How healthy is health care reform? With Obama’s speech this week, Democrats are feeling reassured, well-directed and ready to make something happen. Health care reform, though, still has a case of the sniffles. Called the defining and perhaps pivotal moment for Obama’s presidency, his speech emphasized that health care reform will not add to the national deficit and pointed out that the U.S. is the only developed country in the world where so many people have to worry about not being insured- 30 million.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus is pushing for a bipartisan effort to pass a healthcare reform bill amenable to both sides. But this week he has said that while he is still hopeful for a deal, he is ready to move forward without Republican support. At this point, Baucus is the only committee leader looking to create a bill with bipartisan backing.

His version of the healthcare reform bill includes wide insurance market changes and imposition of fees on companies to fund healthcare on the uninsured.

Baucus said that he was not likely to include a government run health care option, the core of what Obama is pushing for. The public option is necessary to give people a real option and to help drive down costs in the private insurance industry. Republicans oppose the bill fervently because they do not want it to drive private companies out of business.

These are somewhat divergent aims of the parties. The healthcare reform bill really has no middle ground- reform is reform. Either the government gets involved to make insurance available for everyone or it doesn’t. That’s the bottom line. I agree with Obama- it’s atrocious that we don’t have some kind of basic insurance available for everyone. Yearly checkups, basic doctors and hospital visits, etc. These should be givens in one of the richest countries on Earth. But they aren’t.

Baucus’ current plan comes in at $900 Billion, saving 10% on cost projections of other bills. His plan basically substitutes non-profit co-ops for the government option and imposes a tax on private insurance companies. His plan would also stop insurers from denying applicants insurance because of pre-existing conditions- in addition to raising fees and premiums because of health history.

Republican Charles Grassley says, “We're still negotiating. And one of the rules of negotiating is that nothing's final until everything's final." That’s at least an open door to talk about it, and one from the Republican lead on healthcare negotiation.

But others, like Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, said he wanted lawmakers to "stop, back up, start over and get it right."

"The problem right now is they (Democrats) are in this big rush and the American people want us to do everything we can to stop it," House of Representatives Minority Leader John Boehner.

Big rush? Mr. Boehner, sir, this has been a cause of the Democrats for decades, for a long history of administrations. There is no rush here that is not predicated by a basic premise of the Democrat platform.

So how healthy is healthcare reform? About as healthy as an old sock in the wash machine- getting scrubbed good, but who can say whether it will come out wearable.