BECOME AN EMPOWERED PATIENT

Waldman, a medical doctor, and Ginn, an economist, propose a new approach to U.S. health care.

“You know our healthcare system is failing, broken, [and is] so sick it’s dying,” write the authors, warning against a growing “‘it can’t be fixed’ attitude. Both authors have impressive credentials—Waldman has almost four decades of experience as a pediatric cardiologist at some of the leading research hospitals in the U.S., and Ginn has a doctorate degree in economics. Their book opens with an overview of the fundamental problems associated with the U.S. health care crisis that nearly every patient has experienced: They can’t get the care they need when they need it (even with insurance), there’s a shortage of doctors, and every aspect of health care is expensive. In this concise work, Waldman and Ginn offer their solution (one that requires “radical change”): a process they refer to as “the Empower Patients Initiative.” Built around sweeping public policy reforms, the authors note that EPI will require a cultural “deprogramming”; Americans must cast off their ingrained expectations of what health care should look like, such as the assumption that it requires third-party payments. Waldman and Ginn challenge the very notion that access to health care is a universal human right, arguing that “one individual cannot have a ‘right’ to another individual’s service.” Drawing on conservative conceptions of the free market, the authors argue that the most salient problem in health care is excessive government regulation, and that the remedy is to put “patients and their doctors in control.” EPI’s policy reforms include giving employees cash that would otherwise be spent on health benefits, creating no-limit Health Savings Accounts, deregulating insurance markets, and replacing federal safety nets (like Medicaid) at the state level. Waldman and Ginn don’t shy away from embracing hallmarks of Trump-era rhetoric by using phrases like “the deep state,” which may curtail the work’s appeal beyond a right-wing audience.

An impassioned case for health care reform whose partisan approach may limit its reach.