Help me learn more about health care

March 1, 2009 9:50 AM

Can anyone recommend a few good books/articles on the history and current state of health care in the United States and Canada?

I'm more interested in books that discuss each of these countries individually, although anything comparing the two would be just fine.

By health care, I mean issues relating to the governmental or business aspects of health care; issues could include the ins and outs of both universal and consumer driven health care, or the influence of large pharmaceutical companies on the way medicine is practiced and made available.

posted by Lemon of Byzantium to law & government (11 comments total)

For what it's worth (and I hate most of what Michael Moore produces) desparities between the two are addressed in his movie Sicko.
posted by bamassippi at 10:43 AM on March 1

There is interesting history about the general evolution of different health care systems in this New Yorker article "Getting There from Here" by Atul Gawande.
posted by kitkatcathy at 10:58 AM on March 1 [1 favorite]

I haven't read this book but bookmarked the review because it seemed to be looking at aspects of health care management (in Quebec specifically) that neither the government nor the media have been keen to discuss. This article by the same journalist follows up on some of the same issues.
posted by zadcat at 11:05 AM on March 1

It's from 2000 but the article "Canada's Burning" is excellent on debunking some common talking points on universal healthcare.
posted by Mitheral at 11:30 AM on March 1

I'd also recommend Paul Starr's "The Social Transformation of American Medicine". It's not the most recent book on the American health care system, but it covers things through the 1980s. Most excellent read.
posted by scblackman at 11:45 AM on March 1

Do you mean health care, as in care given to people by medical professionals, or do you mean health insurance, whether private or socialized?
posted by trinity8-director at 12:49 PM on March 1

This is an interesting article about the care in Veterans Hospitals.
posted by saucysault at 12:58 PM on March 1

trinity8-director: I'm mainly looking for information about health insurance, but anything about either subject would be appreciated.
posted by Lemon of Byzantium at 1:35 PM on March 1

You can watch a Frontline special on the healthcare systems of the UK, Japan, Germany, Taiwan and Switzerland. The site also has a lot of links to articles about the US system and proposed reforms.
posted by lukemeister at 6:55 PM on March 1

The February 2009 edition of Harper's Magazine has an excellent article on this subject: Sick in the head: Why America won't get the health care system it needs.
posted by Weng at 4:39 PM on March 2

I had the exact same question you did, and I found this Timothy Noah article to be a very helpful overview of good recent texts on the subject of US health care.
posted by grrarrgh00 at 10:37 AM on April 25