Whiplash: From the Battle for Obamacare to the War on Science
Author(s): David Blumenthal (Author), James A. Morone (Author)
- Publisher: Yale University Press
- Publication Date: March 24, 2026
- Language: English
- Print length: 352 pages
- ISBN-10: 0300263481
- ISBN-13: 9780300263480
Book Description
Based on extensive inside sources, a revealing account of how the Obama, Trump, and Biden administrations transformed both health care and politics in America
For nearly a century, every Democratic president―and many Republicans―entered office promising to restructure America’s health care system. Barack Obama finally broke through but, in the process, opened a tumultuous decade in which battles over health care dominated American politics. David Blumenthal and James A. Morone go behind the scenes to describe how three very different presidents―pursuing very different goals―maneuvered through the fraught politics of health care.
President Obama ended the century-long quest for reform but ignited a screaming culture war that blazed into the Trump administration and blew up during the COVID epidemic. President Trump, facing the greatest health crisis in a century, denied and dithered. Then he directed a medical triumph in Operation Warp Speed. He and President Biden, facing the pandemic’s devastation, mounted the most successful anti-poverty program in eighty years. But in the tumult, Trump launched a shattering new political war, not over coverage but over science itself.
Authoritative and gripping, this book describes the remarkable achievements of these years while also showing how respect for science clashed with scorn toward the deep state and left the nation unprepared for the next health crisis.
Editorial Reviews
Review
“U.S. presidents do more than shape U.S. policy. In many ways, they embody America and its hopes and aspirations. Blumenthal and Morone’s riveting new book is for everyone who watched the wars over health care, from the Affordable Care Act to COVID-19, play out on their television screens. It takes you behind the scenes and helps make sense of how these policies were made. From academics to regular folks interested in how health care has changed over the past fifteen years, this is a must read.”―Ashish Jha, Brown University School of Public Health
“
Whiplash is masterful in presenting life and decision-making within the offices of three successive and very different presidents through vivid storytelling that allows the reader to make an imaginative leap into those worlds. It offers both a zoom-in, detailed account of decision-making and a zoom-out, wide-angle perspective on how the decisions were shaped by broader, enduring currents in the American political psyche. The subject matter is gripping: momentous decisions on two issues of huge national significance.”―Carolyn Hughes Tuohy, author of Remaking Policy: Scale, Pace, and Political Strategy in Health Care ReformAbout the Author
David Blumenthal, professor of the practice of public health and health policy at Harvard University, is former national coordinator for Health Information Technology. James A. Morone is the John Hazen White Professor Emeritus of Political Science, Public Policy, and Urban Studies at Brown University.
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