Ezra Klein and Jonathan Cohn...

...are -- still -- the two best writers I've found on the subject of health care reform. Cohn (above, right) has an excellent, balanced, piece in the New Republic that's really a must-read. From "It's OK to Feel Good About Obamacare Again* It was worth it. Probably." (my emphasis):

Think for a moment, in very basic terms, about what the Affordable Care Act is supposed to do. It really boils down to two simple goals. One is to improve economic security—to protect people from crippling medical costs, so that they can get the care they need without enduring financial ruin. The other goal, related but separate, is to transform medical care itself, so that it either costs less or provides better value for the price—or, ideally, some combination of the two. Nobody ever imagined that Obamacare alone would accomplish the goals. The best hope of supporters was that it would produce progress towards them. That’s why Senator Tom Harkin, whose committee helped write the bill, famously referred to the law as a “starter home.”