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The Resource America's bitter pill : money, politics, backroom deals, and the fight to fix our broken healthcare system, Steven Brill

America's bitter pill : money, politics, backroom deals, and the fight to fix our broken healthcare system, Steven Brill

Creator
Author
Summary
"America's Bitter Pill is Steven Brill's much-anticipated, sweeping narrative of how the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, was written, how it is being implemented, and, most important, how it is changing--and failing to change--the rampant abuses in the healthcare industry. Brill probed the depths of our nation's healthcare crisis in his trailblazing Time magazine Special Report, which won the 2014 National Magazine Award for Public Interest. Now he broadens his lens and delves deeper, pulling no punches and taking no prisoners. It's a fly-on-the-wall account of the fight, amid an onslaught of lobbying, to pass a 961-page law aimed at fixing America's largest, most dysfunctional industry--an industry larger than the entire economy of France. It's a penetrating chronicle of how the profiteering that Brill first identified in his Time cover story continues, despite Obamacare. And it is the first complete, inside account of how President Obama persevered to push through the law, but then failed to deal with the staff incompetence and turf wars that crippled its implementation. Brill questions all the participants in the drama, including the president, to find out what happened and why. He asks the head of the agency in charge of the Obamacare website how and why it crashed. And he tells the cliffhanger story of the tech wizards who swooped in to rebuild it. Brill gets drug lobbyists to open up on the deals they struck to protect their profits in return for supporting the law. And he buttresses all these accounts with meticulous research and access to internal memos, emails, notes, and journals written by the key players during all the pivotal moments. Brill is there with patients when they are denied cancer care at a hospital, or charged $77 for a box of gauze pads. Then he asks the multimillion-dollar executives who run the hospitals to explain why. He even confronts the chief executive of America's largest health insurance company and asks him to explain an incomprehensible Explanation of Benefits his company sent to Brill. And he's there as a group of young entrepreneurs gamble millions to use Obamacare to start a hip insurance company in New York's Silicon Alley. Vividly capturing what he calls the "milestone" achievement of Obamacare, Brill introduces us to patients whose bank accounts or lives have been saved by the new law--although, as he explains, that is only because Obamacare provides government subsidies for "tens of millions of new customers" to pay the same exorbitant prices that were the problem in the first place. All that is weaved together in an elegantly crafted, fast-paced narrative. But by chance America's Bitter Pill ends up being much more--because as Brill was completing this book, he had to undergo urgent open-heart surgery. Thus, this also becomes the story of how one patient who thinks he knows everything about healthcare "policy" rethinks it from a hospital gurney--and combines that insight with his brilliant reporting. The result: a surprising new vision of how we can fix American healthcare so that it stops draining the bank accounts of our families and our businesses, and the federal treasury"--
Language
eng
Work
Publication
Edition
First edition.
Extent
x, 512 pages
Note
Includes index
Contents
  • Looking up from the gurney
  • Center stage
  • Max, Barack, Hillary, Billy, and the gathering consensus
  • "This is what I thought the Senate would be like"
  • A new president commits, and his camp divides
  • Every lobbyist's favorite date
  • Punting to Capitol Hill
  • Deal time
  • Behind closed doors : White House turf wars, industry deals, and Senate wrangling
  • The Tea Party summer, "I'm feeling lucky," and "You lie"
  • Snow jobs, poison pills, and Botox
  • New trouble, then Mount Everest
  • In Washington "everything is slipping," but not in Kentucky
  • An Office becomes a Center--and it matters
  • Meantime, outside the beltway...
  • Waiting for Obamacare
  • A guy in jeans, red lights, and a "train wreck"
  • Two months to go
  • Thirty days to go
  • The crash
  • Meltdown in D.C., dancing on eight toes in Kentucky, and frustration in Ohio
  • The rescue
  • The finish line
  • Stuck in the jalopy
Isbn
9780812996951
Instance
Label
America's bitter pill : money, politics, backroom deals, and the fight to fix our broken healthcare system
Title
America's bitter pill
Title remainder
money, politics, backroom deals, and the fight to fix our broken healthcare system
Statement of responsibility
Steven Brill
Creator
Author
Subject
Language
eng
Summary
"America's Bitter Pill is Steven Brill's much-anticipated, sweeping narrative of how the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, was written, how it is being implemented, and, most important, how it is changing--and failing to change--the rampant abuses in the healthcare industry. Brill probed the depths of our nation's healthcare crisis in his trailblazing Time magazine Special Report, which won the 2014 National Magazine Award for Public Interest. Now he broadens his lens and delves deeper, pulling no punches and taking no prisoners. It's a fly-on-the-wall account of the fight, amid an onslaught of lobbying, to pass a 961-page law aimed at fixing America's largest, most dysfunctional industry--an industry larger than the entire economy of France. It's a penetrating chronicle of how the profiteering that Brill first identified in his Time cover story continues, despite Obamacare. And it is the first complete, inside account of how President Obama persevered to