obamacare

All this points to the only certain thing about Obamacare: that this is just another episode in the long saga of health reform.

Look for dystopian stories that take place in the aftermath of the collapse of "ObamaCare. "

Most polls show more Americans oppose Obamacare than approve of it, though that may be changing a little.

If only Lehman had been saved, there would be no threat of Obamacare and no town hall hysteria about socialist "death panels" .

Roughly half of those polled by KFF thought Obamacare had already been repealed or were unsure of its legal footing.

Mr Obama's position is strong, though no longer strong enough to outsource Obamacare to congressional allies.

His words threw petrol on a bonfire, since a growing chorus of conservatives is now clamouring for the outright repeal of Obamacare.

In the battle over Obamacare, no matter was more delicate than the fear that Americans would lose their insurance.

But after months of building up momentum, Obamacare has hit serious snags , and Mr Obama's deadline looks likely to be missed.

Given all this, what will be the likely long-term impact of Obamacare?

Cato recently examined the impact of introducing health reforms similar to Obamacare in Massachusetts a few years ago.

The local explanation for the American firms' investments in hospitals is Obamacare.

As governor of Massachusetts, he introduced an early form of Obamacare.

The truth is that ObamaCare does much to expand coverage, but does too little to rein in health inflation.

Perhaps half a dozen other states may see a constitutional amendment blocking Obamacare on the ballot in November.

Voters were spooked, and the plan died. Today, Republicans decry Obamacare in similarly hysterical terms, and voters are once again spooked.

So where does Obamacare fit into all this?

By 2012 the economy may well be pepping up, and familiarity might make Obamacare, and indeed Mr Obama himself, look less frightening.

Barack Obama has transformed health reform from near death to fact. So how will Obamacare change America's health system?

Republican leaders in many states, most notably Utah and Alaska, have suggested they will simply not implement Obamacare.

He is pro-guns and pro-life, and claims that he would have opposed Obamacare if he had been in Congress at the time.

Could this effort to kill the individual mandate ultimately kill Obamacare altogether?

These perverse incentives are addressed, faintly, by Obamacare.

COULD Scott Brown's victory in Massachusetts scupper Obamacare altogether?

And Republican attacks on Obamacare will increase as next year's presidential race gets under way.

Obamacare requires hospitals to invest heavily in technology, even as the government cuts payments for treatments.

Big hospital operators must still grapple with Obamacare's new requirements.

Obamacare is a good deal less radical than the plan Richard Nixon proposed in 1974 or Bill Clinton 20 years later.

The question now is whether Obamacare will use taxpayers' money to subsidise abortion more widely.

Clearly the Republicans have the means and the motive to bog down Obamacare.

He also argued that all of Obamacare must be struck down.

Mr Romney's problem is that he pioneered in Massachusetts a version of the hated Obamacare the Republicans vow to repeal.

A slim majority of Americans support Obamacare.

So how will Obamacare change America's health system?

The most striking thing about Obamacare is not what it does, but what it fails to do.

First, Obamacare was very much a second-best plan, conditioned by perceived political realities.

Republicans in America's House of Representatives vote on a bill to repeal Obamacare.

Only 23% of them think Obamacare will make them better off, while a growing plurality think it will hurt them.