What Did They Deliver? The Promise of Affordable Care

Americans have reacted to the passage of the Affordable Care Act with sustained ambivalence, with those disapproving of “ObamaCare” exceeding those who applaud it overall. People were put off by months of partisan battles, judicial challenges, and the rocky start in 2013 for the...

How the Scott Brown Upset Strengthened Health Reform

Conventional wisdom in U.S. politics can turn on a dime—and turn again. It happens all the time, yet the winter of 2010 will go down in history for especially dizzying gyrations. First health care reform was a nearly done deal; the boring business of...

The Year of Pitched Battles: Who Fought for What, Why, and How

Few Americans closely follow legislation as it inches through Congress. Life is too short and we have other important things to do. Headlines float by; talking heads yell at each other on TV; our Senator or Representative sends a newsletter explaining his or her...

Why Now? Broken Health Care and an Opportunity for Change

Major reforms such as Social Security, Civil Rights, or Medicare are enacted in American democracy only when the stars align just right. Problems such as elderly poverty or racial oppression can fester for a very long time before reforms are even attempted—and attempts can...

Introduction: A Turning Point for U.S. Health Care and Politics

On Tuesday, March 23, 2010, several hundred people crowded into the East Room of the White House to witness President Barack Obama sign into law the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The mood was exultant, and the President was interrupted “repeatedly with cheers,...

Will Health Reform Succeed?

“It ain’t over ’til it’s over.” The wisdom of Yogi Berra obviously applies in his own world of sports, where shocking reversals—sudden or protracted—can undo seemingly inevitable victories, not to mention certain defeats. Driving toward the end zone in the final seconds of a...