An illuminating, practical guide that seeks to demystify the pros and cons of health plans.
A guide offers a comprehensive breakdown of the inner workings of America’s complex health care system.
Ryan, an industry veteran and president of the health care software tech firm MHK Inc., shares his knowledge of the field with this insightful, four-part manual. He sensibly separates his analysis into sections that first cover the origins and fundamentals of American health insurance, then expand to discuss current trends and policies and what the future holds for an industry he sees as mired in regulatory and operational dysfunction and exorbitant consumer costs. Spurred by his frustrations with the current state of health care, the author hopes to enlighten readers by breaking down the various components of the industry, beginning with its genesis. Next, in layperson’s terminology, he examines the often intricate health insurance framework, including plan differentiations and descriptions of standard coverage and benefits. Sections on the terms found in health plan documents are easily digested and consumer-friendly, as are details on billing, medical coverage statistics, and the many moving parts of Medicare. While the subject matter may prove daunting to some, Ryan’s language is easy to read and inclusive, traversing a multitude of health care trends and policies both past and present. Bold subject headers make extracting specific information easier. But the murkier topics of compliance regulations, the politics of health policy legislation, and government oversight make for a denser reading experience. The author counterbalances the enormous amount of information he offers with consumer recommendations, reports on industry progress, and proactive solutions to the problems he believes are hobbling the country’s health care system. Among the more debatable criticisms Ryan shares is his open, honest opposition to national socialized medicine. He believes it’s “not likely to meet Americans’ expectations of instantaneous access to high-quality, technology-driven healthcare (if you can afford it).” Finally, he closes by probing the ticking time bomb of an aging population and how this element factors into the health care scenario as well as timely commentary on the ramifications of Covid-19 on the industry. The author’s passion for an affordable universal access program and his dedication to American health care reform by restructuring the industry’s myriad components are evident and convincing throughout this instructive, cautionary, and solidly crafted resource.
An illuminating, practical guide that seeks to demystify the pros and cons of health plans.Pub Date: May 3, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-64543-993-6
Page Count: 528
Publisher: RealClear Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 16, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
The lessons to draw are obvious: Smoke more dope, eat less meat. Like-minded readers will dig it.
The chef, rapper, and TV host serves up a blustery memoir with lashings of self-help.
“I’ve always had a sick confidence,” writes Bronson, ne Ariyan Arslani. The confidence, he adds, comes from numerous sources: being a New Yorker, and more specifically a New Yorker from Queens; being “short and fucking husky” and still game for a standoff on the basketball court; having strength, stamina, and seemingly no fear. All these things serve him well in the rough-and-tumble youth he describes, all stickball and steroids. Yet another confidence-builder: In the big city, you’ve got to sink or swim. “No one is just accepted—you have to fucking show that you’re able to roll,” he writes. In a narrative steeped in language that would make Lenny Bruce blush, Bronson recounts his sentimental education, schooled by immigrant Italian and Albanian family members and the mean streets, building habits good and bad. The virtue of those habits will depend on your take on modern mores. Bronson writes, for example, of “getting my dick pierced” down in the West Village, then grabbing a pizza and smoking weed. “I always smoke weed freely, always have and always will,” he writes. “I’ll just light a blunt anywhere.” Though he’s gone through the classic experiences of the latter-day stoner, flunking out and getting arrested numerous times, Bronson is a hard charger who’s not afraid to face nearly any challenge—especially, given his physique and genes, the necessity of losing weight: “If you’re husky, you’re always dieting in your mind,” he writes. Though vulgar and boastful, Bronson serves up a model that has plenty of good points, including his growing interest in nature, creativity, and the desire to “leave a legacy for everybody.”
The lessons to draw are obvious: Smoke more dope, eat less meat. Like-minded readers will dig it.Pub Date: April 20, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-4197-4478-5
Page Count: 184
Publisher: Abrams
Review Posted Online: May 5, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2021
Skloot's meticulous, riveting account strikes a humanistic balance between sociological history, venerable portraiture and...
A dense, absorbing investigation into the medical community's exploitation of a dying woman and her family's struggle to salvage truth and dignity decades later.
In a well-paced, vibrant narrative, Popular Science contributor and Culture Dish blogger Skloot (Creative Writing/Univ. of Memphis) demonstrates that for every human cell put under a microscope, a complex life story is inexorably attached, to which doctors, researchers and laboratories have often been woefully insensitive and unaccountable. In 1951, Henrietta Lacks, an African-American mother of five, was diagnosed with what proved to be a fatal form of cervical cancer. At Johns Hopkins, the doctors harvested cells from her cervix without her permission and distributed them to labs around the globe, where they were multiplied and used for a diverse array of treatments. Known as HeLa cells, they became one of the world's most ubiquitous sources for medical research of everything from hormones, steroids and vitamins to gene mapping, in vitro fertilization, even the polio vaccine—all without the knowledge, must less consent, of the Lacks family. Skloot spent a decade interviewing every relative of Lacks she could find, excavating difficult memories and long-simmering outrage that had lay dormant since their loved one's sorrowful demise. Equal parts intimate biography and brutal clinical reportage, Skloot's graceful narrative adeptly navigates the wrenching Lack family recollections and the sobering, overarching realities of poverty and pre–civil-rights racism. The author's style is matched by a methodical scientific rigor and manifest expertise in the field.
Skloot's meticulous, riveting account strikes a humanistic balance between sociological history, venerable portraiture and Petri dish politics.Pub Date: Feb. 9, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-4000-5217-2
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2010
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