that American adults receive only half of recommended care, children slightly less, and patients are more likely to be undertreated than over treated." In chapter 5, Hacker (Univ of California, Berkeley) wonders if "the people that favor reform can learn from the 'lessons of the past' and build a policy strategy that surmounts the barriers to reform that still loom large, without giving up on the basic aim of universal health security." Summing Up: Recommended. All readership levels. S. J. Martin Indiana University of Pennsylvania