Stuart Altman - Power, politics, and universal health care : the inside story of a century-long battle

A century of history requires an enormous breadth of research and a herculean effort to distill it into a three-hundred-page narrative. Many of our topics involve settled history in which previous analysts and historians have devoted entire books to just one part of one of our chapters. Hence, we relied on many excellent texts as well as original sources and personal interviews. We have diligently tried to acknowledge all of our sources, but inevitably the insights and analyses of previous writers were bound to influence our thinking. We want to specifically acknowledge a few texts on which we heavily relied. In the Nixon chapter (and to a lesser extent elsewhere), we relied on The Heart of Power by David Blumenthal and James Morone. Haynes Johnson and David Broder's book The System, about the Clinton health plan, was an extraordinary example of historical journalism and we cited it frequently. For early history, we often consulted Paul Starr's Pulitzer Prizewinning book, The Social Transformation of American Medicine. The Medicare saga produced two outstanding books: Ted Marmor's The Politics of Medicare and Richard Harris's A Sacred Trust. Ted also met with us and was generous with his time and ideas.

We also benefitted from the work of David Smith's Paying for Medicare: The Politics of Reform and Rick Mayes and Robert Berenson's Medicare's Prospective Payment and the Shaping of US Health Care. We relied on Richard Himelfarb's book, The Rise and Fall of the Medicare Catastrophic Coverage Act of 1988. Finally, our Brandeis colleague Michael Doonan counseled us on the Health Insurance Portability and Accessibility Act and the State Children's Health Insurance Program. He also provided his excellent dissertation, American Federalism and Contemporary Health Policy. We can only hope that our research will be as valuable to future writers as theirs were to ours.

We also want to express our appreciation for those who agreed to share their insights and recollections in personal interviews. A list is provided in the end material at the back of the book. Our special thanks go to Chip Kahn, who was always helpful and who generously devoted his time for numerous interviews.

Our literary agent, Jason Ashlock of Movable Type Literary Group, offered us wise counsel and connected us with our publisher, Prometheus Books. We are grateful to Stuart's nephew Bennett Kleinberg who helped link us up with Jason and to Steve Rivkin for his advice and support for the project. Our final product reflects the efforts and expertise of the people at Prometheus, and we particularly thank Steven L. Mitchell, Ian Birnbaum, and Mariel Bard for their diligent work.

As academics, we were fortunate to have the assistance of some very able Brandeis University PhD students. We owe a debt of gratitude to Saleema Moore and Jeff Sussman, part of the next generation of thinkers who will confront the challenges of our complex health care system. We are both appreciative of Ann Cummings, who provided assistance and advice throughout the project.

On a more personal level, Stuart would like to thank his wife, Diane, and daughters Beth, Renee, and Heather for their love and support for so many years as he traveled frequently to Washington and asked them to pick up their lives several times and move across the country. Stuart will always carry a heartfelt appreciation for his mother, Florence, now departed, for her love of life and for prodding him to make Medicare a better program for its beneficiaries. Sustaining a two-year task with an uncertain reward is difficult, and David is thankful for the two people who have been most inspirational in his life: his wife, Ellen Wright, who, after reading drafts and redrafts ad nauseam, is still his wisest editor, loving companion, and best friend; and his son, Brian, who carries a heartfelt passion for social justice.

Aaron, Henry, and Paul Ginsburg. Is Health Spending Excessive? If So, What Can We Do About It? Health Affairs 28, no. 5 (2009): 126075.

Aaron, Henry, and Robert Reischauer. The Medicare Reform Debate: What is the Next Step? Health Affairs 14, no. 4 (1995): 830.

Adams, Patricia, Kathleen Heyman, and Jackline Vickerie. Summary Health Statistics for the US Population: National Health Interview Survey, 2008. Vital Health Statistics 10, no. 243 (2009).

Almanac of Hospital Financial and Operating Indicators. Financial Indicators: Profitability Ratios, 2010 edition. http://www.ingenix.com/content/attachments/ALM.pdf.

Altman, Drew. Creating a National Health Planning System. Federal Health Programs. Edited by Stuart Altman and Harvey Sapoksly. Lexington, MA: Lexington Books, 1981.

Altman, Stuart. US Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. Present and Future Supply of Registered Nurses. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1971.

. Presentation at the Health Industry Forum, Brandeis University. American Hospital Association Survey Data 19802007.

Altman, Stuart, and Marc Rodman. Halfway Competitive Markets and Ineffective Regulation: The American Health Care System. Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law 13, no. 2 (1988): 32339.

Association of American Medical Colleges. Medicare Indirect Medical Education (IME) Payment. https://www.aamc.org/download/86186/data/moranime.pdf.

. Policy Brief: Physician Shortages to Worsen without Increases in Residency Training. June 2010. https://www.aamc.org/download/153160/data/physician_shortages_to_worsen_without_increases_in_residency_tr.pdf.

American Health Planning Association. Final Report on 1978 Survey of Health Planning Agencies. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1979.

American Hospital Association. Uncompensated Hospital Care Cost Fact Sheet. http://www.aha.org/aha/content/2008/pdf/08-uncompensated-care.pdf.

Amira, Dan. New Yorker Alan Frumin, Senate Parliamentarian, Back in the Hot Seat Once More. New Yorker Magazine, January 20, 2010. http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2010/01/new_yorker_alan_frumin_senate.html.

Atchinson, Brian, and Daniel Fox. The Politics of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. Health Affairs 16, no. 3 (1997): 14650.

Ball, Robert. Social Security Amendments of 1972: Summary and Legislative History. Social Security Bulletin 36, no. 3 (1972).

Bennefield, Robert. Current Population Reports: Health Insurance Coverage: 1996. http://www.census.gov/prod/3/97pubs/P60-199.pdf.

Blumberg, Linda, and Lisa Clemans-Cope. High-Deductible Health Plans with Health Savings Accounts: Emerging Evidence and Outstanding Issues. Urban Institute, http://www.urban.org/UploadedPDF/411833_health_saving_account.pdf.

Blumenthal, David, and James Morone. The Heart of Power: Health and Politics in the Oval Office. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2009.

Blumstein, James. Court Action, Agency Reaction: The HillBurton Act as a Case Study. Iowa Law Review 69, no. 1,227 (1984).

Brady, Tim, Barbie Robinson, and Tricia Davis. Office of Inspector General. Office of Evaluation and Inspections. Medicare Hospital Prospective Payment System: How DRG Rates Are Calculated and Updated. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 2001.

Brass, Clinton. Government Organization and Management, Congressional Research Service. Shutdown of the Federal Government: Causes, Processes, and Effects. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 2010.