Health care reform jumps major hurdle in senate

Monday morning at 1 a.m., Senate Democrats scrambled over a major hurdle in their attempts to pass a comprehensive health care reform bill through Congress. But in order to secure the 60 votes necessary to move forward, the proposed health care bill had to undergo a series of concessions and transformations that altered some of its original mainstays (no more public option, triggered or otherwise, and no Medicare expansion). The compromise, some detractors say, may cost Democrats politically in the long run.

The Takeaway discusses the merits and shortcomings of a bill that aims to extend coverage to 31 million uninsured Americans with Theda Skocpol, professor of sociology and government at Harvard University. Hanging over the discussion, a larger question looms: is there a problem with the mechanics of how a bill becomes a law?