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The Primal Prescription: Surviving The "Sick Care" Sinkhole
It’s no secret that the U.S. health care system is in a state of disrepair, but the rabbit hole goes deeper than even the staunchest critics may realize. In Primal Prescription, authors Doug McGuff and Robert Murphy combine their expertise in economics and medicine to offer a shocking, disturbing, and ultimately enlightening view into America’s health care system. You’ll discover the real history of what went wrong with U.S. health care and insurance, and why current efforts to clean up the mess are only making things worse.
But far from leaving you feeling helpless at the dismal—and sometimes deadly—state of affairs, Primal Prescription equips you with both the knowledge to understand the health care conundrum and the tools for navigating your way out of it. McGuff and Murphy offer an evidence-based “game plan” for taking control of your own medical care, protecting yourself and your loved ones regardless of what the future holds for the rest of the nation.
Whether you’re currently tangled in America’s broken health care system or simply trying to avoid its clutches, Primal Prescription is a must-have resource for taking your health into your own hands.
463 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 21, 2015
40 people are currently reading
294 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
October 19, 2019
Excellent survey of how government screwed up the health care field, as well as good advice from Dr. McGuff on how to navigate the system.
January 16, 2026
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The physician Doug McGuff and economist Robert P. Murphy do a remarkable job of going all the way back to the beginning and tracing what broke the US Healthcare system, one step at a time.
Per capita medical expenses in the United States, measured in 2009 dollars, rose from approximately $1,000 in 1960 to over $8,000 in 2009. In the same period, healthcare expenditures as a share of the nation's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) increased from 5% to about 17%. Why?
The answer is a remarkable case-study in what the economist Ludwig von Mises called "The Middle of the Road Leads to Socialism" or the "Spiral of Interventionism."
The authors succinctly describe the pattern: Try to get used to this pattern, for we will see it throughout the book: a government intervention into medicine leads to a problem, but rather than repeal the initial measure, the government simply slaps on further interventions.
Following are some of the landmark events on this road to a broken healthcare system.
1. The Early Years: Limiting the Supply of Doctors (1765 - 1932)
1765: First medical school established - though doctors trained in the European apprentice model did exist earlier. No licensing yet.
Licensing introduced
1821: Connecticut becomes the first state to license physicians
1847: New York Medical Society creates a model of licensure for other states as well.
1910: Flexner Report recommends that medical school require at least two years of college, four years of medical training, and the closure of all schools deemed substandard.
Intention: Improve the quality of physicians.
New Problem: Higher barrier to entry --> lower supply of physicians --> higher healthcare costs.
In 1900: 175 doctors per 100,000 citizens.
In 1930: 30 medical schools closed. 125 doctors per 100,000 citizens.
A strong case can be made that this didn't even improve the quality of physicians better than free-market competition would. But even if it did, this would be the equivalent of the government saying, you can either buy a BMW or no car at all. Sure, some people will have a great car - but they would've bought it anyway. It's the others who no longer have any car at all, instead of at least having some car.
2. The Great Depression & WWII: The Rise of Third-Party Payers (1930s - 1940s)
Healthcare costs were already high, and then the Great Depression (1929-39) made things even worse. The average American finds it difficult to pay for even routine healthcare. In the early days, insurance only covered unexpected and serious treatments, not routine visits.
Hospitals create their own insurance companies, Blue Cross and Blue Shield (BCBS), which extend insurance coverage from serious incidents to routine visits.
This was followed by two critical government interventions.
Tax exemption: Due to the high cost of healthcare as a result of previous gov't interventions in healthcare (and the gov't interventions that led to the Great Depression), BCBS requested a tax exemption to make plans more affordable.
Community rating: In exchange, the government demanded they adopt a community rating - i.e. charging everyone in a region the same premium regardless of age, sex, or medical history.
To understand the problems this created, one must first understand Milton Friedman's Four Ways of Spending Money.
When you spend your money on yourself, you care both about the cost and the benefit.
When you spend someone else's money on yourself (think company-sponsored team lunch), you care about the benefit, but not so much about the cost.
