In “The Healing of America,” T.R. Reid takes us on a journey around the world in search of treatment for his injured shoulder and a better understanding of how other wealthy and developed countries provide affordable, accessible, and better health care than the United States does. Tragically, Reid points out, thousands of people in the U.S. go bankrupt because they can’t pay their medical bills and thousands more die because they can’t get the health care they need to survive.

It doesn’t need to be this way, and Reid contends that if we adopt and adapt the best principles and practices—which he samples, himself—from a variety of other countries’ health care systems, we’d be well on our way to improving our own. But, before we can do this, we must, as a nation, embrace and accept the moral imperative to take care of everyone. The United States is the only developed country that does not embrace this moral imperative.

As a resident of Colorado, where Co-operate Colorado—health care for all, for less—is quickly gaining traction, I found Reid’s story of Tommy Douglas, elected premier of Saskatchewan in 1944, who created a government-run, single-payer health care system for all of Saskatchewan’s residents, to be inspirational. It didn’t take long for other providences to adopt similar programs; and by 1961, the federal government of Canada had initiated the first phase of universal health care coverage for the entire country.

Reid’s “global quest” for better and affordable health care makes for a book that’s interesting to read and mandatory for anyone who wants to join the health care conversation.