How to Make a Killing: Blood, Death and Dollars in American Medicine
Tom Mueller
Oct 2023 · Highbridge Audio · Narrated by Melissa Kay Benson
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2 reviews
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8 hr 42 min
Unabridged
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Six decades ago, visionary doctors achieved the impossible: the humble kidney, acknowledged since ancient times to be as essential to life as the heart, became the first human organ to be successfully replaced with a machine. Yet huge dialysis corporations, ambitious doctor-entrepreneurs, and Beltway lobbyists soon turned this medical miracle into an early experiment in for-profit medicine—and one of the nation's worst healthcare catastrophes.
With powerful insight and on-the-ground reporting, Tom Mueller introduces an unforgettable cast of characters. Heroic patients risk their lives to blow the whistle on how they've been mistreated. An unpaid activist living in a south Georgia trailer park fights to save patients from involuntary discharge from their lifesaving care. Industry insiders put their careers on the line to speak out about the endemic wrongs and pervasive inequality they've witnessed—and about dialysis executives who dress as musketeers and Star Wars characters to exhort their employees to more aggressive profit-seeking.
How to Make a Killing reveals dialysis as a microcosm of American medicine and poses a vital challenge: find a way to fix dialysis, and we'll have a fighting chance of fixing our country's dysfunctional healthcare system as a whole, restoring patients, not profits, as its true purpose.
With powerful insight and on-the-ground reporting, Tom Mueller introduces an unforgettable cast of characters. Heroic patients risk their lives to blow the whistle on how they've been mistreated. An unpaid activist living in a south Georgia trailer park fights to save patients from involuntary discharge from their lifesaving care. Industry insiders put their careers on the line to speak out about the endemic wrongs and pervasive inequality they've witnessed—and about dialysis executives who dress as musketeers and Star Wars characters to exhort their employees to more aggressive profit-seeking.
How to Make a Killing reveals dialysis as a microcosm of American medicine and poses a vital challenge: find a way to fix dialysis, and we'll have a fighting chance of fixing our country's dysfunctional healthcare system as a whole, restoring patients, not profits, as its true purpose.
Six decades ago, visionary doctors achieved the impossible: the humble kidney, acknowledged since ancient times to be as essential to life as the heart, became the first human organ to be successfully replaced with a machine. Yet huge dialysis corporations, ambitious doctor-entrepreneurs, and Bel...
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Ratings and reviews
2 reviews
Alyssa O.
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December 28, 2025
Absolutely phenomenal! A very informative book which shares some thought provoking insights into the soul of the American Healthcare system. Yet, I was not left feeling hopeless. Instead, I found myself more hopeful and inspired by the fact that there are so many people that care so much actively working on making the necessary changes. I sincerely believe this book should be required reading prior to being allowed to work in medicine / healthcare in general no matter their role [especially administrative roles]. Additionally, I was incredibly impressed by the narrator of the audiobook. such a top-notch audiobook experience!
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