In the Guts Of Health Care

Any partial health care reform is bound to fail. This is true in the case of the current “reform” as it was for the all the previous half-hearted efforts. Dr. Fouad Michael, a hugely successful physician who retired at the peak of his career to work for health care reform, outlines clearly and concisely how our dysfunctional health care system operates and how the soon-to-be-adopted system will perpetuate the same environment that gave us less than adequate care and unaffordable cost in a language the average reader can understand. Dr. Michael brings a unique perspective to this subject with his bicultural knowledge, having worked in two different types of health care systems, the Egyptian and the American. Back in Egypt, he experienced the socialist revolution of the sixties and studied and practiced medicine in a national health care system with all its flaws and ambitions. In America, he saw how a free market model and a for-profit delivery of health care have adversely affected the quality of our health care and our cost. Dr. Michael, in a simple and easy-to-read language, uses countless examples from his patients’ perspective that the reader can identify with to make the case for universal health coverage through a single paper system modeled on the five Canadian principles. He refutes the critics of the single payer system who are in the habit of frightening the American public from the assumed evils of our government. He makes the point that the government in our democratic system is only a vehicle to enforce our will. It is in fact the only entity we have to deal with in the single payer system instead of the wasteful and profiteering army of insurance companies. A single payer system is not socialism. It is not owned or run by the government; it is actually public financing for private practice. Dr. Michael sees in an informed public our best hope for understanding and effecting the needed change. For this end, he offers the lay reader an accessible and intelligent outline of the problems we face and a clearly defined and workable solution.