Today's Opinions: Prevention and small business; Views on medical inflation and health reform; Sebelius letter examined

Hands Off The Prevention Fund Politico
This week, Sen. Mike Johanns (R-Neb.) is due to offer an amendment to the Small Business Jobs and Credit Act that could effectively kill the Prevention and Public Health Fund. This would be a grave mistake (Sen. Tom Harkin, 9/13).

Is Newer Better? Not Always The New York Times
An expensive new drug is not always better than an older, cheaper drug, and sometimes a new technology or treatment that is highly effective for some patients is unnecessary or even dangerous for others (9/11).

Our View On Medical Inflation: Don't Blame Health Reform For Rising Costs Of Care USA Today
Put another way, the controversial reform measure has enough cost controls to deliver protections to more Americans for roughly the same money as would have been spent otherwise (9/12).

Opposing View On Medical Inflation: Repeal And Replace USA Today
This month, with support for ObamaCare continuing to erode, a Democrat-led group is ramping up a multimillion-dollar national ad campaign to rescue the new law. At the same time, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius wrote the health insurers' national association demanding they stop using "misinformation and scare tactics" to blame 2011 premium increases on ObamaCare (George Pataki, 9/12).

Truth At A Premium Chicago Tribune
Apparently, harsh punishment is in store for anyone who refuses to parrot the administration line (9/13).

Sebelius Has A List The Wall Street Journal
The White House was always going to blame insurance companies for any cost increases, even when its own policies cause them (9/13).

ObamaCare Extortion New York Post
The Obama administration didn't quite pull a page from the Sopranos last week — but it came awfully close (Michael Tanner, 9/13).

Sharing Medical Records Saves Lives Concord (N.H.) Monitor
The closeting of information slows the provision of health care, endangers lives and makes it exceptionally difficult to track patient outcomes and determine which treatments are most effective (9/13).