“Top 100” Vine Voice Review: CODE BLUE “a landmark book…required reading for all Americans – excellent!”

Posted on | July 13, 2019 | Comments Off on “Top 100” Vine Voice Review: CODE BLUE “a landmark book…required reading for all Americans – excellent!”

Vine Voice Reviewers are among the most respected in the book industry. To gain entrance as a “Top 100” reviewer takes it up another notch. Chicago’s Becky Brooks has earned this elite status. Here’s what she says about CODE BLUE: Inside the Medical-Industrial Complex.

“First of all – this is a landmark book and should be required reading for all Americans on a topic they probably think they understand but really do not. Forget what you think you know about why healthcare, insurance, and drugs cost as much as they do. This book tells the tale in easily digestible detail, providing the historical and ongoing perspective to illustrate how things evolved to the unacceptable place they are today.

I have read several books concerning the state of health care in the US and other countries and none of them has covered the subject so objectively and factually.This is probably due to the fact that the author was/is a healthcare professional, a doctor who has also worked for big pharma. Not technically a whistle-blower he does present the facts about modern health care and has come to the conclusion that is there is a better way.

Eisenhower famously said after the conclusion of World War II, “ beware the military- industrial complex”, and rightfully so.This concentration of corporations, government, partisan politics, profits, and lobbying all acting together has essentially shaped a lot of the modern US today. He makes the correct point that now we have to deal with this same type of concentration the “ Medical Industrial Complex”.Big Pharma, insurance companies, doctors, all acting in their best interests: profits and cutting costs rather than cures and patient welfare. They have changed the whole approach to healthcare and so much privatization has not lowered costs nor improved preventative care or cures.

It is ironic that countries like Germany and Japan have all -exclusive, low cost, quality healthcare because after the war when we were rebuilding these countries under the Marshall Plan, we realized the social structure had to be built back up as well as the bombed buildings. We put universal type health care in place which still thrives today.

I hope this review piques your interest to read this book – there are many facts ( how the AMA came about, politics and back room deals to move things forward) that are eye-opening. Undeniable facts. The Medical Complex has become so big and powerful it is extremely difficult to change things – but as the author state we must. Life, liberty , and the pursuit of happiness certainly must not exclude the right to affordable and accessible healthcare. Access to healthcare is not a privilege.

Think of this book as a wake up call, much like Rachel Carson’s “Silent Spring” warned of the unpublished dangers of pesticides. It’s that big of a subject, that big of a problem, and that important a book.”

Thanks for reading my review

Becky Brooks