"Best thing he can do  - scrap it and start over after saying I've heard the people....."

This would be the best move he could make. He would appear as someone who actually cares and thus takes the time to hear and accept input, "of, by, and for the people". For that very reason, he won't do it. He is more of the type who says, "Do it my way or get nothing." Unfortunately he will fail because of just such a stand, as will his congress.

Bottom line is, we the people lose out. There just might be a way to provide health care to those who truly have a need, and not just the lazy bastards who think living on the dole is the way to go. If the government would leave things just as they are for people who are paying for insurance and then come up with a way to help the others, there could be a logical fix for the problem. Right now, doctors face the possibility that specialists will no longer profit from their extra schooling and the time and cost of becoming a specialist. The government will make every doctor nothing more than an assembly line worker, doing whatever it is the patient wants/needs. Since there will no longer be any incentive for a doctor to work at becoming a specialist, they will all just be workers for he government, making "the standard wage" for a doctor.

When someone has worked to become the best so they could benefit by earning big money and prestige, you end up with hard working, and ever learning special doctors. When we become a socialized medicine country, a doctor is just a doctor doing what they are told to do and getting paid exactly what every other doctor gets. Now imagine what your medical care will become in a scenario like that. Sub-standard care from the medical mill is all we will get. It is up to every person who is happy with medical care as it stands, whether Democrat or Republican, to contact their elected officials and tell them to leave things alone. Yes we need some sort of care for those who are truly in need, but NOT social medicine.