In Steven Brill’s new book, America’s Bitter Pill: Money, Politics, Backroom Deals, and the Fight to Fix Our Broken Healthcare System, he argues that the controversial Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, will eventually become unaffordable because it doesn’t fix the biggest problem of all — the high cost of healthcare. In the book and during an interview with 60 Minutes’ Lesley Stahl (January 11 at 8pm on CBS), Brill explains that “Obamacare is the product of heavy lobbying and backroom deals in which just about everyone came out ahead except taxpayers.”
Brill explains to Stahl: “The good news is more people are getting health care. The bad news–there’s absolutely no way we’re going to be able to pay for it.” The high prices of care haven’t changed so the drug companies, hospitals and device-makers continue to be profitable. Brill writes not just as a top-notch journalist who has access to President Obama and the CEOs of the most profitable insurance companies but also as a patient who recently received a very costly bill after undergoing open heart surgery. He told the Washington Post: “I learned about the fear and confusion of being a patient in a very personal way. And what that really taught me is anyone who thinks providing health-care consumers with better information about pricing and quality — all of which is important — but anyone who thinks that’s going to solve the problem just doesn’t understand just how different health care is.”