This move from a model of direct payments to a model of third-party payer based on community-rating, created a moral hazard in the system.
"Moral hazard refers to the fact that people take on greater risks when they are personally shielded from the negative consequences. It is the difference between how you behave when you walk on a slack line or tightrope when it is two feet off the ground, versus how you behave on the same wire when it is ten stories off the ground. The consequences influence behavior."
With someone else subsidizing the risk of their unhealthy lifestyle, and the insurance company paying the bill for their healthcare expenses, patients now demanded the best possible care with no concern for its price, leading to a further increase in healthcare prices.
1942 Stabilization Act: World War 2 lead to a diversion of a massive workforce from the private sector, leading to wage inflation. In response, the gov't freezes wages with the intention of fighting wage inflation.
Since attracting talent through higher wages was no longer possible, companies use higher health insurance benefits to attract talent.
In 1954, the gov't makes this benefit tax exempt for large group plans, but not tax exempt if the employee personally buys health insurance. This created a situation where health insurance in America got concentrated into the hands of a few big health insurance companies.
It also effectively created the system where health insurance in America is tied to the employer for most people. The problem?
1. Not all employers offer health insurance, and getting it privately is now even more expensive.
2. Harder to change jobs. If you have a good health insurance with the current employer and are in the middle of a chronic treatment, you may not get as good a health insurance with the new employer.
3. The unemployed and the retired also find it more expensive to buy health insurance - this lays the seeds for the next round of gov't interventions.
3. Medicare & Medicaid: The Government Becomes the Payer (1965 - 1980s)
In response to the above problem, in 1965, president Lyndon B. Johnson passes the Medicare (for Americans over 65) and Medicaid (for low-income Americans) government healthcare payment programs.
This creates another immense problem: It moves the highest-risk group (the elderly) out of the private insurance market (where they'd pay for themselves) and places the cost of their healthcare directly on the taxpayers - massively increasing the demand for healthcare services. This further leads to an increase in the healthcare prices - creating the conditions for the next gov't intervention.
Diagnosis-Related Groups (DRGs): DRGs are price controls set by the government on the price of various healthcare services. Instead of reimbursing hospitals based on the cost of the treatment, the gov't pays the hospital a set amount based on the specific group their diagnosis falls under.
The problem? As predicted by standard economics, price ceilings lead to shortages: Hospitals discharge people sooner and provide less treatment than they would otherwise. Discharging the patient the same day is a lot cheaper than keeping them overnight - and the hospital is paid the same either way. Moreover, all of these regulations are also creating a bureaucracy nightmare, with more and more administrators needed to manage the paperwork.
This shortage leads to many patients being denied sufficient care. This sets the path for the next gov't intervention.
4. EMTALA: The Emergency Room Becomes The Free Clinic (1986)
In 1986, President Ronald Reagan signed the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA).
EMTALA imposed the following three duties on hospitals for anyone presenting at their ER, regardless of the patient's ability to pay:
1. Medical Screening: Provide a screening exam to anyone who requests one to determine if an emergency medical condition exists.
2. Stabilization: If an emergency condition is found, the hospital must stabilize the patient's condition or arrange for a transfer to a hospital that can.
3. Acceptance: A hospital with specialized capabilities must accept the transfer of a patient who requires that care.
Failure to do so would result in high penalties and termination of Medicare payments to the hospital.
This was a disaster. While the DRGs restricted supply, the EMTALA program simultaneously boosted demand! The authors describe this as first clogging the bathtub and then turning on the faucet with full flow.
5. The Affordable Care Act (Obamacare): Mandating Insurance for All (2010)
According to the authors, "By 2010, more than 16 percent of the country had no health insurance, which translated to almost 50 million Americans."
This led to the primary goal of the Affordable Care Act: To make health insurance more affordable and to provide universal coverage. This in turn led another round of interventions.
Goal: Universal Coverage. The government mandated non-discriminatory pricing (expanded community rating) and minimum standards for all plans in order to ensure everyone had insurance. This included absurdities like requiring women past menopause to purchase insurance that covered maternity leave.
