We need to continue to release narratives about serving the underserved so that those privileged to easily receive medical care can understand the angels and safety nets that organizations serving underserved populations provide.

An enlightening and important read. Books written by doctors are often dry but Nuila's prose is easy to follow and be swept away into. We need more books addressing the healthcare issues in our country that are this accessible.

I had high hopes for this account of a hospital in Houston that caters to the poor. I enjoyed the anecdotes about the patients but feel the book got overly bogged down in details of insurance companies and government programs. There were so many dates and so much data that I became disinterested. I thank NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this ARC. Perhaps this was not the right time for this book for me.

This book was really eye-opening while also confirming values that I hold as a healthcare worker. I firmly believe that quality of care should not differ regardless of where you live, what type of insurance (if any) that you have, and your ability to pay. The writing is a little dry for the average reader, so I see the appeal mostly for stakeholders in healthcare.

Incredible look at one safety net hospital – the institutions literally saving Americans with no or inadequate or overpriced health insurance coverage – that drives home the importance of these facilities in readable, emotionally affecting prose. Such an important read both to understand the flaws in our current healthcare and insurance system and especially for anyone who insists on defending it as it is.

Ricardo Nuila’s The People’s Hospital is an essential read for everyone in healthcare. As a Houstonian, I appreciated the additional background about Ben Taub hospital and the importance of safety net hospitals. The subject matter was important and interesting and Nuila’s prose beautifully depicted these patients’ journeys.

Such a good read as a healthcare professional. I loved that the focus was on marginalized groups and people without health insurance and how navigate healthcare in this country. It is a great reminder of how we take care of people no matter their circumstances but is becoming increasingly harder to do in the broken healthcare system in America. If you work it healthcare, I highly recommend this. Thank you netgalley for your ARC of the book.

A timely and necessary read about the disparities within our healthcare system. I really appreciated that the author centers and humanizes the people most affected by the policies that enable and contribute to our nation's struggle for health equity.

THE PEOPLE'S HOSPITAL is written by Ricardo Nuila, an associate professor of medicine, medical ethics, and health policy at Baylor College of Medicine. Nuila subtitles his book "Hope and Peril in American Medicine" and he profiles several patients' experiences with the Harris Health System and innovations at Ben Taub hospital in Houston. The patients have different illnesses (e.g., cancer, knee pain, HIV positive since birth) and life situations (undocumented immigrant, green card holder, mother with high risk pregnancy) but they are uninsured and thus rely on a "safety-net" hospital like Ben Taub which is public and locally funded. His statistics are astounding: Texas has the nation's largest uninsured population and Harris Health provides "more than $1 billion worth of healthcare every year for the indigent." His writing is excellent, using "stories to think through a problem that goes beyond any one body." There is broad recognition that we need to fix American healthcare and Nuila crafts an argument that is empathetic, personal, and worth reading. THE PEOPLE'S HOSPITAL received a starred review from Kirkus ("compassionate, engrossing story of frustrated hopes and unlikely victories").

Who deserves healthcare? How much? And who should pay for it? These are the central questions of THE PEOPLE’S HOSPITAL. Nuila does a fantastic job of sharing the macro of the American health system and insurance while also zooming into the micro to share the stories of how the system affects people. The detailed stories of untreated diabetes, medicaid cut offs, what is covered, how tenuous it all is, are powerful and connected with me deeply. I understood a lot of the issues with American healthcare in theory but THE PEOPLE’S HOSPITAL helped me to grasp more of it in practice.
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The structure is very strong in the book, the way the three main strands (health care, his patients, his life) are woven together works very well. The balance is slightly off, I could’ve used less of the patient stories and a little more of his opinion. The hospital itself, Ben Taub, is a character that shines in the book. Julia’s idealistic voice makes a strong case for the work of safety net hospitals and urges the reader to see these hospital models as a way forward.

It's not as if most of us don't know that our medical system here in American is broken. But to read about it through the eyes of actual patients who are struggling with it is yet another eye opener and a must read. It is quietly horrifying and the reader can have many instances of "there but for the grace of God...." moments. Nuila has done a fine job personalizing the issue.

Thank you to NetGalley for an advance copy of this book. Everyone needs to read it.

For a nonfiction book (which I often read very slowly), I tore through this one. The narratives were woven in a way that incredibly complex information that could be extremely dry was gripping and comprehensible...and enraging. The book traced the medical experiences of several individuals at a safety-net hospital which provides excellent medical care without regard for one's insurance (or immigration documentation) status. It paints a picture of how US healthcare and insurance became as messy, ineffective, and unjust as they have, and presented some recommendations and sense of hope which could be achieved by paradigm shifts within the medical field. Should be required reading for politicians and medical providers. Of note, I am reading from a very politically left viewpoint, and I think the author does an excellent job of presenting the partisan views on healthcare and insurance in a realistic but not villainizing way. Perhaps my choice of policy after reading this would be very different from a staunch conservative's, but I think it would give people of all political leanings important food for thought without coming across as "too preachy" in any one angle.

In the book, The People’s Hospital, Dr. Ricardo Nuila takes a look at our broken medical system, focusing on the challenges and inequities in the health insurance world. He focuses on six case histories of people whose treatment has been affected by their income, immigration status, or twists in state Medicaid law. Dr. Nuila gained permission to tell their histories. He concentrates on their medical histories but embroiders their stories with their personalities and beliefs. Woven into their narratives is a picture of their realities as they try to survive with no insurance.

