Building a Unified American Health Care System

A Blueprint for Comprehensive Reform

Gilead I Lancaster

• Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
• Year: 2023
• eBook ISBN: 9781421445892
• Edition: 0
• Topic: Law
• Subtopic: Health Policy
• Index: Law

A blueprint for comprehensive, science-based health care system reform.

Financial and political pressures on our health care system have negatively impacted individual care and the health system as a whole, an issue that has only become more acute because of the COVID-19 pandemic. In Building a Unified American Health Care System, Gilead I Lancaster, MD, lays out a blueprint for comprehensive health care reform, proposing a unified system run by health care professionals—not politicians or commercial health insurance companies—that offers universal coverage and access.

Lancaster compares the current arguments for single payer versus commercial health insurance systems with arguments in the early 1900s for a central bank versus regional commercial banks. He then introduces a novel solution: the establishment of a National Medical Board similar to the Federal Reserve System that helped fix the American banking system over a century ago. Along with other innovations, a plan co-created by Lancaster dubbed EMBRACE (Expanding Medical and Behavioral Resources with Access to Care for Everyone) would involve creating a modern, evidence-based health care system, one offering universal coverage for basic needs while allowing for commercial insurance participation. Emphasizing the importance of separating health care from governmental and commercial pressures and incentives, Lancaster explains the need for comprehensive—rather than incremental—reform of the American health care system.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Foreword, by Congressman Jim Himes
• Foreword, by David L. Katz, MD, MPH
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• 1. The American Health Care System Disorder
• 2. The Ideal American Health Care System: A Wish List
• 3. Health Care and the Economy
• 4. Lessons from the Creation of the Federal Reserve System
• 5. How a National Medical Board Can Help the Current Health Care System’s Problems
• 6. EMBRACE: A Comprehensive Plan for Health Care System Reform
• 7. The National Medical Board and the Federal Reserve System Compared
• 8. Anticipated Impact on Health, Health Care, Business, Innovation, and Government
• 9. Cost Considerations
• 10. Implementing EMBRACE
• 11. Political Considerations and Advocacy
• 12. Questions Answered
• Abbreviations
• References
• Index