Method: Expanded Community Rating. This rule was expanded to prevent insurers from denying coverage for pre-existing conditions. This forced healthy individuals to pay higher premiums to subsidize the unhealthy.
Problem: Keeping Healthy People In. This created an incentive for young, healthy people to leave the now more expensive system. But the system would collapse into a death spiral if they didn't subsidize the older and more sick people. To prevent this "adverse selection," the government passed the individual mandate.
Solution: The Individual Mandate. This rule forced nearly every American to obtain health insurance or pay a tax penalty.
New Problem: Affordability. Many people, especially those with lower incomes, could not afford the mandated insurance.
Solution: Government Subsidies & New Taxes. The government provided subsidies to help low-income individuals purchase insurance, paid for by new taxes on high-premium "Cadillac plans" and other sources.
Moreover, the ACA set a mandate for all employers with 50+ employees to provide health insurance plans. This led to many companies not expanding beyond 49 employees, limiting productivity and job opportunities.
Suffice it to say that health insurance did not become affordable, it became even more expensive.
From: https://politicalcalculations.blogspo...
With rampant scam
From: https://nypost.com/2025/12/03/us-news...
Didn't even provide universal coverage
(From: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/pressroom/re...)
About 3.9 million Americans preferred to pay a total of 4.3 Billion in penalties for not getting the insurance instead of getting the "affordable" insurance.
And the problems don't end here. I refer you to read the book for more.
The Road to Socialized Medicine
It is clear that Obamacare (arguably intentionally, but at least in effect) is leading America down the the path of socialized healthcare. This is bad for all the reasons that socialism is bad: tyranny, poor quality, and universal shortages. Here's a comparison with Canada's socialized healthcare program.
The TRUTH About Universal Healthcare! (from a Canadian) (2009)
The Truth About Canadian Healthcare | 5 Minute Video (2020)
Closing thoughts
This review contains a small part of the topics covered in the book. The book also talks about:
- Problems with the FDA (both delaying approval for good drugs and not properly screening for bad drugs),
- The risks of medial screening and elective procedures: An important concept here is the Number Needed to Treat (NNT) - which is the number of people that need to receive a treatment (or screening/test) before one person benefits from it. Every screening/test comes with the risk of a false positive as well as non-zero risk from the screening/test and treatment process itself. So is an elective procedure useful? The answer isn't obvious. The benefits to those truly sick are seen, the harm to the false positives and those not sick is easy to miss.
- Strategies to better navigate the "sickcare" system.
- Concrete guidelines on how to fix the US healthcare system (including repealing all the interventions above).
Misc. updates
A Medicaid benefit doubles in 4 years - "personal assistance"
https://www.empirecenter.org/publicat...
The physician Doug McGuff and economist Robert P. Murphy do a remarkable job of going all the way back to the beginning and tracing what broke the US Healthcare system, one step at a time.
Per capita medical expenses in the United States, measured in 2009 dollars, rose from approximately $1,000 in 1960 to over $8,000 in 2009. In the same period, healthcare expenditures as a share of the nation's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) increased from 5% to about 17%. Why?
The answer is a remarkable case-study in what the economist Ludwig von Mises called "The Middle of the Road Leads to Socialism" or the "Spiral of Interventionism."
The authors succinctly describe the pattern: Try to get used to this pattern, for we will see it throughout the book: a government intervention into medicine leads to a problem, but rather than repeal the initial measure, the government simply slaps on further interventions.
Following are some of the landmark events on this road to a broken healthcare system.
1. The Early Years: Limiting the Supply of Doctors (1765 - 1932)
1765: First medical school established - though doctors trained in the European apprentice model did exist earlier. No licensing yet.
Licensing introduced
1821: Connecticut becomes the first state to license physicians
1847: New York Medical Society creates a model of licensure for other states as well.
1910: Flexner Report recommends that medical school require at least two years of college, four years of medical training, and the closure of all schools deemed substandard.
Intention: Improve the quality of physicians.
New Problem: Higher barrier to entry --> lower supply of physicians --> higher healthcare costs.
