The Ten Year War

Starred review from December 14, 2020
HuffPost correspondent Cohn (Sick) delivers an engrossing behind-the-scenes account of the fight to pass the Affordable Care Act in 2010. Drawing on interviews with President Obama and other key players, Cohn illustrates how the compromises needed to pass the legislation (namely, the abandonment of the public option) left progressive advocates unsatisfied and led to Medicare for All becoming a central issue of the 2020 Democratic primary. Cohn also sketches the history of healthcare as a political cause, noting that President Nixon was open to universal coverage in the 1970s, and that conservatives embraced Republican governor Mitt Romney’s creation of an individual mandate requiring people to purchase healthcare coverage in Massachusetts, before opposing the same policy as part of Obamacare. Supporters of the Affordable Care Act will be shocked by the sloppy wording that left it vulnerable to being overturned by the Supreme Court, and impressed by the details of Nancy Pelosi’s maneuvering to get it across the finish line in Congress. This is a comprehensive and essential look at “arguably the most important and controversial piece of legislation in the last few decades.” Agent: Kathy Robbins, the Robbins Office.

December 15, 2020
In a book that took 10 years to research and write, journalist Cohn offers a thorough history of the persistent controversy over health care insurance in the U.S. In other developed countries, writes the author, governments "are firmly in charge, using some form of taxes or mandatory premiums to finance benefits." But the U.S. has seen an often vociferous debate "over what obligations society has to its most vulnerable members." Cohn provides an informative overview of health coverage efforts beginning in the 1920s. Franklin Roosevelt, Truman, Kennedy, Johnson, and Carter all supported public health plans, but they faced opposition from private insurers and conservative politicians. In the 1980s, Ronald Reagan led that opposition as president, tapping into widespread anger over federal support programs. Bill Clinton's efforts to devise a plan encountered opposition from multiple fronts, including within his own party. In 2006, as governor of Massachusetts, Mitt Romney instituted bold reforms that gave the state's citizens better access to health care and increased financial security, a model that later inspired Obama's plans for national health care. Nevertheless, in 2010, Scott Brown won election as senator from Massachusetts by attacking Romney's measure "as a corrupt, secretive exercise by political insiders." Cohn traces the fraught development of the Affordable Care Act, the controversy and compromises that led to its passage, and the continuing debate. Republican opposition, he asserts, began immediately after the law was signed on March 23, 2010, and became a rallying cry for Trump and his supporters. "At its core," Cohn writes, "universal health care is all about common strength in common vulnerability. It's a recognition that anybody can get sick or injured--that, by pooling resources together, everybody will be safe. It's the same exact concept as Social Security and Medicare, and why the party responsible for them has spent nearly a century trying to extend health care guarantees to the rest of the population." A timely contribution to the literature on an urgent issue.

COPYRIGHT(2020) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Starred review from February 1, 2021

Cohn (Sick: The Untold Story of America's Health Care Crisis), a Huffpost correspondent, aims to write a comprehensive history about the battle to pass the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in 2010. Beginning with Ronald Reagan's campaign against Medicare, the author considers how subsequent presidents and influential politicians have approached health care, from Bill Clinton's unsuccessful reform efforts to the passage of the ACA during Barack Obama's first term in office. Cohn considers alarming shifts in American politics that have influenced health care policy, and offers an authoritative account of health care law that helps readers understand how these laws impact their daily lives. Further primary and secondhand sources inform Cohn's argument that health care law is more about politics than policy. The strength of the book lies in Cohn's comprehensive and detailed analysis, allowing readers to learn how policy making has evolved over time, and how the Republican establishment fought, and continues to fight, to overturn the legislation. VERDICT An extensive and definitive account of competing visions of American health care that will be of particular interest to readers curious about the process of creating policy and those interested in reform. Cohn's accessible writing makes for an absorbing, fast-paced narrative--Rachel M. Minkin, Michigan State Univ. Libs., East Lansing

Copyright 2021 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 15, 2021
Acclaimed journalist Cohn is recognized as an expert on health care legislation, and within the framework of tracing the history of the Affordable Care Act passed by the Obama administration, he provides a pr�cis of political shenanigans, governmental gridlock, and policy wrangling in a how-the-sausage-gets-made look at the legislative machinations that went into the ACA's creation. Cohn's focus may be on this one piece of legislation, but he also takes the long view of the politics of the late twentieth and early-twenty-first centuries, placing the battle for health care reform within the context of other federal administration challenges, including economic recessions and the auto industry bailout, to show the interconnections between Republican court-packing initiatives and the legal challenges launched after the ACA was enacted. Exposing both the back-slapping and the back-stabbing that goes on in such negotiations, Cohn names key players and shares sharp anecdotes that reveal how their diverse backgrounds, political tactics, and deal-making efforts played out regarding this one piece of critical governance. With writing that is lively, engaging, knowledgeable without being scholarly, detailed without being pedantic, Cohn is an exemplar of investigative, expository journalism at its best, and health care is a more urgent topic than ever as the COVID-19 pandemic continues.

COPYRIGHT(2021) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.