Code Blue: Health Care in Crisis by Edward R. Annis

This is a great book. It shows how American medicine is being socialized to the detriment of patients.

On managed competition/care, the author observes, “Government cannot preserve high quality health care, prompt service, and freedom of choice without allowing health care providers the freedom to meet demand; Government cannot reduce the regulatory burden…government cannot apply price controls without creating shortages and rationing care….” Dr. Annis points out, “Finagle all they will, bureaucrats and entrepreneurs will never overcome the problem of excessive costs without correcting the basic flaw: the system of third-party payers, whether government or corporate.”

Code Blue shows how with “minimal changes in our tax laws, Medisave accounts would empower the patient by breaking the tie between job and health insurance and even would allow the gradual phasing out of Medicare,” wrote Jerome C. Arnett, Jr., M.D. for the Medical Sentinel.

Here are some pertinent comments from various publications:

“I strongly suggest that the public read this book before swallowing the nostrums currently discussed nightly on the news. It could, one day, be the difference between living or dying.” —The Philadelphia Inquirer

“Dr. Annis’ leadership of the AMA in the early 1960s, with his championing of the principles of individual rights and free markets, is in sharp contrast to the philosophy of the current AMA leadership, who refuse to confront the current administration but instead seem satisfied to ask for ‘a seat at the table.’ ” —Jerome C. Arnett, Jr., M.D., Journal of the American Medical Association.

What the press has not told the public — but Dr. Annis does — is that health care problems have a “Made in Washington” label.

Reviewed by Dr. Miguel Faria

Miguel A. Faria, JR., M.D. is the author of Vandals at the Gates of Medicine: Historic Perspectives over the Battle for Health Care Reform, 1994.

This book review was originally published on Amazon.com on September 3, 1999.