In Sick to Death and Not Going to Take It Anymore Joanne Lynn looks at the issues facing the American health care system by its aging population. While Lynn primarily addresses the issues that are at the forefront of the problem in the U.S. these same issues are ones that are going t have to be addressed by governments and communities worldwide, to greater and lesser extents. As pointed out by Lynn America does not ever possess a language through which they can discuss the extended life expectancy its people and the medical problems related to it.

Lynn’s facts, by themselves, should be enough to give governments and health care providers and the community at large reason to be alarmed. With average life expectancy now 1.5 times what it was in 1900 and still increasing and most people in the later stages of their lives suffering from at least one if not multiple disabilities for on average two years before their death, Lynn paints a bleak picture for the future of American heath services, not just for the elderly but for everyone.

The solutions she offers are well thought out and achievable, providing as she acknowledges herself, governments can be forced to implement the necessary changes required. Her ideas are at their core simple, including things like, integration and communication between the various health providers who will deal with an aging person. The development of career paths within aged care so that there are sufficient carers available for those who require them, and support both for those in need of care and those who are caring for them with a familial setting.

In all Sick to Death is a timely warning of the problems health care systems worldwide are coming to face as well as a sensible and well thought out handbook for dealing with these issues.

© 2006 Paul Rasmussen

Paul Rasmussen is in the Philosophy Ph.D. program at Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia. He is writing his dissertation on thesis is on the ethics of human germline interventions.

Categories: Ethics, General