Harwood: "Prospects for Health Care Reform are Strong"

Veteran political analyst John Harwood thinks a breakthrough in health care is more likely than the news from August might suggest. He notes that even though the President is behind is own timetable, he is ahead of where all his predecessors have been. It is also possible that he can muster enough votes to overcome an expected Republican filibuster. And there's also reconciliation, which needs only a simple majority. Harwood observes that there is general agreement on many elements of reform, such as the preventing those with pre-existing conditions from getting insurance. The unresolved areas--insurance competition through a public option, financing the broadening of coverage through taxes on the highest income brackets, and the overall cost of reform--are not, according to Harwood, game stoppers: "Elements still in dispute appear less likely to derail comprehensive legislation than to alter its precise effects and pace of implementation." You can read Harwood's full analysis here.