Monday, January 19, 2009

The Top Ten Myths of American Health Care: A Citizen's Guide

The Top Ten Myths of American Health Care: A Citizen's Guide. By Sally C. Pipes
Pacific Research Institute, Jan 16, 2009

SAN FRANCISCO – The Pacific Research Institute has just released The Top Ten Myths of American Health Care: A Citizen's Guide. This is the latest book from health care scholar, and PRI President and CEO Sally C. Pipes.

The book's foreword is by Steve Forbes: “For anyone interested in getting to the core of America's health care troubles, this is the perfect book,” he writes. “And for health care policy makers, it should be required reading.”

In her 182-page book, Ms. Pipes takes on ten popular myths about the state of health care in America. The final chapter lays out several patient-centered prescriptions for reform.

“I wrote this short book as a citizen's guide. Each chapter tackles a complex issue in straight-forward, easy-to-understand language,” said Ms. Pipes.

The book challenges the conventional belief that only government can fix our health care system. In fact, says Ms. Pipes, “government overreach has put the system in a state of crisis.”

A complete list of chapters can be found below.

In her conclusion, Ms. Pipes offers some ways to fix the country's biggest health care problems. “If we want to bring costs down and extend coverage to more Americans, we have to open the health care marketplace to competition -- by abolishing costly government regulations and reforming the tax code to make insurance more affordable.”

“We can solve the health care problems that plague the United States,” concluded Ms. Pipes. “But we won't solve them if we continue to believe the many myths that plague the health care debate.”

List of Chapters
Foreword by Steve Forbes

Myth One: Government Health Care Is More Efficient
Myth Two: We're Spending Too Much on Health Care
Myth Three: Forty-Six Million Americans Can't Get Health Care
Myth Four: High Drug Prices Drive Up Health Care Costs
Myth Five: Importing Drugs Would Reduce Health Care Costs
Myth Six: Universal Coverage Can Be Achieved by Forcing Everyone to Buy Insurance
Myth Seven: Government Prevention Programs Reduce Health Care Costs
Myth Eight: We Need More Government to Insure Poor Americans
Myth Nine: Health Information Technology Is a Silver Bullet for Reducing Costs
Myth Ten: Government-Run Health Care Systems in Other Countries are Better and Cheaper than America's
Solutions: Markets, Consumer Choice, and Innovation

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