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jartone93's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
5.0
librarytech4's review
3.0
This book wasn't really what I was expecting, but it was still interesting and I am glad I read it. This book mixes narrative with data, but jumps around so much that I was confused on what the different narratives were trying to prove. I did enjoy reading about the Ohio hospital system since I recognized a lot of the hospital names from living in the area. The book goes into a lot of the issues with hospital billing and insurance as well as the initial actions that caused them which I found interesting. It also discusses low income health care issues and how small towns have tried to solve them.
rachelwalexander's review against another edition
5.0
This is a masterful piece of reporting on the state of American health care and the American economy, told through several years at one rural Ohio hospital. Brian Alexander shifts effortlessly between the micro - scenes in the ER and hospital boardroom, and the macro - the financial and policy landscape that's led community hospitals to be both a last line of defense and an increasingly unviable business. It's hard to write about dense policy and large forces in American society in a way that's clear and gripping, but Alexander does both, without ever losing sight of the humans at the center of the story.
eowyns_helmet's review against another edition
5.0
I debated whether to categorize this as non-fiction dystopia. The way Americans have organized the health care system only makes sense historically--a step-by-step creation of a monster--not practically or in the quest to provide everyone high-quality healthcare. This is an immersive, necessary read charting the effects on a single, small hospital. Very worth your time.
chambecc's review against another edition
emotional
informative
sad
medium-paced
4.5
This book caught my eye a while back, and I eventually decided to read it because it covered a broad cross-section of issues I am interested in: the tangled, maddeningly byzantine web that is healthcare in the USA, the struggles of small town America, the replacement of high-paying jobs in manufacturing with low wage service work, and the general erosion of the social fabric in many of this country's communities.
Bryan, Ohio is basically a microcosm of the country at large, especially its rural areas. Although it's on the poorer end, it's not particularly unique in terms of the issue it faces - many, many other small towns in this country whether in the heartland or elsewhere face the exact same issues as Bryan does. (Interesting anecdote: Bryan is where the Etch-A-Sketch toy used to be made. They are now manufactured in China.)
Alexander does a good job of painting the picture of healthcare in these places, told through the story of Bryan's community hospital and the people who staff and administer it. But easily the best part of the book is the stories of the town's residents - like Keith, a diabetic father of a special needs child who rationed his insulin until he eventually needed to have his big toe, and then later a good chunk of his foot, amputated. Or Valerie, a mom who worked 3 jobs and barely sleeps in order to make ends meet. These people have raw, heartbreaking stories - and it's a testament to the narrative of Alexander that you simply cannot help but root for them as they struggle to navigate a maze of low-paying jobs, lacking social infrastructure, and a hodgepodge medical "system" built for profit's maximization.
It also talks about the social ill that seems to pervade so many communities in America today - resulting in suicides, drug use, and other symptoms of malaise. The book is, in a word, real. Some of the stories in it have happy endings. Many don't. You'll remember a lot of them long after you've put the book down.
Bryan, Ohio is basically a microcosm of the country at large, especially its rural areas. Although it's on the poorer end, it's not particularly unique in terms of the issue it faces - many, many other small towns in this country whether in the heartland or elsewhere face the exact same issues as Bryan does. (Interesting anecdote: Bryan is where the Etch-A-Sketch toy used to be made. They are now manufactured in China.)
Alexander does a good job of painting the picture of healthcare in these places, told through the story of Bryan's community hospital and the people who staff and administer it. But easily the best part of the book is the stories of the town's residents - like Keith, a diabetic father of a special needs child who rationed his insulin until he eventually needed to have his big toe, and then later a good chunk of his foot, amputated. Or Valerie, a mom who worked 3 jobs and barely sleeps in order to make ends meet. These people have raw, heartbreaking stories - and it's a testament to the narrative of Alexander that you simply cannot help but root for them as they struggle to navigate a maze of low-paying jobs, lacking social infrastructure, and a hodgepodge medical "system" built for profit's maximization.
It also talks about the social ill that seems to pervade so many communities in America today - resulting in suicides, drug use, and other symptoms of malaise. The book is, in a word, real. Some of the stories in it have happy endings. Many don't. You'll remember a lot of them long after you've put the book down.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Car accident and Medical trauma
Moderate: Drug abuse, Drug use, Alcoholism, and Suicide
taylorsierra's review against another edition
4.0
I need to not read as many books that make me depressed
skpatton's review against another edition
5.0
This is an important book and I wish everyone in America and beyond could read it and develop an understanding of how we arrived at the mess we find ourselves in. "American cruelty had germinated the dysfunction, and it didn't stop even as a virus killed more than a thousand people every day."
samgreenmke's review against another edition
4.0
Healthcare’s apocalypse in detail. Great reporting.