Today's Opinions: Health law's effect for Democrats; Canadians' view; Cutting Medicare costs; The health issue in Tenn. Governor's race

The Stakes In The Health Care War Politico
Despite lofty predictions that a broad-based Democratic constituency would be activated by the health care reform bill, recent polling shows that the bill has been a disaster for the party — with near 60 percent of voters saying that they oppose the measure (Douglas Schoen, 8/11).

U.S. Health Care System Ridiculous, Say Canadians CBS MoneyWatch
You have to leave the country to get a proper perspective on the high cost of health care in the United States. Even if it's just over the border (Jane Bryant Quinn, 8/12).

Think Health Reform Will Cut Costs? Think Again. USA Today
A big reason the new law is ineffective in constraining costs is that it doesn't fundamentally reform Medicare, particularly the program's dominant "fee-for-service" reimbursement option (James Capretta, 8/11).

Hard Health-Care Decisions Await Next Governor The (Nashville) Tennessean
The public eye is keenly focused on health-care issues. Big health-care questions will face the next governor. Let's explore three particularly prickly questions (Dick Cowart, 8/12).

Make Health Care, Not Birth Control, The Priority Miller-McCune
Imagine that you are a young Chinese woman of, say, 21, who accidentally becomes pregnant by her fiancé. When the local birth control official discovers your condition a few months later, she declares your pregnancy to be "illegal" and orders you to report for an abortion (Steven Mosher, 8/12).

Health Care Reform Looks Like Just Another Spending Measure San Francisco Examiner
During last year's health care debate, the Obama administration used a convincing catchphrase to push wavering legislators to pass the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act: "Health care reform is entitlement reform" (Paul Howard, 8/12).

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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.