Today's opinions and editorials

O Come, O Come, Emanuel The Wall Street Journal
'Twill be the night before Christmas when the Senate delivers the top item on White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel's wish list: a health-care bill (William McGurn, 12/21).

Udall, Bennet Should Say 'No' The Denver Post
We call on Colorado Sens. Mark Udall and Michael Bennet to take a principled stand against the travesty the Senate legislation has become (12/22).

Will Health Care Reform Reduce the Relentless Rise In Costs? Yahoo! News
New evidence brought together by the Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) shows that the legislation will genuinely bring down health costs over time, resulting in higher standards of living for American workers, greater private sector job creation, and lower government budget deficits (Christina Romer, 12/21).

Obama's Failed His Words Los Angeles Times
Obama's rhetoric in fact looks to be the best way to achieve a Clintonian agenda. But a Clintonian agenda is the worst possible way to live up to Obama's rhetoric (Jonah Goldberg, 12/22).

Scrubbing In: Insurers' Decisions On Drugs Mystify The Philadelphia Inquirer
I wonder if insurance and pharmacy execs are cutting secret deals so that a plan will have a financial reason to cover one drug over another (Rachel Sobel, 12/21).

Congress Would Do Well To Keep Two Key Provisions In Senate Health Bill The Washington Post
(A)s the measure heads to a House-Senate conference, lawmakers must retain the Senate's approach on two key provisions: the excise tax on high-value insurance plans and the independent Medicare commission with power to get changes through Congress on a fast track (12/22).

Health Reform Lessons, Via Haiti And Peru The Boston Globe
We just need to look to community-based models of care that are effective but often go unrecognized, perhaps because much of the care is being delivered by "paraprofessionals" who have not been extensively schooled in the biomedical model and don't practice office-based care (Heidi Behforouz, 12/21).

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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.