I knew that this book was coming and jumped at the chance to read it。Dranove is a economist at Northwestern and his co-author Burns is an organizational sociologist at Penn who specialized in healthcare organizations。 The authors present a complex overview of the US healthcare system from a distinctive perspective – that the US healthcare system has evolved into a highly structured set of largely local or regional markets， each dominated by a relatively small number of integrated delivery networ I knew that this book was coming and jumped at the chance to read it。Dranove is a economist at Northwestern and his co-author Burns is an organizational sociologist at Penn who specialized in healthcare organizations。 The authors present a complex overview of the US healthcare system from a distinctive perspective – that the US healthcare system has evolved into a highly structured set of largely local or regional markets， each dominated by a relatively small number of integrated delivery networks （IDNs） and a comparable set of healthcare insurers。 The prevalence of these systems， however， has not improvedthe performance of the system or of its members in terms of quality， cost， or access to medical care。 US healthcare providers have learned how to consolidate into dominant local systems that have contributed to a strong pressure for high prices that generally exceed price levels in other healthcare systems globally but which has harmed US performance relative to the other national systems。 This character of the US system is highly inertial， which frustrates reform efforts and perplexes practitioners who fail to understand its economic and organizational foundations。 The authors Dranove seek to provide that understanding through a combination of economic and organizational analysis， supported by data and case study examples from their long research records。This is a wonderful book but also a fairly complex ones。 The arguments are complicated， as are the case situations covered in the book。 The authors have done a good job presenting the material but readers should be warned that this is a book to be worked through carefully。 Healthcare is an area where it is supremely easy to be woefully ill-informed on important details。 The not only includes medical situations， but also the economic and legal issues that arise in healthcare antitrust cases。 There are few authors who could have made this material as accessible as Dranove and Burns have。Do the authors have all the answers to the policy， regulatory， and management issues affecting healthcare systems？ No - although they provide their best suggestions and may well be on target on many of them。 This is not a volume that follows a political ideology。 Readers will be much better informed on healthcare policy debates if they work through this book。 It is well worth the trouble。 。。。more