An American Sickness: How Healthcare Became Big Business and How You Can Take It Back by Elisabeth Rosenthal

"An American Sickness: How Healthcare Became Big Business and How You Can Take It Back” is a comprehensive and eye-opening account of the rise of the U.S. healthcare market as a corporate-driven industry, and how we can take it back. Written by doctor and journalist Elisabeth Rosenthal, the book examines how healthcare has come to be controlled by corporate interests, the consequences this has had, and what can be done to fix it.

The book begins with an overview of the problems in the American healthcare system. Rosenthal examines the substantial and ever-increasing costs of healthcare, the exorbitant prices charged for procedures, and the lack of covers for essential treatments. She explains how the system has been shaped to favor the interests of medical companies and hospitals, rather than those of the patients, and argues that this situation has been caused by misaligned incentives, lack of transparency, and a distortion of medical values.

The book goes on to explore the history of modern healthcare, tracing the rise of hospitals, insurance companies, pharmaceutical corporations, and medical networks. Rosenthal illuminates the greed and profiteering of the industry, detailing how these private businesses have worked to control the healthcare marketplace, extract profit from it, and leave patients with lower quality care and increasingly expensive bills. She emphasizes the extreme disparity between what patients actually pay and what hospitals actually charge, and sheds light on the deeply entrenched, unscrupulous practices of the industry.

Throughout the text, Rosenthal provides examples of how individuals can choose alternatives to corporate-driven care, through seeking out cash-only care, buying their own supplies, joining healthcare cooperatives, and more. She argues that technology is the key to shifting the balance of power away from corporate interests and giving patients greater access to cheaper, more transparent healthcare. The book ends with a call for a movement of healthcare reformers, demanding better access and control of their care, and working to break the power of corporate medical monopolies.

"An American Sickness" is an essential read for anyone interested in learning about the history of American healthcare and taking steps to tackle the broken system. Through Rosenthal's expert knowledge and investigative look into the industry, readers gain an understanding of the structure and inner workings of the healthcare system and what needs to be done to reclaim access, transparency, and affordability. With the book, Rosenthal provides a clear pathway for transformation and reveals how, with knowledge and collective action, patients can take back their healthcare and restore it to a system that prioritizes health and care, not profit.