"One could say that health care reform was inevitable, and would have been enacted in some form, or another, regardless of who the President happened to be at t

"One could say that health care reform was inevitable, and would have been enacted in some form, or another, regardless of who the President happened to be at the time." But that would clearly be erroneous. For example, Hillary Clinton's effort in 1993 (your first link) was plowed under. And it came very close to happening with ACA as well. ACA passed only using the reconciliation mechanism in the Senate, and survived the Roberts court on a 5-4 vote. It's not inevitable at all.