Synopses & Reviews
In the battle for U.S. health care, patients and doctors are losing. Who Killed Health Care? shows how to win the war.
One of the nation's most respected health care analysts, Regina Herzlinger exposes the motives and methods of those who have crippled America's health care system-figures in the insurance, hospital, employment, governmental, and academic sectors. She proves how our current system, which is organized around payers and providers rather than the needs of its users, is dangerously eroding patient welfare and is pushing costs out of the reach of millions.
Who Killed Health Care? then outlines Herzlinger's bold new plan for a consumer-driven system that will deliver affordable, high-quality care to everyone. By putting insurance money in the hands of patients, removing the middleman in the doctor-patient relationship, and giving employers cost relief, consumers and physicians will be empowered to make the system work the way it should. Herzlinger describes in precise detail how her innovative program will provide
- Smaller, disease-focused medical facilities that provide complete care for patients
- A national system of medical records that provides privacy with confidential access by approved practitioners
- Mandatory performance evaluations of all hospitals and all other medical organizations
- Mandatory health insurance with subsidies for those who cannot afford it
Who Killed Health Care? is a call to arms that must be answered; the welfare of every American hangs in the balance.
“A brilliant analysis… A must-read.” – Bill George, Professor, Harvard Business School and Former CEO of Medtronic
“As it becomes more and more obvious to everyone that our current health care system is unsustainable, this is the book that had to be written.” – Daniel H. Johnson, Jr. MD, former president of the American Medical Association
“Regina Herzlinger’s ideas to tackle the crisis of the U.S. health care system are based on keen knowledge of the system’s existing difficulties along with insights that introduce the reader to new streamlined choices that have the potential of getting both quantity and cost under control.” – Joseph Kennedy, founder, chairman, and president, Citizens Energy Corporation, CEO, Citizens Health Care, former representative (D-Mass) “Regina Herzlinger… offers a vision of the way things can be, should be, and will be sooner or later. The only question is: how long do we have to wait?” – Greg Scandlen, founder, Consumers for Health Choices “Regi Herzlinger has brilliantly articulated a better way – embracing the principles of competition and innovation that cause every other sector of our economy to thrive. Discharging American health care from the ICU can only happen by putting individual Americans – not politicians and bureaucrats – back in charge of their health care decisioins.” – U.S. Senator Tom Coburn (R-Okla), M.D. “Following on the heels of her landmark Market-Driven Health Care, Herzlinger lays it on the line with her expose of what many who work in the health care industry have felt in their gut. Now it is articulated in an entertaining and must-read portrayal, with you and me as the only way out.” – Dennis White, executive vice president for strategic development, National Business Coalition on Health “A wonderful Orwellian romp through issues which carry a deadly irony. The killers of health care are, of course, the third parties, each of which has an itchy palm and a commitment to profit or power which exceeds the commitment to service, with each engaging the others within a politically shaped box. Rarely has the case for the public been made with so much force, foresight, and wit, and a better way forward shown so clearly.” – James F. Fries, MD, Professor of Medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine “You can practically hear the war chants as Professor Herzlinger sets out her view of what’s wrong with the health care system and how to fix it. You’d best read it so you can decide which side you will be on when the battle is joined.” – Paul Levy, CEO, Beth Israel Hospital, Boston, MA “Regina Herzlinger, the nation’s leading expert on consumer-driven health care, has given us a brilliant analysis of the flaws in our health care system and what it will take to get it back on track. Her latest book is a must-read.” – Bill George, Professor of Management Practice, Harvard Business School, Former CEO, Medtronic, and author of Authentic Leadership “You don’t have to agree with her diagnosis and prescription for the U.S. health care system, but you do have to read her book. Once again, Professor Herzlinger has put together a well researched, well written, and very provocative blueprint for the future of health care.” Peter L. Slavin, MD, President, Massachusetts General Hospital
Review
"Regina Herzlinger's impressive and accessible Who Killed Health Care? offers insights that could lead to real progress. She sets forth a world in which insurance companies compete on quality, product design and disease management--not on ability to attract healthy consumers. Entrepreneurs would create integrated disease-management systems that profit from excellent and effective service, saving patients' time and providing coordinated care for all aspect of a condition." -- New York Post
Review
“Mrs Herzlinger is America's leading advocate of market-driven, consumer-orientated health reform. She wants a national system which requires individuals to buy health insurance, with help in the form of tax breaks for all punters, and subsidies for the poorest. She wants insurance prices to be risk-adjusted and hospitals to be free to charge what they like so they can offer new services as the market demands. Most importantly, she wants the government to demand transparency of price and quality from this notoriously murky industry.”-The Economist -- The Economist
Synopsis
A renowned authority from Harvard Business School confronts America's health care crisis-and how consumer control can fix itConsumers are in charge of every transaction in their lives-except for health care. Insurance companies have either partial or total control over which doctors, treatments, and medications they can use. Doctors, on the other hand, are often powerless to assign the tests and treatments their patients need.
