The Price We Pay : What Broke American Health Care--and How to Fix It

From the New York Times bestselling author of Unaccountable comes an eye-opening, timely, urgent critique of America''s broken health care system.

One in five Americans now has medical debt in collections and rising health care costs today threaten every small business in America. Dr. Makary, one of the nation''s leading health care experts, travels across America and details why health care has become a financial crisis. Drawing from on-the-ground stories, his research, and his own experience, The Price We Pay paints a vivid picture of price-gouging, middlemen, and a series of elusive money games in need of a serious shake-up. Dr. Makary shows how so much of health care spending goes to things that have nothing to do with health and what you can do about it. Dr. Makary also untangles medical bills that are so confusing most doctors can''t interpret them and challenges the medical establishment to remember medicine''s noble heritage of caring for people when they are vulnerable.

The Price We Pay offers a roadmap for everyday Americans as well as business leaders to get a better deal on their health care, and looks at the disruptors who are innovating medical care. The movement to restore medicine to its mission, Makary argues, is alive and well--a mission that can lower costs and save our country from the crushing cost of the medical industrial complex.