According to reviewer Ezra Klein, this book is the clearest and most useful contribution to the ongoing health care reform debate he had read.  And, unlike most books that are described as a "useful contribution," it's a good read, too. The book's clarity comes from its thesis: The way America does things is not the only way things can  be done.  That simple refusal to remain inside the strictures of America's political debate -- where the argument is over how best to cover everyone while offending no one and changing nothing -- allows T.R. Reid to elegantly demonstrate how unnecessarily complex and inefficient and expensive and cruel our health care system really is.

Unlike so many other commentators, Reid does not do this by exhaustively explaining the mechanics of the American health care system and wagging his finger at its many mistakes.  He does it by offering insight into other health care systems.  In particular, he examines the French, Canadian, German, Japanese and British systems, alongside the pushes for reform that recently gave Sweden and Taiwan brand-new health care systems.  The result is a sort of health policy travelogue: Reid flies around the world, investigating the workings of these systems and asking doctors in each to recommend a course of treatment for the chronic pain in his shoulder.  This latter effort could be gimmicky, but it actually proves helpful:  It allows Reid to view the various arrangements from both the high altitude favored by wonks and the ground level experienced by the patients.