title: America's Bitter Pill: Money, Politics, Backroom Deals, and the Fight to Fix Our Broken Healthcare System
author:  Steven Brill 
description: A tour de force . . . a comprehensive and suitably furious guide to the political landscape of American healthcare . . . persuasive, shocking.<b><i>The New York Times</i> </b><br /><br />An energetic, picaresque, narrative explanation of much of what has happened in the last seven years of health policy . . . [Steven Brill] has pulled off something extraordinarya thriller about market structure, government organization and billing practices.<b><i>The New York Times Book Review</i></b><br /> <br />A thunderous indictment of what Brill refers to as the toxicity of our profiteer-dominated healthcare system . . .For its insights into our nations fiscal, psychological and corporeal healthand for our own long-term social well-beingit is a book that deserves to be read and discussed widely by anyone interested in the politics and policy of healthcare.<b><i>Los Angeles Times</i></b><br /><br />A sweeping and spirited new book [that] chronicles the surprisingly juicy tale of reform. . . [Brills] book brims with unconventional insight delivered in prose completely uninfected by the worn out tropes and tired lingo of the Sunday shows.<b><i>The Daily Beast</i></b><br /><b><i></i></b><br />This is one of the most important books of our time. Through revealing personal stories, dogged political reporting, and clear analysis, it makes the battle over Obamas healthcare plan come alive and shows why it matters. It should be required reading for anyone who cares about our healthcare system.<b>Walter Isaacson</b><br /><br />Superb . . . Brill has achieved the seemingly impossiblewritten an exciting book about the American health system.<b><i>The</i> <i>New York Review of Books</i></b><br /><br />[An] ambitious new history of the Affordable Care Act.<b>Malcolm Gladwell, <i>The New Yorker</i></b><br /><br />Steven Brills new book about the process of passing the Affordable Care Act is so meticulously reported, I found myself surprised by many details of a process I myself was deeply involved in. . . . Brill has written an outstanding book about the administrations efforts to pass Obamacare. Now it is up to the administration to prove him wrong about what the legislation does to the trajectory of health-care costs.<b>Peter R. Orszag, <i>Bloomberg View</i></b><br /> <b><i></i></b><br />Brills book performs an admirable job of getting behind the scenes. . . . [A] state-of-the-nation account of the broken U.S. healthcare system and Obamas partially successful attempt to heal it.<b><i>The National</i></b><br /><br />A landmark study, filled with brilliant reporting and insights, that shows how government really worksor fails to work.<b>Bob Woodward</b><br /> <br /> <i>Americas Bitter Pill</i> is deeply impressive, an important diagnosis of what America needs to know if were ever to develop a healthcare system that is fair, efficient, and effective.<b>Tom Brokaw</b><br /> <br />In <i>Americas Bitter Pill,</i> Steven Brill brilliantly ties together not only the saga of Obamacare, but also the larger story of our dysfunctional healthcare system and its disastrous impact on both businesses and ordinary Americans. In a gripping narrative, his thorough reporting is made all the more powerful by his own scary experience looking up from a gurney.<b>Arianna Huffington</b><br /><br /><br /><i>From the Hardcover edition.</i>
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  ![](images/Bril_9780812996968_epub_tp_r1.jpg)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _America’s Bitter Pill_ is a work of nonfiction.
  
  
  Copyright © 2015 by Brill Journalism Enterprises, LLC
  
  
  All rights reserved.
  
  
  Published in the United States by Random House, an imprint and division of
  Random House LLC, a Penguin Random House Company, New York.
  
  
  RANDOM HOUSE and the HOUSE colophon are registered trademarks of Random House
  LLC.
  
  
  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data  
  Brill, Steven.  
  America’s bitter pill : money, politics, backroom deals, and the fight to fix
  our broken healthcare system / Steven Brill.  
  pages cm  
  Includes index.  
  ISBN 978-0-8129-9695-1  
  eBook ISBN 978-0-8129-9696-8  
  1\. Health care reform—United States. 2. Medical policy—United States. 3.
  Health insurance—Law and legislation—United States. 4. Compulsory health
  insurance—Law and legislation—United States. 5. United States. Patient
  Protection and Affordable Care Act. 6. United States—Politics and
  govern