While you fret about the rising cost of health care, your leaders in the United States Senate have been secretly meeting to try to tackle the problem.
There is a consensus among most people involved in the debate that all Americans should carry health insurance.
The next steps are

• enforce the requirement that everyone have health insurance.
  
• make insurance affordable.
  
• require employers to help buy coverage for their employees.
  

As the meetings continue, lobbyists for the health care industry meet with lawmakers working toward universal health care, all of them trying to find common ground.
Even the White House stays informed and is hopeful that this effort will get everyone talking and excited about real health care legislation.
Obviously, everyone involved in the process has different ideas about how everything should go.
But most of the players understand the need for everyone to have insurance.
Requiring people to make the purchase is acceptable if they ensure affordability along with the legislation.
Penalty What if someone doesn't fulfill their obligation to purchase health insurance? The most popular idea would be to impose a tax penalty in cases where an affordable option exists and yet is ignored.
Who is involved? Lobbyists trying to influence the proceedings range from representatives of seniors and children to those who work for insurance companies and pharmaceutical firms.
Those who've been on the affordable health care campaign for years are pointing to a record number of uninsured, a shaky economy and increases in health care costs as evidence that its time has come.
There are still those people who have more to gain by opposing such legislation, but their numbers aren't as strong as in the past.
Still, the consensus is fragile and many in the business world support an obligation that people purchase health insurance, adding that the government should help poor people afford it by offering financial aid.
What does the government have to say? Some high-ranking officials say that forcing people to purchase insurance right now in this economic climate is a big mistake.
It could make people's struggles even worse.
Not only that, health care needs to be improved before it can be forced upon people.
In a break with years past, our current administration isn't interested in demonizing health insurance companies.
They are trying to work with them.
Participants in the talks aren't agreeing on everything.
They don't see eye to eye on whether employer-sponsored insurance should keep the same tax treatment, for example, but at least everyone is still talking.
Employers and insurers are mostly counting on Republicans to stay involved in the talks because they think that Republicans tend to support their interests more than Democrats.
Unfortunately for them, Republican aides are staying away from these sessions so far because they don't feel like equal players.
Those who have been around a while talk about the sessions as different, with an air of cooperation that has been lacking in recent years.
Many have remarked that it would be even better if Republicans joined in the conversation because they are getting a lot done.
Hardly anyone wishes to talk about these issues on the record because those involved in framing such discussions aren't supposed to talk to the press or risk being expelled.
Traditionally, meetings such as these on health care reform have always been a place to seek common ground on many issues important to the progression of our country into a modern era.
These issues include civil rights, women's rights and immigration.
Times have changed, now that back-room negotiations are replaced with a certain transparency and lobbyists are vilified.
But many businesses are fed up.
They find themselves crushed by ever-rising health care costs and are now supporting changes in health care because they need to control their costs.
Joining them are insurance executives who express a willingness to accept stricter regulation and will support offering coverage to people with pre-existing medical conditions.
Many individuals involved in these talks have discussed two ways to make insurance available to everyone.
They suggest offering subsidies, based on income, for private insurance as well as expanding public programs.
Most everyone wants eligibility levels for Medicaid increased because that would allow more people to qualify.
The feeling is that if the government subsidizes insurance premiums, minimum standards for benefits would need to be set as well.
A few players believe that Congress should specify the benefits.
But that is definitely a minority opinion.
Most are adamant that Congress must leave those important details to the experts and help to implement whatever is suggested toward that end.
Under this proposal, industry experts will set the parameters for the minimum coverage that Congress suggests.
Insurers might be allowed to offer benefits that are different, but overall have same value.