Today's opinions and editorials

For Sale: One Senator (D-Neb.) No Principles, Low Price The Washington Post
Sometimes there is a fine ethical line between legislative maneuvering and bribery. At other times, that line is crossed by a speeding, honking tractor-trailer, with outlines of shapely women on mud flaps bouncing as it rumbles past (Michael Gerson, 12/23).

Last Minute Deals Obscure Health Reform's Larger Good USA Today
Much as we wish senators would be too embarrassed to resort to me-first politics on such an important issue — and will have only their own shortsightedness to blame if the vote-buying offends enough people to jeopardize the whole effort — we're not sure who deserves more blame (12/23).

Go Back To Drawing Board USA Today
The Senate health care bill betrays the promise of fundamental "change" Democrats made during the 2008 election. It cloaks a handout to the health industry in the veneer of "reform" (David Sirota, 12/23).

Last Call On Reforming Health Reform Bill The New York Times
Our health care system, as I'm sure you have heard by now, also suffers from soaring costs and uneven quality. For health reform to be a success, it needs to make major progress on those problems, too (David Leonhardt, 12/22).

Continue To Prevent Abortion Funding Des Moines Register
Our amendment simply applies current law to H.R. 3962, the Affordable Health Care for America Act (Rep. Bart Stupak, 12/23).

Doctors No One Needs The New York Times
[S]ince the cost of health care follows the supply of doctors, the added slots [for residencies] would substantially increase the national health care bill. And the measure would not address the underlying reason that patients are forced to wait to see doctors (Shannon Brownlee and David Goodman, 12/22).

Harry Reid Turns Insurance Into A Public Utility The Wall Street Journal
The inexorable squeeze between the constricted revenue sources allowable that insurers get under the Reid bill and the extensive and uncertain new legal obligations it imposes is likely to result in a massive cash-flow crunch that will drive the firms in the individual and small-group health insurance markets into speedy bankruptcy (Richard Epstein, 12/22).

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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.