The New York Times: Is The Affordable Care Act Working?
After a year fully in place, the Affordable Care Act has largely succeeded in delivering on President Obama’s main promises, an analysis by a team of reporters and data researchers shows. But it has also fallen short in some ways and given rise to a powerful conservative backlash. (10/26)

The New York Times: Insurers’ Consumer Data Isn’t Ready For Enrollees
With health insurance marketplaces about to open for 2015 enrollment, the Obama administration has told insurance companies that it will delay requirements for them to disclose data on the number of people enrolled, the number of claims denied and the costs to consumers for specific services. For months, insurers have been asking the administration if they had to comply with two sections of the Affordable Care Act that require “transparency in coverage.” (Pear, 10/25)

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Healthcare.gov Communication Issues Cast Cloud On Coverage Renewal
If you bought health insurance on HealthCare.gov for this year, you could be in for a few surprises when open enrollment begins next month. It’s possible, for example, that you could end up being billed for two different plans. The reason, insurers say, is because the federal government hasn’t addressed a key communications issue with the website. And if you haven’t updated your financial information on the online insurance marketplace, you could face higher premiums and get less of a subsidy than you deserve. (Shapiro, 10/24)

Connecticut Mirror: Obamacare Enrollment, Year 2: What You Need To Know
The second sign-up period for insurance under the federal health law known as Obamacare begins next month. That means state residents who buy their own health plans will be able to shop for private insurance through Access Health CT, the insurance marketplace created by the health law. People can also buy coverage outside the exchange through insurance companies directly, or through brokers and agents. This year’s enrollment period brings some changes from last year, including a shorter shopping season, different plan options and a higher penalty for those who don't have insurance in 2015. (Levin Becker, 10/27)

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Missouri, Illinois Small Business Health Exchange Opens Up
The online health insurance marketplaces for small businesses in Missouri and Illinois went live Friday morning, although in a limited capacity. The two states were among five to get early access to the Small Business Health Options Program, or SHOP, website before open enrollment begins on Nov. 15. The early access period allows employers to create accounts, connect with brokers and upload an employee roster. Employers still won’t be able to purchase or see what plans will even be offered until November. And the site for workers to view their employer’s offerings is still not operational. (Shapiro, 10/24)

Minnesota Public Radio: Dayton Defends MNsure Rate Hike Math As GOP Criticism Mounts
Gov. Mark Dayton defended his Commerce Department Friday, saying officials there accurately calculated that the average cost on health plans offered through MNsure would rise only 4.5 percent next year. (Scheck, 10/24)

USA Today: Obama Getting Mixed News On Medicaid Expansions
President Obama is getting some good news and some not-so-good news as his administration tries to persuade Republican governors to sign off on Medicaid expansions. For example, in Utah, Gov. Gary Herbert says he has a deal on a Medicaid compromise. Meanwhile, reports indicate that Indiana Gov. Mike Pence -- a potential Republican presidential candidate -- may nix a Medicaid deal. (Jackson, 10/24)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Medicaid Expansion Finds Red-State Allies
A growing number of states that strongly opposed Obamacare are rethinking their positions on Medicaid expansion as they watch billions in new federal dollars rain down on neighboring states Arkansas is helping lead the shift by changing the rules: with Washington’s permission, the state has enabled the poor to buy private insurance policies using the federal Medicaid expansion money. Other red states, finding this tack more politically palatable, are exploring Arkansas’ approach. Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam, for example, said he may submit a similar proposal to federal health officials. Georgia, meanwhile, remains firmly opposed to expansion. But with November’s gubernatorial election less than two weeks away, the future of Medicaid expansion in the Peach State may yet be in play. (Bluestein and Williams, 10/24)

The Des Moines Register: Obamacare Hasn't Emerged As Big Election Issue
When the Affordable Care Act was hobbled by technical problems and mocked by late-night comics last winter, some political activists predicted it would be the dominant issue in this November's elections. But recent polls show that the law, also known as Obamacare, has become just one dish on a smorgasbord of issues voters are considering. Charlie Cook, a national analyst who edits the Cook Political Report, said most Americans decided long ago how they feel about the Affordable Care Act. It wouldn't make sense for politicians to focus their campaigns on the subject at this point, he said, because "it's sort of already baked in the cake." Cook said Republican strategists have told him they advised candidates earlier this year not to center their message on opposition to the law. "One of them said, 'We've milked this cow for all it's worth.'" (Leys, 10/25)

