Health care as a right of citizenship : the continuing evolution of reform / Gunnar Almgren.

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

This ambitious book examines how the American health care system must be further reformed to bring it closer in line with the ideals of a modern democracy, as well as how the ACA may change in the coming years. It suggests the next, natural step in the realization of health and well being as a fundamental human right.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

The revolutionary title does justice only to the initial chapters of this well-crafted book. In these, Almgren (Univ. of Washington) mostly recites the left-leaning conventional mantra that health care is essential to achieving "equal opportunity" and "collective prosperity" in a sort of manifesto for universal health care. These chapters are interesting--believers may see their cause reinforced through historical, philosophical, and social theory arguments. Those who think universal health care does not promote welfare or solve inequality may encounter a compendium of arguable commonplaces. The book's second part is dedicated to the financial reforms needed to support universal health care. Mention of the negative externalities that financing universal health care produces in the form of net welfare losses, particularly among those it is meant to protect, would have been welcome. Readers who were happy with the initial manifesto might feel uneasy when the author explores the limits of the right to health care, yet the final sections make it clear that there are limits, even if they are blurry today. In this sense, the title does not reveal the book's contents in all their richness and balance, contents most readers will enjoy, if not for all the same reasons. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above; faculty and professionals. --Pablo Rodriguez del Pozo, Weill Cornell Medical College