Today's opinions: Health overhaul reflects history of government intervention; Importance of repairing clinical trials system; Stopping Medicare fraud

The Hidden Costs Of Publicly Financed Private Health Insurance Kaiser Health News
The system's opacity gives insurers the upper hand in debates over government payment rates (Austin Frakt, 4/26).

Keep Your Government Hands Off My Medicare The Daily Caller
We have had socialism creeping into our previously independent American cowboy psyche for at least the past 80 years or so in some form of government program or another (Frank Hill, 4/26).

ObamaCare Mulligan The Wall Street Journal
As Democrats are showing by trying to pass a new insurance bill, they want all U.S. health care to function like price-controlled Medicare (4/26).

Health Overhaul May Give Consumers At Least A Chance Of Making Informed Decisions MPR News Q
I don't think the health care reform package is perfect, but if it helps me as a consumer shop for a better deal and helps me as a physician by phasing out some of the exclusions that limit my patients' care, it's a step in the right direction (Dr. Will Nicholson, 4/26).

Faltering Cancer Trials The New York Times
Repairing the clinical trials system is critical not only for health care reform but for the health of millions of Americans (4/24).

Go After Medicare Crooks: Much Of The $60 Billion In Fraud Happens Here The Palm Beach Post
One way to cut the amount of money America spends on health care is to stop people from stealing so much of it (4/23).

Tanning Bed Tax Healthy Way To Curb Long-Term Health Care Costs Kansas City Star
The tax and an accompanying reduction in the public's consumption will increase people's health and the public well-being. I can't wait for special taxes levied on sugar drinks, sugar cereals and junk-food chips of every kind (Lewis Diuguid, 4/25).

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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.