push through the law, but then failed to deal with the staff incompetence and turf wars that crippled its implementation. Brill questions all the participants in the drama, including the president, to find out what happened and why. He asks the head of the agency in charge of the Obamacare website how and why it crashed. And he tells the cliffhanger story of the tech wizards who swooped in to rebuild it. Brill gets drug lobbyists to open up on the deals they struck to protect their profits in return for supporting the law. And he buttresses all these accounts with meticulous research and access to internal memos, emails, notes, and journals written by the key players during all the pivotal moments. Brill is there with patients when they are denied cancer care at a hospital, or charged $77 for a box of gauze pads. Then he asks the multimillion-dollar executives who run the hospitals to explain why. He even confronts the chief executive of America's largest health insurance company and asks him to explain an incomprehensible Explanation of Benefits his company sent to Brill. And he's there as a group of young entrepreneurs gamble millions to use Obamacare to start a hip insurance company in New York's Silicon Alley. Vividly capturing what he calls the "milestone" achievement of Obamacare, Brill introduces us to patients whose bank accounts or lives have been saved by the new law--although, as he explains, that is only because Obamacare provides government subsidies for "tens of millions of new customers" to pay the same exorbitant prices that were the problem in the first place. All that is weaved together in an elegantly crafted, fast-paced narrative. But by chance America's Bitter Pill ends up being much more--because as Brill was completing this book, he had to undergo urgent open-heart surgery. Thus, this also becomes the story of how one patient who thinks he knows everything about healthcare "policy" rethinks it from a hospital gurney--and combines that insight with his brilliant reporting. The result: a surprising new vision of how we can fix American healthcare so that it stops draining the bank accounts of our families and our businesses, and the federal treasury"--
Assigning source
Provided by publisher
Cataloging source
DLC
http://library.link/vocab/creatorDate
1950-
http://library.link/vocab/creatorName
Brill, Steven
Index
index present
Literary form
non fiction
Nature of contents
bibliography
http://library.link/vocab/subjectName
  • Health care reform
  • Medical policy
  • Health insurance
  • Compulsory health insurance
  • United States.
  • United States
  • Compulsory health insurance
  • Health care reform
  • Health insurance
  • Medical policy
  • Politics and government
  • United States
Label
America's bitter pill : money, politics, backroom deals, and the fight to fix our broken healthcare system, Steven Brill
Instantiates
Publication
Copyright
Note
Includes index
Bibliography note
Includes bibliographical references (pages 471-490) and index
Carrier category
volume
Carrier category code
  • nc
Carrier MARC source
rdacarrier
Content category
text
Content type code
  • txt
Content type MARC source
rdacontent
Contents
Looking up from the gurney -- Center stage -- Max, Barack, Hillary, Billy, and the gathering consensus -- "This is what I thought the Senate would be like" -- A new president commits, and his camp divides -- Every lobbyist's favorite date -- Punting to Capitol Hill -- Deal time -- Behind closed doors : White House turf wars, industry deals, and Senate wrangling -- The Tea Party summer, "I'm feeling lucky," and "You lie" -- Snow jobs, poison pills, and Botox -- New trouble, then Mount Everest -- In Washington "everything is slipping," but not in Kentucky -- An Office becomes a Center--and it matters -- Meantime, outside the beltway... -- Waiting for Obamacare -- A guy in jeans, red lights, and a "train wreck" -- Two months to go -- Thirty days to go -- The crash -- Meltdown in D.C., dancing on eight toes in Kentucky, and frustration in Ohio -- The rescue -- The finish line -- Stuck in the jalopy
Dimensions
25 cm
Edition
First edition.
Extent
x, 512 pages
Isbn
9780812996951
Lccn
2014037908
Media category
unmediated
Media MARC source
rdamedia
Media type code
  • n
System control number
(OCoLC)899949341
Label
America's bitter pill : money, politics, backroom deals, and the fight to fix our broken healthcare system, Steven Brill
Publication
Copyright
Note
Includes index
Bibliography note
Includes bibliographical references (pages 471-490) and index
Carrier category
volume
Carrier category code
  • nc
Carrier MARC source
rdacarrier
Content category
text
Content type code
  • txt
Content type MARC source
rdacontent
Contents
Looking up from the gurney -- Center stage -- Max, Barack, Hillary, Billy, and the gathering consensus -- "This is what I thought the Senate would be like" -- A new president commits, and his camp divides -- Every lobbyist's favorite date -- Punting to Capitol Hill -- Deal time -- Behind closed doors : White House turf wars, industry deals, and Senate wrangling -- The Tea Party summer, "I'm feeling lucky," and "You lie" -- Snow jobs, poison pills, and Botox -- New trouble, then Mount Everest -- In Washington "everything is slipping," but not in Kentucky -- An Office becomes a Center--and it matters -- Meantime, outside the beltway... -- Waiting for Obamacare -- A guy in jeans, red lights, and a "train wreck" -- Two months to go -- Thirty days to go -- The crash -- Meltdown in D.C., dancing on eight toes in Kentucky, and frustration in Ohio -- The rescue -- The finish line -- Stuck in the jalopy
Dimensions
25 cm
Edition
First edition.
Extent
x, 512 pages
Isbn
9780812996951
Lccn
2014037908
Media category
unmediated
Media MARC source
rdamedia
Media type code
  • n
System control number
(OCoLC)899949341

Subject

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