Today's opinions and editorials

Scary 'IRS Agents' Claims Chicago Tribune
In its most frightening version to date, the new Big Lie about health care reform is that it will require the Internal Revenue Service to hire "16,500 armed bureaucrats" to enforce the coming requirement that those who can afford it must purchase insurance (Eric Zorn, 4/8).

'Slacker Mandate' Not Just For Slackers The Dallas Morning News/Politics Daily 
Some conservatives have it in for the so-called slacker mandate in the new health law - the provision that will allow parents to keep children on the family health insurance plan until they're 26. They picture a Judd Apatow movie spreading like a cancer across America, destroying its work ethic (Jill Lawrence, 4/8).

What Does Winter Wheat Have To Do With Health Care? Star Tribune
A key question about the health care bill involves just how far the power of Congress to regulate interstate commerce reaches. For nearly 70 years, one influential precedent on that issue has been the peculiar case of farmer Roscoe Filburn, whose crop was deemed to influence commerce "among the several states." Filburn's "most striking case" is relevant to a constitutional test of health care legislation, according to former Minnesotan Jim Chen, a Filburn scholar who is dean of the Louis D. Brandeis School of Law at the University of Louisville (Robert Franklin, 4/8).

Bigger Role For Physician Assistants May Ease Doctor Shortage The Tennessean
The physician/PA practice model is the future of health care. In these times of change, PAs stand ready to provide Tennesseans with easily accessible, quality health care (Katherine Pesut Moffat, 4/9).

VA Leads Nation In IT For Better Patient Care Billings (Mont.) Gazette
Information technology that has revolutionized other business fields is still in its infancy in the U.S. health system. An exception is the Veterans Affairs health system (4/9).

The Massachusetts Insurance Blackout The Wall Street Journal
This week it became impossible in Massachusetts for small businesses and individuals to buy health-care coverage after Governor Deval Patrick imposed price controls on premiums. Read on, because under ObamaCare this kind of political showdown will soon be coming to an insurance market near you (4/9).

---

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.