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Rating: 
Summary: quite good, but a bit old info
Review: Having experienced medical care in five different countries, according to my experience varieties in treatment in different countries are very common. Though former British colonies still retain lots of resemblance to British health system. My only objection to the book is that it needs an update - lumpectomies instead of radical mastectomies are getting more common in US. However, hysterectomy, often unjustified, is still far to common in US with no hope for change in near future. Also, doctors seem to be unable to understand that different countries have different disease statistics even after you bring them articles printed in medical journals proving that you are right. Medicine does not deserve to be called science, IMO.
Rating: 
Summary: Wow.
Review: If you think conventional medicine is scientifically proven, read this book! Very enjoyable, easy to read and a must read for anyone who may ever need any medical treatment! The book shows some interesting facts, not speculation.
Rating:
Summary: There will not be a new edition...
Review: Readers of this excellent book will wait in vain for an update as some reviewers have requested -- Lynn Payer died of breast cancer on September 22, 2001. So this will be it -- the insights she brings to the comparative study of health systems are thus all the more precious. I've lived in two of the countries she studied (UK and US) and been treated in a third (France) and the book rings true. An excellent addition to the library of anyone wishing to understand the strengths and the flaws of our health systems, and more importantly, why each system has different flaws!
Rating:
Summary: a real eye-opener
Review: Written from the point of view of a journalist
and not a social scientist, this book is
nevertheless a must read for readers interested
in medicine, culture, and sociology of science.If you are one of those persons who thinks
medicine is a science, I think this book will
make a very surprising read. In particular,
if you like the epistemological side of scientific
inquiry, you could try to extend many of the
discussions of the book to other practices
(social sciences, physics). My only regrett is that the author doesn't cover
Latin American medicine. (Next edition?)
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