58 books like Fixing the Primary Care Crisis

By Stephen C. Schimpff,

Here are 58 books that Fixing the Primary Care Crisis fans have personally recommended if you like Fixing the Primary Care Crisis. Shepherd is a community of 10,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.

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Book cover of Understanding Healthcare: A historical perspective

Hunter N. Schultz Author Of Expat Health Guide: Five steps to securing outstanding expat healthcare

From my list on being an expat taught me to loathe America’s healthcare.

Why am I passionate about this?

Born and raised in the Chicago area, I worked in the automotive industry as a car salesperson and racing team manager, financial services as a Registered Representative, and a member of the Chicago Board Options Exchange. An expat in Panama since 2004, I worked in business development for several healthcare products and co-founded an air medical transport service. Over the last decade, I’ve represented two businesses delivering protective medical care to high-net-worth individuals where I learned care’s gold standard from former White House physicians. My research included the books I recommend here and inspired me to write the Expat Health Guide for current and future expats. 

Hunter's book list on being an expat taught me to loathe America’s healthcare

Hunter N. Schultz Why did Hunter love this book?

In my ongoing research into America’s dysfunctional healthcare system, Dr. Ken Fisher was a name I kept hearing. “Read his book,” said the MDs I trust. The roots of our current mess stretch back over one hundred years. Just after blood-letting was a thing. I didn’t know Otto Von Bismarck offered a nationalized healthcare plan for Germany. Though he failed, Prime Minister Lloyd George introduced the concept to England, and the NHS was born. Ken lays out the dominoes and how they fell into today’s American system. I learned how unleashing Health Savings Accounts enables a better system than the current employer-centered mess. I was thrilled Ken agreed to be a Winning Healthcare Food Fights podcast guest. 

By Kenneth A. Fisher,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Understanding Healthcare as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Freedom in Health Care, by Kenneth A. Fisher, MD. Feb. 2016, 154 pages plus tables, reading list, and footnotes. (ISBN: 9780997151114)
Dr. Fisher provides the reader an in-depth understanding of how we got into this controversial, overly expensive, exceedingly complex and bureaucratic healthcare system and ends with a comprehensive solution delivering the promise of personalized health care for all at far less cost.

This manuscript was written with a historical perspective so that the reader will gain a clear understanding of the misconceptions and accidents of history that have led to our present dysfunctional and contentious system of healthcare. To…


Book cover of Never Pay the First Bill: And Other Ways to Fight the Health Care System and Win

Hunter N. Schultz Author Of Expat Health Guide: Five steps to securing outstanding expat healthcare

From my list on being an expat taught me to loathe America’s healthcare.

Why am I passionate about this?

Born and raised in the Chicago area, I worked in the automotive industry as a car salesperson and racing team manager, financial services as a Registered Representative, and a member of the Chicago Board Options Exchange. An expat in Panama since 2004, I worked in business development for several healthcare products and co-founded an air medical transport service. Over the last decade, I’ve represented two businesses delivering protective medical care to high-net-worth individuals where I learned care’s gold standard from former White House physicians. My research included the books I recommend here and inspired me to write the Expat Health Guide for current and future expats. 

Hunter's book list on being an expat taught me to loathe America’s healthcare

Hunter N. Schultz Why did Hunter love this book?

Ever hear of MLR or Medical Loss Ratio? I had, but it didn’t click why it was a cruel joke on American healthcare consumers until I read Marshall’s book. His give a kid a bowl of ice cream analogy is so spot on that I asked for and received his permission to quote it in my book. My dad used to say that a sure sign of genius is making a complex subject understandable to an eighth grader. Marshall’s a genius. His insights stem from over 15 years of investigative reporting on the healthcare industry are critical to combatting a downright evil billing system. Whenever a friend mentions they’ve been in the hospital, or will be, I tell them to read this book. 

By Marshall Allen,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Never Pay the First Bill as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

From award-winning ProPublica reporter Marshall Allen, a primer for anyone who wants to fight the predatory health care system--and win.

Every year, millions of Americans are overcharged and underserved while the health care industry makes record profits. We know something is wrong, but the layers of bureaucracy designed to discourage complaints make pushing back seem impossible. At least, this is what the health care power players want you to think.

Never Pay the First Bill is the guerilla guide to health care the American people and employers need. Drawing on 15 years of investigating the health care industry, reporter Marshall…


Book cover of The Price We Pay: What Broke American Health Care--And How to Fix It

Hunter N. Schultz Author Of Expat Health Guide: Five steps to securing outstanding expat healthcare

From my list on being an expat taught me to loathe America’s healthcare.

Why am I passionate about this?

