America’s children will have worse lives than their parents unless we start making some tough decisions. The U.S. healthcare industry is a major cause of this future decay, but it doesn’t care. It’s too busy arrogantly assuming that forcing more expensive tests and treatments on Americans is best, always justified by the phrase “medically necessary.” It assumes more healthcare leads to better health, when often the opposite is true. It convinces Americans to purchase marginally effective or ineffective care by scaring them into it. For the sake of our children and grandchildren, we must come together as a nation to face up to the excesses of our current healthcare system. It will require a complete reassessment of the role of the healthcare industry in all of our lives. American Health$care provides the road map of how to get there.

I’m a family physician. I think American healthcare costs too much, and I think physicians are part of the problem. I wrote this book because I’m worried about America’s future. American businesses have become more efficient over the last 10 years, but their employees can’t feel it. Workers are more productive, but the fruit of their labors is missing from their paychecks because it’s being sucked into the healthcare system. As well, U.S. businesses face a competitive disadvantage because they pay so much more for healthcare than companies in other countries. I’m not talking just about China, either. I’m talking about developed countries such as Australia and Sweden. I want a future that allows America to continue to make things and sell them to other countries. I want a future in which our children or grandchildren don’t pay for the excesses of this generation, and unless we change course now, they’ll drown in an ocean of federal government debt. America’s healthcare system is a significant contributor to this debt, and new approaches must be implemented to prevent imminent disaster. During the health reform debates of 2009-­‐‑2010, several commentators talked about bending the healthcare cost curve at some ill-­‐‑defined point in the future. The cost curve doesn’t need to be bent; it must be snapped off and reattached at a lower level. The root causes of expensive American healthcare have not been addressed. I will expose the core issues of the crisis that the special interests don’t talk about. Ultimately, my proposed solutions are about choices. I fundamentally believe America is great because it respects the integrity and intelligence of her citizens and allows them to make the best decisions for their families. I want you to have choices that currently don’t exist. Thank you spending your valuable time to see the healthcare system from a different perspective. By working together, maybe we can bring a healthy dose of sanity and a sense of proportion to our dysfunctional healthcare system, and thereby save our children’s future.

Dr. Richard Young is a family physician, educator, and researcher at America’s largest family medicine program, the John Peter Smith Hospital family medicine residency in Fort Worth, TX. Among other duties, Dr. Young turns recent graduates into family physicians. He also teaches students still in medical school, and every now and then convinces one of them to become a family physician. Dr. Young serves on Commissions, Task Forces, and the Board of the Texas Academy of Family Physicians. He also the Director of Research for the JPS family medicine department, and has published dozens of studies in the medical literature over a wide range of topics.