Review of "Talking to Your Physician: Surviving ObamaCare," by Lawrence W. Gold, M. D.

Review of

Talking to Your Physician: Surviving ObamaCare, by Lawrence W. Gold, M. D. 

ISBN 9781523837250

Five out of five stars

 When reading the subtitle, I thought the book would be yet another diatribe against Obamacare. The political rhetoric against it has been loud, repetitive and occasionally nonsensical. Witness the chatter about “death panels.”

 Yet, the content is generally supportive of the concept of Obamacare, almost totally through omission rather than commission. It is very rarely mentioned so the subtitle comes across as more cover hype than a description of the content.

 The focus, which is the art of developing a two-way channel of communication between the physician and patient, would have been valid one hundred years ago. The only real difference is that the patients now have access to an enormous amount of online information, some more valuable and accurate than others <wink>. Gold uses facts, humor and cartoons to explain how the relationship between a physician and patient should function.

 My favorite joke is attributed to Jadelr and Cristina Cordova, “If you trust Google more than your doctor, maybe it’s time to switch doctors.” The second best is by the master Mark Twain, “Be careful about reading health books. You may die of a misprint.” Other jokes deal with medical malpractice and a patient misunderstanding the meaning of a word.

 The relationship between a patient and their physician is one that functions best when it is open and honest, for it can truly be a matter of life and death. Or at least a shorter life and a more painful and lingering death. This is a good book on how to improve that relationship and should be read by principals on both sides of the equation. 

This book was made available for free for review purposes.