The "fix" that Congress was considering was upset by Brown's election in Massachusetts, the 60^th vote was lost and with it the power of the Democrats and the President.

Revealed was that to cover the under- and uninsured, the healthy escape from the risk pool, and this raises the per capita cost of coverage of those who are left.  Rate increases are bubbling up all over the country; people are being pressured into buying increasingly expensive health insurance that there is good reason to believe wouldn't be there when it is really needed.        

To paraphrase a colleague said, "Mmmmm.... maybe we can learn something from the way pods of hungry whales hunt herring—surround their prey with "bubbles"* ["Humpback Whale: Hunting Technique," YouTube] so they panic into a swirling, confused unprotected ball of fish and the predator takes a larger bite?

* The "bubbles" are the threats of being unable to afford the healthcare you need from job loss, cost sharing/out-of-pocket expenses, bureaucratic interference, denials, delays, contract exclusions, preexisting conditions like having a uterus, and rate increases.

Predicating this tirade is the fact that single-payer advocates were excluded from the Healthcare Summit yet we know:

1. Employment base coverage isn't universal.
2. There are huge gaps in vital coverage in our current approach (e.g., doughnut holes).
3. As much as 3/5^ths of the spending in the U.S. is already publically administered.  [Health Affairs, July 2002. Woolhandler, Steffi]
4. Insurers say regulating premium increases "won't do anything to reduce the soaring costs of medical care." So, we sit on our hands, seemingly afraid to stop transferring our money to private insurers--$2.2 Trillion was spent on Health Care in the US in 2007.  Insurance companies absorbed over 25% of that meaning that we're paying over $500 Billion per year to the wealthy people who own and run the insurance companies even as 2.7 million lose coverage [Feb. 2010].
5. Insurance companies are afraid that regulation is coming and they might not be able to raise rates too much later.  Fredrick adds: "I suspect that the insurance companies are raising rates now for the same reason that bailed-out bankers are taking outrageous bonuses."
6. Doing nothing, however, is not an option.  See "The Costs of Failure: Economic Consequences of Failure to Enact ... Health Reforms," The Commonwealth Fund Blog.