The People's Hospital

Hope and Peril in American Medicine

By: Ricardo Nuila MD

Narrated by: Ricardo Nuila MD

“Nuila’s storytelling gifts place him alongside colleagues like Atul Gawande.”—Los Angeles Times

This “compelling mixture of health care policy and gripping stories from the frontlines of medicine” (The Guardian) explores the question: where does an uninsured person go when turned away by hospitals, clinics, and doctors?

Here, we follow the lives of five uninsured Houstonians as their struggle for survival leads them to a hospital that prioritizes people over profit. First, we meet Stephen, the restaurant franchise manager who signed up for his company’s lowest priced plan, only to find himself facing insurmountable costs after a cancer diagnosis. Then Christian—a young college student and retail worker who can’t seem to get an accurate diagnosis, let alone treatment, for his debilitating knee pain. Geronimo, thirty-six years old, has liver failure, but his meager disability check disqualifies him for Medicaid—and puts a life-saving transplant just out of reach. Roxana, who’s lived in the community without a visa for more than two decades, suffers from complications related to her cancer treatment. And finally, there’s Ebonie, a young mother whose high-risk pregnancy endangers her life. Whether due to immigration status, income, or the vagaries of state Medicaid law, all five are denied access to care. For all five, this exclusion could prove life-threatening.

Each patient eventually lands at Ben Taub, the county hospital where Dr. Nuila has worked for over a decade. Nuila delves with empathy into the experiences of his patients, braiding their dramas into a singular narrative that contradicts the established idea that the only way to receive good health care is with good insurance. As listeners follow the moving twists and turns in each patient’s story, it’s impossible to deny that our system is broken—and that Ben Taub’s innovative model, where patient care is more important than insurance payments, could help light the path forward.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2023 Ricardo Nuila. All rights reserved. (P)2023 Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved.

Critic reviews

"Physician Ricardo Nuila brings the full extent of his passion for people to his narration of his experiences with American healthcare. A doctor on staff at Ben Taub Hospital in Houston, Nuila saw firsthand the destructive aspects of for-profit healthcare and how often those who were truly suffering would end up in his public hospital when it was almost too late. Examining the history and current issues of the American healthcare system, this audiobook is a tough listen. Nuila embraces his emotions as he tells personal stories of real-life cases. What results is a powerful audiobook that leaves the listener both fascinated and horrified by what is happening to those who cannot access healthcare in our first-world nation." (AudioFile Magazine)

Ben Taub Nurse

Thank you to the author. While working there for 25 yrs I often told our PR reps they should market the hospital by telling what we do. We turn no one away. This is a perfect documentation of that.

A Must Read

This is a must read for anyone needing health care in the US. With immense heart Nuila looks at what’s wrong and how it can be fixed.

Important book

Every one in America who uses healthcare should read this book. It should be required reading for every politician. I thank the author for writing it

Healthcare review

This book was an engaging review of the unique story of Ben Taub hospital. The author gives a fairly unbiased case for the benefit of social safety net hospitals. As a former Texan … it brought back memories of Houston and of my medical training in Galveston, Tx

yes!

i love this book, finished it in a weekend. everything about is real, and puts a bit of hope to everyone story.

Excellent book.

I learned more about the US health (and insurance) system from this book than from any other source. The inhumanity of the US system as described in thus book is unbelievable. It’s inefficiency and high cost defy logic. Surely we can come up with a better system at lower cost

Outstanding Book

Everyone needs to read this to get a better understanding of how health care in America works and how it should work. Required reading!

Amazing

The author captured the problems in healthcare so well with specificity and compassion - what a gift. A must listen, a call to act.

Beautiful and heartfelt

As a nurse who has worked in a safety hospital I found this to be an incredibly moving description.
It would be a fabulous book for anyone entering the medical field or anyone who doesn’t understand how fragile the system really is.

Excellent!

Being a retired physician myself, the author is spot on in describing the issues and problems with our current healthcare system. The United States is in the midst of a healthcare crisis due to the corporatization of the healthcare industry. I can tell you from the trenches that no one on the inside of healthcare is happy with the current system. As the author points out, public hospitals remain the last stop for the many desperate patients discarded by the for-profit healthcare system. This beautifully written book describes the complexities and the many failures of the current system. I wish more Americans were aware of the issues as so well described in this book. Hopefully, public pressure will drive politicians to reform our broken healthcare system!