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Mama Might Be Better Off Dead: The Failure of Health Care in Urban America

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Author: Laurie Kaye Abraham
Publisher: University Of Chicago Press
Category: Book

List Price: ~~$15.00~~
Buy New: $8.97
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Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 297
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 8.9 x 6 x 0.9

ISBN: 0226001393
Dewey Decimal Number: 362.10425
EAN: 9780226001395
ASIN: 0226001393

Publication Date: November 15, 1994
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand New, Perfect Condition, Please allow 4-14 business days for delivery. 100% Money Back Guarantee, Over 1,000,000 customers served.

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Editorial Reviews:

Product Description
DIViMama Might Be Better Off Dead/i is an unsettling, profound look at the human face of health care. Both disturbing and illuminating, it immerses readers in the lives of four generations of a poor, African-American family beset with the devastating illnesses that are all too common in America's inner-cities. BRBRThe story takes place in North Lawndale, a neighborhood that lies in the shadows of Chicago's Loop. Although surrounded by some of the city's finest medical facilities, North Lawndale is one of the sickest, most medically underserved communities in the country. Headed by Jackie Banes, who oversees the care of a diabetic grandmother, a husband on kidney dialysis, an ailing father, and three children, the Banes family contends with countless medical crises. From visits to emergency rooms and dialysis units, to trials with home care, to struggles for Medicaid eligibility, Abraham chronicles their access (or lack of access) to medical care.BRBRTold sympathetically but without sentimentality, their story reveals an inadequate health care system that is further undermined by the direct and indirect effects of poverty. When people are poor, they become sick easily. When people are sick, their families quickly become poorer.BRBREmbedded in the family narrative is a lucid analysis of the gaps, inconsistencies, and inequalities the poor face when they seek health care. This book reveals what health care policies crafted in Washington, D. C. or state capitals look like when they hit the street. It shows how Medicaid and Medicare work and don't work, the Catch-22s of hospital financing in the inner city, the racial politics of organ transplants, the failure of childhood immunization programs, the vexed issues of individual responsibility and institutional paternalism. One observer puts it this way: "Show me the poor woman who finds a way to get everything she's entitled to in the system, and I'll show you a woman who could run General Motors."BRBRAbraham deftly weaves these themes together to make a persuasive case for health care reform while unflinchingly presenting the complexities that will make true reform as difficult as it is necessary. iMama Might Be Better Off Dead/i is a book with the power to change the way health care is understood in America. For those seeking to learn what our current system of health care promises and what it delivers, it offers a place for the debate to begin.BRBRBR/DIV

Customer Reviews: Read 3 more reviews...

4 out of 5 stars

If your poor and sick, you may as weel be deead September 4, 2007
I was required to read this book for a Social Problems Analysis class. Before, I had never thought about the major problems with our health system. Unlike a reviwer before me, I don't see her as being biased. If you have ever lived in a poor urban neighborhood, then you would know, Abraham is correct. People who live in poverty, often have no access to better health care, so they take what they can get. It is easy to say these people should take responsible for their health care if you have never been in this situation. Abraham did a wonderful job staying objective, even at times, when I don't know if I could have. I would reccomend this book to anyone who has questions about how the medical system works in poor areas.

3 out of 5 stars

Puleese!!!!!! September 4, 2007
This left wing, socalist bent author wants to shame the government for not providing cradle to grave management of people's lives; maybe if the author focused on this nation's irresponsible people, who go through life thinking you can abuse your body then get Washington to pay your medical and nursing home bills..... sick book, sick thinking,

5 out of 5 stars

Great book November 6, 2006
2 out of 3 found this review helpful

If you're interested in health care in America, Medicare, Medicaid, Chicago, poverty, and health care disparities read this book. Great investigative journalism style.

4 out of 5 stars

Great read for a future doc February 9, 2006
1 out of 2 found this review helpful

I was required to read this in medical school. This is a great book. It is leaning to the side of socialism, but it is certainly addressing a real problem in America. This book has been out for a while. I am wondering why in the world politicians and businessmen invovled in healthcare are not required to read this book. They should. I think it's good enough to qualify for 12th grade mandatory reading.

4 out of 5 stars

Eye-opening read, but very left-wing December 16, 2002
10 out of 17 found this review helpful

Mama was required reading for a graduate-level nursing course. It was very enlightening -- a poignant and heartbreaking look at a poor African-American family living in one of Chicago's worst neighborhoods. However, I found the author's style and choice of words biased towards the subjects and exceptionally left-wing. Not that these things really don't happen, but the author's descriptive language is heavily biased against the system while downplaying the flip side of the coin, that people need to take some individual responsibility for their actions. Abraham does her best (one would hope) to remain objective, but it is most definitely a narrative and should be treated as such. Still, definitely worth the read.

Copyright 2007 White Hat Communications.
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