Probably threatening a thread move here, but I think I have the reason why Obama, Pelosi, Reid and Co. are willing to ram the S.S. Democratic Party onto the rocks by trying to force through the health-care bill, and take the huge short-term losses in 2010 and the 2012 elections.
If it passes, and we get the "Camel's nose in the tent" on the single-payer option, eventually all private insurance will fall to the cheaper (not counting tax subsidy) public option, with the exception of a very few wealthy self-insurers.
When that happens everyone will be dependent on the government for their health-care. And then everyone will suddenly become a knee-jerk Democratic party constituent. If you look at the voting blocks which are predominantly Democratic now, they're all dependent on the party in some way, unions, the poor, the elderly.
And every year these demographics overwhelmingly pull the lever for the Democrat, having been institutionally frightened into believing that conservatives will take away what is rightfully "theirs". Even when the conservatives and moderates vote to increase spending on benefits, but at a lower percentage than the Democrats, it's now called a "cut".
IMO, the larger issue about health-care reform, aside from screwing up almost 20% of the American economy, is that it's really the Democratic party trying to set the stage for single-party rule in the United States.