Priceless

Overview

A no-nonsense approach to health care, this book takes the Affordable Care Act to task and rejects Barack Obama’s vision. Arguing that the United States should create a market for sick people, in which health plans vigorously compete to solve the problems of diabetics, asthmatics, heart patients, cancer patients, and others with high expected health care costs, this book maintains that every example of a center of excellence—producing high-quality, low-cost care—originated from the supply side of the market, not the demand side. With practical advice on how typical employers can cut employee health costs in half, this handbook also examines a variety of health-related topics, including malpractice, insurance reform, and the institution of a privatized Medicare program.

Reviews

"I have been following John Goodman's health policy ideas for as long as I've been on Capitol Hill. John's latest effort, Priceless: Curing the Health Care Crisis, makes it abundantly clear why he is a source of wisdom, insight, and innovative thinking." —Paul Ryan, Chairman, U.S. House Budget Committee "John Goodman's book Priceless provides more good thinking from the person who taught us that incentives matter." —Michael O. Leavitt, former Governor of Utah; former Secretary, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; former Administrator, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency "With his head for the practical and his heart for the disadvantaged, John Goodman has long been the clearest and most insightful healthcare thinker we have. Now that our perverse, accidental 'insurance' system has reached its inevitable crisis, it's time we acted on his common sense, fact-based wisdom in Priceless." —Mitch Daniels, President, Purdue University; former Governor of Indiana "Priceless is an important contribution to a market-friendly approach to reforming health care." —Martin S. Feldstein, George F. Baker Professor of Economics, Harvard University; President Emeritus, National Bureau of Economic Research "If liberal commentators wish to sharpen their claws, there is no better stone on which to do it than John Goodman's book Priceless." —Uwe E. Reinhardt, James Madison Professor of Political Economy and Professor of Economics and Public Affairs, Princeton University; former Commissioner, Physician Payment Review Commission "While many people discuss the problems within our healthcare system, few propose real solutions. John Goodman has written a book that not only accurately describes what is happening with healthcare in our nation, it provides key solutions and answers to a problem that so desperately needs to be corrected." —Jeb Bush, former Governor of Florida "After a year of congressional debate, 2,000 and some-odd pages of legislation, and a Supreme Court verdict, few issues remain more contentious than President Obama's 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, dubbed 'Obamacare.' . . . Priceless is required reading on the subject. . . . The central theme of Priceless is that patients, doctors, insurers, and employers should be freed of government encumbrances to interact in the marketplace. Patients should be able to check physician fees to choose combinations of quality, cost and amenities. Doctors should be rewarded for finding innovative ways to lower costs. Insurers should be able to charge premiums that reflect risk, to enable them to service high-risk customers. Employers should be allowed to negotiate portable insurance policies for their employees, one way to help patients with pre-existing conditions. . . . For better solutions to this and other problems of providing affordable health care, Ryan, Obama, Romney, and Biden should all read this book." —Barron's "John Goodman, widely known as the father of health savings accounts, is as provocative and controversial as ever in his timely and important, new book, Priceless: Curing the Healthcare Crisis. His prescription for fixing what ails American health care is to free American consumers to seek the health care that best suits their needs and to free physicians and hospital administrators to provide the best, lowest cost care they can by getting rid of the constraints and disincentives provided by insurance companies and public payers. Essential reading for all who have been frustrated in their search for a workable solution to our health care woes." —Gail R. Wilensky, Senior Fellow, Project HOPE; former Administrator, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services "Instead of keeping the market from dealing with preexisting conditions, health care economist John C. Goodman argues, we should encourage it. In a new book, Priceless: Curing the Healthcare Crisis, Goodman offers an abundance of ways in which an unfettered market could address the problems of people with c

Author Biography

John C. Goodman is Senior Fellow at the Independent Institute, President of the Goodman Institute for Public Policy Research, and author of more than 50 studies on health policy, retirement reform, and tax issues. Dr. Goodman is the author of ten books, including Living with Obamacare: A Consumer's Guide; Lives at Risk: Single Payer National Health Insurance Around the World (with Gerald Musgrave and Devon Herrick); Leaving Women Behind: Modern Families, Outdated Laws (with Kimberley A. Strassel and Celeste Colgan); and the trailblazing Patient Power: Solving America's Health Care Crisis, that sold more than 300,000 copies. His articles have been featured in publications such as Health Affairs, National Review, and the Wall Street Journal. He lives in Dallas, Texas.