Also noticeably absent from ABC’s “parameters”: any discussion of Massachusettes, which passed a health-care reform plan in 2006 that is similar to what the Democrats have proposed for the nation. The plan has flopped, according to cardiologist Darshak Sanghavi:

The lesson of Massachusetts is that really good health care is also really expensive. The concern isn’t who writes the checks or who writes the bills. The real question is who makes the tough decisions about the limits of the checks and bills—in other words, who ultimately rations the money. Not everybody can have everything, and the sooner we admit that, the sooner our health care debate will get realistic.

By those standards, the health-care debate ABC presented tonight was — not realistic.