
Generalist public health nurses may be an endangered species however, the role. Many public health nursing leaders have expressed concern about changes in public health policy and funding sources that have led to the near demise of the generalist public health nurse. The role of public health in a reformed health care system is currently a matter of great debate at the national and state levels. It is a great book to use as a reference for personal elucidation and for stimulating discussion and interchange in terms of health care reform, health care delivery, public health, and public health policy change.

I definitely recommend this book for persons in health-related professions. None of these comparator systems is perfect and Reid points out flaws consistently and fairly.

He suggests that we can bring about fundamental changes in our system through borrowing ideas from systems of care delivery and financing elsewhere. Reid's thoughtful, articulate, and accurate descriptors about foreign health care systems provide complete and unbiased views of systems we could learn from and adapt to meet patients’ needs.

We learn about the sickness funds of Germany, the carte vitales of France, the National Health Service of Britain, and the long, long lines of Canada. Reid, using an old Navy shoulder injury as a common device for his worldwide tour, seeks to categorize and inform the reader about how every other industrialized country tackled the problem of universal health care coverage, and the challenges each system will face in the future. The Healing of America is a quick overview through the health care systems of several foreign countries, including Canada, France, Japan, and Britain.
