You read about it here first. Maybe. From BHN 7/15.
The Heart of Power: Health and Politics in the Oval Office starts with FDR and looks at how each recent president approached health reform. Lyndon Johnson was “the most effective health care president in American history,” according to the authors, Brown historian James A. Morone and Obama advisor David Blumenthal. In studying how Johnson got Medicare passed and why the others made so little progress, they offer a list of lessons on how to get it done. Evidence-based health reform?
From the Times review — by economist Robert B. Reich — which runs in tomorrow’s book review:
The book was written before President Obama began his push for universal health care, but he seems to have anticipated many of its lessons. He’s moved as quickly on the issue as this terrible economy has let him, and he has outlined his goals but left most details to Congress. Nor has he been too rattled by naysaying economists (although the cost estimates of the Congressional Budget Office set him back). The question remains whether, in the months ahead, he can knock Congressional heads together to clinch a meaningful deal, and overcome those who inevitably feed public fears about a “government takeover” of health care and of budget-busting future expenditures. “The Heart of Power” suggests that the odds are not in his favor.
Boston Health News 