Books about Rationing from Amazon.com

There is wide consensus that our current healthcare system is, to put it mildly, broken. In this time of HMOs, mismanaged care, and a failing Medicare system, patients and doctors alike are dissatisfied with the status quo. But Knope explains that there is a solution - Concierge Medicine. This new system, sweeping the nation yet still the subject of some controversy, allows consumers to contract directly with a doctor to get individualized care. It's a return to "Marcus Welby-style" medicine, says Knope, and it provides what he calls a "critical element" for the best care - time. Ample time for doctors to care for their patients, and to restore the doctor-patient relationship that has fallen into the past with our current assembly-line, "fast food" medicine. The first book published giving in-depth explanation of Concierge Medicine, this work also provides concrete advice on how to find, interview and budget for a concierge doctor, using changes in tax law that allow patients to open Health Savings Accounts. Patient vignettes provide personal insights from consumers of Concierge Medicine, and further description of what is involved to use this new approach for optimal health. Knope clearly explains the pressures that led to our current assembly-line healthcare system, allowing the reader to see also why the fact that a typical doctor's visit these days lasts just seven minutes works against any attempt to get, or for doctors to give, the best of care. Health is our most precious asset, says Knope, and like financial wealth, what he sees as "health wealth" also takes time, effort, and money to nurture. The three critical components of optimal health discussed are: a good relationship with a qualified doctor, regular exercise, and good nutrition. Concierge doctors customize a nutrition and exercise program unique to the needs of each individual. Yet there are detractors who argue Concierge Medicine is unfair, because it allows just those who can afford it unlimited access to a doctor. Knope confronts that question of medical ethics also. This book will doubtless stimulate not only ideas and action, but wide discussion and debate..
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Price: $8.95 [Notify me when price goes down.]

A nostalgic journey back to a time of Model-T Fords, stay-at-home-moms, vinyl long-playing records, telegrams, radio days, strict rules of etiquette and manual typewriters Here are the personal memories of the enormous changes that occurred in the twentieth century; a trip down memory lane for the older generation and, perhaps some surprising insights into the way life was, for those who are younger..
Price: $1.62 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Over the past four decades, the share of income devoted to health care in the United States has nearly tripled If current policy remains unchanged, this worrisome trend is likely to continue Should Americans decide to rein in the growth of health care spending, on the other hand, they will be forced to consider whether to ration care for the well insured--a prospect that is odious and unthinkable to many. In Can We Say No?, Henry Aaron and William B. Schwartz argue that sensible health care rationing not only can save money, but that it can improve general welfare and public health, as well. The book reviews Great Britain’s experience with health care rationing. The choices the British have made point up the nature of the options Americans will face if they wish to prevent public health care budgets from driving taxes even higher and private health care spending from crowding out increases in other forms of worker compensation and consumption. Aaron and Schwartz, along with Melissa Cox, explain why serious consideration of health care rationing is advisable, even inescapable. Can We Say No? provides the information policymakers and concerned citizens need to think clearly about these difficult issues, engage in an informed debate, and formulate responsible, sustainable health care policies..
Price: $10.00 [Notify me when price goes down.]

The effective management of appropriate health care should be able to contain medical care costs and improve accessibility while addressing rationing concerns However, managed care in the United States has not lived up to the expectations set for it.

Managed care quickly gained popularity among employers and public policy makers as a mechanism for curbing the excessive growth of health care insurance costs. Nonetheless, since its introduction, the system of largely for-profit managed care has been the subject of much public and political debate. The change from a fee-for-service system toward a system in which the health care insurance component is combined with the delivery of a broad range of integrated health care services for populations of plan enrollees that are financed prospectively from a limited budget has been widely criticized and has even been called repugnant. Instead of placing the blame on managed care organizations, however, we need to keep in mind that such organizations operate without societal agreement on critical issues such as a workable definition of health, an authoritative standard for defining the scope of entitlements, and on the distribution of labor between public and private sector entities. The health care system in the United States is also characterized by decentralization as well as the absence of a comprehensive health care planning or budgeting system, substantive access rules, and agreed-upon minimum health care benefit package. Therefore, managed care organizations only have limited responsibilities. The nonexistence of a shared, unifying paradigm of responsibility has been called the leading cause of the inability to manage health care appropriately. The stakeholders in health care operate on a set of widely varying interpretations of the notion of responsibility. The concept of genuine responsibility, recognizing the complexity of health care and the need for stakeholder-specific interpretations of responsibility, proposes as the underlying premise of responsibility (at least in regard to health care) the social agreement that distributive choices should be made on the basis of the premise of deliberate reciprocity. When all parties share the same foundation on which the notion of responsibility is built the resulting trust and cooperation among stakeholders enables them to find morally appropriate solutions in reforming health care.

