100 Most Influential People in Healthcare – 2016

• Compensation: $400,000 - according to House Press Gallery
• Years on list: 10

The new president was facing America's biggest economic crisis since the Great Depression. Key advisers urged him to keep his focus on economic recovery. The opposition party signaled it would wage an all-out fight to block healthcare reform. And his own party was divided. But President Barack Obama charged ahead. "Now is the time to deliver on healthcare," he told Congress in September 2009. First, he pushed through a huge expansion of electronic health records as part of his 2009 economic stimulus package. Then, with stalwart help from congressional Democratic leaders, he won passage'barely, after a titanic political battle'of a healthcare overhaul that moved the country toward universal coverage.

Read the full story about why Obama tops the list.