In 1900: 175 doctors per 100,000 citizens.
In 1930: 30 medical schools closed. 125 doctors per 100,000 citizens.
A strong case can be made that this didn't even improve the quality of physicians better than free-market competition would. But even if it did, this would be the equivalent of the government saying, you can either buy a BMW or no car at all. Sure, some people will have a great car - but they would've bought it anyway. It's the others who no longer have any car at all, instead of at least having some car.
2. The Great Depression & WWII: The Rise of Third-Party Payers (1930s - 1940s)
Healthcare costs were already high, and then the Great Depression (1929-39) made things even worse. The average American finds it difficult to pay for even routine healthcare. In the early days, insurance only covered unexpected and serious treatments, not routine visits.
Hospitals create their own insurance companies, Blue Cross and Blue Shield (BCBS), which extend insurance coverage from serious incidents to routine visits.
This was followed by two critical government interventions.
Tax exemption: Due to the high cost of healthcare as a result of previous gov't interventions in healthcare (and the gov't interventions that led to the Great Depression), BCBS requested a tax exemption to make plans more affordable.
Community rating: In exchange, the government demanded they adopt a community rating - i.e. charging everyone in a region the same premium regardless of age, sex, or medical history.
To understand the problems this created, one must first understand Milton Friedman's Four Ways of Spending Money.
When you spend your money on yourself, you care both about the cost and the benefit.
When you spend someone else's money on yourself (think company-sponsored team lunch), you care about the benefit, but not so much about the cost.
This move from a model of direct payments to a model of third-party payer based on community-rating, created a moral hazard in the system.
"Moral hazard refers to the fact that people take on greater risks when they are personally shielded from the negative consequences. It is the difference between how you behave when you walk on a slack line or tightrope when it is two feet off the ground, versus how you behave on the same wire when it is ten stories off the ground. The consequences influence behavior."
With someone else subsidizing the risk of their unhealthy lifestyle, and the insurance company paying the bill for their healthcare expenses, patients now demanded the best possible care with no concern for its price, leading to a further increase in healthcare prices.
1942 Stabilization Act: World War 2 lead to a diversion of a massive workforce from the private sector, leading to wage inflation. In response, the gov't freezes wages with the intention of fighting wage inflation.
Since attracting talent through higher wages was no longer possible, companies use higher health insurance benefits to attract talent.
In 1954, the gov't makes this benefit tax exempt for large group plans, but not tax exempt if the employee personally buys health insurance. This created a situation where health insurance in America got concentrated into the hands of a few big health insurance companies.
It also effectively created the system where health insurance in America is tied to the employer for most people. The problem?
1. Not all employers offer health insurance, and getting it privately is now even more expensive.
2. Harder to change jobs. If you have a good health insurance with the current employer and are in the middle of a chronic treatment, you may not get as good a health insurance with the new employer.
3. The unemployed and the retired also find it more expensive to buy health insurance - this lays the seeds for the next round of gov't interventions.
3. Medicare & Medicaid: The Government Becomes the Payer (1965 - 1980s)
In response to the above problem, in 1965, president Lyndon B. Johnson passes the Medicare (for Americans over 65) and Medicaid (for low-income Americans) government healthcare payment programs.
This creates another immense problem: It moves the highest-risk group (the elderly) out of the private insurance market (where they'd pay for themselves) and places the cost of their healthcare directly on the taxpayers - massively increasing the demand for healthcare services. This further leads to an increase in the healthcare prices - creating the conditions for the next gov't intervention.
Diagnosis-Related Groups (DRGs): DRGs are price controls set by the government on the price of various healthcare services. Instead of reimbursing hospitals based on the cost of the treatment, the gov't pays the hospital a set amount based on the specific group their diagnosis falls under.
The problem? As predicted by standard economics, price ceilings lead to shortages: Hospitals discharge people sooner and provide less treatment than they would otherwise. Discharging the patient the same day is a lot cheaper than keeping them overnight - and the hospital is paid the same either way. Moreover, all of these regulations are also creating a bureaucracy nightmare, with more and more administrators needed to manage the paperwork.
