Viewpoints: GOP moving away from compassionate conservatism; Competing strategies for fighting obesity

The Washington Post: The Real Battle For The Soul Of America
Romney asserts that President Obama wants to "fundamentally transform America," turning the country "into a European-style entitlement society." In fact, (Mitt) Romney and his Republican presidential rivals have a far more radical transformation in mind. They envision a dramatically shrunken federal government and a dangerously unraveled social safety net (Ruth Marcus, 1/12).

Bloomberg: Romney Debates Romney About Health-Care Reform
It's obvious -- isn't it? - - that Romney is just blowing smoke. The real story is clear: He wanted to achieve something important and good for the people of his state, namely universal health care. But he chose the wrong horse -- who could have guessed that an idea from the Heritage Foundation would become "liberal" anathema in the Republican primaries? It's annoying, but it's more than that: It's disqualifying (Michael Kinsley, 1/12).

The Washington Post: Conversation Over Abortion Continues 39 Years Later
Call me naive, but I cannot believe that it's January 2012, almost 39 years to the day that the right to abortion was decided by the U.S. Supreme Court, and we're still having a conversation about the access to and legality of female reproductive health services (Anna Holmes, 1/12).

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Obesity Ads Serve As Wakeup Call
The goal of our very direct ad campaign is to increase awareness of this medical crisis. Our research and experience as the largest pediatric health care organization in the country have proven that behavioral change will not occur until families are ready for it. … Critics claim the ad messages were not carefully considered. The truth is the campaign is based on in-depth research, including focus groups with parents and caregivers of children who are overweight or obese (Doug Hertz, 1/12).

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Fight Obesity, Not The People
It is critical to address childhood obesity, but the Strong4Life campaign takes a misguided approach that may inadvertently worsen obesity and harm the very people who are most in need of help…. Spokespeople for the campaign defend their approach as "tough love" and a "wake-up" call, but there is legitimate concern that the campaign instead stigmatizes and shames children and their families  (Rebecca Puhl and Kelly Brownell, 1/12).

St. Louis Dispatch/Minneapolis Star Tribune: Tracking Medical Errors Remain Stubbornly Inconsistent
Despite the best intentions of the people and hospitals that care for the sick, it turns out to be harder to avoid hurting patients than you might think. ... Mandatory public access to all data about hospitals' quality of care, infection rates and other adverse events also makes sense. Right now, it's up to individual states to decide whether statistics are made public. Only about half the states allow public access to some information. A little sunlight could help the healing (1/12).

Politico: Pharmacists Role In Health Reform
How do we get patients – especially those with chronic conditions like diabetes and hypertension -; to take their medications faithfully? Hundreds of billions of dollars are riding on the answer. Spending on prescription medicines in the U.S. annually amounts to $301 billion, about 10 percent of the nation's total health care tab. But almost as much -; $290 billion -; is spent each year dealing with the medical effects of Americans not taking their drugs correctly, according to the New England Healthcare Institute. Getting patients to comply with their prescriptions could significantly cut health care costs (R. Pete Vanderveen, 1/13).