2000; 178 pp. $15.95. University of California Press.
As I get older, I like perspectives that acknowledge the past before they jump into the future. Life without Disease is sober, not a cheerleader for medical utopia. It speaks to HMOs and the question of who's to pay for hi-tech medical interventions as much as to the interventions themselves. Thoughtful; a must for those in health care careers and those who prefer a concerned doctor's inside "thick" views on upcoming therapies, malpractice, in-and-out-of-hospital procedures, rationing hospital time and budgets, and changes in diagnostics.
"Confidentiality clauses, or "gag rules," have been included in many contracts between managed care providers and physicians....Physicians have been forbidden to talk with patients about treatment plans without administrative authorization. They have also been barred from revealing the practice guidelines that underlie their decisions or disclosing any financial incentives in their contracts to keep expenditures under specified amounts."
