Delivering Health Care in America: A Systems Approach,   ISBN:9780763745127

Customer Rating: 

My MBA program required this text. It was actually better than I expected. Very up to par with the current health dilemma. I liked the recommendations and predictions in this text and hope you also like it. The facts were interesting.

Customer Rating: 

Overall, the book is easy to read and follow, and provides lots of good information on the health care system in the U.S. The chapters are well organized, and a clear list of definitions and abbreviations are included, which is helpful considering the numerous amounts of health care abbreviations that are used.

Customer Rating: 

We're using this text in an intro to health care delivery for an MPH program. While I don't disagree with the authors and their bend toward a different health care system, I must say that the text often seems biased. The criticism of a medical treatment model is clear, but few disadvantages of MCOs have been as forthright. It seems to me that the job of textbooks should be to present the facts, or at least disguise the authors' preferences a little...for ex, the text clearly paints a picture of the AMA's role in manipulating the health delivery system in favor of higher status for a medical model and the perpetuation of doctors' power and prestige, then a few chapters later portrays the current system as a reflection of American culture and values. Seems that the system is a reflection of the power of the AMA, mostly upper class white men, than a reflection of me or America.

Customer Rating: 

Almost every class has a textbook, and almost every professor assures his or her students that his or class' particular textbook is worth buying. Rarely is this true. In the case of Shi & Singh's book, though, I actually agree.

I bought this book for the first course that I took on the U.S. healthcare system. I was skeptical but Shi & Singh quickly won me over with their excellent writing, which presents the material in quick, readable fashion and stays relevent and fresh throughout.

Some might see "bias" here, because the authors are quite clear from the start that the U.S. healthcare "system"--I use the quotes because one thing that this text makes clear is that America has no system at all--is fundamentally flawed. To me, that is not bias, because it is a point on which virtually everyone agrees. Moreover, while Shi & Singh do advocate for the creation of a true system, they do not limit their approach to one model. It is when one contrasts Singapore's true-market model with Britain's pure-national model that one comes to grasp how bizarre and nonsensical the American approach to healthcare really is, a solution that satisfies no one and does little if anything efficiently from either a market or a social perspective.

I came to Amazon.com today to sell back my books from this semester. The others have been posted. Shi & Singh's Delivering Health Care, however, is a rare example of a text that will be staying on my shelf. I recommend this book to everyone interested in understanding healthcare in America.

Customer Rating: 

I took a summer class which used this book. It was interesting and very easy reading. If one works in the health field like I do, it reminded me of some issues and gave me other issues to think about. I would recommend it to a person who wanted a good overview of healthcare in the US, compared to other countries. The charts were easy to understand and the book was not full of charts and graphs that were unnecessary.