The Little Book of Shocking Health Facts (Paperback)

The United States spends more per capita on health care than any other nation in the world--this despite a failure to guarantee universal coverage (even after Obama's reforms finally go into effect) and an infant mortality rate higher than that of most other advanced nations. Who has insurance, who doesn't; who has access to quality medical attention, who has to wait until a situation merits a panicked trip to the emergency room; who can fill their prescriptions without blinking, and who has to sometimes choose between pills and food: the discrepancies and inequalities when it comes to access to health care are stark. Among the poorer countries of the globe, of course, things are infinitely more devastating, from the food shortages that follow natural disasters to the continuing epidemic of HIV, which affects enormous swaths of entire countries' populations. It's often too vast, too overwhelming, too depressing, for the significance of such issues to be easily grasped, let alone adequately comprehended. "The Little Book of Shocking Health Facts "follows in the footsteps of its "Shocking Facts "predecessors--which treated such hot-button topics as food, the economy and the environment--by presenting a series of indelible, hard-hitting infographics that render in bold, unapologetic visual form some of the most telling realities of the trouble with being sick and the business of getting well.