This shortage leads to many patients being denied sufficient care. This sets the path for the next gov't intervention.
4. EMTALA: The Emergency Room Becomes The Free Clinic (1986)
In 1986, President Ronald Reagan signed the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA).
EMTALA imposed the following three duties on hospitals for anyone presenting at their ER, regardless of the patient's ability to pay:
1. Medical Screening: Provide a screening exam to anyone who requests one to determine if an emergency medical condition exists.
2. Stabilization: If an emergency condition is found, the hospital must stabilize the patient's condition or arrange for a transfer to a hospital that can.
3. Acceptance: A hospital with specialized capabilities must accept the transfer of a patient who requires that care.
Failure to do so would result in high penalties and termination of Medicare payments to the hospital.
This was a disaster. While the DRGs restricted supply, the EMTALA program simultaneously boosted demand! The authors describe this as first clogging the bathtub and then turning on the faucet with full flow.
5. The Affordable Care Act (Obamacare): Mandating Insurance for All (2010)
According to the authors, "By 2010, more than 16 percent of the country had no health insurance, which translated to almost 50 million Americans."
This led to the primary goal of the Affordable Care Act: To make health insurance more affordable and to provide universal coverage. This in turn led another round of interventions.
Goal: Universal Coverage. The government mandated non-discriminatory pricing (expanded community rating) and minimum standards for all plans in order to ensure everyone had insurance. This included absurdities like requiring women past menopause to purchase insurance that covered maternity leave.
Method: Expanded Community Rating. This rule was expanded to prevent insurers from denying coverage for pre-existing conditions. This forced healthy individuals to pay higher premiums to subsidize the unhealthy.
Problem: Keeping Healthy People In. This created an incentive for young, healthy people to leave the now more expensive system. But the system would collapse into a death spiral if they didn't subsidize the older and more sick people. To prevent this "adverse selection," the government passed the individual mandate.
Solution: The Individual Mandate. This rule forced nearly every American to obtain health insurance or pay a tax penalty.
New Problem: Affordability. Many people, especially those with lower incomes, could not afford the mandated insurance.
Solution: Government Subsidies & New Taxes. The government provided subsidies to help low-income individuals purchase insurance, paid for by new taxes on high-premium "Cadillac plans" and other sources.
Moreover, the ACA set a mandate for all employers with 50+ employees to provide health insurance plans. This led to many companies not expanding beyond 49 employees, limiting productivity and job opportunities.
Suffice it to say that health insurance did not become affordable, it became even more expensive.
From: https://politicalcalculations.blogspo...
With rampant scam
From: https://nypost.com/2025/12/03/us-news...
Didn't even provide universal coverage
(From: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/pressroom/re...)
About 3.9 million Americans preferred to pay a total of 4.3 Billion in penalties for not getting the insurance instead of getting the "affordable" insurance.
And the problems don't end here. I refer you to read the book for more.
The Road to Socialized Medicine
It is clear that Obamacare (arguably intentionally, but at least in effect) is leading America down the the path of socialized healthcare. This is bad for all the reasons that socialism is bad: tyranny, poor quality, and universal shortages. Here's a comparison with Canada's socialized healthcare program.
The TRUTH About Universal Healthcare! (from a Canadian) (2009)
The Truth About Canadian Healthcare | 5 Minute Video (2020)
Closing thoughts
This review contains a small part of the topics covered in the book. The book also talks about:
- Problems with the FDA (both delaying approval for good drugs and not properly screening for bad drugs),
- The risks of medial screening and elective procedures: An important concept here is the Number Needed to Treat (NNT) - which is the number of people that need to receive a treatment (or screening/test) before one person benefits from it. Every screening/test comes with the risk of a false positive as well as non-zero risk from the screening/test and treatment process itself. So is an elective procedure useful? The answer isn't obvious. The benefits to those truly sick are seen, the harm to the false positives and those not sick is easy to miss.
- Strategies to better navigate the "sickcare" system.
- Concrete guidelines on how to fix the US healthcare system (including repealing all the interventions above).
