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The Hidden History of American Healthcare: Why Sickness Bankrupts You and Makes Others Insanely Rich
Popular progressive radio host and New York Times bestselling author Thom Hartmann reveals how and why attempts to implement affordable universal healthcare in the United States have been thwarted and what we can do to finally make it a reality.
"For-profit health insurance is the largest con job ever perpetrated on the American people—one that has cost trillions of dollars and millions of lives since the 1940s,” says Thom Hartmann.
Other countries have shown us that affordable universal healthcare is not only possible but also effective and efficient. Taiwan’s single-payer system saved the country a fortune as well as saving lives during the coronavirus pandemic, enabling the country to implement a nationwide coronavirus test-and-contact-trace program without shutting down the economy. This resulted in just ten deaths, while more than 500,000 people have died in the United States.
Hartmann offers a deep dive into the shameful history of American healthcare, showing how greed, racism, and oligarchic corruption led to the current “sickness for profit” system. Modern attempts to create versions of government healthcare have been hobbled at every turn, including Obamacare.
There is a simple Medicare for all. Hartmann outlines the extraordinary benefits this system would provide the American people and economy and the steps we need to take to make it a reality. It’s time for America to join every industrialized country in the world and make health a right, not a privilege.
"For-profit health insurance is the largest con job ever perpetrated on the American people—one that has cost trillions of dollars and millions of lives since the 1940s,” says Thom Hartmann.
Other countries have shown us that affordable universal healthcare is not only possible but also effective and efficient. Taiwan’s single-payer system saved the country a fortune as well as saving lives during the coronavirus pandemic, enabling the country to implement a nationwide coronavirus test-and-contact-trace program without shutting down the economy. This resulted in just ten deaths, while more than 500,000 people have died in the United States.
Hartmann offers a deep dive into the shameful history of American healthcare, showing how greed, racism, and oligarchic corruption led to the current “sickness for profit” system. Modern attempts to create versions of government healthcare have been hobbled at every turn, including Obamacare.
There is a simple Medicare for all. Hartmann outlines the extraordinary benefits this system would provide the American people and economy and the steps we need to take to make it a reality. It’s time for America to join every industrialized country in the world and make health a right, not a privilege.
176 pages, Paperback
Published September 7, 2021
175 people are currently reading
739 people want to read
About the author
Thom Hartmann
90 books376 followersThomas Carl Hartmann is an American radio personality, author, businessman, and progressive political commentator. Hartmann has been hosting a nationally syndicated radio show, The Thom Hartmann Program, since 2003 and hosted a nightly television show, The Big Picture, between 2010 and 2017.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 49 reviews
August 13, 2021
In my early twenties, I decided to devote my life to bettering American healthcare. I gained exposure to the system as a medical student and still contribute professionally by bettering medical research through software development. My experiences show that many inefficiencies and much greed exist in the system. As Hartmann attests to in this book, so many people angle to profit off of citizens’ health needs. It’s sad, but the political will and personal wills to change systems are lacking. The author aims to change that by giving American readers a more informed picture of efforts to improve the American healthcare system.
Hartmann, a progressive radio host by trade, does so by a deep exploration of the history of the system. He explains how time after time, entrenched economic interests skewers any attempts to cut down on inefficiencies. That’s why, as is often told, the American system costs significantly more than any other nation’s but still produces subpar results. Although every other developed country favors a state-run solution, the American government consistently resists it. Solutions like Medicare for All (advocated for in this book) are relatively popular among the people, but monied interests loudly raise their voices whenever their piece of the pie is cut.
This book functions mostly as a political tract supported by history instead of a history of politics. Hartmann takes direct aim at what he views as the enemy – Reaganism and those who raise placards against “socialized medicine” every time reforms are suggested. He contends that Medicare for All will actually cost less money than the current system.
Perhaps this position is a bit idealistic. Those who are “losers” in such a schematic change will have to funnel their self-interest into other ventures. Indeed, it would upend the economy significantly, and the change could not happen overnight, much like getting rid of slavery took decades to overcome (if it ever has). That said, I believe he’s correct that getting rid of the excess capitalism is the right move to make economically and humanely. However, deeper study into a transition (whose absence is glaring here) might help alleviate future pain.
I’m not sure an American conservative would like reading this book because it brings out a view contrary to their party line. In contrast, American progressives would eat it up. What’s needed socially, however, is a healthy exchange of ideas among the camps. In an era of hyper-partisanship, I’m not sure Hartmann facilitates such dialogue. He merely pushes for his ideological position without calling his presuppositions into question. A little humility would make his argument stronger and his potential audience grow. Nonetheless, his approach will probably delight his radio audience and go to market well. From what I can gather from this radio star, I don’t think that hits too far from his intended target.