Born and raised in the Chicago area, I worked in the automotive industry as a car salesperson and racing team manager, financial services as a Registered Representative, and a member of the Chicago Board Options Exchange. An expat in Panama since 2004, I worked in business development for several healthcare products and co-founded an air medical transport service. Over the last decade, I’ve represented two businesses delivering protective medical care to high-net-worth individuals where I learned care’s gold standard from former White House physicians. My research included the books I recommend here and inspired me to write the Expat Health Guide for current and future expats. 

Hunter's book list on being an expat taught me to loathe America’s healthcare

Hunter N. Schultz Why did Hunter love this book?

Dr. Makary begins with an almost unreal story of a French citizen who had the unfortunate luck of having a heart attack in the US. I won’t give it away, but used car dealers come out smelling like roses, and I did that for a while, back in my youth. Such a lesson. Americans sorely need perspective on what great care is and how to pay for it. Dr. Makary does a fantastic job outlining two little-known middlemen sucking money out of American wallets. Pharmacy Benefit Managers, and Group Purchasing Organizations. Both use tactics that would make Tony Soprano smile.

What I love about this book, and why I recommend it, is while spotlighting problems, he offers solutions, and spotlights people making a difference.

By Marty Makary,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Price We Pay as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

"A must-read for every American and business leader." --Steve Forbes, editor-in-chief, FORBES

From the New York Times bestselling author of Unaccountable comes an eye-opening, urgent look at America's broken health care system--and the people who are saving it.

One in five Americans now has medical debt in collections and rising health care costs today threaten every small business in America. Dr. Makary, one of the nation's leading health care experts, travels across America and details why health care has become a bubble. Drawing from on-the-ground stories, his research, and his own experience, The Price We Pay paints a vivid picture…


Book cover of The White House Doctor: My Patients Were Presidents: A Memoir

Hunter N. Schultz Author Of Expat Health Guide: Five steps to securing outstanding expat healthcare

From my list on being an expat taught me to loathe America’s healthcare.

Why am I passionate about this?

Born and raised in the Chicago area, I worked in the automotive industry as a car salesperson and racing team manager, financial services as a Registered Representative, and a member of the Chicago Board Options Exchange. An expat in Panama since 2004, I worked in business development for several healthcare products and co-founded an air medical transport service. Over the last decade, I’ve represented two businesses delivering protective medical care to high-net-worth individuals where I learned care’s gold standard from former White House physicians. My research included the books I recommend here and inspired me to write the Expat Health Guide for current and future expats. 

Hunter's book list on being an expat taught me to loathe America’s healthcare

Hunter N. Schultz Why did Hunter love this book?

To say moving to Panama was life-changing is an understatement. Only as an expat would I have met my medical mentor, a former White House physician. His boss was Dr. Mariano, and he recommended her book to give more of the backstory on caring for the world’s most demanding patient. Before Dr. Connie, White House care was almost informal. After President Clinton appointed her, she launched a massive care uplift to the world’s finest executive health program. So many facets of the White House Medical Unit’s procedures and thinking made even more sense when Dr. Robert Darling taught me about the thinking behind President Clinton’s care. Between these two physicians, I learned the correct answer to: How do you know you have outstanding care? (Hint: It’s not insurance.)

By Connie Mariano,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The White House Doctor as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Dr. Connie Mariano served 9 years at the White House under Presidents George H.W. Bush, William J. Clinton, and George W. Bush. She participated in world headline-making news events and travelled all over the world. She cared for visiting dignitaries and was charged with caring for all the members of the First Family. From flirting with King Juan Carlos of Spain to spending the night on the Queen of England's yacht, Dr. Mariano glimpsed a glittering and powerful celebrity that few ever see. "White House Doctor" is a fascinating look into what goes on behind closed doors at 1600 Pennsylvania…


Book cover of The Disappeared: Stories

Robert Lunday Author Of Disequilibria: Meditations on Missingness

From my list on using disappearance in innovative ways.

Why am I passionate about this?

Since my stepfather disappeared in 1982, disappearance has been my obsession. In writing Disequilibria, I read everything I could on missing persons. By now, I might be the chief authority on Missingness! – that is, on disappearance as a theoretical construct. I’m especially interested in how, across different sensibilities (in fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, but also law, social science, journalism, philosophy, history, and media studies), we can compose a shared language and create shared understanding. My larger goal is to discover creative and redemptive ways of responding to loss, grief, and trauma; to find how disappearance in all its forms creates a framework for understanding what it means to be human.

Robert's book list on using disappearance in innovative ways

Robert Lunday Why did Robert love this book?

Each of Andrew Porter’s two story collections and one novel develop missing persons as a theme. His latest collection, The Disappeared, also continues the author’s tendency to use place in ways that both locate and isolate his characters.

