President-elect Barack Obama placed a heavy bet last week that the recession-wracked country he is about to inherit has finally reached its tipping point on health care.
It might seem counter-intuitive to gamble that political and economic forces would converge at such a low point after more than half a century of failure. The Treasury has never been so over committed, and providing “affordable, accessible health care for every single American,” as Mr. Obama describes his goal, would require substantial resources up front.
But Mr. Obama, like others, sees political opportunity in the country’s economic distress, and he threw in last week with those who argue that the financial crisis has only made it more imperative to remake the health delivery system — that, in fact, economic recovery depends on it.