Hartmann, a progressive radio host by trade, does so by a deep exploration of the history of the system. He explains how time after time, entrenched economic interests skewers any attempts to cut down on inefficiencies. That’s why, as is often told, the American system costs significantly more than any other nation’s but still produces subpar results. Although every other developed country favors a state-run solution, the American government consistently resists it. Solutions like Medicare for All (advocated for in this book) are relatively popular among the people, but monied interests loudly raise their voices whenever their piece of the pie is cut.
This book functions mostly as a political tract supported by history instead of a history of politics. Hartmann takes direct aim at what he views as the enemy – Reaganism and those who raise placards against “socialized medicine” every time reforms are suggested. He contends that Medicare for All will actually cost less money than the current system.
Perhaps this position is a bit idealistic. Those who are “losers” in such a schematic change will have to funnel their self-interest into other ventures. Indeed, it would upend the economy significantly, and the change could not happen overnight, much like getting rid of slavery took decades to overcome (if it ever has). That said, I believe he’s correct that getting rid of the excess capitalism is the right move to make economically and humanely. However, deeper study into a transition (whose absence is glaring here) might help alleviate future pain.
I’m not sure an American conservative would like reading this book because it brings out a view contrary to their party line. In contrast, American progressives would eat it up. What’s needed socially, however, is a healthy exchange of ideas among the camps. In an era of hyper-partisanship, I’m not sure Hartmann facilitates such dialogue. He merely pushes for his ideological position without calling his presuppositions into question. A little humility would make his argument stronger and his potential audience grow. Nonetheless, his approach will probably delight his radio audience and go to market well. From what I can gather from this radio star, I don’t think that hits too far from his intended target.
February 26, 2025
Everyone needs to read this book to understand the current politics of healthcare in America. Very well explained and not too complex at all, great summary & easy to read.
March 20, 2025
I think this book is a great foundation for understanding the history of the American healthcare and insurance system. No surprise that so much of it is rooted in racism and then eventual extreme greed and power imbalance that’s so difficult to overcome at this point. I was left feeling a little hopeless about the state of affairs that we’re in today with not a high probability of things getting much better in the next four years.
My one critique is I think the book failed to acknowledge that the quality of healthcare could be different due to burden of poor health conditions that many Americans are victims of currently. The author brushed over the fact that many countries with single payer healthcare systems frequently have longer wait times and less specialist availability.
Overall I enjoyed it and it was a pretty quick read so I’d recommend for anyone looking for an introduction into the history american healthcare.
More importantly, fuck health insurance companies, burn in hell.
My one critique is I think the book failed to acknowledge that the quality of healthcare could be different due to burden of poor health conditions that many Americans are victims of currently. The author brushed over the fact that many countries with single payer healthcare systems frequently have longer wait times and less specialist availability.
Overall I enjoyed it and it was a pretty quick read so I’d recommend for anyone looking for an introduction into the history american healthcare.
More importantly, fuck health insurance companies, burn in hell.
December 19, 2021
There is a lot packed in this short book. To be sure, it's a persuasive account of why a single-pay central health care system makes sense, and why the US needs to stop being the lone holdout among developed nations to continue feeding the failed experiment of for-profit healthcare providers. Even more than that, the book is a history (one intertwined with racist policies and other factors) of HOW we got to this point and WHY there is still such resistance from a certain party.
January 10, 2022
This is a timely, accessible, and incredibly important read.
Early in the book, Hartmann details the horrifying ways that insurance companies resign people to death rather than paying for procedures, underlining the horrors of the privatized healthcare system we have in the US. Rather than healthcare, our “healthcare” system subsidizes disgusting amounts of wealth.
From there, he explores the history of single-payer healthcare, from the US’s very own George Washington to Germany instituting nationalized healthcare to keep the masses at bay and prevent communism from taking hold. An interesting note, Hartmann writes that the common definition of fascism in 1942 was “a merger of state and business interests, combined with belligerent nationalism,” which sums up this book.
This short book also carved out a place for exploring systemic inequalities, which are woven throughout and described as an important piece of healthcare. Racism, especially, is detailed in the historical explorations of this nation’s healthcare debate. Much of the book also demonstrates just how expensive it is to not offer single-payer healthcare, showing how other nations do it and describing in depth the bloat of our current system.
This book is incredibly frustrating, especially to learn about all the attempts to offer healthcare for all that were stymied at every turn in the US, even as they have had success elsewhere. That said, this is still a really great, informative, quick read that I think everyone would benefit from.
Early in the book, Hartmann details the horrifying ways that insurance companies resign people to death rather than paying for procedures, underlining the horrors of the privatized healthcare system we have in the US. Rather than healthcare, our “healthcare” system subsidizes disgusting amounts of wealth.
From there, he explores the history of single-payer healthcare, from the US’s very own George Washington to Germany instituting nationalized healthcare to keep the masses at bay and prevent communism from taking hold. An interesting note, Hartmann writes that the common definition of fascism in 1942 was “a merger of state and business interests, combined with belligerent nationalism,” which sums up this book.
