resorting to reconciliation. Of course, that would mean 60 -- not 48 to 52 -- Senators are yes votes, so it's also less risky to his legacy to be /the/ yes vote that pushes it over the top in such a circumstance when Senators from both parties agree.

Obamacare is bad policy, and it's everything I said it would be years ago in terms of a one way street to single payer. I'm at a point where I think we need to just accept that and create a market-oriented single payer system with whatever type of parliamentary mechanisms are possible to make sure the program stays within its design limits. I would favor something like the Swiss system of basic compulsory insurance paid via (in our case) State taxes and potentially supplemented with complimentary private plans if individuals so choose. It seems they also do a decent job of making people invest in their own healthcare since I don't completely understand it, but as far as I do, it seems like everyone has some skin in the game and does pay /something/ out of pocket.

Either way, though, the fact that we can be having so many discussions (at the national level ... not really here) about healthcare without talking about obesity, addiction, and many other uniquely challenging aspect of healthcare in this country, to me suggests that DC is just interested in bickering and very few people on either side are actually interested in Americans being healthy.

Bernie Sanders likes to talk about other first world paradises with free healthcare and paying less per citizen to do it. As of 2015, our obesity rate is 38%. Japan is 3% (can you even imagine an obesity rate so low) ... Switzerland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark are 10-14%. France is 15%. And nobody mentions those built in advantages when trying to compare outcomes across populations.