The Cancer Generation: Baby Boomers Facing a Perfect Storm

“Geyman’s literary voice arises from his unusual professional and political trajectories: from country doctor to academic department chair and prominent journal editor, and from longtime Republican to president of Physicians for a National Health Program . . . a passionate advocate and scholar.”—The New England Journal of Medicine

A tsunami of cancer is coming to aging baby boomers, and the health care system is not geared up to cope. We must create single-payer health care before it’s too late. In The Cancer Generation, John Geyman shows how we could save over one hundred thousand lives a year if we focused on access as well as continued development of cutting-edge therapies.

Cancer is or will be a part of every baby boomer’s life: a parent has it, a spouse has it, a friend has it, or, heaven forbid, a son or daughter has it. How baby boomers reshape what cancer care means in America will define their generation and determine the future for generations to come.

John Geyman is professor emeritus of family medicine at the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle, Washington. He has spent twenty-five years in academic family medicine. He is former president of Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP), and the author of The Corrosion of Medicine: Can the Profession Reclaim its Moral Legacy?, Shredding the Social Contract: The Privatization of Medicare, and, most recently, Do Not Resuscitate: Why the Health Insurance Industry is Dying, and How We Must Replace It. He lives in the Seattle area.