Jonathan Cohn

Jonathan Scott Cohn (born 1969) is an American author and journalist who writes mainly on United States public policy and political issues. Formerly the executive editor of The American Prospect, a senior editor at The New Republic, and a senior national correspondent at The Huffington Post, in 2025 he began writing a newsletter, "The Breakdown", published by The Bulwark.

Early life and education Cohn was raised in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where he attended Pine Crest School. He went on to study at Harvard University, where he became president of The Harvard Crimson and graduated in 1991.

Cohn's writings have especially focused on social welfare and health care. He has been recognized in the pages of the Washington Post as "one of the nation's leading experts on health care policy" and in The New York Times as "one of the best health care writers out there".

Cohn is the author of the 2007 book, Sick: The Untold Story of America's Health Care Crisis - and the People Who Pay the Price (2007). In Sick, Cohn advocates for universal health insurance, financed by the government. It presents case studies that demonstrate how America's current system causes even many middle class Americans serious financial or medical hardship. It lays out a history of health insurance in America and points to the record of systems abroad, particularly in France. Cohn, getting his take on the future of the Affordable Care Act, the ACA's proposed Medicaid expansion, and the 2012 elections. In 2021, Cohn published a book about the Affordable Care Act, The Ten Year War: Obamacare and the Unfinished Crusade for Universal Coverage.

Awards

Winner, AHCJ Excellence in Health Journalism (2013) for "The Robot Will See You Now"

Co-winner, Sidney Hillman Award (2010) for "The Treatment"

Special Mention, Sidney Hillman Award (2009) for "Auto Destruct"

Co-winner, Harry Chapin Media Award (2008) for Sick

Finalist, Robert F. Kennedy Book Award and New York Public Library Helen Bernstein Award (2008) for Sick

Personal life

Cohn lived for many years in the Boston area before moving to his present home, Ann Arbor, Michigan with his wife, University of Michigan professor Amy Mainville Cohn. She is a professor and researcher in Industrial and Operations Engineering at the University of Michigan.

Cohn was a member of JournoList.