In excellent health : setting the record straight on America's health care /

Atlas (physician; senior fellow, Hoover Institution) has completed excellent research on the comparative quality of the health care system in the US and other countries. He provides numerous comparisons between health care in the US and other countries and demonstrates that the US provides better health care services in the areas of preventive care and acute care; in use of the latest technology, not only with the latest equipment but in the quantity of the equipment; in access to doctors, including the timely availability of surgery when needed; in prenatal and birth care; and in diagnostic tests. Americans enjoy faster access to treatment and are provided preventive care that decreases the death rate from diseases including cancer, cardiovascular disease, premature birth, stroke, diabetes, and hypertension. In the final chapter, Atlas addresses the need for reform in the areas of costs, availability for all Americans, and maintaining the excellence of care. Summing Up: Recommended. All readership levels. S. J. Martin Indiana University of Pennsylvania

Atlas (radiology, Stanford Sch. of Medicine; senior fellow, Hoover Inst., Stanford Univ.; Reforming America's Health Care System: The Flawed Vision of ObamaCare) begins with a lengthy critique of the frequently cited World Health Organization's 2000 World Health Report, which ranked the United States shockingly low among international health-care systems. Although Atlas admits that U.S. health care faces serious challenges (including the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, passed by Congress in 2010), he asserts that we have made remarkable advances in the past 60 years, we lead the world in "developing the most important innovations that change the face of medical care," and our health care is "excellent, and, in many instances, the best in the world." He argues for substantive tax reforms, an overhaul of private insurance, and the "minimization of the role of government as direct insurer" as essential. VERDICT In this presidential election year, Atlas's book covers an especially timely topic, treated here with many charts, graphs, and footnotes. His arguments, sure to be controversial, are worthy of being heard and discussed.-Marcia Welsh, Dartmouth Coll. Lib., Hanover, NH (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.