In this strident, necessary, meticulously researched book Michael Fine shows how the Covid-19 pandemic has thrown the costly failure of the American healthcare system into bold relief. At over 850,000 deaths and climbing, the US had more deaths than any other nation in the world, and one of the highest per capita death rates. On Medicine as Colonialism shows how the American healthcare system cannibalizes communities in the US and around the world. Focusing on how healthcare profiteers use state's power and control of healthcare purchasing to extract resources from communities. On Medicine as Colonialism reveals how medicine and healthcare have become not only antithetical to health but tools of colonialism, that are being used to deconstruct democracy itself.
What People Are Saying
“On Medicine as Colonialism details the sociopolitical realities that undergird health injustice and offers a realistic perspective on achieving health equity.” Jewel Mullen, MD, MPH, Dell Medical School, UT Austin
“A sobering diatribe on health care in America.” David N. Sundwall, former executive director of the Utah Department of Health
“Michael Fine wins his big-hearted argument that American medicine is colonialism, not just for the poor but for all of us. It is a desecration of our health care system by the same old robber barons. . . . This doctor-activist is pointing us to solutions. Everyone should read it.” Samuel Shem, author and professor of medical humanities, NYU Medical School
“Fine writes with the eye of both a humanist and a practitioner. . . . His passion for individual lives and concern for the common good is what drives his outrage at what has been wrought.” Christopher Koller, president of the Milbank Fund, from the foreword
About the Author
Michael Fine is a community organizer, family physician, public health official, and public health policy provocateur. He is the author of Health Care Revolt, Abundance, and The Bull and Other Stories.