The Bookshelf: July 5, 2016

Trib+Health is joining with respected books authority Kirkus Reviews to bring you select reviews of books of note in the field of health care. For more book reviews and recommendations, visit Kirkus.com.

DYING AND LIVING IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD: A Street-Level View of America's Healthcare Promise

by Prabhjot Singh

The Affordable Care Act of 2010, or Obamacare in shorthand, is a frequent target for the corporate right, offended at the thought that medicine should not be the profit center that, say, oil and copper afford. It is less often criticized by the left, which lends Singh’s (Arnhold Global Health Center, Mount Sinai) critique an interesting cry-in-the-wilderness quality. Singh’s arguments against a health care regime “imbalanced in favor of technocrats and captains of industry” are very well-placed, as is his critique of ACA for, among other things, not including communities in health care planning or considering the neighborhood as a natural political unit; no one is better positioned to advance these arguments. Yet he is long in the diagnosis and short in the healing. 

For the full review, visit kirkus.com.