The Affordable Care Act: A Missed Opportunity, A Better Way Forward

The U.S. offers a high standard of medical care few countries can match. Indeed, most medical innovations originate in the U.S. and are adopted more widely and sooner than elsewhere, the FDA ensures the efficacy and safety of drugs, biological products, and medical devices, and health professionals are well trained, knowledgeable, and responsible. Yet, despite "Best in the World" claims in some American quarters, the U.S. health system lags behind those of many industrialized countries in access, quality of care, and affordability. It is best characterized as a non-system that denies access to millions of Americans and drives millions more into bankruptcy. Unlike politically correct books that shun controversial issues, this book offers an objective, factual, and forthright critique of all segments of the current and projected health system under America's Affordable Care Act. It shows that responsibility for the inequitable and costly health system rests on caregivers and consumers, insurance and drug companies, malpractice attorneys, and even policy makers whose self-interest must be subordinated to the general good in order to curb the profit-driven health industry they helped create and endow America with an affordable and equitable universal health system responsive to its citizens' healthcare needs while remaining even-handed to providers and suppliers, as proposed in the last chapter.