At the dawn of the Cold War, when President Harry S. Truman set forth a plan for national health insurance, the American Medical Association denounced it as "one of the final, irrevocable steps toward state socialism," warning that the idea "would not only jeopardize the health of our people, but would gravely endanger our freedom."

The nation's largest organization of doctors had, by that point, been fighting health-care reform for a quarter-century, and it would continue to oppose every significant federal attempt to redesign the system straight through to President Bill Clinton's efforts in the 1990s. So, Democrats in Washington were elated -- and surprised -- in July when the AMA urged House leaders to pass a far-reaching health-care bill.

But now...