Health Care Turning Point: Why Single Payer Won't Work Book

An expert debunks popular misconceptions about health policy, including the merits of single-payer plans, and offers an alternative.

Library Journal

In this concise book Battistella (health policy & management, emeritus, Cornell Univ.) manages to take shots at most arguments made by both the left and the right in the health-care reform debate. He stresses the need for universal coverage but promotes a consumer-driven model, based on the premise that if each of us has to face the real costs of insurance and care, we will make better choices, driving costs down. Part of his ideal redesign would end employer-based coverage, but insurance companies selling to individuals mandated to buy policies would not be permitted to discriminate based on age or health status, and sliding-scale government subsidies would still be needed. Politicians, doctors and hospitals, insurance companies, and consumers all share the blame for where we are, he argues. VERDICT Battistella's book is well sourced, and he does a reasonable job of presenting arguments he disagrees with along with his own views. The controversial ideas are presented in a nonconfrontational way and clearly enough to appeal to readers trying to understand the spectrum of ideas on this topic.—Dick Maxwell, Porter Adventist Hosp. Lib., Denver