Larry N. Smith, M.D., and Stephen T. Parente, Ph.D., take a long look at the historical conditions that produced today’s current health care crisis. As two experienced health care professionals, Smith and Parente offer a unique, research-backed view of the way health care has changed over the centuries and, more specifically, the past 10 years.

The book begins with details on medicine’s evolution throughout the ages, from Hippocrates’ foundations of Western medicine in ancient Greece to the outcome-based profession that emerged during the modern scientific era. Smith and Parente then shift focus to the 20th century in America, where a progressive movement caused government to play a central role in health care delivery. The authors reveal the social and political conditions that made the passage of President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act (ACA) possible.

In “Medicine’s Journey through Ignorance, Bigotry, Poverty and Politics to America’s Uninsured” the authors explain how, in their view, the ambitious policy of the ACA is misguided and costly.  But they go on to outline alternatives that would have accomplished the same goals in a less intrusive and more affordable manner. The book acknowledges that America’s health care system is in need of reform but claims that few Americans understand the legal, financial and constitutional implications that the ACA will have on the future of the nation.

This careful critique shows how personal freedom and responsibility could be endangered by government’s steady erosion of a private health care market. Weaving economics, politics and health, “Medicine’s Journey through Ignorance, Bigotry, Poverty and Politics to America’s Uninsured” is a timely book that will show the large historical forces that lay behind the drastic reforms proposed for American health care.

“Medicine’s Journey through Ignorance, Bigotry, Poverty, and Politics to America’s Uninsured:” is available online at Amazon.com and other channels.

Larry N. Smith, M.D., is an Otolaryngologist with over 20 years of medical and surgical experience. He has written articles and editorials on medical economics and is the author of “Darwin’s War.”

Stephen T. Parente, Ph.D., He is a professor in the department of finance at the Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota.