Comprehensive health reform is a presidential nightmare, writes David Blumenthal, M.D., president of The Commonwealth Fund, in his latest "Reflecting on Health Reform" blog post. Virtually every president who has tried reform has failed, and suffered politically for the effort. So why did President Obama go ahead anyway?
"The reason to proceed with this painful technical and political process is that there is no alternative," Blumenthal writes. "Before the Affordable Care Act, the current health care system—and especially its private insurance market—was collapsing before our eyes, like a house tipping into a sinkhole."