"This book that is at the same time provocative and important. It proposes to change the way we think about deploying healthcare resources. It will accomplish its goal for readers who are willing to be challenged at a basic level. Intellectually sound and a very good read too."

Mark Pastin, Ph.D., President, Council of Ethical Organizations, Health Ethics Trust

"Dr. Verheijde has crafted the best study of the ethics of managed healthcare in more than a decade."

Glenn McGee, Ph.D., the John A. Balint Professor of Medical Ethics, Editor-in-Chief, The Americann Journal of Bioethics, and Director, Alden March Bioethics Institute. 

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Price: $31.39 [Notify me when price goes down.]

It's the year 2015, a time when global warming has begun to ravage the environment In response, the United Kingdom becomes the first country to mandate carbon rationing--a well-intentioned plan that goes tragically awry. This story of one girl's attempt to stay grounded in a world where disaster has become the norm is told in short diary entries..
Price: $12.21 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Victory gardens, ration books. While men fought overseas, women fought the war at home, by going to work and, more subtly, by feeding their families Mandatory food rationing during World War II challenged, for the first time, the image of the United States as a land of plenty and collapsed the boundaries between women's public and private lives by declaring home production and consumption to be political activities..
Price: $19.80 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Healthcare rationing is coming, with a vengeance If you value your health, you'd better understand it--and be ready. In this book, one of the world's leading healthcare economists offers a hard-nosed analysis of today's soaring healthcare costs--and shows how it will feel to be at the mercy of a system that might choose not to cure you. Dranove previews the transition from today's ad hoc rationing to an era of "rational rationing," in which economic analysis of the value of human lives and specific treatments is both explicit and routine. He assesses the mixed results of rational rationing in Great Britain and Australia, where government decision-makers struggle with balancing science and politics, in the face of budgets that place a shockingly low value on life. You'll discover healthcare economists have learned to numerically score different diseases to determine which are most worth curing; even how to calculate the value of your own life in tomorrow's healthcare system. Finally, Dranove compares the track record of government-sponsored and market-based rationing, concluding that if rationing must come, it's best left to the market, where individuals can decide for themselves what their lives are worth..
Price: $14.00 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Dr Keith Syrett argues for a reappraisal of the role of public law adjudication in questions of healthcare rationing. As governments worldwide turn to explicit rationing strategies to manage the mismatch between demand for and supply of health services and treatments, disappointed patients and the public have sought to contest the moral authority of bodies making rationing decisions. This has led to the growing involvement of law in this field of public policy. The author argues that, rather than bemoaning this development, those working within the health policy community should recognise the points of confluence between the principles and purposes of public law and the proposals which have been made to address rationing's 'legitimacy problem'. Drawing upon jurisprudence from England, Canada and South Africa, the book evaluates the capacity of courts to establish the conditions for a process of public deliberation from which legitimacy for healthcare rationing may be derived..
Price: $95.71 [Notify me when price goes down.]

The central idea for this book is that we lack consensus on principles for allocating resources and in the absence of such a consensus we must rely on a fair decision-making process for setting limits on health care. The authors characterize key elements of this process in a variety of health care contexts where such decisions are made- decisions about insurance coverage for new technologies, pharmacy benefit management, the design of physician incentives, contracting for mental health care by public agencies, etc.- and they connect the problem in the U.S. with the same problem in other countries. They provide a cogent analysis of the current situation, lucidly review the usual candidate solutions, and describe their own approach, which represents a clear advance in thinking. Their intended audience is international since the problem of limits cuts across types of health care systems whether or not they have universal coverage..
Price: $23.40 [Notify me when price goes down.]