The Cancer Generation Baby Boomers Facing a Perfect Storm
by
John Geyman
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Edition: 1st, 300 pages
Dimensions: 6x9
"A tsunami of cancer is coming to aging baby boomers, and the health care system is not geared up to cope. We must create single-payer health care before it's too late," said Dr. John Geyman, author of The Cancer Generation: Baby Boomers Facing a Perfect Storm. Dr. Geyman shows how we could save over one hundred thousand lives a year if we focused on access as well as continued development of cutting-edge therapies.
Cancer is or will be a part of every baby boomer's life: a parent has it, a spouse has it, a friend has it, or, heaven forbid, a son or daughter has it. How baby boomers reshape what cancer care means in America will define their generation and determine the future for generations to come.
In The Cancer Generation, Dr. Geyman takes us behind the curtain of miracle cures to expose a war we are losing but could be winning if we develop the political will to deploy the resources we already have at our disposal. He continues,
"The number one risk factor for cancer is aging: the older we get, the more likely cancer is to strike. In 2029, just 20 short years from now, the last of this generation will turn 65 and "baby boomer" will become synonymous with "senior citizen." Time for change is running short--for them and even shorter for their parents."
Author bio "Geyman's literary voice arises from his unusual professional and political trajectories: from country doctor to academic department chair and prominent journal editor, and from longtime Republican to president of Physicians for a National Health ProgramÉa passionate advocate and scholar." --The New England Journal of Medicine
John Geyman is Professor Emeritus of Family Medicine at the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle, WA. He has spent 25 years in academic family medicine. He is Past President of Physicians for National Health Insurance, PNHP, and author of Do Not Resuscitate: Why the Health Insurance Industry is Dying and How We Must Replace It, The Corrosion of Medicine: Can the Profession Reclaim its Moral Legacy?, Falling Through the Safety Net: Americans Without Health Insurance and Shredding the Social Contract: The Privatization of Medicare
What people are saying about The Cancer Generation
"A book for every baby boomer. As baby boomers age, the U. S. will inevitably face a cancer epidemic. John Geyman shows how utterly unprepared we are to deal with it. The arguments in favor of replacing our crumbling health system with something better are overwhelming, but especially for people with cancer--a devastating and extraordinarily expensive disease. Geyman explains in easy-to-understand language what needs to be done." --Marcia Angell, M.D., senior lecturer at Harvard Medical School and former editor-in-chief of the New England Journal of Medicine
"Cancer is not an equal opportunity experience. Geyman provides a compelling argument for why access to health care in America should be universal and why the businessÊmodel for medicine needs to be modified to encompass what is socially good." --Frank L. Meyskens, Jr., M.D., Professor of Medicine and Biological Chemistry, Director, Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of California, Irvine
"The Cancer Generation is the most honest and thorough accounting of the status of our nation's war on cancer that I have ever read. It captures that extraordinarily complex blend of hope and fear, disappointment and optimism that characterizes a diagnosis of cancer for individuals and the spectrum of cancer for the country. John Geyman's book is easy to read and totally convincing, the cancer storm is here and is about to intensify. But this thoroughly researched book provides far more than a warning about our rising cancer burden. Geyman utilizes his life's experience as a primary care physician and policy expert to identify the decisions and investments that we must make today to navigate our way through the cancer storm to a healthier future." --Richard Wender, M.D., Professor and Chairman, Department Of Family Medicine, Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, PA, and past president of the American Cancer Society
"Dr. Geyman's prediction of looming catastrophe in cancer care is painstakingly researched and ultimately very convincing. He argues persuasively for single-payer National Health Insurance as the only solution. God help any of us who gets cancer 5 years from now if policymakers do not take his analysis seriously." --Louis Balizet, M.D., practicing oncologist, Rocky Mountain Cancer Centers, Pueblo, Colorado
"In The Cancer Generation, John Geyman continues his provocative and disturbing full body scan of American health care by examining cancer care. Since 40% of us will be diagnosed with cancer in our lifetimes, the topic is not an abstraction and Geyman's report is not a pretty one. Commercialism, avarice and our painfully dysfunctional insurance system too often gang up to make a medical challenge a personal catastrophe. We can do better, he tells us once again." --Fitzhugh Mullan, MD Murdock Head Professor of Medicine and Health Policy, The George Washington University and Founding President of the National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship
"Having had considerable family experience with cancer and heart disease, and having just read John Geyman's Do Not Resuscitate, I had not expected to gain much from his new book, The Cancer Generation, but I was wrong. By concentrating here on the increasingly important issue of cancer in the United States, Geyman brings into sharp focus the problems of our multi-payer system in a way that not only clarified the issues in my mind but also bolstered my sense of urgency that we must establish a single-payer health care system. This book provides powerful ammunition toward that end because it presents with clarity much recently available factual information and valuable commentary on health care reform." --Neil Davis, Ph.D Professor Emeritus of Geophysics, University of Alaska
"If you want an accurate diagnosis and practical treatment recommendations for a vexing and complex problem, you should seek the counsel of an experienced family physician who has carefully kept abreast of the latest scientific evidence. Dr. John Geyman here offers us his counsel on the vexing problems posed by America's broken health care system. While he focuses especially on cancer, most of his recommendations apply equally well to the other common chronic illnesses that afflict us." --Howard Brody, M.D., Ph.D., Director, Institute for the Medical Humanities, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, TX
"No topic could serve as a better proxy for the deficiencies in the financing and delivery of health care in the United States than the ever increasing prevalence and expense of cancer. In The Cancer Generation, John Geyman describes the tragic and costly impact of the cancer burden, but then provides us with hope by describing a plan that would reduce these burdens of cancer." --Don McCanne, M.D., Past president of Physicians for a National Health Program and PNHP Senior Health Policy Fellow
