Marty Makary MD

I have mixed feelings about this book. It is supposedly a biography of "Mama" Maggie Gobran, who was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize for her work with the poor of Egypt.

At her insistence, the book also talks quite a bit about her colleagues working with the nonprofit she began, Stephan's Children. These were the parts I liked best.

There isn't really much here about Gobran's early life, and the authors write about her with stars in their eyes. Most biographies will acknowledge that all humans have strengths and weaknesses, and will explore both relating to their chosen subject. This biography conveniently ignores any mention of Gobran's flaws, and goes on and on about how great she is. Even though Jesus is mentioned, and I believe Gobran would have wanted Him to be exalted, the authors seem to value Gobran more than Him.

There are also a couple instances of Gobran "prophesying," aka predicting the future - this was a huge red flag to me. I believe that Jesus was the last Prophet and that He fulfilled all prophecy, so anyone today with the gift of "prophecy," if you will, really just has a gift to boldly speak the Truth about Jesus and His kingdom - not clairvoyance.

There is also repeated mention of "Christians" who have never actually heard of Jesus. I wish the authors had done a better job of distinguishing actual Christians from nonbelievers, who identify with the title "Christian" culturally, but do not actually follow Jesus Christ.

I do appreciate that the Gospel is spelled out in the pages of this book, but I don't feel like it necessarily qualifies as a "biography."

Side note: The formatting of this book left a ton of fully blank pages. What a waste of paper!… (mere)

Read.
This.
Book.
Now.

You will thank me at some point... whether it's before you have a c-section, an emergency appendectomy, back surgery in 40 years, etc. Although hopefully, by the end of 40 years, things will have changed.

This gives you information about the way insurance and medicine are mismanaged to your detriment. Ask your friends in healthcare what they honestly think about their job, their clinic, their Drs. and, if they trust you, they will confirm much of this information.*

*One thing I think that he missed was the fact that many employment contract clauses at clinics stipulate that negative speak from employees at the clinic/hospital about physicians and other healthcare professionals can be grounds for dismissal.… (mere)

This was a good presentation of the problems in the healthcare business model. I appreciated the fact that the author included examples of disruptors of the system which gives hope for the future. Recommend if you are interested in digging into the weeds of medical billing and its impacts on the providers and on the consumers. It is written in a very accessible style. Lots of data, but not wonky. There are some legislative updates which occurred after the first publishing, specifically surprise billing and hospital price transparency. I assume his paperback version published in 2021 includes that information.… (mere)