An Introduction to the U.S. Healthcare System

by Steven Jonas (Editor), Raymond L. Goldsteen (Editor), Karen Goldsteen (Editor)

This bestselling text is a concise and balanced classic presenting the domestic health care system. It explains the five major components of the U.S. health care system: health care institutions (hospitals and nursing homes); health care personnel (physicians, nurses, and others); financing mechanisms; research and educational institutions that produce biomedical knowledge and health personnel; and, firms producing "health commodities" (such as pharmaceutical drugs and hospital equipment).

Genres: Business, Reference, Nonfiction, Health, Health Care

308 pages, ebook

Published August 17, 2009

About the author

Dr. Steven Jonas is Professor Emeritus of Preventive Medicine at the Renaissance School of Medicine, and the Program in Public Health, at Stony Brook University. He served at Stony Brook Medicine for 43 years, 1971-2014. He has published 17 books on topics ranging from public health textbooks to sports medicine, diet, and triathlon books.

Reviews

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

Worse than the worst textbook I was ever forced to read in school. And that's saying a lot.

[Meg · Rating 2 out of 5]

Reading for work. So far: not very exhilarating.

[Bri_laughs_a_lot. · Rating 1 out of 5]

TERRIBLE. Even for a textbook this was a dry read that put me right to sleep.

[C · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is the worst textbook I've ever read for, concordantly, the worst class I've taken in my program so far. It is extremely dry, statistics heavy and dull. As someone else mentioned it's also very biased- regardless of which way you lean politically a text book isn't the place to voice those opinions. Absolutely hated slogging through this.

[Sara · Rating 2 out of 5]

A readable, but very basic, introduction to the world of US healthcare. Most facts and figures in the book are from 2003/2004, which may seem dated in light of the election and economic downturn of 2008. The book isn't as long as it appears--it's loaded with citations and pages of references after each chapter. Recommended as a good starting place if you know nothing about healthcare in America; if you do understand the fundamentals, however, skip this and just pick up a newspaper for a much more up-to-date picture of this evolving industry.

[Coral Rose · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this for work. Boring, and hilariously biased against all Republican administrations. I think there is a time and a place to let your political leanings hang out, and writing a textbook shouldn't be one of them.

[Ryan · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book deserves zero stars, but if I gave it zero it would look like I just didn't bother rating it. There's no way I would have read this if someone wasn't paying me (I had to read it for work).