The headline pretty much says it all: Obama’s and McCain’s health care proposals have gotten plenty of ink, but whatever health reform we get isn’t likely to look much like either once Congress gets done with it.

In his Democratic convention acceptance speech sixteen years ago, Bill Clinton declared that as one of the first initiatives of his administration, he would “take on the health care profiteers and make health care affordable for every family.”

Two years later, his “Health Security Act” was dead, never having gotten even as far as a vote in Congress.

Nearly two decades of soaring premiums and reduced coverage later, health care is again at the top of the reform agenda in Washington… [read more]