For over a decade, I’ve been helping politicians talk about health care and the Affordable Care Act. But in the past weeks the health care system hit me like an avalanche consuming a mountain. In the blink of an eye, I went from someone who thought they understood the minutiae to realizing all the Beltway smarts in the world couldn’t prepare me for this journey. In 2010, as a staffer working for House Democrats, I crafted messaging as we attempted to make some of the most expansive changes to our health care system in a generation. There was hand-wringing, whipping,...