In recent installments of this series, we have employed the metaphor of horse racing’s Triple Crown to describe the challenges faced by the Affordable Care Act. The ACA, known perhaps more widely as ObamaCare, became law in 2010, but in many ways it has faced even greater challenges over the past twelve months. The first test… full story HERE »

Well after midnight in the early hours of November 7, 2012, President Barack Obama strode on stage at McCormick Place in Chicago. America’s First Lady was radiant. Their daughters, having grown so much and so beautifully in four years, joined them with grace and poise. His audience, representing the new diversity of the nation, felt relief…. full story HERE »

When this series of commentaries began, almost four years ago, there was no specific conclusion in sight, just a challenge to tell the story of a major public policy debate in America, as it unfolded, from the perspectives of competitive politics and through an analysis of policy choices, hopefully comprehensible to the informed reader.

We found more… full story HERE »

On June 28, 2012, two dozen colleagues were gathered in a Washington conference room to await the Supreme Court’s ruling on the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act. There were Democrats, independents, and disaffected Republicans gathered together in the knowledge that history was to happen in the next hour. A few friends of the group had… full story HERE »

For the balance of 2012, health care reform in the United States has to run a political Triple Crown. The Affordable Care Act or ACA, though the term “ObamaCare” is now generally accepted by both sides, is a remarkable beast, but each leg of the race will test its strength and endurance. The first test will… full story HERE »

This series of commentaries now enters its fourth year in a continuing effort to achieve two goals. First, we hope that lay readers are provided insight on the latest efforts toward health care reform in the United States. Second, we hope that through the lens of health care reform those same readers can contextualize the competing… full story HERE »

In this ongoing analysis of health care reform, we took a brief diversion (La Cuadra, Volume V, Issue 4, July / August 2011) to look at the political context in which the debate takes place. And we’re proud to note that we spotted the ascendant Herman Cain phenomenon early on (slightly after Jon Stewart, but… full story HERE »

Presidential candidate Herman Cain, at the Family Leader Presidential Lecture Series in Pella, Iowa, promised that in his Administration no congressional bill longer than three pages would be signed into law. It’s on YouTube, if you want to see it. If he is elected president, he will only pass “small bills” that “you’ll have time… full story HERE »

The Spring 2011 version of the health care debate has taken on the look of Russian matryoshka dolls, although one measures the risk of conspiracy theory in even mentioning the term. Health reform has become nested within a broader debate about Federal deficits and national debt, which, in turn, is nested in an emerging debate… full story HERE »

As Barack Obama stepped to the microphone, Joe Biden, with a stage whisper said, “This is a big deal.” He added an expletive for emphasis. And a big deal it was. Our endless health care debate had somehow become law.

At least six twentieth-century Presidents had advanced comprehensive health care reform. All had failed.

President Lyndon Johnson’s… full story HERE »