Can states pick up the health reform torch?

It is impossible to recall another time when a single incident — in this case, the off-cycle election of a U.S. senator — so thoroughly implicated the long-term direction of U.S. health policy. Washington is still taking the full measure of Senator Scott Brown's victory in Massachusetts, but among seasoned observers, the election's potential fallout for health reform was evident even before the first votes were cast.1 The political narrative of the Brown victory is the stuff of legend: the loss of a Senate seat held by an iconic figure who devoted his half-century political career to the very issue . . .