Today's opinions and editorials

Answers From Iowa Kaiser Health News
If this were a presidential election year, a recent report by the Iowa Committee for Value in Healthcare would be reaping a lot of attention. Its sponsors say they know the "secret sauce" that allows Iowa to care for one of the highest percentage of "old old" in the country on modest Medicare reimbursement and yet still score near the top of the nation on a slew of quality indicators (Michael Millenson, 11/24).

The Values Question The New York Times
But, like all great public issues, the health care debate is fundamentally a debate about values. It's a debate about what kind of country we want America to be (David Brooks, 11/23).

Your Waste, My Care The Washington Post
The uproar over the on-again, off-again guidelines on when women should have mammograms is proof of the blindingly obvious: Health-care reform that actually controls costs -- rather than just pretending to do so -- would be virtually impossible to achieve (Eugene Robinson, 11/24).

The Other Senate Maverick The Wall Street Journal
Once the Democrats' nominee for vice president, today Mr. Lieberman is arguably the most hated man in that party because he is threatening to filibuster the health-care bill (William McGurn, 11/23).

Biotech Bills Give Drugmakers Too Many Years Of Exclusivity The Boston Globe
But giving exclusive markets to those companies for too long means that the drugs are priced beyond the reach of some patients for years — and it only adds to the upward pressure on health care costs (11/24).

Winner Take All On Health Care Los Angeles Times
And just to make it more interesting, the Republicans should promise to repeal "Obamacare" if they get a congressional majority in 2010 (Jonah Goldberg, 11/24).

Harry Reid's Steady Hand Las Vegas Sun
We think Reid has offered a sensible alternative that would seem to meet the concerns of Snowe and others who are concerned about a public option (11/24).

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This article was reprinted from khn.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.