Support for the administration of US president Barack Obama is fading, and the struggle over healthcare is a main reason. The Democratic party’s ambitions for health reform were only recently an electoral asset. No longer. A slim majority of voters – but a majority nonetheless – now says the plans emerging in Congress are unlikely to make them better off. Congressional action on the issue, once promised by the summer recess, has been delayed until the autumn, and some observers expect the whole endeavour to come to nothing.