About two years ago, journalist Steven Brill offered a blockbuster story in Time Magazine on why Americans' medical bills are so high. He's now followed that up with a new book released Monday explaining why he doesn't believe Obamacare will change that. <\/p>\n
Brill's book, \"America's Bitter Pill,\"details the backroom deals that allowed the Affordable Care Act to become law, why HealthCare.gov was such a mess when it launched in October, and why he believes the law won't do anything to keep health care costs from running wild. His assessment: the deals Democrats struck with industry to get the law passed ensured that the flawed system would remain intact. <\/p>\n
Brill also details in his own frustrations with the health-care system when he underwent open-heart surgery during the reporting of his book, and people who's lives have been changed because of the ACA. And he closes with a vision for what he thinks health-care should look like. Below is a transcript of our conversation Monday morning, edited for brevity and clarity. <\/p>\n
JM: This book dives into the process that led to the passage of the Affordable Care Act about five years after it became law. What lessons do you hope can be taken away from this account? <\/p>\n
SB: The whole process by which Washington attempted to tackle and fix the largest industry and the most important industry in the country is really emblematic of how Washington works and doesn't work. What I realized as I was doing the first piece for Time Magazine and what I realized in spades as I was reporting this book was that the only way legislation this big, this important can possibly come out of Washington is if the most important group of special interest lobbyists say that it can. <\/p>\n
The basic deal that the Obama administration and the Democrats in the Senate had to make was we'll get more coverage for people. But we'll get more coverage for people at the same high prices that allow the drug companies to be so profitable, that allow the non-profit hospitals to be so profitable, that allow the device-makers to be so profitable and that is the result that is Obamacare. <\/p>\n
So the good news is this couple I interviewed in Kentucky who hadn't had access to doctors in years suddenly had access to health care. The bad news is that you and I and all the other taxpayers are paying the same high prices for that health care that dominated and completely screwed up the system in the first place. <\/p>\n
Is it too cynical to say that deal-making with industry is just what happens when you want to pass major legislation? <\/p>\n
When the lobbying behind the industries that are affected by that legislation spends four times as much as the next largest industry when it comes to lobbying, which is the military industrial complex, this is what you get. The second sort of theme through the book is Washington not only is dominated by money, but it's dominated by a kind of partisanship which I think is also the result of too much money going into primaries and gerrymandering and everything else. The third overriding theme of the book is not only is Washington beset by money and by partisan politics, but it's also beset by a lack of attention being paid to the sheer competence of the government. We all missed the story, me included, in the run-up to the [Healthcare.Gov] launch. The Web site was a train wreck two or three years in the making. <\/p>\n
Why do you think the administration missed this? <\/p>\n
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Wonkblog: Steven Brill: Obamacare wont lower Americas health-care bill, but it was still worth it<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" About two years ago, journalist Steven Brill offered a blockbuster story in Time Magazine on why Americans' medical bills are so high. Continue reading