“A new book by Dr. Rudolph Mueller, As Sick As It Gets: The Shocking Reality of America’s Healthcare, lays out the problems as well as any I’ve read.”

Molly Ivins

Creators Syndicate

March 26, 2002

To read Molly’s full review click here

“As Sick As It Gets is an outgrowth of this doctor’s hands-on experiences guiding plain and suffering people through times of pain, denial, frustration and even dehumanizing embarrassment at the hands of an aloof profit-oriented “system”. … The narrative is laced with true stories of individual patients confronted with formidable barriers to the most effective treatment for their illnesses. … We’ve all heard these stories. (This book) seeks to collate them into a shocking pattern of abuse conducted in the name of profit. More and more physicians seem to be concluding, as Mueller does, that the answer lies in universal publicly- provided coverage that leaves no American uninsured or untreated. As Sick As It Gets proposes a plan of action to that end.”

The Hon. James C. Wright, Jr. former Speaker of the US House of Representatives

The Fort Worth Star Telegram and to be released to all Knight-Ridder newspapers

To read Jim Wright’s full review click here

“This very readable and informative account should provide lay audiences and advocates with an excellent understanding of what really has gone wrong with our health system and what we can do about it.”

Dr. Don McCanne, President

Physicians for a National Health Program

“Written for the American public, this book is the moral authority for a change in our healthcare system to universal care”

Tim Fuller

Executive Director, The Gray Panthers

Washington, DC

“In As Sick As It Gets, Dr. Rudolph Mueller has written a highly readable and compelling story of the patients he has treated and the uncaring profit-making health care industry they have to deal with. Many of the patient’s problems stem from lack of, or inadequate health insurance coverage. Dr. Mueller makes a meticulous scholarly case for universal health care by documenting the excess health care costs incurred in the United States compared with other countries who have universal health care. The differential in spending is staggering, estimated at $428 billion, 5.1% of GDP, or $4951 per household in one year. Of this total, 62% ($264.4 billion) is explained by excessive private insurance costs and bureaucracy, defensive medicine, excess pharmaceutical marketing costs and higher drug prices. Dr. Mueller also documents that the U.S. spends $160 billion annually in excess costs caring for patients who are sick, who would not have been sick had they lived in one of the nine comparison nations with universal health systems. This book presents a humane and financial justification for enactment of universal, comprehensive, quality health care in the U.S. The book should be compulsory reading for policy-makers, health services researchers, teachers, students, and the lay public interested in improving health care.”

Dorothy P. Rice

Professor Emerita

Institute for Health & Aging

University of California, San Francisco

Former Director

National Center for Health Statistics

Washington, DC

“Whether or not you agree with his prescription for change, the stories he pulls from his own files offer heart breaking evidence that the current healthcare system is unfair, wasteful and sometimes poorly served by pharmaceutical companies that spend millions on marketing and those HMOs that operate for profit.  Indeed, Mueller is that rare physician willing to pull back the curtain… If Mueller wants readers and listeners to walk away with one message it is this: It’s wrong to allow so many people to go without good medical care in the world’s wealthiest nation and that, in the end, it costs society more.”

Henry Davis, Medical Reporter

The Buffalo News

 December 26, 2001

“As Sick As It Gets by Rudolph Mueller, M.D. is an important contribution to understanding how America’s Health Care System really works. For those who are deciding public policy issues this book is a ‘must read’. For those of us who are working to improve the health delivery system, Dr. Mueller’s description of the practical realities should give us pause to reconsider what we are doing and initiatives we propose to undertake in the future.”

The Honorable Stan Lundine

Executive Director, Chautauqua County Health Network

Former Lieutenant Governor of the State of New York

Former Member of Congress

“As Sick As It Gets is a gem for a number of reasons. The book offers not only a diagnosis of the problem with American healthcare, it also offers a treatment plan. It is not a stuffy academic tome, but rather a conversational pleasantly readable account of problems and patients Mueller has dealt with. It is one of the few first hand accounts of the problems in our healthcare system.”

“Dr. Mueller makes the case for a national health program based on humane ideals and sound fiscal policy… (he)  shows how this philosophy works on a numbers level; where it really counts; where politicians claim it can’t work….Most of the book’s practical premises are based on the time tested fact that if people have access to preventive care, the entire system saves a lot of money in the long run and the quality of life for everyone is improved.”

Richard Davis

Brattleboro Reformer and Town Crier, April 4, 2002

 “This fine study’s treatment plan shows pessimists the various ways other countries structureuniversal healthcare and how it could be achieved in the U.S. … Policy wonks are treated to detailed comparisons of American costs and treatment outcomes with those of other industrialized democracies. In a friendly, easy to read style, Dr. Mueller demonstrates how our healthcare can be made more humane, affordable and efficient, illustrating his points with well-explained graphs that can be understood even by non-wonks”.

“Dr. Mueller subtracts other nation’s average costs from American health outlays, adds up the differences and presents the grand total as a truly staggering estimate of how much we overspend. A good part of the excess is added to everyone’s doctor bills, hospital charges, and insurance premiums…. Dr. Mueller’s keen analysis is “must reading” for those who influence our country’s healthcare policy or for people who want to join in the debate or just vote intelligently.”

John Glasel

Review, Allegro, June 2002

To read John’s full review click here

“As Sick As It Gets presents a coherent and compelling argument for single-payer national health insurance. Dr. Mueller eloquently presents not only a humanitarian argument but also a solid economic case for universal coverage with a single-payer system. He gives a practical description, learned from his own everyday experiences, of the major players in our warped healthcare system and their efforts to put their own interests first, ahead of the interests of the patient.  As Sick As It Gets brings to life the struggles that ordinary people must endure to survive in a system of healthcare that seems more designed to maximize profits than to meet the needs of patients.”

Robert LeBow, MD, MPH

Former President,

Physicians For A National Health Program

“Dr. Mueller’s conclusions- namely healthier employees, reducing the total cost of healthcare, and redistributing the expense will be of great interest to American employers everywhere, all of whom are struggling with rising healthcare costs.”

R. Quintus Anderson, Chairman

Aarque Capital Corporation

“In contrast to many publications that have addressed this important area, Dr. Mueller documents all of the facts that lead him to his very rational conclusions. His descriptions of our problems and proposed solutions are clearly presented in a fashion that is comprehensible to laymen who are not experts. We are all beneficiaries of Dr. Mueller’s scholarly, informed, incisive, critical, creative and uninhibited thinking.”

Thomas G. Pretlow, MD

Professor of Medicine

Case Western Reserve University

“Hard-hitting data in a digestible format . . . Dr. Rudy Mueller uses his own experiences as a practicing physician to illustrate the non-system of healthcare in the United States.  The reader surely understands that putting people first is NOT the motto of the medical-industrial complex.”

Diane Lardie, President

Universal Health Care Action Network