We find ourselves mainly in San Antonio, and sometimes Austin, Texas in The Disappeared, but the protagonists are also linked by a recurrent sense of hesitancy, missed opportunity, and fecklessness. Each story is about being middle-aged, but by the end, Porter has masterfully balanced his depictions of urban-male domesticity with a deeper, more existential sense of being human.

It is Porter’s evocation of missingness – sometimes foregrounded, sometimes slight – that creates the beautifully elegiac sensibility the reader is left with in finishing The Disappeared.

By Andrew Porter,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Disappeared as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A collection of stories that trace the threads of loss and displacement running through all our lives, by the acclaimed, award-winning author of The Theory of Light and Matter

“What a beautiful book about the profound mystery of ordinary life.” —Alix Ohlin, author of We Want What We Want

A husband and wife hear a mysterious bump in the night. A father mourns the closeness he has lost with his son. A friendship with a married couple turns into a dangerous codependency. With gorgeous sensitivity, assurance, and a propulsive sense of menace, these stories center on disappearances both literal and…


Book cover of Birthing Justice: Black Women, Pregnancy, and Childbirth

Anna Malaika Tubbs Author Of The Three Mothers: How the Mothers of Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and James Baldwin Shaped a Nation

From my list on Black motherhood.

Why am I passionate about this?

Anna Malaika Tubbs is the author of the critically acclaimed book The Three Mothers: How the Mothers of MLK Jr., Malcolm X, and James Baldwin Shaped a Nation. She is also a Cambridge Ph.D. candidate in Sociology and a Bill and Melinda Gates Cambridge Scholar. After graduating Phi Beta Kappa from Stanford University with a BA in Anthropology, Anna received a Master’s from the University of Cambridge in Multidisciplinary Gender Studies. Outside of the academy, she is an educator and DEI consultant. She lives with her husband, Michael Tubbs, and their son Michael Malakai.

Anna's book list on Black motherhood

Anna Malaika Tubbs Why did Anna love this book?

A crucial read not only for understanding the unique obstacles facing Black birthing parents but also for celebrating the work of organizers who have fought for our reproductive justice. This book explains how key moments in history have led to where we are today and fills gaps of understanding that many have when it comes to Black maternal health.

By Julia Oparah (editor), Alicia Bonaparte (editor),

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Birthing Justice as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

There is a global crisis in maternal health care for black women. In the United States, black women are over three times more likely to perish from pregnancy-related complications than white women; their babies are half as likely to survive the first year. Many black women experience policing, coercion, and disempowerment during pregnancy and childbirth and are disconnected from alternative birthing traditions. This book places black women's voices at the center of the debate on what should be done to fix the broken maternity system and foregrounds black women's agency in the emerging birth justice movement. Mixing scholarly, activist, and…


Book cover of Priced Out: The Economic and Ethical Costs of American Health Care

Sylvester J. Schieber Author Of Healthcare USA: American Exceptionalism Run Amok

From my list on why healthcare is a cancer on the American Dream.

Why am I passionate about this?

I spent nearly 30 years consulting with employers about the design and operation of the health insurance and retirement benefits they provided their workers. In my work, I was familiar with economic studies showing that workers’ wages and salaries have been increasingly skewed toward higher earners and was convinced the results were less pronounced for workers' total rewards.. In developing my analysis I came to understand that the cost of employees’ health insurance was consuming a large share of workers’ growing rewards. This led me to explore how the US health system was imposing much higher costs on workers than any other segment of society and how we might address the problem.

Sylvester's book list on why healthcare is a cancer on the American Dream

Sylvester J. Schieber Why did Sylvester love this book?

One prevailing theory about the high cost of U.S. health care compared to other highly developed nations is that the prices charged for goods and services are simply higher in the United States and elsewhere.

Reinhardt is one of the leading proponents of this school of thought and this book summarizes his reasoning on the subject and how to deal with it.

By Uwe E. Reinhardt,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Priced Out as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

From a giant of health care policy, an engaging and enlightening account of why American health care is so expensive-and why it doesn't have to be

Uwe Reinhardt was a towering figure and moral conscience of health care policy in the United States and beyond. Famously bipartisan, he advised presidents and Congress on health reform and originated central features of the Affordable Care Act. In Priced Out, Reinhardt offers an engaging and enlightening account of the U.S. health care system, explaining why it costs so much more and delivers so much less than the systems of every other advanced country,…


Book cover of When We Do Harm: A Doctor Confronts Medical Error

Mikkael A. Sekeres Author Of Drugs and the FDA: Safety, Efficacy, and the Public's Trust

From my list on the good, bad, beautiful, and ugly in medicine.

Why am I passionate about this?

As a cancer doctor, I have spent two decades dedicated to understanding the causes and therapy of cancer, how my patients experience their diagnosis and treatment, and how meaningful improvements in their experience should be reflected in the criteria we use to approve cancer drugs approval in the U.S., to improve their lives. In over 100 essays published in outlets like The New York Times and The Washington Post and in two books, I sing the stories of my patients as I learn from their undaunted spirits and their utter humanity, as I try to figure out how to be a better doctor, and a better person.