Misc. updates
A Medicaid benefit doubles in 4 years - "personal assistance"
https://www.empirecenter.org/publicat...
July 25, 2016
I truly enjoyed this book. The first part details the history of health insurance and the bipartisan meddling that led to one government "fix" that required more government interventions that were actually caused by the supposed prior solutions. Why is health insurance usually tied to employment? Why is the FDA counterproductive? Why will the Affordable Care Act inevitably fail? These questions are answered in the first part of the book.
After you're throughly depressed about the current state of affairs, the authors, primarily the co-author ER doctor, gives you a straightforward plan about how to shield yourself from the system as much as possible by obviously trying to stay as healthy as possible through a primal lifestyle (not discussed in detail in this book), but more helpfully how to set yourself up for success and navigate the system should you unexpectedly find yourself ill or injured and forced to interact with the system.
Dr. McGuff gives you golden advice from an insider on how to choose a doctor, stop taking unnecessary medicine, communicate well during a hospital stay and make it out alive, and not just blindly follow the general recommendations to have a colonoscopy, mammogram, Pap smear, etc. after certain ages without really considering the cost/benefit and risk/reward for your particular situation. He also gives good advice for those with a high deductible insurance plan to save money and get superior service by paying cash at concierge doctors offices and surgery centers with upfront pricing such as OKC's Surgery Center of Oklahoma.
I would highly recommend this book overall. But even if you don't care/agree with the historical/political background of how we got to this point and the free-market policy suggestions to reverse course, it's still worth reading the middle section for the very practical advice to apply on a personal level.
After you're throughly depressed about the current state of affairs, the authors, primarily the co-author ER doctor, gives you a straightforward plan about how to shield yourself from the system as much as possible by obviously trying to stay as healthy as possible through a primal lifestyle (not discussed in detail in this book), but more helpfully how to set yourself up for success and navigate the system should you unexpectedly find yourself ill or injured and forced to interact with the system.
Dr. McGuff gives you golden advice from an insider on how to choose a doctor, stop taking unnecessary medicine, communicate well during a hospital stay and make it out alive, and not just blindly follow the general recommendations to have a colonoscopy, mammogram, Pap smear, etc. after certain ages without really considering the cost/benefit and risk/reward for your particular situation. He also gives good advice for those with a high deductible insurance plan to save money and get superior service by paying cash at concierge doctors offices and surgery centers with upfront pricing such as OKC's Surgery Center of Oklahoma.
I would highly recommend this book overall. But even if you don't care/agree with the historical/political background of how we got to this point and the free-market policy suggestions to reverse course, it's still worth reading the middle section for the very practical advice to apply on a personal level.
May 22, 2016
This is a must-read book for all Americans that care about the healthcare debate. Some major takeaways:
1) If you think that Obamacare was some gigantic divergence from existing health care policy, you're completely wrong. It was simply the next step in a long line (literally decades) of interference in health care by government. Every step has made it worse. Every solution has brought another problem which has brought another bad solution.
2) Republicans and democrats both suck, they're both to blame, please stop saying that it's the other party's fault. It's both parties' fault. Health care sucks in this country because both parties suck and the American people are ignorant about the realities.
3) There was no "free-market" in health care pre-Obamacare, there sure as hell is no free-market now. The free-market didn't fail, it didn't exist. Quasi-socialized medicine has completely failed.
4) The system is a mess now, just wait, it's going to get worse. Much worse.
5) Obamacare failed to do what was promised. But what was promised was never what Obamacare was meant to do. Socialized health insurance is coming barring some miracle.
6) "Mainstream medicine" and "mainstream nutrition" is not good for you. It will make you sicker.
7) Your health is your responsibility, and you better figure that out in the next few years.
8) I feel really bad for the elderly and retired. What's coming isn't going to be fun to watch.
1) If you think that Obamacare was some gigantic divergence from existing health care policy, you're completely wrong. It was simply the next step in a long line (literally decades) of interference in health care by government. Every step has made it worse. Every solution has brought another problem which has brought another bad solution.