This short book also carved out a place for exploring systemic inequalities, which are woven throughout and described as an important piece of healthcare. Racism, especially, is detailed in the historical explorations of this nation’s healthcare debate. Much of the book also demonstrates just how expensive it is to not offer single-payer healthcare, showing how other nations do it and describing in depth the bloat of our current system.
This book is incredibly frustrating, especially to learn about all the attempts to offer healthcare for all that were stymied at every turn in the US, even as they have had success elsewhere. That said, this is still a really great, informative, quick read that I think everyone would benefit from.
May 29, 2023
I listened to the unabridged 4-hour audio version of this title (read by Sean Pratt, Koehler Publishers, 2021).
The book's subtitle says it all: The US healthcare system is designed not to keep you healthy but to generate maximum revenue for hospitals, insurance companies, big pharma, and their executives & shareholders. Each time a presidential administration tries to put in place a single-payer universal healthcare system, which is the norm in all other industrialized societies, one or more of the players named above or their paid stooges in Congress interfere to make the plan fail.
The book's four sections deal with:
- How bad things are in the US regarding healthcare
- Origins of our profit-based healthcare (or sickness) system
- Ongoing fight for healthcare as a human right
- How a real healthcare system can save lives
Here is one example of how we pay for inefficiencies in our healthcare system. US insurance companies typically spend $0.80 out of every dollar they charge on healthcare services. The rest goes to overhead, such as salaries, which include multi-million-dollar pay/benefit packages for their executives. The norm in other countries is $0.95-0.98/dollar. For-profit insurance companies try to reduce their healthcare costs via co-pays, deductibles, denial of coverage to sick people, and disapproval of expensive treatments. Hospitals typically have teams of employees just to do insurance billings and handle the back-and-forth needed to have treatments or charges approved.
The US spends 24% of its GDP on healthcare, whereas Taiwan, with much better health outcomes, spends 6% of its GDP. Taiwan's edge in health outcomes, which includes lower infant-mortality rate and longer life expectancy, was particularly notable during the COVID-19 pandemic. We encounter the same story in nearly all advanced countries, with the possible exception of Switzerland, which has opted for private health insurance within its national healthcare system.
Around 1915, Woodrow Wilson's administration tried to bring national health insurance to the US along the lines of the German model. Frederick Hoffmann of the Prudential Health Insurance killed the proposal by writing extensively about its weak spots, claiming that such a system would destroy the Daniel Boone spirit of individuality in America. Over the decades, the fear-mongering term "socialized medicine" has been used to scare away the public from reform.
Republicans stripped most of the provisions of JFK's proposed healthcare law by the time it passed Congress under LBJ. George W. Bush tried to privatize Medicare, but failed in the face of strong opposition. Nevertheless, he instituted the private Medicare Advantage program, which costs the government a great deal more than standard Medicare (in part, because of insurance companies making enrollees appear sicker than they really are, so that they can charge more), while providing lousy services & benefits.
Hartmann names many other names, including former Senator Joe Lieberman, who single-handedly killed the public option under Obamacare, a provision that could have served as a successful model for a later expansion to a national healthcare program. Hartman writes, half-jokingly, that the "i" in front of Liebermann's name didn't denote "independent" but "insurance"! Our healthcare system is replete with greed and inefficiencies, mostly because of major campaign contributions to politicians of both parties by healthcare organizations and big pharma.
I think every American should read this book to see how every effort to bring our healthcare system into the norm of every other industrialized country was defeated by self-serving institutions, including the American Medical Association, with bribed politicians as their accomplices. Just like gun-control measures, the lack of which continues to kill Americans, children in particular, the absence of an efficient, up-to-date healthcare system is killing and bankrupting Americans in large numbers.
The book's subtitle says it all: The US healthcare system is designed not to keep you healthy but to generate maximum revenue for hospitals, insurance companies, big pharma, and their executives & shareholders. Each time a presidential administration tries to put in place a single-payer universal healthcare system, which is the norm in all other industrialized societies, one or more of the players named above or their paid stooges in Congress interfere to make the plan fail.
The book's four sections deal with:
- How bad things are in the US regarding healthcare
- Origins of our profit-based healthcare (or sickness) system
- Ongoing fight for healthcare as a human right
- How a real healthcare system can save lives
Here is one example of how we pay for inefficiencies in our healthcare system. US insurance companies typically spend $0.80 out of every dollar they charge on healthcare services. The rest goes to overhead, such as salaries, which include multi-million-dollar pay/benefit packages for their executives. The norm in other countries is $0.95-0.98/dollar. For-profit insurance companies try to reduce their healthcare costs via co-pays, deductibles, denial of coverage to sick people, and disapproval of expensive treatments. Hospitals typically have teams of employees just to do insurance billings and handle the back-and-forth needed to have treatments or charges approved.
