Most other nations have muddled through, one way or the other, and for sheer muddling the US wins the world cup prize. But even here the goal — at least the goal stated for public consumption — is that everyone who needs health care should have it, regardless of their own ability to pay for it, something the market just could not achieve. We can have endless debates over the exact mix of private and public activity in health care, and it will always be so. The irony is that Obamacare, copied for the most part from the play book of Republicans, should have been the platform for a bipartisan compromise. Sen. Baucus certainly tried. But, if you want to be honest about it, the Republican game was to prevent the President’s reelection, and they sacrificed their own health reform ideas for that futile pursuit. It was never about what might be helpful to the people, especially th millions of uninsured. What would Republicans do if, like a dog chasing a car that then stops, they should win the White House and the Congress? To get a clue, read S.1099, or the old Republican plans of the 1990s. they would legislate something like Obamacare, although perhaps smaller. And, to keep it elegant, they might just deficit finance it, as they did the MMA 03, a truly irresponsible act. - thehealthcareblog.com