Late last month, a poll conducted by Morning Consult and Politico gauged Americans’ opinions on several health care measures expected to be included in the Democrats’ forthcoming reconciliation bill. Its conclusions were striking: of the six proposed reforms put to respondents, each enjoyed majority support across the electorate with four even eliciting more than 50 percent from Republican voters.

A proposal to add dental, vision, and hearing coverage to Medicare, for example, scored 84 percent in favor (89 percent among Democrats; 79 percent among Republicans). Even less resoundingly popular items like lowering the eligibility age of Medicare to sixty still boasted high levels of support (61 percent overall, with 49 percent of Republican voters in favor).

In other words, there’s considerable buy-in for each proposal across the political spectrum. Why, then, does it seem so hard to imagine any actually passing into law?