The Hidden History of American Healthcare: Why Sickness Bankrupts You and Makes Others Insanely Rich

by Thom Hartmann Narrated by Sean Pratt

Overview

Popular progressive radio host and New York Times bestselling author Thom Hartmann reveals how and why attempts to establish affordable universal healthcare in the United States have been thwarted and what we can do to finally make it a reality.

"For-profit health insurance is the largest con job ever perpetrated on the American people-one that has cost trillions of dollars and millions of lives since the 1940s,” says Thom Hartmann. Taiwan's single-payer system enabled the country to implement a nationwide coronavirus test-and-contact-trace program without shutting down its economy, resulting in just seven deaths, while in the United States more than 350,000 have died.

Hartmann offers a deep dive into the shameful history of American healthcare, showing how greed, racism, and oligarchic corruption led to the current “sickness for profit” system. Modern attempts to create some kind of government healthcare have been hobbled at every turn-including Obamacare, which Hartmann regards as basically a sellout to the health insurance industry.

There is a simple solution: Medicare for all. Hartmann describes the extraordinary benefits it would provide the American people and economy and the steps we need to take to make it a reality. It is time for America to join every industrialized country in the world and make health a right, not a privilege.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Hartmann's take on our health care debacle is informative, fascinating, and hopefully useful.”
—Booklist

“Thom Hartmann’s work is always well researched. Thom is a master communicator who gives his readers a clear connection from our nation’s history to who we are today.”
—Joe Madison, The Black Eagle on SiriusXM and lifelong civil rights activist and movement leader
 
“This book is a must-read to understand the history of America’s healthcare up to the present-day COVID pandemic. Hartmann vividly exposes the forces opposing universal health care, specifically insurance companies and the AMA, as well as overt racism and deep fears of socialism.”
—Justin A. Frank, MD, author, Trump on the Couch
 
“Thom Hartmann’s latest book is a must-read for everyone who wants the United States to join the rest of the world and provide healthcare as a human right through the enactment of Medicare for All.”
—Nancy J. Altman, President, Social Security Works

Product Details

BN ID:	2940173268556
Publisher:	Berrett-Koehler Publishers
Publication date:	09/07/2021
Edition description:	Unabridged

Videos