McGuire and Anderson bring the findings of the behavioral biology of group cooperation to bear on the vexatious problem of healthcare reform. One of the few certainties that we have is that the approach of the last 50 years-arguments between advocates of government or private insurance-has led to intractable gridlock. It is thus necessary to ask whether the initial assumptions buried within this controversy might have fatal flaws. In the authors' views, they do. Our modern society would never tolerate funding of any other necessity or convenience by such clumsy methods. In short, McGuire and Anderson contend we must pay for healthcare the way we pay for food, housing, clothing, and transportation.
McGuire and Anderson begin by examining the flaws embedded in each side of the current debate. They offer ten postulates around which any successful system must be devised, and identify the problems from the perspective of patients, professionals, and public and private insurance providers. Finally, they apply the knowledge of the biology of human behavior to the problem of enhancing group cooperation toward a self-correcting system, which avoids the current major pitfalls. A workable system, they contend, will be one that is compatible with human nature; not a perfect system, but better than we have, and more likely to work than competing theoretical constructs.
Show moreMcGuire and Anderson bring the findings of the behavioral biology of group cooperation to bear on the vexatious problem of healthcare reform. One of the few certainties that we have is that the approach of the last 50 years-arguments between advocates of government or private insurance-has led to intractable gridlock. It is thus necessary to ask whether the initial assumptions buried within this controversy might have fatal flaws. In the authors' views, they do. Our modern society would never tolerate funding of any other necessity or convenience by such clumsy methods. In short, McGuire and Anderson contend we must pay for healthcare the way we pay for food, housing, clothing, and transportation.
McGuire and Anderson begin by examining the flaws embedded in each side of the current debate. They offer ten postulates around which any successful system must be devised, and identify the problems from the perspective of patients, professionals, and public and private insurance providers. Finally, they apply the knowledge of the biology of human behavior to the problem of enhancing group cooperation toward a self-correcting system, which avoids the current major pitfalls. A workable system, they contend, will be one that is compatible with human nature; not a perfect system, but better than we have, and more likely to work than competing theoretical constructs.
Show moreUtilizes the findings of behavioral biology to fashion a broad outline of healthcare reform.
Setting the Perspective
Ten Postulates
The Setting, the Issues, the Question
Healthcare Myths
The Present State of U.S. Healthcare
What Key Healthcare Players Want
What Patients Want
What Healthcare Professionals Want
What Healthcare Payers Want
The Missing Parts of U.S. Healthcare
Individual Human Nature--Healthcare's Missing Link
The Human Nature of Groups
Cross-Group Competition--Costs and Benefits
Options, Constraints, and Questions
Viable Options
Fifty Questions
Glossary
Index
MICHAEL T. McGUIRE is Professor of Psychiatry, UCLA School of
Medicine, a member of the Brain Research Institute, and Director of
the Sepulveda Veterans Administration/UCLA Nonhuman Primate
Laboratory. He is the author or coauthor of more than 150 journal
articles and four books, including Darwinian Psychiatry (1998) with
Alfonso Troisi.
WILLIAM H. ANDERSON is Lecturer at the Harvard Medical School and
Senior Psychiatrist, Massachusetts General Hospital. In addition to
having held a variety of teaching and administrative positions, he
is the author of more than 70 articles in scientific and policy
journals.
?The authors examine the flaws embedded in the current debate about
health care and offer ten postulates around which any successful
system must be devised. They then identify the problems from the
perspectives of patients, professionals, and public and private
insurance providers.?-Abstracts of Public Administration,
Development, and Environment
"The authors examine the flaws embedded in the current debate about
health care and offer ten postulates around which any successful
system must be devised. They then identify the problems from the
perspectives of patients, professionals, and public and private
insurance providers."-Abstracts of Public Administration,
Development, and Environment
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