Political temperature may be just right for healthcare overhaul

When Barack Obama takes office in January, healthcare reform will join a list of priorities that include a ballooning budget deficit and an economy mired in one of the worst slowdowns since the Great Depression. But the bleak environment may paradoxically spur the kind of costly, sweeping overhaul of the nation's healthcare system that has eluded policymakers in Washington for decades, many political strategists, industry leaders, and economists say.