These are books that changed how I think as a health policy analyst. They inspired me, opened my mind, connected dots for me, taught me hard and soft skills, and told stories I didn’t know, including about Connecticut Medicaid.
Culling this list was hard. While the list is long, there’s more great books that didn’t make the cut. Start anywhere.
Making Numbers Count: The Art and Science of Communicating Numbers
Chip Health & Karla Starr, 2022
https://cthealthpolicy.org/book-club-making-numbers-count/
The Premonition: A Pandemic Story
Michael Lewis, 2021
https://cthealthpolicy.org/book-club-the-premonition-a-pandemic-story/
Change: How to Make Big Things Happen
Damon Centola, 2021
https://cthealthpolicy.org/book-club-change-how-to-make-big-things-happen/
You Have More Influence Than You Think
Vanessa Bohns, 2021
https://cthealthpolicy.org/book-club-you-have-more-influence-than-you-think/
Which Country Has the World’s Best Health Care?
Ezekiel Emanuel, 2020
https://www.ezekielemanuel.com/popular-writing-books/which-country-has-the-worlds-best-healthcare
The Catalyst: How to Change Anyone’s Mind
Jonah Berger, 2020
https://cthealthpolicy.org/book-club-the-catalyst-how-to-change-anyones-mind/
The Trillion Dollar Revolution: How the Affordable Care Act Transformed Politics, Law, and Health Care in America
Edited by Ezekiel J. Emanuel and Abbe Gluck, 2020
https://www.ezekielemanuel.com/edited-books/blog-post-title-one-zhyd8
Upstream: The Quest to Solve Problems Before They Happen
Dan Heath, 2020
https://heathbrothers.com/books/upstream/
Counting: How We Use Numbers to Decide What Matters
Deborah Stone, 2020
https://cthealthpolicy.org/book-club-counting-how-we-use-numbers-to-decide-what-matters/
Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism
Anne Case and Angus Deaton, 2020
https://cthealthpolicy.org/book-club-deaths-of-despair-and-the-future-of-capitalism/
What the Eyes Don’t See
Mona Hanna-Attisha, 2018
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/550935/what-the-eyes-dont-see-by-mona-hanna-attisha/
The American Health Care Paradox: Why Spending More is Getting Us Less
Elizabeth Bradley, 2013
https://bioethics.hms.harvard.edu/journal/healthcareparadox-review
The Treatment Trap
Rosemary Gibson, 2011
https://cthealthpolicy.org/new-book-club-post-the-treatment-trap/
No Pity: People with Disabilities Forging a New Civil Rights Movement
Joseph P. Shapiro, 1994
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/164946/no-pity-by-joseph-p-shapiro/
Bedlam: An Intimate Journey Into America’s Mental Health Crisis
Kenneth Paul Rosenberg, 2019
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/602602/bedlam-by-kenneth-paul-rosenberg-md/
The Health Care Handbook: A Clear and Concise Guide to the United States Health Care System
Elisabeth Askin and Nathan Moore, 2024
Drive: The Surprising Truth about What Motivates Us
Daniel Pink, 2009
https://www.danpink.com/books/drive/
Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present
Harriett A. Washington, 2007
https://cthealthpolicy.org/book-club-medical-apartheid/
Healthy Voices, Unhealthy Silence: Advocacy and Health Policy for the Poor
Coleen Grogan and Michael Gusmano, 2007
The Ghost Map: The Story of London’s Most Terrifying Epidemic – and How it Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World
Steven Johnson, 2007