Stuart Altman & David Shactman - Power, Politics, and Universal Health Care - Foreword John Kerry

[Mass]

http://www.amazon.com/Power-Politics-Universal-Health-Care/dp/1616144564/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1325352667&sr=8-1

I posted about this book a while ago, when John Kerry was doing a keynote address about it, but I just got my hand on it (3 month waiting list at your local library), and, while I have only read one third of it, it is a very worthwhile resource of the history of missed opportunities in healthcare reform in this country since the Nixon years, as well as what made Obama succeed. If you read only two pages, read the foreword, for Kerry, of course, but also because he describes Kennedy's philosophy to get progress (summarily summarized here): take what you can get, pass it into law, and then immediately start fighting back. This made me happy to read this because, quite often during this healthcare debate, I have been befuddled by both sizes: those who thought the law should be rejected because insufficient, and those who refused to address the smallest criticism way before the discussion was finished, and even now, where both success and limitations of this bill become apparent.

While this book will not satisfy those who want to hear only about how single payer is the only acceptable solution and anything else should be rejected, it is an interesting book about political process and how ideas take a long time to germinate and become law.

What I find more disturbing reading this book is that it seems that the US have become more regressive in these past 30 years. Without a moderate Republican party, and with the Democratic party welcoming into his house people who once were moderate Republicans, and now sometimes are seen as liberal Democrats, the pendulum's equilibrium seems to have switched radically to the right.