Dr. Nuila uses Ben Taub, the county hospital where he serves in Houston, Texas, as an example of what could be done if people became more important than payments. A second-generation doctor himself, he is realistic about real costs even while advocating empathy for patients under his care and the many in our country who are in similar struggles because of inadequate or no insurance and frustration with the paperwork and red tape now involved in maintaining good health.

The six stories portray real people for whom the reader develops empathy even while understanding they are representative of multitudes of others. Underlying these portrayals is Dr. Nuila’s premise that we don’t need to spend more on health care, we need to spend our money better.

This book is not an easy read and has no “happily ever after” ending. It is thought provoking and will resonate with everyone who has had to wait for permission from an insurance carrier or been surprised by a bill that “was not covered by your insurance.” The basic setting and stories could be repeated in any city in the country. His thoughts about how to solve the problems are worth a loo

Let me just say: I want everyone to read this book, maybe more than once. The People’s Hospital is a fascinating and educating look at the dysfunction of our American healthcare system. Told from an expert insider’s perspective, in a unique position within the Houston healthcare / hospital community, this work is so engaging and insightful.

Previous to reading this, I knew broadly that we were faced with problems in the way that our current healthcare system interfaces amongst the parts of itself and how it serves the members of the public. This book, though, guides the reader through real-life anecdotes that show us the long lasting impact of the way that this haphazard system functions. This guide is beautifully written, and while it gives us in-depth explanation of the challenges that we are ALL (uninsured, underinsured, insured but beholden to red tape and capitalism) facing when it comes to continuing on our current path, it is also laid out easily and understandably. Those of us that don’t speak “medicine” can comfortably understand what Ricardo Nuila is saying. While it doesn’t end with concrete recommendations, it does provide directional hope for the future.

Ricardo Nuila guides the reader on an unexpected journey, one I am happy to have taken. This might end up being one of my favorite books of the year.

This biography follows five patients as their health takes a toll on their families, their lives, and their pocketbooks. Discovering that it’s not as easy to get the help needed as one would think and succumbing to their helplessness and desperation of their not-so-unique situations. These five patients represent the tens of thousands of Americans facing the same uphill battle in a country that has the facilities to keep everyone healthy, no matter their standing in society.

Like a white knight charging through the turmoil, Dr. Nuila and Ben Taub hospital take on each patient as they navigate the broken American healthcare system. We get to glimpse what proper healthcare and patient advocacy could be.

Working in the healthcare field, this biography was like a punch to the gut. I have always believed our system was beyond repair, and after reading this, I was even more disheartened. I have hopes for future leaders in America, though. Hopes that we finally take our blinders off. Hopes that we see patients as human beings and not as profit. And hopes that the change happens sooner rather than later.

This is a must-read.

The publisher provided ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book gives great insight on how poverty and inequalities impact one's health. Weaving together patient's histories, the author's own experiences, and the current state of healthcare, Dr. Nuila is able to show how and why healthcare needs to be improved. This book is perfect for those who want a better understanding of health inequalities within the healthcare system and what can be done. As someone who is starting medical school this year, believe my peers and myself can learn from this book and how we can treat out future patients.

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This was a fantastic read that chronicled the lives of five uninsured patients as they navigated health care through the innovate Harris Health system in Houston. Recommended for anyone interested in poverty and the inequities of healthcare and a government system that actually provides help for those in need.

Grounding the book with stories of several of his patients, Nuila looks at the United States health care system through how things work at Ben Taub hospital in Houston. Ben Taub and the Gold Card system in Houston should serve as a model for health care in the rest of the country. To see such good things happening in a red state gives me hope. Anyone who does not believe in universal health care should have at least some of their beliefs changed after reading this moving book.

Growing up in Houston, we drove by Ben Taub many a time, but I never really thought about what was gong on in there. Thanks to Dr. Nuila's nuanced portrayal, I now see what a beacon of hope it truly is, and, more than hope, how it gives dignity back to the critically ill. The reader feels as though they discover, along with Nulia, the ways that our broken health and welfare systems lead directly to dire outcomes and how one's wealth and social standing cannot be overlooked when prognoses and diagnoses are made. Nulia's book was clear, immediate, and intimate, and I also appreciated the stories of his own family interactions from his loving, but burnt-out doctor father to the various cousins who couldn't trust his advice about his own grandmother. Anyone who has enjoyed books by Atul Gawande or Siddhartha Mukherjee should add this to their list of well-written, absorbing, and informative medical nonfiction.

"Wow" was probably the most common word I spoke aloud while reading this book — sometimes in wonder, sometimes in shock, and sometimes in despair. I am incredibly impressed that Dr. Nuila wrote this book on top of his other commitments, but I am so thankful that he did.

More people need to spend time assessing and understanding the complexity that is our healthcare system as well as the people who not only use it but also work in it. As not many people may pick this book up as a "fun read" in their bookstore, I am very hopeful that it is picked up by media outlets and educational institutions (high school to pre-med) so discussions can be held as that is the awareness that will spread into gen. pop and hopefully bleed into our voting decisions.