Review by Choice Review
This book reviews health advocacy and legislation over the prior century and a half related to the passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010. It relies primarily on brief narrative accounts from a policy perspective rather than the familiar frameworks of history, political science, sociology, or economics. By eschewing theoretical structure or extensive documentation, the presentation can sometimes seem somewhat truncated, and the text occasionally drifts into a partisan perspective that identifies good and bad actors rather than the multiple agendas that typically contend during legislative passage. A primary focus on inequities and disparities is a strength and a weakness in addressing the complex backstory of the most comprehensive health legislation of the last 50 years. The passage of "Obamacare" is reported in detail from an insider's perspective. There are extensive endnotes, yet much of the narrative relies on judgments, observations, or opinions by the author. Hence the book will appeal to those who wish to read at length about the daily topics, events, and fly-on-the-wall reflections of a staffer and advocate involved in this process. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty. --Thomas E. Getzen, iHEA and Temple University
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
