Unfortunately, it does not look like there will be a consensus for how to carry out health care reform. Although Obama claims that there "is a significant agreement on a host of issues" the agreements are based on the need for reform rather than how to take steps forward in improving the health care system. Everyone seems to agree that healthcare costs need to be reduced but there is no agreement on how to do that. There are even disagreements about what are the reasons for soring health care prices. I did my policy paper on malpractice and defensive medicine costs and while some, mainly the repblican party, believe that reducing medical malpractice lawsuit pressure could siginificantly reduce costs, others don't believe that it would impact costs. Both sides are able to quote studies and statistics to support their argument since there are mixed findings among research studies and the concept of defensive medicine is hard to quantify.

Also, like Senator Tom Harkin said, it's hard to focus on certain aspects of reform that both parties agree on when everything "hangs together". I believe it was mentioned that there was some agreement on opening competition across state lines but like discussed in class, doing that without a mandate could cause additional problems. At this point starting from scratch seems like it would be a waste of time and may still not lead to any agreement. Nonetheless, at this point in time there does not appear to be any bipartisan unity on how to move forward.