Uninsured in America: Life and Death in the Land of Opportunity |  | Authors: Susan Starr Sered, Rushika Fernandopulle
Publisher: University of California Press
Category: Book
List Price: $17.95
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Rating:  4 reviews
Sales Rank: 384486
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1
Pages: 295
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 8.9 x 5.8 x 1
ISBN: 0520250060
Dewey Decimal Number: 368.38200973
EAN: 9780520250062
ASIN: 0520250060
Publication Date: October 16, 2006
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Product Description
Uninsured in America goes to the heart of why more than forty million Americans are falling through the cracks in the health care system, and what it means for society as a whole when so many people suffer the consequences of inadequate medical care. Based on interviews with 120 uninsured men and women and dozens of medical providers, policymakers, and advocates from around the nation, this book takes a fresh look at one of the most important social issues facing the United States today. A new afterword updates the stories of many of the people who are so memorably presented here.
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| Customer Reviews:
 The Death Spiral Of Persons Who Lack Health Insurance June 12, 2005
G. Reid (Roseland, NJ)
23 out of 26 found this review helpful
40,000,000 - 50,000,000 Americans have no health insurance and another group of Americans of equal size are underinsured. Americans have to choose between food and medicine. Americans live in a land of opportunity until they have a challenge to their health. If you have a challenge to your health and if you do not have the best private health insurance you will enter a death spiral as the change in your health will drain away your money and your hope. It is a sad day - only in America, the land of no national health insurance.
If you want to know what is happening in our country...buy it now! May 7, 2007
Leah K. Diamond (Florida, USA)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
This is not a work of fiction, it is horrifyingly real and it will keep you up at night unable to put the book down. Each chapter contains real-life situations that people across the country face as they struggle to survive without health insurance. These are facts you think can only happen to "other" people, but these others are looking more and more like us. Somehow, their lives still remain hidden from the general public, but this book deserves to be discussed on 60 minutes to make people aware of what is happening in our country. This book terrified me more than any horror novel ever could, because it could happen to any one of us at any time.
the rise of a "caste system" in the US January 20, 2006
W Boudville (Terra, Sol 3)
10 out of 10 found this review helpful
The authors strongly couch their presentation as attesting to the rise of a caste system in the United States. Where the caste consists of the chronically ill, infirm and marginally employed. Several members of this group are interviewed. In the MidWest, Mississipi and other regions.
A common symptom is a death spiral, whereby working class individuals, who might indeed have worked very hard, but then suffered injuries, fall into a feedback loop. Where they can barely afford health case. Except for emergency room admissions. A cruel paradox.
The book goes into how the stress of poverty and being ill can feed into and reinforce each other.
Another ironic aspect shown is how caregivers can often lack health insurance. A bitter scenario that is all too common.
 Uninsurance is a real problem September 13, 2005
Dr. Dave (Lombard, IL USA)
12 out of 17 found this review helpful
Lack of insurance is a verifiable problem, and one can obtain more information from the Institute of Medicine which published 6 reports. I'd recommend starting with the last: Insuring America's Health-Principles and Recommendations and an article by Leslie Weatherly from HR Magazine: "The rising cost of health care: strategic and societal considerations for employers."
The uninsured is a fliud group: 80 million lacked insurance for one month out of 24; 23 million lacked insurance for the entire 2 years. (I'm a physician who went without health insurance for 4 years.) 45 million is the average number of uninsured each month. The majority of uninsured are non-Hispanic whites, and most are from families in which one person works. Blacks are twice as likely to be uninsured; Hispanics-three times. Foreigners' rate of uninsurance declines with increasing time here.
Small business owners often can't afford to provide insurance. Individuals either find the premiums prohibitive or they can't buy insurance at any price. Medicaid does not cover single adults and childless couples. Families lose coverage when the member providing insurance loses employment, dies or through divorce. COBRA can be costly (the premiums for my wife and I went from $750/month to $937 before we regained employer-based coverage). A recent study found half of bankruptcies were because of medical expenses, even among people with insurance.
Sadly, sad stories of peoples' suffering isn't likely to convince policy makers bought by special interest groups.The traditional Republican belief is "I got mine; it's your fault if you don't have yours." Medicaid has been framed as being wasted on "crack-whores having babies" when in reality the majority is spent on the elderly and disabled.
Change will come only when the pain is great enough to produce a mass-movement demanding a solution, and those spearheading the drive have more political savvy than their opponents.
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