In the Guts of Health Care: The Case For Universal Health Care Coverage Through A Single Payer System

Ask Americans what concerns them most, and the answer invariably will be the cost and quality of their health care. That is, if they have coverage at all. And yet, aside from short-lived effort on behalf of universal health care by Hillary Clinton during the beginning of the Clinton administration, the average American has no idea what can be done. Though there have been numerous publications on health care reform over the last few years, most have been academically oriented, targeted to a professional audience, and too technical and confusing for the average person. Dr. Fouad Michael, a hugely successful physician, who retired at the peak of his career to work for health care reform, outlines clearly and concisely how our present system of health care operates, the reasons it doesn't work, and the best possible solution. This book speaks to the reader on a level and in language that he or she can understand. Dr. Michael brings a unique perspective to the problem with his bicultural knowledge, having worked in two different types of medical care systems, Egypt and the US. Back in Egypt, he experienced firsthand the socialist revolution of the sixties and studied and practiced medicine in a national health care system with all its flows and ambitions. He practiced medicine in the US for more than three decades and witnessed the transformation from the fee-for-service system to the managed care revolution. Over the years, his interest in health care reform developed hand in hand with his own experience. Dr. Michael takes the reader through the failings of the fee-for-service and the managed care systems, using countless examples of his own patients' experiences, ones that the reader will easily identify with. He then outlines the solution: a single payer system modeled on the five principles of the Canadian system, which would serve as a basis for a US model. He refutes critics of the single payer system, who are at

Fouad B. Michael, M.D. was born in Palestine (now Israel) to Egyptian parents. He received an M.D. degree from Cairo University in 1961 and completed internships and residencies both in Egypt and the United States. He was an ENT (ear, nose and throat) doctor in private practice for twenty-five years in Rockville Centre, New York. He has also taught at the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary in New York City. He is now living in Charlottesville, Virginia, pursuing his interests in classical music, sculpture, reading and writing in the serene surroundings of the Blue Ridge Mountains and making use of what a great university town has to offer.