Join the Spirit of '76 Bookstore at the Abbot Public Library for a discussion, Q&A, and book signing with David Shactman, one of the authors of this landmark work.
Altman and Shactman look at key moments in health care history: the Hill-Burton Act, in which one determined poverty lawyer secured the rights of the uninsured poor to get hospital care; the “three-layer cake” strategy of Wilbur Mills to enact Medicare and Medicaid under Lyndon Johnson; the odd story of how Medicare catastrophic insurance was passed by Ronald Reagan and then repealed because of public anger; the story of how the largest and most expensive expansion of Medicare was enacted by George W. Bush. President Barack Obama is the protagonist in the climactic chapter, learning from the successes and failures chronicled throughout the narrative. The authors relate how, in the midst of a worldwide financial meltdown, Obama overcame seemingly impossible obstacles to accomplish what other presidents had tried and failed for nearly a hundred years. This book is essential reading for every American who someday must navigate the US health care system.
“In this level-headed look at health care policy, Altman and Shactman tease out the paradoxes from the politics. . . . The alphabet soup of health care jargon is made more palatable by a convenient glossary and a light sprinkling of anecdotes involving Altman’s late mother who once asked: ‘Who designed this crazy system?’ This eminently accessible study offers the answers.” — Publishers Weekly
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David Shactman is a freelance writer who was a senior fellow at the Schneider Institute for Health Policy at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management, Brandeis University, and worked with Stuart Altman for eleven years. During that time, he was coeditor of two books: Policies for an Aging Society (with Stuart Altman) and Regulating Managed Care (with Stuart Altman and Uwe E. Reinhardt). He has also written numerous articles published in peer-reviewed journals and trade magazines, including Health Affairs and the New England Journal of Medicine.