Regina Herzlinger, one of America's most respected and influential health care analysts, cuts through the politics, controversy, and headlines to examine this pressing problem. She also offers a potent solution: Through a consumer-driven system, insurance money would be put in the hands of the patient, remove the middle man in patients' relationships with their doctors, and give employers cost relief.
“Regina Herzlinger, the nation's leading expert on consumer-driven health care, has given us a brilliant analysis of the flaws in our health care system and what it will take to get it back on track. Her latest book is a must read.”-Bill George, professor of management practice, Harvard Business School, former CEO, Medtronic, and author of Authentic Leadership
“No one has done more than Regina Herzlinger to rethink health care and transform it from a bureaucratic mess into an entrepreneurial, market-oriented success. Her new book continues that historic mission.”-Newt Gingrich
“A superbly balanced perspective of what has happened to health care and how to correct the current deficiencies.”-Daniel H. Johnson Jr., M.D., former president of the American Medical Association
Synopsis
In this book, Regina Herzlinger exposes the motives and methods of those who have crippled America's health care system-figures in the insurance, hospital, employment, governmental, and academic sectors. She proves how our current system, which is organized around payers and providers rather than the needs of its users, is dangerously eroding patient welfare and is pushing costs out of the reach of millions. 'Who Killed Health Care?' then outlines Herzlinger's bold new plan for a consumer-driven system that will deliver affordable, high-quality care to everyone. By putting insurance money in the hands of patients, removing the middleman in the doctor-patient relationship, and giving employers cost relief, consumers and physicians will be empowered to make the system work the way it should.
Synopsis
Doctors. Parents. Citizens. Employers. They're all ready for the cure to America's health care crisis:
WHO KILLED HEALTH CARE?
“ A brilliant analysis…a must read.”-Bill George, Professor, Harvard Business School and former CEO of Medtronic
“As it becomes more and more obvious to everyone that our current health care system is unsustainable, this is the book that had to be written.”-Daniel H. Johnson, Jr., MD, former president of the American Medical Association
“Regina Herzlinger's ideas to tackle the crisis of the U.S. health care system are based on a keen knowledge of the system's existing difficulties along with insights that introduce the reader to new streamlined choices that have the potential of getting both quality and cost under control.”-Joseph Kennedy, founder, chairman, and president, Citizens Energy Corporation, CEO, Citizens Health Care, former representative (D-Mass)
“Regina Herzlinger...offers a vision of the way things can be, should be, and will be sooner or later. The only question is: how long do we have to wait?”-Greg Scandlen, founder, Consumers for Health Choices
“Regi Herzlinger has brilliantly articulated a better way-embracing the principles of competition and innovation that cause every other sector of our economy to thrive.”-U.S. Senator Tom Coburn (R-Okla), MD
“Following on the heels of her landmark Market-Driven Health Care, Herzlinger lays it on the line with her exposé of what many who work in the health care industry have felt in their gut. Now it is articulated in an entertaining and must-read portrayal, with you and me as the only way out.”-Dennis White, executive vice president for strategic development, National Business Coalition on Health
About the Author
Regina Herzlinger, DBA, is the Nancy R. McPherson professor of business administration at the Harvard Business School. She has sat on the boards of directors of dozens of nonprofit and business health care organizations and has been a keynote lecturer at hundreds of meetings on health care. Dr. Herzlinger has won numerous research awards from U.S. and international health care and accounting organizations and was elected one of the “100 Most Powerful People in Health Care” by Modern Healthcare. She is a Senior Fellow at the Manhattan Institute.