Right Medicine

David Cundiff, MD, and Mary Ellen McCarthy, PhD, offer in their uniquely powerful new book, The Right Medicine, a carefully engineered, justly humane, and economically sound plan designed to fully and effectively solve the terrible crisis in today's American health care system. Here are the major steps the authors, an oncologist and a dedicated health care statistician, believe we must take: Assure full health care for all Americans under a single payer system Make preventive care a top priority by appropriately reforming medical education and by establishing a national program of Community Wellness Centers to deliver these preventative and related services Encourage palliative (hospice) care for the elderly Reinstate the family physician/internist in the traditional central role Eliminate health care deficits by increasing taxes on lifestyle sources adding undue cost burdens -in particular, alcohol, tobacco, dietary fat, media, firearms, and nonrenewable energy§The Right Medicine offers an eminently workable "win, win, win" proposal that will keep alive the promise of America: Health care workers win with less bureaucracy and more satisfying work The public wins with more appropriate and efficacious health care at lower overall prices The economy wins with more jobs and more productive workers