Oops.

Author who debunked Obama's story about his mother having to fight with her insurance company doesn't want to talk.  According to Byron York:

Many authors of newly-published books are eager to discuss their work, especially if the book has made news. But Janny Scott, author of A Singular Woman: The Untold Story of Barack Obama's Mother, doesn't want to talk about what has become the most newsworthy part of her generally well-received new biography.


Scott, a former New York Times reporter, deserves praise for discovering that President Obama repeatedly misled voters during the 2008 campaign, and also during the 2009 health care debate, when he said that his mother, Ann Dunham, spent her final days fighting an insurance company that sought to deny payment for cancer treatment. Scott, who had access to many of Dunham's personal papers, discovered that Dunham, an anthropologist who spent most of her career in Indonesia, had health coverage that paid for her treatment for uterine and ovarian cancer, from which she died in 1995. "Ann's compensation for her job in Jakarta had included health insurance, which covered most of the costs of her medical treatment," Scott wrote. "Once she was back in Hawaii, the hospital billed her insurance company directly, leaving Ann to pay only the deductible and any uncovered expenses, which, she said, came to several hundred dollars a month."

And:

Nevertheless, after the Times story appeared, I got back in touch with the Penguin publicist. Since Scott had overcome her reluctance to talk, at least to the Times, perhaps she would be willing to talk now. "Thank you for contacting us again regarding Janny Scott," the publicist replied. "The author does not have any new information to add to the story."


Authors often know more than they include in books. They've done a lot of research, and the process of writing a book, even a long one, usually means leaving some things out. A Singular Woman is about Ann Dunham's entire life, and Dunham's dealings with insurance companies is just one small episode. Since Scott had correspondence outlining "the whole history of her medical crisis in the last year of her life," it seems likely there is more information about the insurance matter than the brief version that appears in the book. It might even be newsworthy, given that the president has talked about the issue in personal terms many, many times. But don't look to Janny Scott for any insights. She's not talking.

Scott seems to be afraid of saying anything critical of Obama.  When she was interviewed by Bill O'Reilly, after recounting how the president's father had been unfaithful and abandoned his American family, O'Reilly observed that Obama, Sr. seemed to have been an awful father.  Scott refused to be concede this point, saying that it was not her job to judge, although she made a number of pro-Obama judgment in the course of the interview.