Today's Opinions and Editorials: Childhood obesity, the interworkings of the FDA, the constitutionality of 'Obamacare'

May 20 2010

Tackling Obesity In Children Will Take Continuing Effort Des Moines Register
The White House report offers recommendations related to early childhood, parenting, food in schools, access to healthy and affordable food and physical activity. Taken individually, none of these is a silver bullet (Tom Newton, 5/19).

The Divide Is Not So Wide. Work It Out The (St. Paul, Minn.) Pioneer Press
In the matter of the Twin Cities' unionized nurses vs. their hospital employers, we feel like the judge who listens all day to a dispute and then — as only judges can do — growls at both sides to go into a room and work it out (5/18).

Obamacare Is Unconstitutional (Wisconsin) Biz Times
If the Supreme Court did grant Congress more power — if they allowed Congress to force Americans to buy a product — we'd need to ask ourselves where the line for limited government is drawn (Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner, 5/18).

Deal Didn't End State's Money Woes The (Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minn.) Star Tribune
The (state budget) agreement's most disappointing omission was its failure to seize an opportunity presented by the new federal health reform law to bring $1.4 billion in new money to Minnesota in the next three years (5/17).

Transparency At The Food And Drug Administration New England Journal Of Medicine
Many aspects of the FDA's work remain unknown to the public. Few people understand the basic processes followed within the FDA, such as how the agency monitors medical products for safety after they have been approved or how the device-approval process works for products in various risk categories (Afia Asamoah and Dr. Joshua Sharfstein, 5/19).

Attitudes At Altitudes The Boston Globe
Among the many calls I didn't expect to get last week was the one from Paul Levy, the chief executive of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, who, having successfully saved his once teetering hospital, is currently trying to save his job (Brian McGrory, 5/19).