In Excellent Health Setting the Record Straight on America's Health Care

The real facts on America's health care dilemma Medical care in the United States has been loudly and repeatedly derided as inferior in comparison to health care systems in much of the developed world and even in some relatively undeveloped nations. In Excellent Healthoffers an alternative view of the much maligned state of health care in America, challenging the statistics often cited as evidence that medical care in the United States is substandard and poor in value relative to that of other countries. Rather than relying on purely subjective judgments about equity and fairness, the book provides extensive, detailed evidence with which to answer the paramount question when considering quality of health care: "Where would you rather be when you are sick?" Drawing from research in scientific and medical journals, the author defends both the quality of and access to medical care in the United States compared to numerous countries with nationalized systems often held up as models for health system reforms. He then suggests a logical and complete reform plan designed to maintain choice and access to excellence and facilitate competition. His proposal offers a series of key improvements in the three critical areas of the health care puzzle-tax structure, private insurance markets, and government health insurance programs-that will reduce health costs and maintain essential support for America's most vulnerable citizens, seniors and low-income families, without jeopardizing the exceptional health care quality and access in the United States.

Dr. Scott W. Atlas is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, a professor of radiology and chief of neuroradiology at the Stanford University Medical Center, and senior fellow by courtesy at the Freeman-Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford.