Humber, Lee . Vital Signs: The Deadly Costs of Health Inequality. London: Pluto Press, 2019. $23.95. pp. 159. ISBN. 9780745338323.

• Published date: 01 September 2021
• Author: James March Mistler
• Date: 01 September 2021
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/wmh3.385

603

doi: 10.1002/wmh3.385

© 2021 Policy Studies Organization

BOOK REVIEW

Humber, Lee. Vital Signs: The Deadly Costs of Health Inequality. London: Pluto Press,

2019. $23.95. pp. 159. ISBN. 9780745338323.

Health inequality is a growing concern throughout the world and often leads to

increased disease burden and reduced life expectancy. Lee Humber's Vital Signs: the

Deadly Cost of Health Inequalities, paints a grim picture of the true cost of these

inequities, moving the blame from the individual to the government and the pri-

vatization of the healthcare sector. Humber, a health and social care academic and

activist, uses current and historical data to show how nature is not the leading

cause of death and gives prime examples of what must be done in order to reverse

our current course, save lives, and ultimately increase the life expectancy of

populations.

Humber starts with the current, neoliberal model of the healthcare sector in

both the United States and the United Kingdom; one that sees healthcare as a

commodity to be bought and sold similar to clothing and other goods. Since this

shift has taken place, healthcare workers are exploited for profit, which both fur-

thers the market drive and commodification of healthcare. This exploitation and

commodification are the dominant paradigms of the healthcare sector, which forces

governments already strapped for cash to try and outperform health conglomerates

that have billions in savings. Unable to provide adequate care, government entities

are forced to continue the cycle of commodification, which increases healthcare

spending at the same time it reduces health outcomes for patients; “[i]n this

neoliberal scrambling for profitability…the health of populations comes a poor

second”(Humber, p. 38).

The remainder of the text of Vital Signs goes on to discuss the rise of the

medical‐industrial complexes, the social determinants of health, and how philan-

throcapitalism has cemented the privatization of healthcare, which in turn has

reduced the capability of the healthcare sector to treat patients. These medical‐

industrial complexes are large billion‐dollar, market‐driven entities that lobby the

government and dictate how healthcare is utilized on a global level. The commo-

dification of health and the rise in power of these complexes are directly related to