Early Life
Massie was born on August 17, 1956, with severe classic hemophilia, an inherited blood disorder affecting one in 5,000 males in the United States. In the process of learning to manage this condition, his parents began to study its history, which led to Robert Massie Sr.'s book Nicholas and Alexandra (1967), a biography of Tsar Nicholas II and his family, produced as an Academy Award winning film four years later. Massie's parents also wrote a more personal account of their son's challenges, "Journey" (Knopf, 1975), of which Time Magazine wrote, "Its portrait of Bobby Massie's enduring courage and the decency and devotion of those who helped him makes "Journey" a remarkable human document".
One consequence of the family's struggle with hemophilia was a heightened awareness of the strengths and weaknesses of the U.S. health care system, its pivotal importance, and its potentially devastating costs.
Read more about this topic: Bob Massie (politician)
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