Inside National Health Reform

This 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 Reformprovides the essential information for Americans to make informed judgments about this landmark law.

John E. McDonough, DPH, MPA, is a professor at the Harvard School of Public Health and the first Joan H. Tisch Distinguished Fellow in Public Health at Hunter College of the City University of New York. He is the author of Experiencing Politics: A Legislators Stories of Government and Health Care (UC Press). Between 2008 and 2010, he served as Senior Advisor on National Health Reform to the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions and also played a major role in the 2006 Massachusetts health reform law.