Getting It Done: How Obama and Congress Finally Broke the Stalemate to Make Way for Health Care Reform

by Tom Daschle, David Nather

Senator Tom Daschle's narrative of what went on behind the scenes in the making of the new health care legislation delivers a powerful lesson in the workings of American politics.

The evolution of health care reform was drawn-out, frustrating, and complicated, but Senator Tom Daschle is the ideal person to recount the process. His account will guide you through the entire story, from the earliest presidential campaign debates -- and his firsthand experiences in the Obama team -- through the battles on Capitol Hill to solve our most serious health care problems. Not simply a book about policy, Daschle's narrative describes in vivid detail how fragile the support in Congress was at every step of the way, as well as the frantic efforts to design a rescue strategy before time ran out.

Combining his insights as a health care expert and his political expertise, this is the inside story about how the new legislation came from the persistence of President Obama to the subsequent efforts--and counter efforts--within the Senate and the House. In Daschle's hands, this becomes a dramatic personal story and a remarkable lesson in politics at the highest level.

Genres: Politics, Health Care, Current Affairs, Nonfiction

368 pages, Hardcover

First published October 12, 2010

About the author

Thomas Andrew Daschle is a former U.S. Senator from South Dakota and Senate Majority Leader. He is a member of the Democratic Party. He is currently a Special Policy Advisor at the law firm Alston & Bird, visiting professor at the Georgetown Public Policy Institute at Georgetown University, a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress, and a Richard von Weizsäcker Distinguished Visitor at the American Academy in Berlin, Germany.

Reviews

[Natalie]

A little bird told me that the research and fact checking here was impeccable!

[Douglas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Healthcare is expensive and complicated by nature. The CEO of Starbucks reported the company spent more money insuring their employees than they did on coffee. A Pew survey in May of 2009 found 89 % of American thought the “government needed to do more to make healthcare more affordable and accessible.” Among those same participants 46 % were concerned the government was getting too involved in healthcare. This means anyone who set out to work on healthcare reform legislation would have an uphill battle and be an easy target from the opposing party. Tom Daschle looks at the need for healthcare reform in the first section of the book. Then he looks at the negotiations that took place. He is bias in favor of the legislation. However he does address mistakes that were made and spends a lot of time examining why this legislation did not go far enough.

[Aaron Hubbard · Rating 4 out of 5]

The read this book for my US Health Care Policy class. Its focus is on Obama's health care reform and the events that led to him signing the bill. There is good information on the legislative process. You gain insights on how hard it is to get things done in Washington. This book gives you a good idea of where health care is going in the future. As health care spending is about 20% of GDP it is good for everyone to be informed about the reforms being made.

On the bad side Daschle uses this book as kind of an autobiography to smooth over some of his personal problems. His problems with taxes is mentioned a couple of times which is irrelevant to health care reform and should have been left out.

[Rk Wild · Rating 3 out of 5]

The intended design, and the politically acceptable modifications, of a legislative health care reform effort (code-named "Obama Care") as described by an ex-Senator insider.