TENTH
ANNUAL 40-HOUR FAST
Health
Care For All:
The Moral Prescription
March
1-3, 2005
Additional
information sources
Books
1.
The Truth About the Drug Companies: How They Deceive Us and What to Do About
It by Marcia Angell, physician and former editor of New England Journal
of Medicine.
Lays out clearly and effectively why the drug companies are
making so
much money, why they won’t change, how the government facilitates
this and how we could effectively have a different system.
2.
Critical Condition: How Health Care in America Became Big Business and Bad
Medicine by Donald Barlett and James Steele.
Analyzes why we are burdened
with a costly, hugely dysfunctional health care system and why the system
fights to retain the status quo. The
authors offer a fresh remedy that is
do-able and affordable. Very
practical and a compelling read!
3.
On The Take by Jerome Kassirer.
The author, who had earlier been forced
out as editor of New England Journal of Medicine for refusing to allow
commercial interests to influence what they printed, here explores the corruption
of his fellow physicians by the same commercial interests.
4.
& 5. Powerful Medicines by Jerry Avorn and Overdo$ed America
by John Abramson.
Both books expose the way in which the drug companies manipulate
clinical studies to their own advantage.
Pamphlets
/ Monographs
1. "Building a Better Health Care System: Specifications
for Reform."
National Coalition on Health
Care, 1200 G Street, NW, Washington, DC 202/ 6238-7151. 2004 publication,
based on years of study by more than 100 US organizations, including religious,
health care, insurers, unions,
businesses. They unanimously offered five principles
for a reformed
health care system:
1. Health care coverage for all.
2.
Cost management.
3. Improvement of health care quality and safety.
4. Equitable
financing.
5. Simplified administration.
Offers the “why”
and “how” of health care reform in a clear and well
documented study.
Click here for a PDF version of the report.
Adobe Reader is required to open the file.
2. "Waste Not,
Want Not: How Eliminating Insurance and Pharmaceutical
Industry Waste Could
Fund Health Care for All."
Jobs with Justice,
1325 Massachusetts Ave NW, Suite 200, Washington DC
20005. 202-393-7408. This
is a 2004 publication that lays out, state
by state, what would be saved by
a universal health care system in this
country. Documents considerable savings
resulting from a “medicare for
all” approach. Click here for a PDF
version of the report. Adobe Reader is required to open the file.
Periodical
pieces
1. “What Ought To Be
Done” Dissent, Summer, 2004. pp 61 - 77.
Analysis of how the
liberals have yet to formulae an effective strategy
to reach universal health
care, including excellent analysis of past
actions and mistakes.
2.
“Drug Firms Put Profit Ahead of People.” by Peter Rost. Times Union,
Dec. 30, 2004.
Honest talk from a 20 year employee of pharmaceutical industry,
exploring why we pay the highest prices for drugs and why it is likely
to
continue.
3. “Nonprofit Hospitals Said to Overcharge Uninsured”
by Reed Abelson
and Jonathan Glater. The New York Times, June 17, 2004.
Explains
how and why the uninsured patient ends up with bigger bills
than those of
the insured. Widespread practice now facing increasing
legal challenges.
4.
“Cure a Sick Healthcare System” by Steffie Woollhandler and David
Himmelstein.
In These Times, August 9, 2004.
Compelling argument for universal health
care without spending one
additional penny. Uses Congressional Budget Office
and General
Accounting Office data to show we can indeed cover all Americans
for
what we’re now spending.
5. “Our Kindness Deficit of
Care” by Jane Bryant Quinn. Newsweek,
November 8, 2004.
Author
explores why “we ration health care, harshly, by income and
price.”
Asks why we can’t at least study what Canada has been doing.
6.
“Why Your Drugs Cost So Much” by Donald Barlett & James Steele.
Time, Feb. 2, 2004.
Well documented analysis of why our drugs cost so
much, who benefits
from keeping it this way and what individuals are resorting
to as a way
to get what they need.
7. “A National
Health Insurance Program for the United States” by Don
McCanne. PLoS
Medicine, November, 2004.
Explores basic flaws in current system, why it
can’t be fixed with
little changes and explores logic (financial and
ethical) for the US of
universal health care
