The April 2021 issue of Health Affairs features reviews of three books covering the topics of disability rights activism, epidemic response, and the value of human lives.

Lisa I. Iezzoni reviewed Being Heumann, a memoir by Judy Heumann. Heumann, a well-known disability rights activist, chronicles her fights to get an education and become a teacher, the 1977 protest she led that forced the Carter administration to provide people with disability equal access to federal programs, and her later work with the Clinton and Obama administrations.

Iezzoni’s recent paper about physicians' perceptions of people with disability has gained significant media and policy attention since its publication in February 2021.

Health Affairs’ Senior Deputy Editor, Sarah B. Dine, reviewed John Fabian Witt’s American Contagions. In the book, Witt describes the two basic pathways of response to epidemics among the US and other modern nation states and explores our current circumstances in light of twentieth-century court decisions. He closes with the accusation that our legal system has failed us.

Britni Wilcher reviewed Ultimate Price by Howard Steven Friedman, a book about how economists, financial analysts, regulators, and statisticians assign value to human lives. "Friedman aptly illustrates that human price tags are intimately linked to the broader evolution of the environment; criminal justice system; time and financial investments in education, fertility, health, and life insurance; and political investments in new regulations or wars," writes Wilcher.

Health Affairs may receive a commission for purchases of these books through the links on our website. We appreciate your support.

Today on Health Affairs Blog, Kushal T. Kadakia and Anand Shah outline how the operational and regulatory structures developed during COVID-19 represent a scalable model to accelerate biomedical innovation for antimicrobial resistance. Also, Victor R. Fuchs argues that a system of competing, capitated plans offering comprehensive care is the most promising vehicle for the United States to reform its health care system and control health care spending.

About Health Affairs

Health Affairs is the leading peer-reviewed journal at the intersection of health, health care, and policy. Published monthly by Project HOPE, the journal is available in print and online. Late-breaking content is also found through healthaffairs.org, Health Affairs Today, and Health Affairs Sunday Update.

Project HOPE is a global health and humanitarian relief organization that places power in the hands of local health care workers to save lives across the globe. Project HOPE has published Health Affairs since 1981.

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