Making a Killing: HMOs and the Threat to Your Health. - book review

Progressive, The, May, 2000 by Kellia Ramares

Making a Killing: HMOs and the Threat to Your Health by Jamie Court (Editor) and Francis Smith, with a foreword by Ralph Nader Common Courage. 224 pages. $29.95.

This book is a must-read for anyone who might get sick. Consumer advocate Jamie Court and attorney Francis Smith interviewed more than 1,000 patients across the nation in researching this expose of HMOs. Their conclusions: HMOs profit by denying care and force doctors to choose between their patients' best interests and their ability to make a living. And because of a giant loophole in federal law that immunizes them from lawsuits, HMOs get away with killing and maiming people.

Making a Killing includes ideas for HMO reform and a Patient's Self-Defense Kit, which shows us how to fight for the care we need. People with HMO horror stories can send them to http://www.makingakilling. org for possible inclusion in a planned second edition.