--- title: Health Care Bill: Senate Historian Says Unusually Secret description: The level of secrecy in crafting the Senate's health care bill has not been seen since before World War I, according to a Senate historian. canonical: https://time.com/4825313/health-care-bill-history/ author: Jack Brewster article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-06-20T18:57:09.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-08T09:19:20.052Z article:section: Politics og:title: The Retired Senate Historian Said the Health Care Law Breaks With a Century of Tradition og:description: On transparency. og:url: https://time.com/4825313/health-care-bill-history/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6eb7456c9bed8c6a/6988d1f0bc6cfcb44b3e1de5/170615-senate-health-bill-mitch-mcconnell.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2100 og:image:height: 1181 og:image:alt: 170615-senate-health-bill-mitch-mcconnell og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Retired Senate Historian Said the Health Care Law Breaks With a Century of Tradition twitter:description: On transparency. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6eb7456c9bed8c6a/6988d1f0bc6cfcb44b3e1de5/170615-senate-health-bill-mitch-mcconnell.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The Retired Senate Historian Said the Health Care Law Breaks With a Century of Tradition > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=902bfc5b-79eb-406d-a95a-6989651e71eb&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Mitch McConnell and Senate Republicans Reveal Their Largely Guarded Health-Care Bill [Watch (HLS stream): Mitch McConnell and Senate Republicans Reveal Their Largely Guarded Health-Care Bill](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/BrrUguOQ.m3u8) (1:24)  _Published 2017-06-22. Senate Republicans released their long-awaited bill Thursday to dismantle much of Barack Obama's health care law_ by [Jack Brewster](https://time.com/author/jack-brewster/) ## Jack Brewster Jun 20, 2017 6:57 PM UTC Senate Republicans released their long-awaited bill Thursday to dismantle much of Barack Obama's health care law by [Jack Brewster](https://time.com/author/jack-brewster/) ## Jack Brewster Jun 20, 2017 6:57 PM UTC The level of secrecy in crafting the Senate’s health care bill has not been seen since before World War I, according to esteemed Senate historian emeritus Donald Ritchie. Ritchie, [who worked in the Senate Historical Office for nearly four decades](https://origin-nyi.thehill.com/homenews/senate/234819-senate-historian-donald-ritchie-to-retire), told the [_Los Angeles_ _Times_](http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-republicans-obamacare-secrecy-20170616-story.html) that the upper chamber has not drafted such a major piece of legislation behind closed doors since a tariff reform effort during the presidency of Woodrow Wilson. He added that Senate Democrats tried the move again during the Great Depression, but they were derailed when rank-and-file senators were unwilling to go along with the maneuver. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has said there is nothing out of the ordinary about the way Republicans are working on the bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act. “Nobody’s hiding the ball here,” [he said recently](http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-republicans-obamacare-secrecy-20170616-story.html). “You’re free to ask anybody anything.” Still, Senate [Democrats](http://time.com/4824687/health-care-senate-speeches-democrats/) and even some Republicans have said the current process is not transparent, especially compared with the [nearly 15 months](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/15/us/politics/secrecy-surrounding-senate-health-bill-raises-alarms-in-both-parties.html?%5Fr=0) of debate that preceded passage of the Affordable Care Act. ## Transcript We agreed on the [ UNKNOWN ] to free America from Obama care's mandates and policies contained in the discussion [ UNKNOWN ] we'll repel the individual mandate so Americans are no longer forced to buy insurance they don't need or can't afford. We'll repel the employer mandate so that Americans no longer see their hours and take home pay cut by employers. Because of it. It eliminate costly Obamacare taxes that are passed on to consumers, so we can put downward pressure on premiums, expand tax- free health savings account, and deploy targeted tax credits so we we can help defray out- of- pocket costs And shift power from Washington to the states so they have more flexibility to provide more Americans with the kind of affordable insurance options they actually want. Obamacare isn't working, by nearly any measure it has failed and no amount of 11th hour reality denying, or buck passing by Democrats is going to change the fact. That more Americans are going to get hurt unless we do something. I regret that our Democratic friends made clear early on that they did not want to work with us in a serious bipartisan way to address the Obamacare status quo. But Republicans believe we have a responsibility to act and we are. For our constituents, for our states, and for our country. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4825313/health-care-bill-history/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4825313/health-care-bill-history/"},"headline":"The Retired Senate Historian Said the Health Care Law Breaks With a Century of Tradition","datePublished":"2017-06-20T18:57:09.000Z","dateModified":"2026-10-08T09:19:20.052Z","description":"The level of secrecy in crafting the Senate's health care bill has not been seen since before World War I, according to a Senate historian.","url":"https://time.com/4825313/health-care-bill-history/","keywords":["Congress","Health Care","Obamacare","History","Affordable Care Act","ACA","Mitch McConnell","AHCA"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6eb7456c9bed8c6a/6988d1f0bc6cfcb44b3e1de5/170615-senate-health-bill-mitch-mcconnell.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jack Brewster","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/jack-brewster/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6eb7456c9bed8c6a/6988d1f0bc6cfcb44b3e1de5/170615-senate-health-bill-mitch-mcconnell.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"170615-senate-health-bill-mitch-mcconnell","caption":"170615-senate-health-bill-mitch-mcconnell","creditText":"J. 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