The Christian Science Monitor: NYT Got It Wrong On Health Care Big Picture David Leonhardt speaks as the wise one from on high, assuring readers that opposition to Obamacare is part of the American tradition of individualism and laissez-faire (Jeffrey Tucker, 12/16). Kaiser Health News: Medicaid May Not Be ideal, But Unraveling It Would Be Foolish Rep. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana is not just a Republican. He's also a doctor. And that means he has not one but two reasons to dislike Medicaid. Not only does it cost the government a lot of money. It also serves a lot of its beneficiaries poorly (Jonathan Cohn, 12/17).
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Keep Focus On Mental Illness With advances in medication, "de-institutionalization" is an easy sell. Many people with mental illness, if properly treated, can live in the community. The change also allows state and local governments to save money by closing mental hospitals. Unfortunately, the other half of de-institutionalization -- community-based treatment -- never comes to pass in any meaningful way (Janice M. Eisen, 12/15). Chicago Tribune: Tag-Team Smackdown (President Barack) Obama's big challenge will be to succeed where he has said in the past that (President Bill) Clinton failed. Triangulation forced Clinton, who came into office pursuing big ideas like health care reform, to begin thinking smaller - like promoting mandatory school uniforms - in order to compromise with his opponents. As Obama tries to pick up where Clinton left off, he has a lot to learn from the old master's mistakes as well as his victories (Clarence Page, 12/15).
The Wall Street Journal: Breast Cancer And The FDA Yesterday the Food and Drug Administration moved to revoke its regulatory approval of Avastin for metastatic breast cancer. Withdrawing a cancer treatment is almost never done, and though the decision was expected, that does not make it any less reprehensible (12/17).
This article was reprinted from kaiserhealthnews 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.