The US spends 24% of its GDP on healthcare, whereas Taiwan, with much better health outcomes, spends 6% of its GDP. Taiwan's edge in health outcomes, which includes lower infant-mortality rate and longer life expectancy, was particularly notable during the COVID-19 pandemic. We encounter the same story in nearly all advanced countries, with the possible exception of Switzerland, which has opted for private health insurance within its national healthcare system.
Around 1915, Woodrow Wilson's administration tried to bring national health insurance to the US along the lines of the German model. Frederick Hoffmann of the Prudential Health Insurance killed the proposal by writing extensively about its weak spots, claiming that such a system would destroy the Daniel Boone spirit of individuality in America. Over the decades, the fear-mongering term "socialized medicine" has been used to scare away the public from reform.
Republicans stripped most of the provisions of JFK's proposed healthcare law by the time it passed Congress under LBJ. George W. Bush tried to privatize Medicare, but failed in the face of strong opposition. Nevertheless, he instituted the private Medicare Advantage program, which costs the government a great deal more than standard Medicare (in part, because of insurance companies making enrollees appear sicker than they really are, so that they can charge more), while providing lousy services & benefits.
Hartmann names many other names, including former Senator Joe Lieberman, who single-handedly killed the public option under Obamacare, a provision that could have served as a successful model for a later expansion to a national healthcare program. Hartman writes, half-jokingly, that the "i" in front of Liebermann's name didn't denote "independent" but "insurance"! Our healthcare system is replete with greed and inefficiencies, mostly because of major campaign contributions to politicians of both parties by healthcare organizations and big pharma.
I think every American should read this book to see how every effort to bring our healthcare system into the norm of every other industrialized country was defeated by self-serving institutions, including the American Medical Association, with bribed politicians as their accomplices. Just like gun-control measures, the lack of which continues to kill Americans, children in particular, the absence of an efficient, up-to-date healthcare system is killing and bankrupting Americans in large numbers.
January 16, 2025
"America is the only developed country in the world that doesn't recognize healthcare as a human right, the only country with more than two-thirds of the population lacking access to affordable healthcare...." p. 53
"Racism is the main reason that America doesn't consider healthcare a human right and provide it to all citizens, as does every other developed country in the world. Racist whites, particularly in the South, have worked for over a century to make sure that healthcare is hard for Black people and other minorities to get." p. 54
"...the Atlantic Charter set off a firestorm that eventually led to Britain--and almost every other country in Europe--developing a universal national healthcare program. Its core premise was that fascist governments, being focused on the rights and income of corporations and the very wealthy (the most common definition of fascism then was 'a merger of state and business interests, combined with belligerent nationalism'), produced increasing levels of misery among their people as wages slipped and workers' rights were suppressed. ¶That misery, while causing many to openly ask for strongman rule, could effectively be answered by a government that actually met the needs of its people. Social welfare programsl including a national healthcare program, in other words, were the best way to prevent the rise of fascism in a democratic republic." pp. 86-87
"...just after America joined Britain to fight fascist Germany, Robert M. Barrington-Ward, editor of the London Times, wrote Churchill in April 1942 that it was time for Britain to take up 'the essential purpose of the Charter.' ¶'They are aims which will more and more obliterate the distinctions once possible between domestic and foreign policy,' Barrington-Ward wrote, echoing the idea that the best way to fight fascism was to remove the worker insecurity that often brought it to power (as had happened in Germany in the wrickage after World War I). p. 88
"(Ted) Kennedy said, 'We are the only industrialized nation in the world outside (apartheid) South Africa that does not have universal, comprehensive helathcare insurance. And here, as well as in South Africa, black people are sick twice as often; they receive less care; they die younger and sooner." p. 110
"You'd think that the first and major goal of a healthcare system would be to provide the best healthcare to the most people at the lowest cost. But in the United States, because healthcare has been treated as a commodity to be sold rather than a basic human right, we have the worst healthcare in the developed world, available to the smallest percentage of the population, at the greatest expense." p. 130
"...the people dying from lack of decent coverage are largely lower income and poor, and their right to vote is blocked, particularly in red states, at a radically higher percentage than wealthier people, so their plight is easy for politicians to ignore." p. 134
"Racism is the main reason that America doesn't consider healthcare a human right and provide it to all citizens, as does every other developed country in the world. Racist whites, particularly in the South, have worked for over a century to make sure that healthcare is hard for Black people and other minorities to get." p. 54
"...the Atlantic Charter set off a firestorm that eventually led to Britain--and almost every other country in Europe--developing a universal national healthcare program. Its core premise was that fascist governments, being focused on the rights and income of corporations and the very wealthy (the most common definition of fascism then was 'a merger of state and business interests, combined with belligerent nationalism'), produced increasing levels of misery among their people as wages slipped and workers' rights were suppressed. ¶That misery, while causing many to openly ask for strongman rule, could effectively be answered by a government that actually met the needs of its people. Social welfare programsl including a national healthcare program, in other words, were the best way to prevent the rise of fascism in a democratic republic." pp. 86-87
