Description
Book SynopsisThis indispensable guide to the Affordable Care Act, our new national health care law, lends an insider's deep understanding of policy to a lively and absorbing account of the extraordinary--and extraordinarily ambitious--legislative effort to reform the nation's health care system. Dr. John E. McDonough, DPH, a health policy expert who served as an advisor to the late Senator Edward Kennedy, provides a vivid picture of the intense effort required to bring this legislation into law. McDonough clearly explains the ACA's inner workings, revealing the rich landscape of the issues, policies, and controversies embedded in the law yet unknown to most Americans. In his account of these historic events, McDonough takes us through the process from the 2008 presidential campaign to the moment in 2010 when President Obama signed the bill into law. At a time when the nation is taking a second look at the ACA, Inside National Health Reform provides the essential information for Americans to make informed judgments about this landmark law.
Trade Review"Superb... Likely to become required reading for anyone who wishes (or claims) to understand health care in the United States." -- Rick Mayes Health Affairs "Read McDonough's book." The Incidental Economist "McDonough has done the hard work of breaking a large and historic piece of legislation down into a sober, balanced, thorough, readable, and important book. Recommended." -- Dick Maxwell Library Journal "Admirably clear ... provides the best explanation available, which occupies most of his book, of the many individual components of the ten titles of the final act." -- Jeff Madrick New York Review Of Books "Unique... Offers a perspective available to few others... Accessible, highly informative, and well worth [the reader's] time." -- Paul Van de Water, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities World Medical & Health Policy Jrnl
Table of ContentsList of Tables
Foreword by Carmen Hooker Odom and Samuel L. Milbank
Preface
Acknowledgments
List of Abbreviations
Introduction—A Meeting in Minnesota
Part I. Preludes and Process
1. The Knowledge Base—Why National Health Reform?
2. Social Strategy—Massachusetts Avenue
3. Political Will I—Prelude to a Health Reform Campaign
4. Political Will II—A Health Reform Campaign
Part II. Policies—Ten Titles
5. Title I—The Three Legged Stool
6. Title II—Medicaid, CHIP, and the Governors
7. Title III—Medical Care, Medicare, and the Cost Curve
8. Title IV—Money, Mammograms, and Menus
9. Title V—Who Will Provide the Care?
10. Title VI—The Stew
11. Title VII—Biosimilar Biological Products
12. Title VIII—CLASS Act
13. Title IX—Paying for the ACA (or about Half of It)
14. Title X Plus—The Manager’s Amendment and the Health Care Education and Reconciliation Act
Conclusion
Notes
Health Reform Timeline
Index