2) Republicans and democrats both suck, they're both to blame, please stop saying that it's the other party's fault. It's both parties' fault. Health care sucks in this country because both parties suck and the American people are ignorant about the realities.
3) There was no "free-market" in health care pre-Obamacare, there sure as hell is no free-market now. The free-market didn't fail, it didn't exist. Quasi-socialized medicine has completely failed.
4) The system is a mess now, just wait, it's going to get worse. Much worse.
5) Obamacare failed to do what was promised. But what was promised was never what Obamacare was meant to do. Socialized health insurance is coming barring some miracle.
6) "Mainstream medicine" and "mainstream nutrition" is not good for you. It will make you sicker.
7) Your health is your responsibility, and you better figure that out in the next few years.
8) I feel really bad for the elderly and retired. What's coming isn't going to be fun to watch.
April 8, 2016
Interesting but not enough new stuff for me.
November 28, 2016
Really great explanation of why the economics of the medical world are so wonky. Best of all, the book has an abundance of suggestions of what you, as an individual, can do about it.
June 17, 2022
Напоследък се нароиха всякакви книги относно палео храненето и начина на живот и понеже станаха много маймуни на тоя клон, авторите се чудят какво по-различно да напишат, за да са все пак интересни на някого и да си продават книжките.
Затова сега двама автори са опитали новаторска формула, като резултатът от нея е книга, която не знае каква е, а аз не знам на кого би била полезна.
Всъщност, това са две книги в една - първата част разглежда историята на американското здравеопазване, здравните застраховки и законите относно здравеопазването, вкл. Обамакеър, а втората обяснява основни постановки от палео-идеологията.
Доколкото първата част ми е съвършено безинтересна, а втората не ми казва нищо ново, тази книга е отива в графата "недопрочетени".
Затова сега двама автори са опитали новаторска формула, като резултатът от нея е книга, която не знае каква е, а аз не знам на кого би била полезна.
Всъщност, това са две книги в една - първата част разглежда историята на американското здравеопазване, здравните застраховки и законите относно здравеопазването, вкл. Обамакеър, а втората обяснява основни постановки от палео-идеологията.
Доколкото първата част ми е съвършено безинтересна, а втората не ми казва нищо ново, тази книга е отива в графата "недопрочетени".
June 24, 2018
All healthcare practitioners should read this book so that they can understand the economics and policy decisions that impact their job. Bob Murphy does a great job explaining how the healthcare system has gotten penned in to the situation it is in today and Doug McGuff backs up the economics with his real world experience. Most importantly, they end with a strategy for families and individuals to peel themselves away from dependence on the healthcare system.
October 19, 2020
This book is excellent!
If you want to understand the history of the U.S. healthcare system including a great explanation of Obamacare, this is the book for you. It also gives predictions for the future of our healthcare system.
The last section explains strategies for navigating the current healthcare system. There were some really important things in this section that I hadn't heard before.
Give it a shot, I don't think you'll be disappointed.
If you want to understand the history of the U.S. healthcare system including a great explanation of Obamacare, this is the book for you. It also gives predictions for the future of our healthcare system.
The last section explains strategies for navigating the current healthcare system. There were some really important things in this section that I hadn't heard before.
Give it a shot, I don't think you'll be disappointed.
July 15, 2017
Good book on how we got to where we are with the healthcare system and packed with some solid advice on how to live well to avoid the whole mess as much as possible. Biggest takeaway was how important a solid relationship with your primary care doctor can be. I'd highly recommend this to just about anybody who cares about health and the healthcare system in general.
August 2, 2017
Timely book to read considering all of the healthcare talk. If you find yourself discontented with the boilerplate phrases of our political elites concerning healthcare then you will find "The Primal Prescription" well worth your time.
February 19, 2018
Break past the sides the media wants you take by taking a sober look at what some people call The American Healthcare system.
November 11, 2019
If you want to understand the driving forces and history around health insurance, big pharma, and many government "health" agencies, this is the place to start! Great read, and very dense!
August 2, 2020
5 stars for the content written by Dr. Robert P Murphy
August 10, 2022
Gives a complete history of USA health care system. Explains how we got here and how to maximize your health in a system that is designed to enrich itself.
