Chronology of Recent Health Care Legislation

About the Book

Shortly after his inauguration in 2009, President Barack Obama put in motion an attempt to reform the health system in the United States.  Health care cost too much and didn't provide equal access to the system.  Reform had been attempted by previous administrations but failed for a variety of reasons.  However, President Obama gave health care reform priority, and the attempt succeeded after a year-long struggle that included serious debates about funding, government health insurance, and abortion.  Bipartisanship failed.  A chronological description of this struggle is important because we may soon launch attempts at reform in other areas (education, environment, monetary funds, immigration, etc.) and lessons learned, particularly with respect to bipartisanship, during the health care reform debate may by useful to other areas.   

About the Author

He was born and raised in Minnesota and had all his schooling in Minnesota, including training in internal medicine at the Mayo Clinic and a PhD in physiology from the University of Minnesota.  His entire career was spent in teaching and research, and he was a chairman of physiology for most of the period.  He lived in several states, most recently in Washington, DC, and during that time was a consultant to NASA life sciences research.  He has been married to his pediatrician wife for 64 years, and they have three children and seven grandchildren.  He and his wife moved to Rochester, Minnesota, ten years ago.  His special interests include painting acrylic landscapes, golfing, and attending Mayo Clinic seminars.  He also reviews papers for several medical journals.