In Praise of Health Care Nation
"Tom Lawry does more than write about fixing health care—he rallies us to become the ‘Rosa Parks of the system’ to spark a movement of meaningful change. In this thought-provoking book, he offers a much-welcomed departure from the tireless blame game and fruitless top-down prescriptions that dominate health care reform discussions. Lawry hands the power back to us—patients, clinicians, business leaders, and advocates—showing how small, deliberate action can add up to transformative change.”
— Gil Bashe, Chair Global Health and Purpose, FINN Partners, Editor-in-Chief, Medika Life
“Physicians and patients alike find themselves at the intersection of innovation and inequity in America’s complex health care landscape. Health Care Nation serves as a timely and empowering call to action for those determined to restore purpose and integrity to a fractured system. Offering fresh perspectives and a focus on impactful solutions, this book inspires readers to take the lead in shaping a more equitable and effective future for health care.”
-Michael Suk, MD, JD, MPH, MBA, FACS, FACHE , -Chair, American Medical Association Board of Trustees
“In his latest book "Health Care Nation", Tom Lawry envisions a future that prioritizes health, well-being, and equity for all citizens. This thought-provoking and insightful read challenges each of us to rethink the current system and take meaningful actions toward a more inclusive, efficient, and innovative health care future. As a nurse, I have recognized the brokenness of US healthcare and have always wanted to make it better. Healthcare Nation is a manifesto for change that emphasizes the power of individual actions and innovative thinking in driving systemic change.”
Kathleen McGrow DNP, MS, RN, PMP, FHIMSS, FAAN, Global Chief Nursing Innovation Officer, Microsoft
“The US has the highest rate of maternal deaths among high-income nations. Black women are three times more likely to die of childbirth than White women.”
"Uninsured Americans are 25 percent more likely to die prematurely than those with health insurance."
About Health Care Nation
Whether a patient, health consumer, physician, nurse, health executive, or elected official, somewhere deep in our brains is this simple truth: the American health system isn’t working, and it will only get worse if we don’t do something about it. Despite spending more money per capita on health care than any other country in the world, the United States struggles to match other nations in life expectancy, health outcomes, and general well-being. Meanwhile, the system spends more on unnecessary, ineffective, and wasteful services than what we collectively invest in K–12 education in America.
Health Care Nation is a book about the interconnectedness between the health of people and the health of a nation. It’s about the opportunity and responsibility each of us has to reimagine and reengineer a system that focuses on keeping all citizens healthy and caring for them when they are not.
The book takes readers on a journey to first understand why the system is failing us and then helps them to find or sharpen their views and voice for change based on their personal values, views and experience.
We can and must take back the right we all have to be in better control of things that impact our health and well-being. This book awakens readers to the possibilities that exist today that are right in front of us if only we choose to see them.
Read the Preface to Health Care Nation
“Only three percent of America’s $4.7 trillion in health spending goes to prevention. Meanwhile, 30 million Americans die prematurely each year from preventable diseases.”
Join the Movement
We can and must take back the right we all have to be in better control of things that impact our health and well‑being. Join us in creating a citizen-driven movement to change American health care from what it is to what you believe it should be.
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"The number one reason Americans file for bankruptcy is not because they live lavishly. It’s because they get sick."
Preface to Health Care Nation
(What this book is about and how it's different)
My editor suggested that this was not the best opening paragraph to use when trying to convince you to buy this book. Nevertheless, when I think about the imperative we have to fix health care, I wonder what Rosa Parks had for breakfast on the day she made history.
I mean, did she start her day like any other over a bowl of cereal, thinking it was just another day? Or was she contemplating something bigger as she stared into her coffee cup that morning?
In the end, the details of her breakfast don’t matter. What matters is that she’d had enough. Enough of a system that diminished her, enough of rules that kept her in her “place.”
Her small but radical refusal to give up her seat sparked a movement that would change the course of history, culminating in the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
In writing this book, I find myself wondering: where is the Rosa Parks’ moment for health care?
The Health Care Crisis
Like civil rights in the 1960s, health care today is one of the defining social and economic issues of our time. You don’t need a book to tell you that the American health care system is broken. You see it every day—in rising costs, declining health status, and the burnout of the very people who keep the system running.
And yet, we often approach changing health care as if it’s someone else’s job. We assume that the solution will come from policymakers, executives, or technology. But history tells us a different story. Change rarely comes from the top down. It starts with ordinary people taking small, meaningful actions.
This Book Is Different
Most books about health care reform do two things you will not find in this book. The first is to spend hundreds of pages assigning blame: insurance companies, hospital executives, pharmaceutical firms, government regulators—the list is endless.
The second thing most books on this topic do is serve as a platform for an author or organization to prescriptively tell you their view on how to “fix” the system.
This book is different. It doesn’t assign blame because the system’s dysfunction isn’t the fault of a single group or institution. Instead, it’s the result of deeply embedded flaws such as incentives and workflows that shape how we view, deliver and pay for health care. Blame won’t fix that. Understanding will.
And while I have my views on changing healthcare, you won’t find a prescription for fixing healthcare.
This is not a book about telling you what to think. It’s about helping you gain a better understanding of the underlying issues. More importantly, it’s about helping you discover or refine your own voice in keeping with your unique needs, values and experiences.
It’s about you—and every reader—realizing that your views and voice matter. They are the starting point for real change.
A Revolution Hidden in Plain Sight
This book is for those who want to change American health care from what it is to what they believe it should be.
It’s built on the idea that each of us has the power to take small, meaningful actions to transform health care. It emphasizes that creating change in the system isn’t a matter of talking but a matter of doing.
Which is where you come in.
Health care won’t fix itself. And it won’t be fixed by the people comfortable with the status quo. But it can be changed by individuals like you—patients, clinicians, business leaders, and everyday citizens—who refuse to accept the way things are and start imagining what they could be.
This book is for everyone whose life has been touched by the health care system:
- For patients frustrated by high costs and long waits
- For consumers who envision a system that keeps us healthy rather than dispensing pills and procedures when we are not.
- For clinicians exhausted by burnout from working in a system that robs them of their time and compassion.
- For employers struggling to provide and pay for health benefits
- For health leaders working to manage and be sustainable in an impossibly complex system; and,
- For those people who are un-or-underinsured and are one step away from bankruptcy if they or someone they love get sick.
Like Rosa Parks, within each of us is a spark of an idea to make our lives and the lives of others better. This book is about ordinary people taking small actions that collectively lead to the next social revolution.
Each of us has the power to say “enough.” And when enough of us do, the system will have no choice but to change.
T.
“A system with a mission of healing is harming the very people in short supply who are there to take care of the rest of us.
55% of front-line health care workers report burnout, with the highest rate (69%) among the youngest staff.”
"If you are reading this as a resident of Mississippi, you probably won’t live as long as someone from Bangladesh."
"The United States is a global leader in avoidable amputations."
Speaking
Let Tom Lawry bring his unique perspective on transforming health care to your conference, board retreat, or workshop.