150 Years of ObamaCare

Go behind the curtain of the creation and implementation of the Affordable Care Act. In this groundbreaking book, health-care attorney Daniel E. Dawes explores the secret backstory of the Affordable Care Act, shedding light on the creation and implementation of the greatest and most sweeping equalizer in the history of American health care. An eye-opening and authoritative narrative written from an insider’s perspective, 150 Years of ObamaCare debunks contemporary understandings of health reform. It also provides a comprehensive and unprecedented review of the health equity movement and the little-known leadership efforts that were crucial to passing public policies and laws reforming mental health, minority health, and universal health. An instrumental player in a large coalition of organizations that helped shape ObamaCare, Dawes tells the story of the Affordable Care Act with urgency and intimate detail. He reveals what went on behind the scenes by including copies of letters and e-mails written by the people and groups who worked to craft and pass the law. Dawes explains the law through a health equity lens, focusing on what it is meant to do and how it affects various groups. Ultimately, he argues that ObamaCare is much more comprehensive in the context of previous reform efforts than is typically understood. In an increasingly polarized political environment, health reform has been caught in the cross fire of the partisan struggle, making it difficult to separate fact from fiction. Offering unparalleled and complete insight into the efforts by the Obama administration, Congress, and external stakeholders, 150 Years of ObamaCare illuminates one of the most challenging legislative feats in the history of the United States.

Table of Contents:
Foreward, by David Satcher Preface 1. Making the Case for Health Reform 2. Past Meets Present 3. Pulling Back the Curtain 4. The Fight Is On 5. Brushes with Death 6. Breaking Down the Law 7. Moving Health Equity Forward Acknowledgments Appendix Index

About the Author :
Attorney Daniel E. Dawes is a senior advisor on health policy to the Satcher Health Leadership Institute at Morehouse School of Medicine and an associate professor of complex health systems at Nova Southeastern University. The cofounder of the Health Equity Leadership and Exchange Network (HELEN), he is a nationally recognized leader in the health equity movement who has been at the forefront of major federal health policy negotiations in the United States.

Review :
An informative and enticing book . . . Dawes combines his on-the-ground perspective with that of a longtime scholar and advocate for the reduction and elimination of health disparities. —Health Affairs This text is invaluable for its data alone. Dawes provides an informed perspective on U.S. health care, its evolution, and how the ACA ultimately became law; but ObamaCare is also a good information source, a neutral chronicle. I enthusiastically recommend this book to anyone interested in learning more about the act and U.S. health care policy. —Florida Bar An important book that will come to serve as a key reference work for anyone wishing to understand the process by which the Affordable Care Act came into existence, not to mention the actual contents of the law itself. [Dawes] brings valuable . . . knowledge of the policy process to a wider audience, and the book will be of interest to scholars and policy analysts across a range of fields. —Social History of Medicine This is an important book that will come to serve as a key reference work for anyone wishing to understand the process by which the Affordable Care Act came into existence, not to mention the actual contents of the law itself. —Social History of Medicine 150 Years of ObamaCare not only details the history of the incrementalist approach to health reform in this country but also offers a keen perspective on what might lie ahead.... The lessons of 150 Years of Obamacare will help us all better understand future attacks on the ACA and continuing attempts to achieve health equity. In addition to the vast amount of history one can learn by reading 150 Years of ObamaCare, the book provides a bird's-eye view of both the ACA's passage and the political turmoil that has followed. Readers will appreciate Dawes's insightful descriptions of what it was like behind the scenes during the tortuous process of passing the law.... To help cut through that complexity, all readers, law-trained or not, will find useful Dawes's piece-by-piece explanation of the law's major provisions accompanied by concrete examples designed to illustrate their application. —Journal of Legal Medicine