I get annoyed by blogs that are mostly just links to other people's stuff... but I had to link this great post from Brad DeLong on his inside view of the 1994 debacle in health care...

I"ve been wondering for the last few weeks or months... why can't Obama be more like LBJ?  Still, everyone has to operate from their own strengths... he may yet pull off health care reform in his own style, and for those who care about the horse-race aspect of this (and I certainly do inasmuch as it affects the Democrats' chances in the next two elections): by now, anything decent (or even apparently decent) by way of a health care bill will be viewed as a victory for Obama.

I'm worried, though, that although there are apparently European models for well-functioning healthcare that don't involve a public option, they involve nongovernmental nonprofit entities, or high levels of regulation.   Such models may be very difficult to replicate in this country where they may be easily co-opted or weakened by the money and influence big insurance can put behind things, and by the continual possibility of politically motivated medldling/sabotage.  Ironically, I fear our politics and culture may make a public option more workable than a semiprivate one.