Reviewed by Vernita Naylor for Readers' Favorite

Have you ever thought about the various elements of the healthcare system and its effects on everything else that surrounds it, from HMO, malpractice insurance, and politics to infant mortality and the elderly? It was as if Bernard Leo Remakus had a crystal ball or was projected into the future with a time machine. Remakus’ series of essays in Medicine Between The Lines gives various accounts of his take on what the medical and health care industry was over 30 years ago, which is still appropriate today. Despite that fact that America is still in an unstable flux pertaining to our health care system, this could be much worse. Under the Affordable Healthcare (ACA) system, also known as ObamaCare, there have been several million people that were originally underserved, or had pre-existing conditions, that can now obtain health care services, regardless of how minimal it may appear to others. To display the importance of how our medical and healthcare system may need to not only be resurrected, it needs to get a heart beat as well. Other presidents prior to President Obama, like President Clinton, tried to implement such a system, which displays the importance of having some type of universal healthcare system.

Remakus provided me with some 'aha' moments of knowledge with several of his articles from PropaCanda, smallpox, food safety, the truth and ripple effects on the poor, and the HMOs to the conspiracy theory. This book kept me engaged because of how Remakus explained and walked me through how the system works. For example, four patients acquire the same types of services, but due to their billing circumstances, they are billed differently. Two have government insurance, Medicaid, and MediCal while another has private insurance and the fourth must pay out-of-pocket expenses. Out of the four patients, only the fourth patient will pay the full price while the other three payments will be provided to the provider via discounts. Medicaid, MediCal, and private insurers obtain volume discount prices and never pay full price while the uninsured, with limited resources and finances, must pay full price with no discounts. How twisted is this?

This is why to me the ACA is valuable because, otherwise, this fourth patient may not be able to acquire the medical services they need to help maintain their health. We must realize that the medical and health care culture can become a serious life altering event, but Remakus does bring the point home when he made the connections with movies like Outbreak starring Dustin Hoffman or the book, You Are What You Eat written by Victor Lindlahr. These types of connections give me pause because everything contained in this book and the references that Remakus makes are so relevant in today's culture. If you are looking for a clearer understanding of the medical and healthcare system, this book is a must.