Ebook: An American sickness: how healthcare became big business and how you can take it back

Complaint: unaffordable healthcare -- History of the present illness and review of systems. The age of insurance ; The age of hospitals ; The age of physicians ; The age of pharmaceuticals ; The age of medical devices ; The age of testing and ancillary services ; The age of contractors : billing, coding, collections, and new medical businesses ; The age of research and good works for profit : the perversion of a noble enterprise ; The age of conglomerates ; The age of healthcare as pure business ; The age of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) -- Diagnosis and treatment : prescriptions for taking back our healthcare. The high price of patient complacency ; Doctors' bills ; Hospital bills ; Insurance costs ; Drug and medical device costs ; Bills for tests and ancillary services ; Better healthcare in a digital age -- Pricing/shopping tools -- Tools for vetting hospitals -- Glossary for medical bills and explanations of benefits -- Tools to help you figure out whether a test or a procedure is really necessary -- Templates for protest letters.;This book explores the dangerous, expensive, and dysfunctional American healthcare system, offering advice on what can be done to solve its myriad of problems. The author discusses how to decode medical doublespeak, avoid the pitfalls of the pharmaceuticals racket, and get the care patients deserve. Breaking down the monolithic business into its individual industries - the hospitals, doctors, insurance companies, drug manufacturers - that together constitute our healthcare system, the author tells the story of the state of American medicine. Hospitals, which are managed by business executives, behave like predatory lenders, hounding patients and seizing their homes. Research charities are collaborating with big pharmaceutical companies, which profit from the donations made by working people. Americans are dying from routine medical conditions when affordable and straightforward solutions exist. The author explains how various social and financial incentives have encouraged a disastrous and immoral system to emerge.--adapted from publisher's description.