Readings & Links

Obama's First Year Primary Documents Lobbying & Money Criticism of the Bill Ongoing Coverage of Health Care

Obama's First Year

What Did the Health Reform Effort Tell Us About Obama?
Excerpts culled from FRONTLINE's interviews for this report.

How Obama Revived His Health-Care Bill
Ceci Connolly reports on the events, decisions and dramas in the last 61 days of the health reform push -- from Scott Brown's jolting win in Massachusetts to Obama signing the bill. (The Washington Post, March 23, 2010)

Taking the Hill
Matt Bai's New York Times Magazine article on the strategies the Obama White House used early on to sell health care reform and the deal making and key players, including Tom Daschle, Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel. (June 2, 2009)

The Limits of Rahmism
Peter Baker's profile of Rahm Emanuel, "a legislative mechanic" who was instrumental and, at times, detrimental to Obama's health reform effort. (The New York Times, March 8, 2010)

Obama's Lost Year
More on Obama's first year, but from a different perspective: the failures of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The New Yorker's George Packer follows freshman Democratic Congressman Tom Perriello (D-Va.) to examine "the president's failure to connect with ordinary Americans." (March 15, 2010)

Primary Documents

Health Reform Details
WhiteHouse.gov summarizes the key elements of the health care legislation. Find answers there about what health care reform might mean for you.

Bipartisan Meeting on Health Reform
Video of Obama's Blair House Summit that was televised live Feb. 25, 2010. Watch the entire meeting in five parts.

Health Care Overhaul
View the entire May 5, 2009 Senate Finance Committee hearing, chaired by Sen. Max Baucus, which included AHIP president and CEO Karen Ignagni, and was interrupted by the protests and arrests of liberal activists.

Lobbying & Money

Lobbying & Deal Making
Excerpts from the interviews conducted for this FRONTLINE report.

Sunlight Foundation
This organization is a leader in tracking the ties between Congress and lobbyists. Examine blog reports on the White House's deal with the pharmaceutical industry, a map of Sen. Max Baucus' connections to health industries, and a graphic that shows how much money Baucus has received via "contribution clusters."

The Money Fighting Health Care Reform
Michael Tomasky analyzes the money connections between government and the health insurance lobby and asks, "Is Congress capable of passing major, progressive domestic legislation anymore?" (The New York Review of Books, April 8, 2010)

The Operator
Jonathan Cohn's profile of American Health Insurance Plans [AHIP] president Karen Ignagni, "the most influential health-industry lobbyist." He asks, "Can we trust the insurance industry? Or, at least, can we work with it?" (The New Republic, July 1, 2009)

Under the Influence
This 2007 report by 60 Minutes examines the pharmaceutical lobby's influence in Washington using Billy Tauzin's Medicare Part D bill -- and his later work as the president of PhRMA -- as examples of how the deal making really works.

Criticism of the Bill

What Real Health Reform Should Look Like
In the weeks leading up to the House vote, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) published this op-ed warning that the bill does not address skyrocketing health care costs, nor will it reduce the deficit. (The Washington Post, March 15, 2010)

Now The Real Health Care Fight Begins
In this piece for Politico, two historians examine the repeal of the Medicare Catastrophic Coverage Act of 1988 after the public soured on the bill, and warn that there's "no guarantee this reform will stick." (March 30, 2010)

The Future After Health Care
"Are we now in a world where there is absolutely no recourse to the tyranny of the majority?" asks libertarian blogger Megan McCardle. "Republicans and other opponents of the bill did their job on this; they persuaded the country that they didn't want this bill. And that mattered basically not at all." (The Atlantic, March 21, 2010)

Business Rallies Against Health Overhaul as Obama Signs Bill
In the lead-up to the midterm elections, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce plans spend $50 million in advertising against the new health care bill. (The Wall Street Journal, March 30, 2010)

Waterloo
Here is conservative strategist David Frum's infamous post from the day the House passed the Senate's health care bill. "A huge part of the blame for today's disaster attaches to conservatives and Republicans ourselves," he writes. (FrumForum, March 21, 2010)

Side Effects
Here, The Foundry, a blog published by the conservative think tank, The Heritage Foundation, examines the effects of some of the details in the health care legislation.

Ongoing Coverage of Health Care

The Treatment
Jonathan Cohn's must-read blog on health care reform for The New Republic contains entries by guest experts and by Cohn, who is a leading journalist covering health care politics and policy-making.

Prescriptions: Making Sense of the Health Care Debate
Updates from the New York Times blog on health care reform and answers to readers' questions about the new legislation, including "Will Employer Plans Have to Meet Higher Standards?" and "How Many People Can Sign up for the New Plan?".

Also check out their portal page on health care reform.

Health Care Rx
This blog from The Washington Post , moderated by Ceci Connolly, offers "ongoing, online dialogue about the present health system and ideas for fixing it." She poses weekly a new question, with experts in health care area weighing in. You can also take this interactive quiz to find out what the new bill might mean for you and your family.

Health Blog
An ongoing look at the business of health, from The Wall Street Journal.