Today's Opinions: Challenges for independent Medicare board; Lack of independent analysis of Medicare finances; Medical schools shouldn't fear restrictions on ties to industry

Wrong Way On Health Care The Washington Post
One of the most promising aspects of the new health-care reform is the creation of an independent board to recommend changes in federal health programs and a fast-track provision that would allow these changes to take effect automatically unless Congress comes up with alternatives that would save a similar amount (8/16).

Misled On Medicare The New York Times
The public trustees' statements and summary trustees' reports have stood the test of time. … It is because we so value these reports — and what they stand for — that we feel compelled to express our profound disappointment with this year's report, which for the third year in a row was assembled without the input of independent trustees (Stanford G. Ross and David M. Walker, 8/14).

Separate Doctors From Industry The Boston Globe
Things must change. Medical schools and teaching hospitals have nothing to fear by establishing more appropriate restrictions governing their relationships with industry (Douglas Brown and Stephen Tosi, 8/16).

Medicaid Cuts Not The Same As Private Insurance Rescission Kaiser Health News / The New Republic
Cutting Medicaid during a recession is terrible economics, since it takes money out of the economy at precisely the moment when we should be putting more into it. It's also cruel (Jonathan Cohn, 8/16).

Overlooked Cost Of The War: Veteran's Benefits San Francisco Chronicle
Eye-opening research by Harvard Professor Linda Bilmes and Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz puts the lifetime cost of benefits for our Iraq and Afghanistan veterans at $663 billion. In fact, a handful of variables could drive these costs up further. When Congress appropriates money for the war, it doesn't include the cost of providing post-military health care and disability payments to the men and women who risk their lives for us (Jackie Speier, 8/14).

Health Care Freedom Comes to Colorado The Wall Street Journal
Add Colorado to the list of states that are saying to ObamaCare: not here, thank you. Last week the state's Secretary of State certified that the Colorado Health Care Freedom Act had qualified for the November ballot. More than 130,000 Coloradoans signed petitions seeking to exempt themselves from major portions of federal health reform signed by President Obama in March (Stephen Moore, 8/14).