"Reform" is the most misused word in the political dictionary. When politicians and their servants use the word, it invariably means the exact opposite of what the word actually means, and how most people understand it.

The American healthcare system is not being reformed. It is being altered... slightly... and expensively... and incompetently... it beggars belief that such a ragbag of ill-conceived half-measures, get labeled "reform." The bill that brought in the National Health Service in Britain, now that was a proper, meaningful Reform. What's happening in the United States is simply more of the same system, which simply doesn't work, is vastly, wastefully, expensive, corrupt and doesn't deliver healthcare efficiently.

Without addressing the inadequacies of the present system and replacing them with something cheaper, more rational, fairer, and effective; there is no reform.

The tragedy is, given real leadership, (that is a president who truly believes in reform, for all the above reasons, and uses his rhetorical skills to explain the vital need to reform such a corrupt system), it was perfectly possible to reform the system, as the vast majority of Americans understand that the current system simply doens't work. Yet what does Obama do? He chooses to go in the opposite direction and introduce minor changes, and compromises, that are acceptable to the drug and insurance industries that have a stranglehold on the healthcare system, and are the primary reason the system has degenerated. His lack of leadership actually confuses the major issues, and undermines the concensus for substantive reform that existed.

And this is typical of the man. He's weak and bends towards the powerful, always ready and willing to compromise with the opposition, even when he's got a majority behind him, which of course he undermines at the first oppotunity, then when he needs it, it's gone, and he's thrown it away.