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C A L I F O R N I A N U R S E J U L Y / A U G U S T 2 0 0 5 13 Summer Syllabus WITH THE SORRY STATE OF AMERICAN HEALTH, NURSING AND HEALTHCARE ARE HOT BOOK TOPICS THESE DAYS. LEARN WHAT'S BEING WRITTEN ABOUT THE DEBATE. CRITICAL CONDITION: HOW HEALTH CARE IN AMERICA BECAME BIG BUSINESS & BAD MEDICINE, by Donald L. Barlett and James B. Steele, 279 pp., $24.95 I t would be hard to find a more poignant chronicle of the disintegration of our healthcare infrastructure than the open- ing chapter of Donald Barlett and James Steele's Critical Condition: How Health Care in America Became Big Business & Bad Medicine. We attend a livestock and hay auction in Simms, Mont.; a silent art auction in Minetto, NY; a spaghetti dinner at an Amer- ican Legion post in Omaha, Neb.; a gospel songfest in Severna Park, Md.; an elemen- tary school play of the "True Story of the Three Little Pigs" in Tampa, Fl.; and the "Garage Sale for Mason," in Salem, Or., that drew merchandise from across town for 6- year-old Mason McIlnay who was fighting a childhood cancer that had spread to his bone marrow. Like the garage sale, all the other fundraisers were to help ordinary Americans pay for staggering medical bills. Prize-winning journalists Barlett and Steele present a com- pelling, easy-to-read survey of the worse excesses of our national healthcare nightmare. Examples abound: They describe overburdened emergency rooms debilitated by "insurers' cost cutting that has reduced beds and staff," favors physicians provide for hire for pharmaceu- tical firms, and the intrusion of Wall Street, lured by "unexpected riches" in healthcare. The move of the moneymen, they note, triggered an avalanche of mergers, acquisi- tions, initial public offerings, and other fi- nancial transactions that resulted in constant upheaval and "endless opportuni- ties to profit," but "made life miserable for doctors, nurses, and most of all patients and their families." "Much of the turmoil," they note, clearly stating the source of the crisis, "is a direct result of a national policy to treat health care like a business… Rather than health care for everyone, the free market has given us huge corporations with multibillion- dollar market caps, presided over by the new corporate royalty, whose names regularly ap- pear among America's highest-paid executives." Barlett and Steele also pay homage to the nurses who battle the bottom line, and, in particular, to CNA, "a national voice call- ing attention to the consequences of market-driven medicine." H ealthcare, and in particular nursing's role in the system, is a hot topic these days. Costs keep creep- ing up, companies continually cut back or cap benefits, working families are going bankrupt be- cause, despite their insurance, the hospital bill was just too big, and over 45 million Americans eke by without any coverage at all. The debate is spilling over from the daily media into book publish- ing, and several new titles on the healthcare crisis and nursing have debuted over the past year. We review these volumes here to keep you updated on what's being written. We also examine a few other health-re- lated and general interest books and movies for good measure. Stay informed, and happy reading—or viewing.