"...just after America joined Britain to fight fascist Germany, Robert M. Barrington-Ward, editor of the London Times, wrote Churchill in April 1942 that it was time for Britain to take up 'the essential purpose of the Charter.' ¶'They are aims which will more and more obliterate the distinctions once possible between domestic and foreign policy,' Barrington-Ward wrote, echoing the idea that the best way to fight fascism was to remove the worker insecurity that often brought it to power (as had happened in Germany in the wrickage after World War I). p. 88
"(Ted) Kennedy said, 'We are the only industrialized nation in the world outside (apartheid) South Africa that does not have universal, comprehensive helathcare insurance. And here, as well as in South Africa, black people are sick twice as often; they receive less care; they die younger and sooner." p. 110
"You'd think that the first and major goal of a healthcare system would be to provide the best healthcare to the most people at the lowest cost. But in the United States, because healthcare has been treated as a commodity to be sold rather than a basic human right, we have the worst healthcare in the developed world, available to the smallest percentage of the population, at the greatest expense." p. 130
"...the people dying from lack of decent coverage are largely lower income and poor, and their right to vote is blocked, particularly in red states, at a radically higher percentage than wealthier people, so their plight is easy for politicians to ignore." p. 134
June 25, 2025
Rating: 4* of five
The Publisher Says: Popular progressive radio host and New York Times bestselling author Thom Hartmann reveals how and why attempts to implement affordable universal healthcare in the United States have been thwarted and what we can do to finally make it a reality.
"For-profit health insurance is the largest con job ever perpetrated on the American people—one that has cost trillions of dollars and millions of lives since the 1940s,” says Thom Hartmann.
Other countries have shown us that affordable universal healthcare is not only possible but also effective and efficient. Taiwan's single-payer system saved the country a fortune as well as saving lives during the coronavirus pandemic, enabling the country to implement a nationwide coronavirus test-and-contact-trace program without shutting down the economy. This resulted in just ten deaths, while more than 500,000 people have died in the United States.
Hartmann offers a deep dive into the shameful history of American healthcare, showing how greed, racism, and oligarchic corruption led to the current “sickness for profit” system. Modern attempts to create versions of government healthcare have been hobbled at every turn, including Obamacare.
I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.
My Review: This book is for you if you've ever wondered why Luigi Mangione is being treated like a terrorist for allegedly killing a very rich "insurance" company executive, and why when we-the-people failed to rise in our millions against his heinous murderous act, he suddenly vanished from our media landscape.
Creating a martyr, a face that can act as a rallying image for people against the horrible system that delivers the worst results for the great majority of its consumers yet fattens wallets at an obscene clip, is not what "They" want.
What this book does is delve into the ways, the compromises, the roots of capitalist seizure of healthcare delivery. It's definitely not going to convert anyone on the political right. It is unabashedly tendentious. It makes no serious effort to come up with any idea to persuade the capitalists to loosen, still less release, their grip on the public purse.
In preaching to the choir, Hartmann is mostly issuing a rallying cry. The reason to read the book is to become motivated, to pick up a few bits and bobs to hurl at the enemy within. If you're tired of arguing, this is not your best investment of time and treasure.
If like me you're in search of fuel for the possibly-wavering fires of battle, here's you a book.
The Publisher Says: Popular progressive radio host and New York Times bestselling author Thom Hartmann reveals how and why attempts to implement affordable universal healthcare in the United States have been thwarted and what we can do to finally make it a reality.
"For-profit health insurance is the largest con job ever perpetrated on the American people—one that has cost trillions of dollars and millions of lives since the 1940s,” says Thom Hartmann.
Other countries have shown us that affordable universal healthcare is not only possible but also effective and efficient. Taiwan's single-payer system saved the country a fortune as well as saving lives during the coronavirus pandemic, enabling the country to implement a nationwide coronavirus test-and-contact-trace program without shutting down the economy. This resulted in just ten deaths, while more than 500,000 people have died in the United States.
Hartmann offers a deep dive into the shameful history of American healthcare, showing how greed, racism, and oligarchic corruption led to the current “sickness for profit” system. Modern attempts to create versions of government healthcare have been hobbled at every turn, including Obamacare.
I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.
My Review: This book is for you if you've ever wondered why Luigi Mangione is being treated like a terrorist for allegedly killing a very rich "insurance" company executive, and why when we-the-people failed to rise in our millions against his heinous murderous act, he suddenly vanished from our media landscape.
Creating a martyr, a face that can act as a rallying image for people against the horrible system that delivers the worst results for the great majority of its consumers yet fattens wallets at an obscene clip, is not what "They" want.
