A Selection Of Thursday's Editorials And Opinions

Main Category: Medicare / Medicaid / SCHIP
Also Included In: Public Health
Article Date: 19 Jun 2009 - 5:00 PDT

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The GOP Can Stop ObamaCare Wall Street Journal
Americans will listen more closely to Republicans if they make empirical and specific arguments against Mr. Obama's attempted government takeover of the nation's health system. But they must also offer proposals that families, small-businesspeople and health-care providers will applaud (Karl Rove, 6/18).

Give GOP Proposal For Health Care Respectful Hearing Houston Chronicle
Conventional wisdom has it that Democrats in this Age of Obama "own" health care as a political and, some would argue, a moral issue. But that hasn't prevented congressional Republicans from coming up with their own plan for reform - nor should it (6/17).

The Individual Mandate - An Affordable and Fair Approach to Achieving Universal Coverage New England Journal of Medicine
The orientation of our system and the distorted incentives that it creates can be changed. A vital component of such a change would be bringing all U.S. residents into our health insurance system through an individual mandate (Linda Blumberg and John Holahan, 6/17).

'Public Option': Son Of Medicaid Wall Street Journal
It seems to me, if we're honest, that one other contributor to the health-care morass should have been on the president's list: Congress (Daniel Henninger, 6/18).

Government Guidelines May Harm Health Care San Francisco Chronicle
Although supported by some, the notion of guidelines has not won universal approval among practicing clinicians, who are apprehensive and suspicious that federal treatment protocols will bind medical practitioners to treat Medicare beneficiaries with particular ailments in a certain way or mandate justification for deviating from government-set standards (Sidney Marchasin, 6/18).

Reform Needs To Improve Medicare Reimbursements The Buffalo News
Paradoxically, while this region's work force and employers contribute equally to the Medicare premium, they do not receive an average share of revenues. This has unintended consequences that need to be addressed by national health care reform (Dennis Horrigan, 6/17).

Strategy Corner: Health Care Reform Done Right Politico
The unions want universal coverage as a victory for their members and for them. They are pushing the administration to be tougher, and they can move a lot of members and money in a campaign to counter the industry. So Obama really has three basic strategies before him (Mark Penn, 6/18).

This information was reprinted from kaiserhealthnews.org with kind permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives and sign up for email delivery at kaiserhealthnews.org.

© Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.

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