A selection of today's opinions and editorials

A Smaller, Bipartisan Health Care Bill: Where To Start Kaiser Health News
We will ultimately have real health care reform in this country for a very simple reason: We have no choice and both Democrats and Republicans understand that. More importantly, the American people know it (Robert Laszewski, 1/22).

How To Revive Health Care Reform: The Bipartisan Ideas Obama Should Latch Onto Now New York Daily News
If Obama and congressional leaders invite prominent Republicans to the White House, there's no reason why the two parties can't come together and rally behind a new, bipartisan bill (Douglas E. Schoen, 1/22).

Rx For Disaster: Stick With Health Care Status Quo Kansas City Star
Republicans and some Democrats are saying we should go back to the drawing board and design something simpler and less expensive. Good luck with that (Barb Shelly, 1/21).

Party Of No Vs. The Party Of No Guts The St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Republicans, so far, have been the party of no: no new ideas, no policy alternatives, no vision for improving the health care system. It's ludicrous to claim they weren't consulted on health care reform. They were invited but chose not to participate. ... [But] Democrats risk becoming the party of no guts — too timid to move forward even with majorities in both houses, too willing to compromise to avoid conflict (1/22).

Breaking Up The Healthcare Bill The Boston Globe
If he wants to establish himself as an independent-minded senator, Brown has to show some bipartisan inclinations. Yes, he's currently in the catbird seat -- but that rewarding position carries risks all its own (Scot Lehigh, 1/22).

Do The Right Thing The New York Times
A message to House Democrats: This is your moment of truth. You can do the right thing and pass the Senate health care bill. Or you can look for an easy way out, make excuses and fail the test of history (Paul Krugman, 1/21).

Obama On Health Care: Flight Or fight? The Washington Post
If President Obama has decided to give up on health-care reform, he should just come out and say so. Then we could all get on with our lives -- those of us with health insurance, that is. But I don't see how his talk about some sort of slimmed-down package, reduced to its "core elements," could possibly inspire Democrats in Congress to do anything but run for the hills (Eugene Robinson, 1/22).

Medicare Quagmire The Olympian
The 45-year-old system for reimbursing hospital and doctors who care for Medicare patients has shortchanged Washington state for years (1/22).

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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.