Odds appear to be in favor of Democrats on reform

Fifteen years have passed since Congress last took up the issue of comprehensive health-care reform.

Since then, health care costs and the number of Americans without health insurance have soared upward, according to the non-partisan Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

The foundation recently issued a report that found:

* The number of Americans lacking health insurance has climbed 23 percent since 1994 -- to 47 million from 38 million.

* The number of employed Americans without health insurance has grown by six million.

* The cost for health insurance premiums paid by individual workers have risen almost eight times faster than average American incomes.

Numbers such as these have convinced President Obama and fellow Democrats in Congress that now is their best shot in more than 40 years to pass a sweeping health care overhaul bill.

"This is one of the only times the stars have been aligned in a certain direction," said Tim McBride, who teaches public health policy at Washington University in St. Louis.

President Clinton tried a major health care overhaul in 1994, but the nation was not facing a crisis mentality. In contrast, Obama is facing a crisis "with the recession and our rising health care costs," McBride said.

And like President Johnson, who in 1965 created Medicare despite stiff Republican opposition, Obama has an overwhelming Democratic majority in both chambers of Congress.

This gives them "enough political power that they can actually can push it through," McBride said.