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Written by a primary care physician, this book gives critical insights into the strengths and breakdowns in the United States healthcare system. The book is well written, well organized, and well referenced, including studies from The Lancet and JAMA. Coodley writes an easily readable text for almost anyone. The strongest case the author makes is that primary care physicians are the cornerstone of quality care, yet the field is diminishing for a myriad of reasons. He furthermore outlines what care model (HMO, private practice, etc.) lends itself to the most satisfaction by patients, "Safran et al. compared Primary care performance and patient satisfaction in five different models of care. Contrary to the academic expectations, the model that paid physicians on a fee-for-service basis had their highest scores from patients."
Coodley writes of a plethora of good fixes for healthcare's current shortcomings, including how to increase the ratio of primary care physicians to specialists and how to increase patient satisfaction, "It comes down to insurance companies being willing to give up some control with the possible reward of increased profits." He compares the system in the USA to those in other countries so that rather than starting from scratch, one can take what is best from every system in curing the American healthcare system dilemma. Perhaps those who need to read this book most are future administrators, public policy students, and, more broadly, life's students. This book belongs on the required reading list for college because every single human needs healthcare, and the system must not keep patients imperiled.