February 9, 2017
I picked up this book mostly for the work of Robert Murphy who is a great economist and has a good knack for explaining complicated concepts and topics on different levels of understanding. I don't know much about McGuff and never heard of him, myself, before this book.
This book is really two books in one and may not appeal to everyone. On one end you have Murphy's writing about the history of health insurance/healthcare in America, the Affordable Care Act, and government intervention in healthcare. And on the other hand you have McGuff's background as a doctor and promoting a primal/paleo lifestyle.
What I was looking for more, and what I was hoping for more was a look of the history of healthcare, what's wrong with it, and what to do to fix it. And the pairing of an economist and a doctor would be able to greatly blend a lot of great information into one useful book.
While this book does provide a lot of great information and critiques of government hurt and industry general business practices, I don't think this is a great reference book to give to someone or reference completely. There is a good critique of the ACA and the background history is book, but having a better basis of the formula of "We do X. Y is the result. However, if we did A, B would be the result. B would be better than Y and A > X". Other writings by Murphy follows this formula and others in his circle of friends.
I could also see some benefit of adding information of McGuff's chapters but it feels too much like two different books. It would have been better incorporated into the other chapters or made smaller. And there is a lot of good incites and recommendations that McGuff gives. It just tends to feel like two different authors wrote their parts and put them together to appeal to two different audiences.
Also, the ending where the libertarian ideal responses to improve the system were covered very quickly and not too much in the way of apologetics were made. Again, another section that could be incorporated into an overall narrative.
I did enjoy the book overall. I was just hoping it would be a great libertarian/Austrian economic/rational medical care resource that presented the information better. Final Grade - B-
This book is really two books in one and may not appeal to everyone. On one end you have Murphy's writing about the history of health insurance/healthcare in America, the Affordable Care Act, and government intervention in healthcare. And on the other hand you have McGuff's background as a doctor and promoting a primal/paleo lifestyle.
What I was looking for more, and what I was hoping for more was a look of the history of healthcare, what's wrong with it, and what to do to fix it. And the pairing of an economist and a doctor would be able to greatly blend a lot of great information into one useful book.
While this book does provide a lot of great information and critiques of government hurt and industry general business practices, I don't think this is a great reference book to give to someone or reference completely. There is a good critique of the ACA and the background history is book, but having a better basis of the formula of "We do X. Y is the result. However, if we did A, B would be the result. B would be better than Y and A > X". Other writings by Murphy follows this formula and others in his circle of friends.
I could also see some benefit of adding information of McGuff's chapters but it feels too much like two different books. It would have been better incorporated into the other chapters or made smaller. And there is a lot of good incites and recommendations that McGuff gives. It just tends to feel like two different authors wrote their parts and put them together to appeal to two different audiences.
Also, the ending where the libertarian ideal responses to improve the system were covered very quickly and not too much in the way of apologetics were made. Again, another section that could be incorporated into an overall narrative.
I did enjoy the book overall. I was just hoping it would be a great libertarian/Austrian economic/rational medical care resource that presented the information better. Final Grade - B-
January 14, 2017
Health through freedom
This book provides an overview of the healthcare system in the United States. It offers a history of government intervention in healthcare and how it leads to high cost, shortage of care and slow development of medical treatment.
The book also offers good education about the medical field and how to best pick your doctor and decide on having treatment.
You will learn many facts and methods to evaluate different types of treatments and select the right doctor.
This book provides an overview of the healthcare system in the United States. It offers a history of government intervention in healthcare and how it leads to high cost, shortage of care and slow development of medical treatment.
The book also offers good education about the medical field and how to best pick your doctor and decide on having treatment.
You will learn many facts and methods to evaluate different types of treatments and select the right doctor.
November 14, 2019
This book does a great job giving a historical perspective to the many problems facing healthcare. It also gives some good ideas as to how to navigate the healthcare system in an effective way. I know this book doesn't sound super interesting but it was and I would recommend it to anyone.
November 26, 2015
First half much better than second half. Great summary of the health care and insurance markets.
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