What this book does is delve into the ways, the compromises, the roots of capitalist seizure of healthcare delivery. It's definitely not going to convert anyone on the political right. It is unabashedly tendentious. It makes no serious effort to come up with any idea to persuade the capitalists to loosen, still less release, their grip on the public purse.
In preaching to the choir, Hartmann is mostly issuing a rallying cry. The reason to read the book is to become motivated, to pick up a few bits and bobs to hurl at the enemy within. If you're tired of arguing, this is not your best investment of time and treasure.
If like me you're in search of fuel for the possibly-wavering fires of battle, here's you a book.
July 2, 2025
As does about everything else, health care discriminates against people of color. Republicans and Southern Democrats created a 20% gap in Medicare, in part to keep lower paid people from using the program.
“…health care as a right and how it has been undermined simultaneously by well-funded libertarian and “free market” think tanks along with America’s history of white supremacy. America’s current healthcare system is simultaneously a product of white supremacy and systematic racism and an instrument for upholding those same institutions.” P. 79.
It is interesting to consider how the hatred of minorities particularly African Americans has shaped American history and been the glue binding together the Republican party. I had no idea that 19th century attempts to make the medical system available to everyone failed because powerful eugenics propogandists believed that the black race was so inferior that it would die out in three generations without medical care. Of course, they also did not want white tax money going to improve the health of black citizens.
Naturally the American Medical Association, the medical industry, and Chamber of Commerce opposed national health care, as they still do. The AMA hired Ronald Reagan to denounce Medicare as a battle between democracy and socialism. So, rather than have health care, the American public elected an old actor Reagan President. White doctors did not wish to work with black doctors or treat black patients.
Medicare was bad enough for them since Title VI legally ended segregation in hospitals.
Basically the same old story- that people who maintain the U.S. has the best medical system in the world oppose making medical care available to everyone- while America pays more per capita with inferior outcomes compared to developed nations with national health care.
The affordable health care was the best Obama could get dealing with Republicans and billion dollar health insurance companies. Apparently, Americans are happy with those poorer than them being without health care.
Half of all U.S. bankruptcies are caused by medical catastrophes. Bankruptcies are fiscal opportunities for those in the higher financial brackets.
In 2020, Hartmann wrote positively that universal health care could be implemented. In 2025, I do not agree.
October 17, 2021
Why does every major industrialized country, except America, have some sort of national health insurance system? This book attempts to answer that question.
In the early 20th century, around 1915, the Woodrow Wilson Administration attempted to bring national health insurance to America (based on the German model under the Kaiser). It's failure can be blamed on Frederick Hoffmann of the Prudential Insurance Co, of America. He wrote all sorts of articles and pamphlets, emphasizing all the bad parts of the German system, and the British, which had started a few years previously. National health insurance would supposedly destroy the Daniel Boone spirit of individuality in America (sound familiar?). Today, the insurance industry has plenty of money to spend on Washington lobbyists to make sure that it stays that way.
Everyone has seen, or read, ads for Medicare Advantage health plans. The compete with, but have no connection to, traditional Medicare. Such plans get a lump-sum reimbursement each year from the government, so it is in their interest to make their patients look as sick as possible. Patients get a yearly visit from a nurse. A slight anomaly in a patient's heart rhythm, which doesn't affect the patient at all, is listed as Heart Attack (more money). An emotional problem that lasts more than 2 weeks becomes Major Depressive Episode (more money). This goes along with the usual denial of coverage the first time around. A number of sources report the government overpayments to these plans is in the billions of dollars each year. Also, switching from Medicare Advantage to traditional Medicare is impossible; you are locked in.
This is a short book, but it is a huge eye-opener. It is highly recommended for all Americans, and gets more than 5 stars.
In the early 20th century, around 1915, the Woodrow Wilson Administration attempted to bring national health insurance to America (based on the German model under the Kaiser). It's failure can be blamed on Frederick Hoffmann of the Prudential Insurance Co, of America. He wrote all sorts of articles and pamphlets, emphasizing all the bad parts of the German system, and the British, which had started a few years previously. National health insurance would supposedly destroy the Daniel Boone spirit of individuality in America (sound familiar?). Today, the insurance industry has plenty of money to spend on Washington lobbyists to make sure that it stays that way.
Everyone has seen, or read, ads for Medicare Advantage health plans. The compete with, but have no connection to, traditional Medicare. Such plans get a lump-sum reimbursement each year from the government, so it is in their interest to make their patients look as sick as possible. Patients get a yearly visit from a nurse. A slight anomaly in a patient's heart rhythm, which doesn't affect the patient at all, is listed as Heart Attack (more money). An emotional problem that lasts more than 2 weeks becomes Major Depressive Episode (more money). This goes along with the usual denial of coverage the first time around. A number of sources report the government overpayments to these plans is in the billions of dollars each year. Also, switching from Medicare Advantage to traditional Medicare is impossible; you are locked in.
This is a short book, but it is a huge eye-opener. It is highly recommended for all Americans, and gets more than 5 stars.
