I think the biggest problem is that there's no public consensus about what specifically is broken, let alone how to fix it.
Is health care a human right? Should there be universal coverage? If so, should the same options be available to everyone? At what cost, and to whom? If health care is a human right, what role is there for profit-driven corporations? For the government? As the population ages and the tax base shrinks, is it fair to ask the young to carry a greater tax burden than those who came before them, in order to provide the more expensive care that the elderly typically need? Is it right that the costs of the uninsured are being passed along to the insured? That some people pay much more but receive far less for their money? That others have unequal access simply because of where they live or work? If care is available to all, and one person needs millions of dollars of care while the costs of ten thousand others barely scratches that amount - and there is only so much money to go around - is it right to cut short the treatment of the "expensive" patient to provide treatment to thousands of others? Who will make those decisions? Will there be any sort of review process? And since all the insurance in the world will do you no good if you can't find a doctor: when primary care doctors make millions less than specialists, are more likely to see the uninsured and the government insured, and are far less likely to even turn a profit (let alone prosper) how can we lure enough medical students to first line fields to maintain adequate primary care for everyone?
No one I know can agree on these things, and there's been no meaningful debate about the problems themselves.
I think we really put the cart before the horse with this bill. Passing this legislation to fix what's wrong with health care, without a consensus as to what the problem is, is really knee-jerk. Typical Washington: the people yell "do something!" and Washington does. Who knows what the consequences will be, but by God they did "something," and they have their bullet point for the next election. Which, as we all know, is the real issue... it was never health care.
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