Asthma: what is there left to find out?

The president has gone out on a very precarious limb to find the consensus necessary to effect change.He has promised Americans that they can have more security and peace ofmind about their health care coverage, including improved benefits and a higher quality of care, simply by wringing savings out of the fat of the current system.This has led to charges from some quarters that the president is trying to get something for nothing.That assessment is too harsh.But it is true that the president is trying to convince the American people to sit still for fairly nasty surgery by promising that it will not hurt very much.How much pain the "haves" in the current system believe reform will bring will determine the fate of Clinton's plan.Small businesses are already yelling loudly that a mandate to cover workers will cost jobs and lots of them.Although the tobacco industry is not what it once was, it is still a force to be reckoned with in American politics, and big increases in vice taxes will not sit well with them or their concerned and ready to lobby cousins in the alcohol, gambling, and food industries.Advocates for elderly people and the very poor will vigorously protest if their current entitlement programmes are targeted for more than minimal cuts.And, as eager as many Americans are for lower costs, many will wince over the notion of capping of the rate at which insurance premiums for the basic or baseline package of health care services can rise-a strategy that some fear will deny them access to the next generation of medical technology and breakthroughs.Once the euphoria over the fact that the nation has finally managed to talk seriously about doing something about its