by Nicholas Beaudrot of Electoral Math
When I first picked up Jonathan Cohn's Sick: The Untold Story of America's Health Care Crisis—and the People Who Pay the Price (catch the author in your neck of the woods), I wasn't sure what it was, other than a book about health care. What it's not, certainly, is a policy white paper in book form. That is fine; there are plenty of books and white papers out there that make the case for substantial overhaul of America's health care delivery and financing.
What it is, instead, is a set of anecdotes detailing cases where the American hospital system, public health system, or private insurance has fallen down on the job. A former nun can't find insurance, so she goes to a hospital that suggests she might qualify for charity care, only to find the hospital suing her for unpaid bills. A self-employed diabetic falls victim to a fradulent insurer. The stories go on for eight chapters. Within each anecdote, Mr. Cohn cleverly interweaves a broader explanation of the root causes of the sob story. At it's core, though, all these anecdotes go have a common thread: "health insurance" is no longer able to spread risk. Even those with coverage find themselves making drastic cuts in other living expenses, turning down needed health care service, or facing huge financial burdens in the face of catastrophically expensive sickness.
