Any partial health care reform is bound to fail. This is true in the case of the current"reform" as it was for the all the previous half-hearted efforts.Dr. Fouad Michael, a hugely successful physician who retired at the peak ofhis career to work for health care reform, outlines clearly and concisely how ourdysfunctional health care system operates and how the soon-to-be-adopted system willperpetuate the same environment that gave us less than adequate care and unaffordablecost in a language the average reader can understand.Dr. Michael brings a unique perspective to this subject with his biculturalknowledge, having worked in two different types of health care systems, the Egyptianand the American. Back in Egypt, he experienced the socialist revolution of the sixtiesand studied and practiced medicine in a national health care system with all its flawsand ambitions. In America, he saw how a free market model and a for-profit delivery ofhealth care have adversely affected the quality of our health care and our cost.Dr. Michael, in a simple and easy-to-read language, uses countless examplesfrom his patients' perspective that the reader can identify with to make the case foruniversal health coverage through a single paper system modeled on the five Canadianprinciples.He refutes the critics of the single payer system who are in the habit of frighteningthe American public from the assumed evils of our government. He makes the pointthat the government in our democratic system is only a vehicle to enforce our will. Itis in fact the only entity we have to deal with in the single payer system instead of thewasteful and profiteering army of insurance companies. A single payer system is notsocialism. It is not owned or run by the government; it is actually public financing forprivate practice.Dr. Michael sees in an informed public our best hope for understanding and effectingthe needed change. For this end, he offers the lay reader an accessible and intelligentoutline of the problems we face and a clearly defined and workable solution.