A selection of today's opinions and editorials

President Obama Writes A New Health Reform Prescription The Washington Post
On the campaign trail, Barack Obama vowed to take on the drug industry by allowing Americans to import cheaper prescription medicine. "We'll tell the pharmaceutical companies 'thanks, but no, thanks' for the overpriced drugs. ... On Tuesday, the matter came to the Senate floor -- and President Obama forgot the "no, thanks" part (Dana Milbank, 12/16).

Let Women Decide On Medical Tests Kaiser Health News
A careful reading of the guidelines says something quite different from the position that has caused such a flap (Shannon Brownlee and E. Dale Collins, 12/16).

Health reform and US immigrants Inquirer Global Nation
Would you wait five years for a doctor's appointment? If you are a legal immigrant living in the United States, you might have to (Jennifer Ng'andu, 12/16).

Joe Lieberman: An Easy Scapegoat Politico
I realize it's fashionable to say that Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) is to blame for making the Senate health care bill what it's going to be. But really, that's unfair. Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and President Barack Obama have been setting the table for months for Lieberman to do exactly what he's doing right now (Jane Hamsher, 12/16).

Obama's Forgotten Health-Care Promises The Baltimore Sun
The more details that emerge from health care reform plans coalescing and colliding on Capitol Hill, the more one wonders how President Barack Obama could possibly justify supporting any of them -- much less signing one into law. Congressional Democrats are threatening to serve up legislation that would cause the president to break any number of pledges (Matt Patterson, 12/16).

ISO A Watchdog For Health-Care Costs The Washington Post
Help wanted: Brave senator or senators willing to champion amendment creating fail-safe mechanism to control health-care spending (Ruth Marcus, 12/16).

What Public Option Supporters Won CBS News
The public option is dead this morning. And this time, it isn't coming back to life. The Senate isn't going to include any version of the idea in its bill. And while the House can still demand a public option in conference, nobody I know expects the House to prevail (Jonathan Cohn, 12/15).

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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.