August 3, 2023
The Hidden History of American Healthcare: Why sickness bankrupts you and makes others insanely rich written by Thom Hartmann, narrated by Sean Pratt Did you know that one US automaker, on average, has to raise the cost of their new vehicles by $1200 just to cover employee healthcare? Did you know that if all the funds paid annually for healthcare were used to fund a single-payer system US citizens and companies would save thousands of dollars a year? Yet, every time a single-payer system is introduced, it is shot down resulting in thousands of unnecessary deaths a year. Hartmann takes a deep dive into why the US is the only first world country without a single-payer system and the exorbitant cost the for-profit system we are forced into is costing us more than financially. This is a MUST READ and a MUST ACT UPON informational text even if only to start your own research. Everyone knows that the health care system is flawed, Hartmann has the guts to call out how, why and how to fix it.
August 16, 2023
While I think the book has a good premise from the standpoint that most Americans are wholly ignorant as to why we have the health care system we have today, I believe that it misses very compelling people and episodes that should have been in this secret history. For instance, the book focuses (justly) some important time out to cover the Beveridge report in the UK as well as the exploits of Tommy Douglas. On the other hand, the book never mentions the work of such activists as Mary Lasker, who devoted most of her life as a wealthy philanthropist into educating people and advocating policy makers on the benefits of Single-Payer Health Care. Overall, I believe the emphasis should have been more on this hidden history than was actually portrayed overall. Clearly, a more in-depth exploration of the subject is needed and hopefully will happen, for its with this serious appraisal of the past (the book only glancingly covers the passage of US Medicare for instance) that we can make the move in the future necessary to achieve quality and universal health are for all in the US.
October 16, 2025
As someone who is interested in learning more about the healthcare system in America, this book was a very informative read. It outlines the history of healthcare in America, listing its changes and challenges to anything that could negatively impact special interests. The historical part of the book is something that was lost on me, mostly because history is all about context, which means this book will probably deserve a reread or skim further down the line when I understand healthcare history a little better.
All that being said, this book shines in how it manages to cover a vast history of healthcare in America without feeling sparse. It gave me plenty of ideas and other books to read to be more rounded on this topic, and presented clear, powerful arguments to common support for our current system. After reading this book, I wonder if our complex, confusion-riddled healthcare system has a single leg to stand on, which is why I’ll be excited to read further.
All that being said, this book shines in how it manages to cover a vast history of healthcare in America without feeling sparse. It gave me plenty of ideas and other books to read to be more rounded on this topic, and presented clear, powerful arguments to common support for our current system. After reading this book, I wonder if our complex, confusion-riddled healthcare system has a single leg to stand on, which is why I’ll be excited to read further.
February 13, 2025
Audiobook, which was pretty good, except for a topic like this I sometimes prefer to have the printed page in front of my to help me digest the details better. Excellent rundown of how we got to where we are today with healthcare in America. The one statistic that stood out to me was that if the government were to buy out and run all of the commercial insurance companies at 20% over their value (at least at the time of the writing), the sum (I believe about $1 trillion) would be made up within 2 to 3 years just in savings to the government over what they would have paid out to those companies. It's sickening, really, the amount of riches that the executives make off of the illness of their "customers." I'd like to re-read this one in book form someday. It's not terribly long (4 hours on audio), so it should be easy enough to read.
November 3, 2025
This is a great introductory book for anyone interested in single-payer healthcare / the history of the American healthcare system. It's short, to the point, and gets you fired up. I am already strongly in the camp of support of Medicare for All, so the arguments Hartmann made resonated with me on an ethical and a moral level. Practically, I think there was much room to expand on how healthcare administration is such a burden to the system. My understanding is that health insurance companies are not actually that profitable (though highly immoral imo), but the bulk of the cost of American healthcare comes from the insanely complicated way that we administrate it. I think that could have strengthened the overall argument.
December 3, 2022
Much like other books in Thom Hartmann's "The Hidden History of..." series, I found this book to be very educational and frustrating. To be very clear, I'm not frustrated by Thom Hartmann. I'm frustrated by the lessons taught in the books. The abundance of fear mongering, lies, racism, and propaganda that the Right Wing has perpetrated on us for generations has cost us generations.
I've always believed that in order to get somewhere, you need to know where you started. This book illustrates how we got into the situation that we're in now, gives examples of better situations, and offers a few ways to get to a better place.
And we can do better. We have to.
I've always believed that in order to get somewhere, you need to know where you started. This book illustrates how we got into the situation that we're in now, gives examples of better situations, and offers a few ways to get to a better place.
And we can do better. We have to.
June 17, 2021
WOW! This book blew me away with the overt racist history behind American Healthcare. I loved that the author laid out all of the reasons people give to NOT wanting single payer or Medicare for all....socialism, people would overwhelm the system with nonsense, etc. The author combats these arguments with facts and how to make a single payer system happen.