Minneapolis Star-Tribune: Franken, McFadden Trade Attacks In Senate Debate
U.S. Sen. Al Franken and GOP challenger Mike McFadden raised their voices and the temperature of their race Sunday, facing off in a spirited televised debate. Much of the debate was punctuated by the candidates interrupting each other as they wrestled to answer questions on some of the most complex issues of the day: how to handle Islamic extremists, how to fix the Affordable Care Act and whether the United States should enact a travel ban from West Africa because of the Ebola virus. (Sherry, 10/26)

Minnesota Public Radio: Franken, McFadden Spar In Contentious Debate
In their second one-on-one debate, a contentious affair held Sunday, Sen. Al Franken and his Republican challenger, Mike McFadden, argued about national security, health care, partisanship and McFadden's business record. (Zdechlik, 10/26)

Dallas Morning News: Cornyn Clout Helps Fill Coffers From Range Of Industries
Sen. John Cornyn has raised $45 million for his three Senate campaigns. And even without much of a fight this year, he’s had ready access to big money from donors across a range of industries. In the last two years, he’s collected more from the oil and gas and health care sectors than any other senator. Defense contractors, bankers, insurers, and lobbyists have also filled his coffers. (Gilman and Railey, 10/27)

Also in the news, predictions about what might happen to the health law if the GOP takes control of the upper chamber and what's become of the House's plan to sue President Barack Obama --

The Hill: Vitter: Top Priority In GOP Senate Would Be Repealing ObamaCare
Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) said on Sunday that the number-one priority if Republicans take control of the Senate is to repeal Obamacare. "Now that would be vetoed by President Obama, but I think it's very important to move forward with that, the House and Senate together. "And then also look at specific reforms after that veto that can make a difference in the next two years before the next presidential election," he said on Fox News. Vitter called the upcoming midterm elections "a great chance for the Republicans to pick up the Senate." (Wong, 26)

Politico: Despite Hype, House Still Hasn't Sued Obama
House Speaker John Boehner came out swinging hard last June when he announced that his chamber would take President Barack Obama to court. The suit, charging that the president grossly exceeded his constitutional authority by failing to implement portions of the Obamacare law, was billed as an election-season rallying point for aggrieved Republicans. But days before the midterms the House’s legal guns seem to have fallen silent. Lawyers close to the process said they originally expected the legal challenge to be filed in September but now they don’t expect any action before the elections. (Gerstein, 10/24)

The New York Times: As Insurers Try to Limit Costs, Providers Hit Patients With More Separate Fees
Leo Boudreau of Massachusetts was thrilled to find a psychologist in his insurance network to treat his teenage daughter for emotional stress related to a medical condition. ... But he was surprised when the bill for each visit contained two charges: the approximately $100 he expected to see for the therapist — and a similar fee for the room, which was not covered. ... As insurers ratchet down payments to physicians and hospitals, these providers are pushing back with a host of new charges. ... as insurers and providers fight over revenue in an era of cost control, patients often find themselves caught in the middle, nickel-and-dimed. (Rosenthal, 10/25)

Kaiser Health News: Family Doctors Push For A Bigger Piece Of The Health Care Pie
Family medicine doctors are joining forces to win a bigger role in health care – and be paid for it. Eight family-physician-related groups, including the American Academy of Family Physicians, have formed Family Medicine for America’s Health, a coalition to sweeten the public perception of what they do and advance their interests through state and federal policies. (Gillespie, 10/24)

Meanwhile, an analysis of new cancer drugs finds that many are approved without proving that they extend life -

Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel: FDA Approves Cancer Drugs Without Proof They're Extending Lives
For decades, researchers have focused on developing new cancer drugs that save lives or improve the quality of life. But when the U.S. Food and Drug Administration allowed Inlyta, a $10,000 a month drug, on the market in 2012, there was no proof that it did either. Inlyta is not an exception to the rule. A Milwaukee Journal Sentinel/MedPage Today analysis of 54 new cancer drugs found that over the last decade the FDA allowed 74% of them on the market without proof that they extended life. Seldom was there proof of improved quality of life, either. (Fauber, 10/26)

