A Selection of Today's Opinions: AIDS endures; Conservatives' changing views of the individual mandate; Concerns for doctors

With AIDS, Time To Get Beyond Blame The New York Times
AIDS endures right here in the U.S.A.: our outpatient clinics are bursting at the seams, and new cases show up daily. A million domestic stories are languishing untold, but they are not the operatic tragedies we have grown used to (Dr. Abigail Zuger, 4/19).

Conservatives Run From The Individual Mandate They Once Embraced U.S. News & World Report
The mandate was seen, by many Republican theorists, as a reasonable alternative to a public option, with the great virtue of keeping the American healthcare system, at its core, a market-based enterprise. Nowadays, of course, such thinking will get you burned as a heretic (John Aloysius Farrell, 4/19). 

Gathering Clouds Over Health Care Atlanta Journal Constitution
Mr. President, we might not lose every physician in every specialty with the instantaneous and sensational flair of an asteroid. But unless we take some immediate steps to create a more favorable climate for physicians, that dark cloud is going to come to a sudden and permanent stop over the place we call home (David Cook, 4/19).

US Health Care Threatened By Decline In Primary Care Physicians Kansas City Star
At a time of increasing need for primary care physicians, the barriers have driven most from the field. Two key actions will put us back on track (Michael Catausan, 4/19).

A Chance To Reduce The Burden Of Chronic Disease The Washington Post
We need to act swiftly and decisively to change the way we manage health and disease on a global scale, specifically around major chronic diseases. We cannot only reduce suffering and death on a large scale, but by applying medicine strategically we can extend the healthy lifespan and save massive amounts of health-care dollars (Dietrich Stephan, 4/19).

No Health Bounce Yet For Obama The Wall Street Journal
A more ominous possible explanation for Democrats is that they passed a health bill precisely as Americans were losing their faith that the government knows how to deal with such complex issues (Gerald F. Seib, 4/20).

Shining New Light On Payments To Docs Minneapolis Star-Tribune
Buried deep within the massive health care overhaul passed by Congress are tough new laws that will soon shine a much-needed light on physicians' lucrative financial ties to industry. Known as the Physician Payments Sunshine provisions, these are some of the most significant, yet unheralded, reforms contained in the historic health care legislation signed by President Obama last month (4/19).

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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.