Healthy Wealthy and Wise

America's health-care system is the envy of the world, but it faces serious challenges. The costs of care are rising rapidly, the number of uninsured Americans is at an all-time high, and public dissatisfaction is steadily increasing. How can we preserve the strengths of our current system while correcting its weaknesses? Three of America's leading health-care scholars answer that question in Healthy, Wealthy, and Wise. Poorly conceived federal tax policies, insurance regulations, and barriers to entry have distorted health-care markets and inhibited competition. John F. Cogan, R. Glenn Hubbard, and Daniel P. Kessler propose five key policies to build a better health-care system: (1) health-care tax reform, (2) insurance reform, (3) improvement of health-care information, (4) control of anticompetitive behavior, and (5) malpractice system reform. Together, these changes would harness the power of markets to deliver better health care to Americans. These reforms would strengthen consumers' ability to be cost- and value-conscious shoppers, while promoting quality and innovation in health care, pharmaceuticals, and medical technology. And, by cutting the cost of care by $60 billion per year, these reforms would make health insurance affordable for at least 6 million--and perhaps as many as 20 million--uninsured Americans.

"Expertly reasoned and meticulously researched, Wealthy and Wise shows us how we can convert tax-deductible contributions to great reward at little or no personal risk. Rosenberg provides a detailed plan for transforming our troubled communities and improving our lives, and the lives of all Americans, by learning simple strategies for more effective giving. In addition to teaching people of all tax brackets how to cultivate constructive financial habits, this innovative guide will tell you everything you need to know to turn your philanthropic contributions into the soundest investments of all, including: how to calculate what you can realistically afford to give, and where to consider giving it; how to contribute most effectively within your own area of interest, and how to assess where your money is going; how to promote leadership locally; how to estimate your needs over short and long periods of time; how to plan bequests to your children and to charities; how to stop depriving yourself, and allay anxieties over dipping into capital, by learning a new definition of surplus money; how to diversify assets to protect financial investments; how to establish cushions against unforeseen financial problems; and how to plot your own lifelong financial statement and chart goals for personal wealth and intelligent gifting.".

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This book focuses on the problems in America's health care system that have developed over the past 30 years and that will be with us for the next 30 years. It goes beyond mind-numbing quantitative data to probe the underlying causes of the nation's difficulties. Three broad questions are addressed: Why are health care costs in the United States higher than elsewhere? What needs to be done to bring down costs without lowering quality? Is America doing enough about research, prevention, and public information?