Today's Opinions: Repeal, constitutionality and the cost curve

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Sep 17 2010

GOP 'Repeal And Replace' Strategy Lacks Merit Kaiser Health News
And it will add hundreds of billions of dollars to the federal debt. No, I am not talking about the health care reform law. I'm talking about the Republican proposals to repeal it (Jonathan Cohn, 9/16).

Cost Curveballs CongressDaily
But will fixing the malpractice system slow health spending in a way that the new health law does not? Nope. And what will? It's probably safe to say if anyone actually knew something that would do that in a way that's politically palatable, they would have done it by now (Julie Rovner, 9/16).

The Affordable Care Act: There's Much To Do, But Much To Gain Kansas City Star
Congress's health care fix isn't simple and it has flaws. But it is a needed response to a broken system, and energy is far better spent on making reform work than threatening to overturn the law (9/15).

Is ObamaCare Unconstitutional? The Hill
This elicits a harsh reminder of the many failed FDR New Deal programs implemented that were later ruled unconstitutional (Armstrong Williams, 9/15).

Rewards, Sure; Hold The Risks Indianapolis Star
Up, of course, is exactly where health-care costs were going before passage of this demonized legislation. Now, the Congressional Budget Office says taxpayers actually will save money in the process of preventing insurance companies from cutting off sick people, along with other benefits (Dan Carpenter, 9/14).

My Experience With British Health Care (Minneapolis-St. Paul) Star Tribune
Having experienced the NHS and U.S. health care systems, I think it is safe to say that no one would design our system if they could start from scratch (John Bryson, 9/15).

My Battle With Cancer And The FDA The Wall Street Journal
Some claim that the FDA's decision is about the money. It's true that Avastin is expensive, but a medicine's price tag shouldn't allow the FDA to determine whether patients live or die (Geraldine Satossky, 9/16).

Resurrection Of A Stem-Cell Funding Barrier — Dickey-Wicker In Court New England Journal of Medicine
NIH Director Francis Collins has said that this issue "goes beyond politics . . . to patients and their families who are counting on us to do everything in our power, ethically and responsibly, to learn how to transform these cells into entirely new therapies." This argument, of course, is itself political, and if Collins is right, the only place to resolve the funding issue is in Congress (George Annas, 9/15).

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.