One focus of this book is the healthcare industry's lobby. Dr. Mueller documents how this large, heavily funded, political and public affairs juggernaut actually works against the best interests of their customers, the patients. The main purpose is to privately exploit the welling stream of money that pours into healthcare, which is prohibited in every other democracy. This threatens every American family and business. It also creates ill feeling, disrespect and frustration now driving doctors and nurses away from care giving in a mounting crisis. Dr. Mueller also tells of the marketing tactics in the pharmaceutical industry where strident competition is spoiling the essential communication between manufacturer and physician and where chaos is brewing. He uses his patients' experiences to tell of the impact of incredulous and sometimes comical decisions of insurance companies and HMOs

With concise analyses Dr. Mueller proves Americans spent 58% more on healthcare than the average citizen of the next nine largest democracies, which all provide universal care. That's $1,582 more per person or $4,115 more per household and yet the US has the worst aggregate health results. He reasons that America doesn't provide universal preventative and primary care and therefore has to treat illness and disease in later, far more costly stages. He establishes that over 3 million Americans are sick, at an extra cost of $160 billion, who wouldn't be if universal care were provided. Measuring start-up costs against recovering over $200 billion now wasted, Dr. Mueller shows the economic means of establishing universal care without an increase in cost and gives specific policy recommendations.  The American healthcare system is critically ill. As Sick As It Gets is a powerful definition of the problem with a comprehensive justification for the solution.