The People's Hospital: Hope and Peril in American Medicine
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15
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Average rating4
"Where does one go without health insurance, when turned away by hospitals, clinics, and doctors? In The People's Hospital, physician Ricardo Nuila's stunning debut, we follow the lives of five uninsured Houstonians as their struggle for survival leads them to a hospital where insurance comes second to genuine care. Each patient eventually lands at Ben Taub, the county hospital where Dr. Nuila has worked for over a decade. Nuila delves with empathy into the experiences of his patients, braiding their dramas into a singular narrative that contradicts the established idea that the only way to receive good healthcare is with good insurance. As readers follow the movingly rendered twists and turns in each patient's story, it's impossible to deny that our system is broken--and that Ben Taub's innovative model, which emphasizes people over payments, could help light the path forward." --
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Ricardo Nuila served as the interviewer when Abraham Verghese recently visited Houston, and I was reminded, again, of this book. So I got a copy and I just finished it today.
The People's Hospital is Ben Taub, and the stories Nuila tells are those of five uninsured sick people in Houston who find their way to Ben Taub. The stories are deeply moving and disturbing. That people would be allowed to suffer extreme pain, some for many years, without relief, and all because the people did not have health insurance...it's shocking to find this is the case for people in our very, very affluent America.
Nuila is a doctor but he is also a writer, and the result is that he writes and cares for his patients both knowledgeably and compassionately. He takes on the whole healthcare system itself and offers thoughtful ideas for improving the entire system.
