The elections are over and President Obama has won an historic second term. The Affordable Care Act—yes, Obamacare—is here to stay, even if some Republican lawmakers are still in denial.
The Affordable Care Act is a huge, sprawling, encompassing piece of legislation that forces some people to find health care coverage of pay a fine, forces states to open competitive marketplaces, and brings literally tens of millions of new clients to the health-care-insurance industry. It is a piece of fundamental social architecture, like the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Social Security, and Medicare. Those all seem to be working for Americans, and so will the ACA.
For a brief and excellent tour through the details and opportunities the ACA brings, pick up a copy of Health Care Reform: What It Is, Why It’s Necessary, How It Works. This excellent little volume was put together by Jonathan Gruber, who worked on the ACA and before that helped write the Massachusetts health care reform act upon which the ACA was based.
Prodded by the book’s success and continuing relevance, our publisher, Hill & Wang, is exploring the possibility of adding new material to the book’s next printing. (It has already been back to press three times.) Professor Gruber, his writing partner HP Newquist, and illustrator extraordinaire Nathan Schreiber stand ready to take another dip into the health care reform pool and provide new and important information about what kicks in, when, and how it affects everyone. I always thought the book should have a sequel but it seemed apparent it could only be a stand-alone volume. Now, it has a chance to become its own sequel.
Kudos and congratulations to writer Dwight Jon Zimmerman and illustrator Wayne Vansant. Their latest book for Z File, The Hammer and the Anvil: Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln and the End of Slavery in America has just been nominated for inclusion in the YALSA Top Ten Graphic Novels of the Year list. YALSA is the Young Adult Library Services Association, an extraordinarily important group of dedicated men and women who review all young-adult works and recommend a chosen few to teachers, librarians, and kids across the country.
Dwight and Wayne’s previous volume, The Vietnam War: A Graphic History also received a YALSA nomination, in 2009, as well as a Gold Medal award from the Military Writers Society of America.