Ni5: Perspectives

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A hero you never heard of

Date: 2015-Feb-12 Author: Barry Shatzman

It's rare to get personal here, but Lobby99 just lost one its secret heroes.

We're currently in the process of writing about the latest attempts to dismantle the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The current case before the Supreme Court - King v Burwell - might be one of the weirdest cases the court ever has dealt with, as you soon will see.

As usual, when stumped on a subtle concept that we wanna make sure we get right, i turned to Peter Harbage.

I met Peter about eight years ago when he gave a presentation at a health journalism fellowship i attended. We kept in loose contact ever since. Conflicts of interest kept Peter from official affiliations with Lobby99, but he always was there when something needed explaining.

Here's the first story Peter helped me with.. when i wrote about California's attempt to establish a single-payer health care system.

When i emailed him a few questions today, the last thing i was expecting to learn was that he died last week. Making that the first response to a question for him that i don't understand.

You can read more about Peter here.