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THE TEN YEAR WAR

Name: THE TEN YEAR WAR
Author: Jonathan Cohn
ISBN: 978-1-250-27093-1

OBAMACARE AND THE UNFINISHED CRUSADE FOR UNIVERSAL COVERAGE

by Jonathan Cohn ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 2021

A timely contribution to the literature on an urgent issue.

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In a book that took 10 years to research and write, journalist Cohn offers a thorough history of the persistent controversy over health care insurance in the U.S.

In other developed countries, writes the author, governments “are firmly in charge, using some form of taxes or mandatory premiums to finance benefits.” But the U.S. has seen an often vociferous debate “over what obligations society has to its most vulnerable members.” Cohn provides an informative overview of health coverage efforts beginning in the 1920s. Franklin Roosevelt, Truman, Kennedy, Johnson, and Carter all supported public health plans, but they faced opposition from private insurers and conservative politicians. In the 1980s, Ronald Reagan led that opposition as president, tapping into widespread anger over federal support programs. Bill Clinton’s efforts to devise a plan encountered opposition from multiple fronts, including within his own party. In 2006, as governor of Massachusetts, Mitt Romney instituted bold reforms that gave the state’s citizens better access to health care and increased financial security, a model that later inspired Obama’s plans for national health care. Nevertheless, in 2010, Scott Brown won election as senator from Massachusetts by attacking Romney’s measure “as a corrupt, secretive exercise by political insiders.” Cohn traces the fraught development of the Affordable Care Act, the controversy and compromises that led to its passage, and the continuing debate. Republican opposition, he asserts, began immediately after the law was signed on March 23, 2010, and became a rallying cry for Trump and his supporters. “At its core,” Cohn writes, “universal health care is all about common strength in common vulnerability. It’s a recognition that anybody can get sick or injured—that, by pooling resources together, everybody will be safe. It’s the same exact concept as Social Security and Medicare, and why the party responsible for them has spent nearly a century trying to extend health care guarantees to the rest of the population.”

A timely contribution to the literature on an urgent issue.

Pub Date: Feb. 23, 2021

ISBN: 978-1-250-27093-1

Page Count: 416

Publisher: St. Martin's

Review Posted Online: Nov. 25, 2020

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2020

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PATHOLOGICAL

THE TRUE STORY OF SIX MISDIAGNOSES

by Sarah Fay ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 15, 2022

A provocative and original examination of the flaws in mental health treatment.

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Fay's incisive, wide-ranging debut explores her decadeslong immersion in the mental health system.

Beginning when she was a teenager, Fay was diagnosed with six different mental illnesses, sometimes one by one, sometimes in combination, and often based on the skimpiest of evidence. Therapists and physicians concluded that she was suffering from anorexia, major depressive disorder, anxiety disorder, ADHD, OCD, and bipolar disorder. They prescribed medications accordingly, and Fay dutifully swallowed both the diagnoses and the pills—and then found it nearly impossible to extricate herself from either. The narrative, justifiably soaked with anger but also darkly funny at points, does not follow the course of the usual mental health memoir, in which the subject finally receives and responds to the “correct” analysis of her problems and lives happily-ever-after. Instead, Fay, still troubled, still medicated, stepped out of the loop of therapy and began to refute its basic tenets. The author boldly combines three strands: an account of her trip down the rabbit hole of the mental health system, where she tried valiantly to persuade herself to accept diagnoses that didn’t seem to correspond to her actual life; a dynamic critique of the various incarnations of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, which serves as a guidebook for many clinicians; and, unexpectedly but beguilingly, analyses of the ways punctuation can reveal and structure thought. While criticism of the DSM is not new, Fay's position as an insider suffering from the results of its application as a method of analysis gives her a unique perspective. Sharply personal and impeccably detailed, the book is bound to raise questions in the minds of readers diagnosed with any number of disorders about the validity of trying to cram individual experience into what Fay contends are essentially imaginary categories.

A provocative and original examination of the flaws in mental health treatment.

Pub Date: March 15, 2022

ISBN: 978-0-06-306868-1

Page Count: 320

Publisher: HarperOne

Review Posted Online: Jan. 10, 2022

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2022

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THE QUEST FOR COSMIC JUSTICE

by Thomas Sowell ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 1999

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A cosmic straw man is vanquished in the fight against dangerous ideals such as social justice and equality. This is not the place to look for original ideas or honest analysis. Presumably, Sowell’s (Migrations and Cultures, 1996, etc.) goal is to entertain those who share his convictions rather than convince open-minded readers, and this audience will be pleased. “Cosmic justice” is presented as a fundamental departure from the “traditional” conception of justice, which Sowell claims has the “characteristic of a process,” rather than of a particular outcome. He conveniently forgets to mention that this “tradition” dates back only to the emergence of liberal-democratic states and that contrasting notions of procedural vs. substantive justice remain the subject of lively debate. Admitting legitimate disagreement over even something as slippery as justice would soften the blows he aims at those who think inequality and any associated oppression raises concerns a just society should address, and Sowell is not one to temper a political argument simply to maintain intellectual integrity. He is not straightforwardly defending inequality, of course, but rather is pursuing the familiar strategy of attacking measures that could alleviate it. Sowell, a fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford, boldly asserts that those who believe equality should be pursued through public policy “assume that politicizing inequality is free of costs and dangers.” No names are mentioned, and it is indeed hard to imagine that anyone would believe there are no costs or dangers. By stating the issue in terms of extremes, however, he ducks the real issue—the challenge of weighing costs and benefits—and avoids the need for incorporating any subtlety into his discussion. Confronted with such disingenuous blather, readers may find Sowell’s criticism of others applies well to Sowell himself: “To explain the levels of dogmatism and resistance to facts found in too many writings . . . it is necessary to explore what purposes are served by these visions.”