Today's opinions and editorials

Medicare Part D 'Reforms' Will Harm Seniors The Wall Street Journal
In short, if the changes that are proposed for employer subsidies in the current Medicare Part D program are enacted, everyone will lose (Tom Scully, 12/3).

More Help Needed For Health Care Short Term The Des Moines Register
Congress is trying to reduce the number of uninsured Americans. If passed, health-care reform legislation will do that -- but not until 2013 or 2014. That's a long time to wait (12/4).

Mammogram Advice Based On Science The Baltimore Sun
This recommendation is not about rationing, health care costs or politics. It is all about making intelligent decisions from a scientific perspective (Miriam Alexander, 12/4).

A Health Care Shell Game The (Charleston, S.C.) Post And Courier
The Democratic leadership in Congress has gone to extraordinary lengths to pretend the health care "reforms" they are trying to pass will reduce the federal deficit over the next decade (12/4).

Fixing Health Care With Transparency The St. Louis Post-Dispatch
The lowest price for hernia-repair surgery at a San Francisco hospital, for example, is $3,538. The highest is $16,779 — more than four times higher (12/4).

Reform Or Else The New York Times
So to the centrists still sitting on the fence over health reform: If you care about fiscal responsibility, you better be afraid of what will happen if reform fails (Paul Krugman, 12/3).

Botax: A Vanity Tax On Cosmetic Surgery The (Newark, N.J.) Star-Ledger
To help pay for health care reform, the White House and Senate Democrats are proposing nips-and-tucks on your bucks (12/3).

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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.