{"id":25154,"date":"2016-04-19T10:27:05","date_gmt":"2016-04-19T17:27:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/ClaireWolfe\/?p=25154"},"modified":"2016-04-19T10:27:05","modified_gmt":"2016-04-19T17:27:05","slug":"solve-the-medical-mess-share-this-book","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/2016\/04\/19\/solve-the-medical-mess-share-this-book\/","title":{"rendered":"Solve the medical mess: share this book"},"content":{"rendered":"

The High Price of Socialized Medicine<\/strong>:
\nA History of Government Meddling in American Health Care,
\nAnd How a Free Market Would Solve Our Problems<\/i><\/a>
\nBy Dr. James W. Brook
\n302 pages<\/p>\n

I owe Dr. Jim an apology. It must be two months now since he sent me a copy of his book for review. I meant to get on it right away. But you know, I just could not bring myself to pick up and read that book.<\/p>\n

It’s not that there was anything wrong with it. On the contrary, at a glance it was obviously a solid, professional piece of work. I already knew Dr. Jim, an occasional Commentariat participant, writes clearly with an amazingly light touch given the subject matter. The book is lucid, well laid-out, and easy on the eye.<\/p>\n

I just could not force myself to endure a rehash of the hash that politicians are making of what was once (and in some ways still is) the best medical system on the planet. <\/p>\n

Once I belatedly opened the cover, I realized I had nothing to dread. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

This is no rehash, but probably the best summation of what went wrong and how to fix it<\/i> that you could ever want. This is the book to give your friends and family members who know something’s wrong but don’t don’t understand why free markets are the solution. This is the book to fortify yourself with before giving a presentation or holding up your end of a debate or discussion. It makes its points clearly, factually, and just altogether very well.<\/p>\n

Blessedly, Dr. Jim (a Idaho physician whose practice operates on an affordable cash basis and whose Amazon “About the Author” blurb is a hoot) doesn’t begin with the problem, but with how government took a non<\/i>-problem and turned medicine from a functioning system into a catastrophic mess. Better yet, he briefly explains basic concepts: freedom, money, socialism, and why the U.S. has been a world leader in innovation. He gives his own background in a chapter called “What Turned Dr. Brook from a Socialist into a Pro-freedom Radical?” (Always good to hear the POV of someone who was once on the opposite side.)<\/p>\n

Only then does he plunge into the reasons for skyrocketing medical costs, the death of house calls, doctor shortages, overregulation, inevitable fraud, and how health care (which ought only be a moderate part of our personal lives) is driving the entire national economy toward collapse.<\/p>\n

That’s only the center third or so of the book. After that, it’s on to specific and detailed plans for solving the problem by returning to market solutions. End insurance mandates. Abolish the FDA. Remove price controls. Generally restore free markets. Drastically restrict regulation and government in general.<\/p>\n

Dr. Jim is no anarchist, but a limited-government freedomista. In this case, that works very much in his favor because most readers encountering his arguments do not need<\/i> philosophical anarchism to complicate matters. Everything they do need is here, within a framework they’re already prepared to understand.<\/p>\n

Do I have a quibble or two? Of course. Great minds may think alike, but heaven forbid we ever think identically. I quibble with the title of the book, which doesn’t do justice to the creative solutions within. I quibble with a few bits of terminology. For example, in addressing the increasing trend for governments to meddle in what we eat, drink, and otherwise put in our bodies, he writes that if “society” foots the bill for our health, then society has a right to tell us how to maintain our healt. Of course, society has no such right; society (in the form of government and poor, beleagured tax-serfs) merely has an interest<\/i>.<\/p>\n

But as I say, that’s a quibble. This is a fine, comprehensive look at the mess made of medicine and how to clean it up.<\/p>\n

When my first book was published, Vin Suprynowicz wrote a column about it headed “Buy This Book by the Crate.” Which some people actually did. I bless Vin forever for giving me the best kickoff an obscure freedomista writer could have.<\/p>\n

I’ll now pay that favor forward and say, “Buy Dr. James W. Brook’s book<\/a> by the crate.” Give it to your friends, neighbors, relatives, and others who grouse about the problem of degrading, increasingly costly medical care but don’t know what to do. Give it to libertarian and conservative friends who can use it to be more effective on the subject. While you’re at it, give a copy to yourself.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The High Price of Socialized Medicine: A History of Government Meddling in American Health Care, And How a Free Market Would Solve Our Problems By Dr. James W. Brook 302 pages I owe Dr. Jim an apology. It must be two months now since he sent me a copy of his book for review. I meant to get on it right away. But you know, I just could not bring myself to pick up and read that book. It’s not that there was anything wrong with it. On the contrary, at a glance it was obviously a solid, professional piece<\/p>\n

Continue readingSolve the medical mess: share this book<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,11,13,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25154","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books-and-movies","category-government","category-health-and-science","category-money","ratio-natural","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25154","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25154"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25154\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}