Abstract

Reviled as one of the worst healthcare providers in the world, the United States has among the worst indicators of health in the industrialised world, whilst paradoxically spending significantly more on its health care system than any other industrial nation.

Economists Robert Chernomas and Ian Hudson explain this contradictory phenomenon as the product of the unique brand of capitalism that has developed in the US. It is this particular form of capitalism that analogously created social and economic conditions that influence health, such as, highly industrialised labour that produced chronic disease amongst the labouring classes, alongside an inefficient, unpopular and inaccessible health care system that is incapable of dealing with those same patients. In order to improve health in America, the authors argue that a change is required in the conditions in the capitalist system in which people live and work, as well as a restructured health care system.
'Should be read by everyone who feels that power in the United States is very unevenly distributed, not only by gender and race, but primarily by class'
Vicente Navarro, Professor of Health and Public Policy, Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, and Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of International Health Services
'A cogent and penetrating analysis of health outcomes in America, outlining the historical role played by unions in contributing to public health services critical to all citizens. A must-read for all who embrace the goals for fairness shared by the 99 percent'
Paul Moist, National President, Canadian Union of Public Employees
'This timely exposé will strike a deep chord with the millions of Americans who live daily with health care insecurity'
Anne-Emanuelle Birn, Canada Research Chair in International Health at the University of Toronto and co-author of Global Health in a Dynamic World (2009).
'A fascinating account of how the strength of corporate interests and the relative weakness of unions have given the United States a bloated and inefficient health care system'
Dean Baker, co-founder of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, Washington DC