Its beyond time that the American system is reformed and includes more people.
BRAVO to the author for covering this timely topic.
Thank you to Netgalley and to the publisher for giving me this ARC in exchange for this honest review.
Its beyond time that the American system is reformed and includes more people.
BRAVO to the author for covering this timely topic.
Thank you to Netgalley and to the publisher for giving me this ARC in exchange for this honest review.
November 27, 2021
This was the most succinct overview of the long battle (way longer than I thought it has been) to provide universal healthcare in this country. It provides a clear case in financial terms of how Medicare for all would pay for itself in just a few years, and provide reduction in co-pays and deductibles for even those who are insured through their work. The US is so far behind every other industrialized nation, and it has cost us in lives, life expectancy, productivity, quality of life, while enriching the very few at the top. Well written book, well organized, with verifiable facts.
October 29, 2022
The title is something of an exaggeration; much of the history is right out in the open for anyone who cares to look. But Hartmann has performed a useful service in organizing and presenting that history. Despite the frequent polemics, I highly recommend this book as a primer for those who think we should be doing things differently. Of course, the problem boils down to a political failure, and that will not change until enough of us (voting) citizens make it clear either the system changes or the occupant of the office will.
July 5, 2024
Wonder why Medicare makes the insured pay 20%? It’s based on racism: people of color are less likely to be able to afford it. One of the main reasons initially used against universal healthcare was also racist: if one didn’t take care of health of people of color, they would die out. Who had the first universal healthcare and why? Bismarck in Germany so he would have a healthier fighting force. It’s a short read which also goes through the history of the failure to enact universal healthcare in the US.
November 21, 2025
Very good history of the attempt to create single payor system of healthcare, good luck, it won't happen in my lifetime but it should. Not a trivial book and should be required reading. I will never look at Prudential the same again now that i know their key role in messing up our sytem of health. Sadly Obamacare held promise but is just short of a failure, possibly better than nothing, our corrupt political system and our greedy insurance executives are the villins. Read this and other books by Harmann. PS the role of race in this story is disturbing.
March 9, 2022
Biased
There were factors listed in the book that supported the arguments; however the authors bias is very overshadowing to these readings.
Not sure if it was too fluff out the page count, poor writing, appealingly to a demographic, or just marketing sensationalism. -3 for the word vomit.
The book would be appx 30 pages if distilled down into observations, facts and some suggested courses of action. 5 for the nuggets.
There were factors listed in the book that supported the arguments; however the authors bias is very overshadowing to these readings.
Not sure if it was too fluff out the page count, poor writing, appealingly to a demographic, or just marketing sensationalism. -3 for the word vomit.
The book would be appx 30 pages if distilled down into observations, facts and some suggested courses of action. 5 for the nuggets.
February 7, 2023
To quote the great American poet Father John Misty: “oh, pour me another drink and punch me in the face. You can call me Nancy.”
If you read this book and feel any emotion other than blinding rage at the American “health” “insurance” “system,” you are probably a cop and you should stop following my reviews. 🤗
If you read this book and feel any emotion other than blinding rage at the American “health” “insurance” “system,” you are probably a cop and you should stop following my reviews. 🤗
July 29, 2024
This is the quickest and still yet comprehensive way to understand the modern American Health system. As someone who has worked in benefits for multiple companies, this book highlights the problems and straightforward solutions with ease of someone who has been in the industry but still managed to avoid the greed. Can't recommend this book enough.
February 28, 2025
What an interesting read. Sadly, I was not surprised that racism and classism seemed to have such a pivotal role in the failure to institute a single payer system in the US (for all). I was surprised that so many of the arguments going back to the early 1900s are still being used today to insure that the healthcare situation doesn't change.
August 23, 2021
This book will piss you off... it did me. But go into it with an open mind and be willing to do some 'side research' as I did to verify some of the points that are discussed. It will make you rethink how our health system works here.
September 30, 2021
American health care
This is what is needed to be added to school criteria . big money infaltrates collages an schools and teaches them that things that are good for the country is bad and beats in to their heads till they believe its true !
This is what is needed to be added to school criteria . big money infaltrates collages an schools and teaches them that things that are good for the country is bad and beats in to their heads till they believe its true !
October 10, 2022
Excellent On Healthcare
The author writes about American Healthcare and how it helps kill many people rather than keeping people alive. Gives a clear history, discusses the present and offers solutions for the present.
The author writes about American Healthcare and how it helps kill many people rather than keeping people alive. Gives a clear history, discusses the present and offers solutions for the present.
December 26, 2024
Definitely enjoyed this one. Most of the more recent history involved stories that most people are familiar with and have watched unfold on the news. However, it was so interesting to learn about how so many of the problems started in the early 1900s.
September 18, 2021
Quick and easy primer (you can read it in just a few hours) on one of the most important issues facing the people of the United States.
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