HALPERIN'S TAKE: The Ten Biggest Obstacles to Health Reform Right Now
1. The public is not whipped into a frenzy demanding reform.
2. Democrats in Congress know the public isn't whipped into a frenzy demanding reform.
3. Republicans in Congress know the public isn't whipped into a frenzy demanding reform.
4. The sticker shock conservative Democrats in Congress are experiencing.
5. Any system that tries for universal coverage with a major government role that isn't single payer has Rube Goldberg complexity that is simple to pick apart.
6. It is easy in Washington to make the perfect the enemy of the good.
7. There is still no obvious substantive and political plan that can win a heavy majority-of-the-majority in the House AND Republicans (and conservative Democrats) in the Senate.
8. The boogeymen of “choose your own doctor,” “Canadian-length lines,” and fear of the unknown.
9. The press's obsession with (and amplification of) setbacks for the White House.
10. The divisions in the labor movement and health care industry.
