Beverly Rappaport's book, Choices, chronicles the challenges her mother, Anna, and her husband, Howard, face with the medical industry after they experience illness and require long term medical care. After a full and rewarding life, Anna, a wife, a mother of two girls, and a Russian emigrant living in New Jersey, becomes ill in her senior years. Ultimately, because Anna's illness requires her to be placed in a nursing home, Anna's daughter, Beverly, is left with the challenge of acquiring adequate long term medical care for her mother who has no health insurance. Later, when Beverly's husband, Howard, becomes sick, Beverly must again navigate through the medical system to find Howard the best long term medical care possible. Does Beverly succeed in her mission to find Anna and Howard good long term medical care? How does Beverly's experiences with Anna and Howard reveal the pitfalls and difficulties people encounter when trying to obtain long term medical care? Moreover, how does all of this allow Beverly to explore the realities of life as revealed through Nichiren Daishonin's Buddhist practice? After exposing the medical industry for the money hungry entity that it is, Choices will not only make you look at your responsibility in getting good medical care, but also offers solutions as to how you can avoid becoming a victim of the medical industry. In these trying times and with more people in need of long term medical care, Choices gives readers food for thought about the medical industry using a Buddhist perspective as a guide.
