Health care costs make up nearly a fifth of U.S. gross domestic product, but health care is a peculiar thing to buy and sell. Both a scarce resource and a basic need, it involves physical and emotional vulnerability and at the same time it operates as big business. Patients have little choice but to trust those who provide them care, but even those providers confront a great deal of medical uncertainty about the services they offer. Selling Our Souls looks at the contradictions inherent in one particular health care market-hospital care. Based on extensive interviews and observations.

Pt. One. PubliCare Rebuffs the Market -- Ch. 1. Health Care for All -- Ch. 2. Privileged Servants -- Ch. 3. Feels Like Home -- Pt. TWO. HolyCare Moralizes the Market -- Ch. 4. Sacred Encounters -- Ch. 5. Good Business -- Ch. 6. The Martyred Heart -- Pt. Three. GroupCare Tames the Market -- Ch. 7. Flourishing -- Ch. 8. Disciplined Doctors -- Ch. 9. Partnership.