A selection of today's opinions and editorials

Health Care Then And Now St. Louis Post-Dispatch
The epic of health care evolution is complex and is worth reviewing over the last five decades. Having practiced medicine in the same community in Southeast Missouri for more than 30 years, I have seen changes in health care beyond the scope of imagination (Dr. S.D. Madduri, 2/18).

Realign Health Care System The Boston Globe
Instead of merely tinkering with a broken system, we need a new business plan that will support an improved clinical model and end the current unsustainable cycle (Dennis D. Keefe, 2/18).

Do We Really Want The Status Quo On Health Care? The New York Times
Burying one's head in the sand is what ostriches do — and that's what we Americans are poised to do if we miss this chance to reform our sick health care system. ... At the present rate, by my calculations, in the year 2303 every penny of our G.D.P. will go to health care (Nicholas D. Kristof, 2/18).

Why Are Fewer Patients Enrolling In Hospice? Kaiser Health News
[Hospice organizations] are a model for coordinated care that other health care providers would do well to copy. But doctors need to be persuaded to use hospice. And that may mean changing a payment system that may be discouraging them from using this valuable service (Howard Gleckman, 2/18).

The WellPoint Mugging The Wall Street Journal
Democrats and their media allies have found a new insurance piñata: WellPoint and its recent health-premium price increases in California. This spat deserves more attention, because its real lesson is what will happen to health insurance costs around the country if ObamaCare passes (2/18).

Priority: Prevention The Baltimore Sun
If our nation's leaders truly want to cut health care costs while expanding health care coverage and ensuring the future viability of Medicare and Medicaid, prevention must be the cornerstone of health care reform -- not just a piece of it (E. Albert Reece and Edward Miller, 2/18).

Soaring Premiums Show Need For Rx Overhaul The Atlanta Journal Constitution
It's outrageous that insurance companies are reaping huge profits on the backs of working families who are already struggling to make ends meet. It's also all too familiar (Kathleen Sebelius, 2/17).

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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.