We've Got You Covered

Rebooting American Health Care

By: Liran Einav, Amy Finkelstein

Narrated by: Susan Bennett

Length: 7 hrs and 20 mins

Publisher's summary

From a MacArthur Genius ​MIT economist and pre-eminent Stanford economist comes a lively and provocative proposal for American health insurance reform

Few of us need convincing that the American health insurance system needs reform. But many of the existing proposals focus on expanding one relatively successful piece of the system or building in piecemeal additions. These proposals miss the point.

As the Stanford health economist Liran Einav and the MIT economist and MacArthur Genius Amy Finkelstein argue, our health care system was never deliberately designed, but rather pieced together to deal with issues as they became politically relevant. The result is a sprawling yet arbitrary and inadequate mess. It has left 30 million Americans without formal insurance. Many of the rest live in constant danger of losing their coverage if they lose their job, give birth, get older, get healthier, get richer, or move.

It's time to tear it all down and rebuild, sensibly and deliberately. Marshaling original research, striking insights from American history, and comparative analysis of what works and what doesn’t from systems around the world, Einav and Finkelstein argue for automatic, basic, and free universal coverage for everyone, along with the option to buy additional, supplemental coverage. Their wholly original argument and comprehensive blueprint for an American universal health insurance system will surprise and provoke.

We’ve Got You Covered is an erudite yet lively and accessible prescription we cannot afford to ignore.

©2023 Liran Einav and Amy Finkelstein (P)2023 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

"Two economists study the patchwork system of health insurance we have in the U.S. and make sweeping recommendations about how a national insurance mandate would provide better care to more people. Their thinking is down-to-earth and sounds even more accessible as delivered by Susan Bennett, whose performance strikes the right balance between the tone of a policy expert and that of a thoughtful person who cares about how government policies affect ordinary citizens.... With help from Susan Bennett's performance, they tackle broad policy problems and offer potential solutions with clarity, robust rationales, and notable compassion." (AudioFile)

"A highly insightful examination of how to fix America's woefully inadequate health care system... The authors make a compelling case for going back to the drawing board to do it right... One of the best entries in the health care reform genre." — Kirkus (starred review)

"We’ve Got You Covered is an excellent book that provides a clear honest analysis of the trade-offs involved in reforming the US healthcare insurance framework; it’s a must-read for anyone interested in this urgent debate." — Forbes

"We've Got You Covered is the clearest diagnosis of the American health care system I have seen. Thought-provoking, readable, and realistic yet optimistic, this book should and will reset the debate about how to fix health care." — Siddhartha Mukherjee, physician, biologist, and author of The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer

great take

very comprehensive. best read on new options for health care coverage. strong recommend. will be listening again.

real solutions to our healthcare system

i wish our political leaders would read this book!
it is a wonderful book that very objectively looks at the American healthcare system of payment - as well as that of other countries - and offers unbiased, non-partisan, and practical solutions that could significantly improve the healthcare we receive and our ability to not go bankrupt when we need it.
if we keep trying the same, partisan-based systems, we will never see different results. let's give this a try. it certainly cant hurt to try a new and non-partisan idea.

this is the data I was looking for

well reasoned and explained answers to how we should move forward with health care in America

Satisfied not blown away

Well done and I’ll agree with the majority of the points and conclusion. I was expecting something more profound and resolute in terms of our path forward to actually achieving automatic universal basic coverage, but the whole book really just talks about why that’s the end goal instead of how to get there at all.

Fact-packed and informative. And lengthy.

Supremely well organized and evidence-based. How the American "system" of health care evolved to be so disorganized, ineffective and expensive. Then how other rich democracies (and some autocracies) do a better job in some (or most) respects. Then (in the final chapter) what a well-planned integrated national health care system would look like. Very informative and persuasive. But so much supporting evidence that it was sometimes boring.