Mikkael's book list on the good, bad, beautiful, and ugly in medicine

Mikkael A. Sekeres Why did Mikkael love this book?

Nobody is perfect. But in medicine, not being perfect can cause injury in another person, or even death.

In When We Do Harm, Ofri tells the stories of patients who fell victim to medical errors, conducting root-cause analyses of how errors occur in the complicated practice of medicine, and the mundane interventions and cultural shift that will be necessary to prevent them in the future.

It’s not an easy puzzle to solve.

By Danielle Ofri,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked When We Do Harm as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Medical mistakes are more pervasive than we think. How can we improve outcomes? An acclaimed MD’s rich stories and research explore patient safety.

Patients enter the medical system with faith that they will receive the best care possible, so when things go wrong, it’s a profound and painful breach. Medical science has made enormous strides in decreasing mortality and suffering, but there’s no doubt that treatment can also cause harm, a significant portion of which is preventable. In When We Do Harm, practicing physician and acclaimed author Danielle Ofri places the issues of medical error and patient safety front and…


Book cover of Dr. Fauci: How a Boy from Brooklyn Became America's Doctor

Beth Bacon Author Of Helping Our World Get Well: Covid Vaccines

From my list on for kids about COVID-19.

Why am I passionate about this?

I'm an author of books for young readers. These days, there’s nothing more important than having conversations about the Coronavirus disease. It can be hard for grown-ups to start a conversation about Covid with their kids. But they can read a book about the subject and invite the kids to respond to what they heard and saw. My book COVID-19 Helpers was the first place winner of the Emery Global Health Institute’s e-book contest back in May 2020. Through the pandemic, I’ve been reading and talking about the virus with kids from around the world. If you're interested in having me read one of my books to your school, clinic, or your daycare center feel free to get in touch. 

Beth's book list on for kids about COVID-19

Beth Bacon Why did Beth love this book?

This picture book biography does so many things at once—and does it all with a masterful, lyrical storytelling voice. Of course, the primary thing this book does is tell the story of a real person’s life: Dr. Anthony Fauci, the Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. In this story, we learn about his ordinary childhood, his personal interests, and the ways his family inspired and encouraged him. It shows that even people we see on the news were once children, just like the kids reading this book. More than that, this book is a celebration of science and the excitement of scientific discoveries.

It reminds kids (and grown-ups) that science is a creative endeavour. So once the urgency of learning about the COVID virus wanes, this book will be still valuable as a primer on how scientists do their work. Additionally, though the narrative part of…

By Kate Messner, Alexandra Bye (illustrator),

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Dr. Fauci as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 4, 5, 6, and 7.

What is this book about?

The definitive picture book biography of Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and one of the most crucial figures in the COVID-19 pandemic.

Before he was Dr. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Anthony Fauci was a curious boy in Brooklyn, delivering prescriptions from his father's pharmacy on his blue Schwinn bicycle. His father and immigrant grandfather taught Anthony to ask questions, consider all the data, and never give up-and Anthony's ability to stay curious and to communicate with people would serve him his entire life.

This…


Book cover of The Quality Cure: How Focusing on Health Care Quality Can Save Your Life and Lower Spending Too

Joseph P. Newhouse Author Of Pricing the Priceless: A Health Care Conundrum

From my list on the economics and history of American health insurance.

Why am I passionate about this?

My mother wanted me to be a physician, but as a child I was very squeamish about human biology and knew that wasn't for me. In college I was exposed to economics and found it, and the policy debates about national health insurance, fascinating. So, maybe with my mother’s wishes in the back of my mind, I became a health economist. I was privileged to direct a large randomized trial called the RAND Health Insurance Experiment, which varied the cost of medical care to families. This project lasted more than a decade and got me so deep into the economics of health and medical care that I became a professor of health policy and management.


Joseph's book list on the economics and history of American health insurance

Joseph P. Newhouse Why did Joseph love this book?

Almost all Americans think the high cost of health care is a major problem and a large number think access to services is also a problem. 

Many, however, think that if a person has access to medical care and good insurance, quality of care is excellent. That’s sometimes true, but often not as this book describes.

By David Cutler,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Quality Cure as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

In the United States, the soaring cost of health care has become an economic drag and a political flashpoint. Moreover, although the country's medical spending is higher than that of any other nation, health outcomes are no better than elsewhere, and in some cases are even worse. In The Quality Cure, renowned health care economist and former Obama advisor David Cutler offers an accessible and incisive account of the issues and their causes, as well as a road map for the future of health care reform--one that shows how information technology, realigned payment systems, and value-focused organizations together have the…


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