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Aging
Our Parents, Ourselves: How American Health Care Imperils Middle Age and Beyond
by Judith Steinberg Turiel, 306 pp, paper, $21.95, ISBN 0-520-24524-5, Berkeley, University of California Press, 2005.
JAMA. 2006;295:941-942.
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In Our Parents, Ourselves, the author aims to show, as the subtitle indicates, that in its current state the US health care system "imperils middle age and beyond." The book is factual and well researched.
But I found the book to lack perspective, impartial discussion, and vision. By its primary focus on frailty, the book presents a negative view of old age. The author also presents a negative view of the pharmaceutical industry as unethical and only interested in profit, and managed care and health insurance companies as destroying our health system. No new solutions are offered to fend off the future catastrophe the author describes.
There is also a failure of design. We are presented a patchwork of subjects: the author's personal experience with her parents, facts about geriatric conditions such as dementia and end-of-life care, and chapters on the pharmaceutical industry and health care rationing with a focus . . . [Full Text of this Article]
Howard Fillit, MD, Reviewer
The Institute for the Study of Aging
New York, NY
hfillit@aging-institute.org
RELATED LETTERS
"Our Parents, Ourselves"
Judith Steinberg Turiel
JAMA. 2006;296(17):2092-2093.
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"Our Parents, Ourselves"—Reply
Howard Fillit
JAMA. 2006;296(17):2093.
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THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES
"Our parents, ourselves".
Turiel
JAMA 2006;296:2092-2093.
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