Health-care reform is the hottest issue of the year, with enormous consequences for every American in costs, access and quality. In addition, the political dynamics of this debate will impact national and state politics for decades. We provide our perspectives:

Will Congress and President Barack Obama pass significant reform legislation this year, and in what form?

Webb: Yes, comprehensive legislation will ultimately pass. It will be a cobbled-together compromise that most people won't like very much. But Obama will be happy, because he doesn't care what the final package looks like, he just wants to get something — anything — passed.

Almost any compromise is acceptable to Obama. He's already bought off all sorts of special interests, from hospitals to the American Medical Association to the drug industry.

Fortunately, what finally passes will likely be improved from the initial proposals by Obama and ultraliberal House leaders. Obama should thank Blue Dog Democrats and Republicans for saving him from himself. His original proposals would have coerced Americans into bureaucrat-run health care, ballooning the federal deficit by $1 trillion. Within a few years, it would have become a political disaster for Obama.

What is finally approved will still be a bureaucratic nightmare and probably hurtful for Democrats, but not as bad as the original proposals.

Pignanelli: "The Senate is a place filled with goodwill and good intentions, and if the road to hell is paved with them, then it's a pretty good detour." — Hubert H. Humphrey. Utahns are not experiencing the full-court press that a number of Democrat and left-wing organizations are imposing on members of Congress in other parts of the country. Moreover, stress is increasing to pass something that at least "looks significant" for Democrats to carry back to the election stump in 2010. They understand the public will dismiss them as inefficient if nothing is accomplished. Because of cost considerations, the "government option" will only survive as a fallback — implemented only through a triggering mechanism — but there will be an expansion of current government programs to cover uninsured Americans.

Will federal reform help or hurt Utah's reform efforts?

Pignanelli: Because there is competition in Utah's health-insurance markets, there is less chance of a "government option" interference. Further, Blue Dog Democrats and Republicans will likely succeed in constructing waivers for reforms that Utah legislators are likely to enact.