“It’s tough to make predictions, especially about the future.” That quote often is misattributed to New York Yankees baseball philosopher Yogi Berra, although it was most likely originated by physicist Niels Bohr.
It’s particularly tough when one is writing on the day of a presidential election that is predictably too close to call, and when all the votes (plus recounts) are not in yet. Moreover, the health policy debate of 2012 between President Obama and Governor Mitt Romney never really moved to the forefront of a contest that largely dodged the most important, but more complex, issues.
Regardless of which candidates and parties come out on top, their next round of tactical maneuvering must operate within a half-dozen broader trends and factors in the political market for health policy.