And court delays hinder an SEC probe into insider trading -

The Wall Street Journal: SEC Says House Trading Probe Hindered By Court Delays
Prosecutors gathering evidence into whether congressional staff helped tip Wall Street traders to a change in health-care policy have hit a snag: a sluggish court system. A Securities and Exchange Commission attorney said Friday that delays by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York have “impeded” its investigation. (Ackerman, 10/24)

The Washington Post: Quality Of U.S. Hospices Varies, Patients Left In Dark
More than a million times a year, a terminally ill patient in the United States is enrolled in hospice care. Each time, the family confronts a decision that, while critical, often must be made almost blindly: Which hospice to hire? A boom in the industry allows patients to choose from an array of hospice outfits, some of them excellent. More than a thousand new hospices have opened in the United States in the past decade. But the absence of public information about their quality, a void that is unusual even within the health-care industry, leaves consumers at a loss to distinguish the good from the bad. (Whoriskey and Keating, 10/26)

Reuters: Autonomy, Cost Are Key In Decisions On Long-term Care Insurance
Family discussions that emphasize older parents’ independence and their desire to avoid being a burden to adult children could stimulate interest in buying long-term care insurance, researchers say. In focus groups with older adults and their middle-aged children, certain themes dominated parents’ decisions about whether or not to purchase coverage for themselves. Tapping into those themes could help families talk about aging parents’ needs and everyone’s expectations, according to the researchers. (Lehman, 10/24)

USA Today: White House Working On New Ebola Guidelines
The White House stopped short of calling on the governors to reverse their quarantine rules, but administration officials have made clear to the governors that they have concerns with unintended consequences of polices not grounded in science, said a senior administration official, who asked not to be identified to discuss the private communications. The new guidelines are expected to be unveiled in the coming days, the official said.The official added that the administration is consulting with the states as they develop the new rules. (Madhani and Jackson, 10/27)

The Wall Street Journal: White House Pushes Back On State Ebola Quarantines
The White House pushed back against the governors of New York, New Jersey, Illinois and other states that instituted procedures to forcibly quarantine medical workers returning from West Africa, deepening an emotional debate brought on by recent Ebola cases in the U.S. A senior administration official said Sunday that new federal guidelines under development would protect Americans from imported cases of the disease but not interfere with the flow of U.S. health workers to and from West Africa to fight the epidemic there. (McCain Nelson, West and McKay, 10/27)

The New York Times: White House Presses States To Reverse Mandatory Ebola Quarantine Orders
The Obama administration has been pushing the governors of New York and New Jersey to reverse their decision ordering all medical workers returning from West Africa who had contact with Ebola patients to be quarantined, an administration official said. But on Sunday both governors, Andrew M. Cuomo of New York and Chris Christie of New Jersey, stood by their decision, saying that the federal guidelines did not go far enough. ... Ever since Mr. Cuomo, a Democrat, and Mr. Christie, a Republican, announced the plan at a hastily called news conference on Friday evening, top administration officials have been speaking with Mr. Cuomo daily and have also been in touch with Mr. Christie, trying to get them to rescind the order. But in that time, two more states – Illinois and Florida – announced that they were instituting similar policies. (Santora and Shear, 10/26)

One of the worries related to the state quarantine policies is that they will have a chilling effect on medical workers' willingness to work in West Africa -

The Washington Post: New York Revises Controversial Policy On Ebola Quarantines Amid Pressure
New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo (D) on Sunday revised a controversial policy to quarantine returning health-care workers from Ebola-stricken nations, under pressure from the Obama administration and medical experts over the aggressive measures. (Kang, 10/26)

Los Angeles Times: Quarantining Health Workers Could Worsen Ebola Epidemic, Officials Say
Top Obama administration officials publicly warned Sunday that mandatory quarantines in the U.S. of doctors, nurses and other healthcare workers who have traveled to Africa to help Ebola patients risked worsening the epidemic. Mandatory 21-day quarantines, now in place in New York, New Jersey and Illinois, are “a little bit draconian” and could discourage people from helping to fight the disease, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top Ebola expert at the National Institutes of Health, said in several television interviews Sunday. (Serrano, 10/26)

NPR: Controversy Brews Over States' Moves To Quarantine Health Workers
The face of Ebola in the United States may now be Kaci Hickox. After treating Ebola patients in West Africa ... she was detained at the airport and transferred to an isolation tent next to a hospital, where she remains. New York and New Jersey are ordering that all medical workers returning from Ebola-hit nations to be quarantined at home upon their return. But federal officials say the mandate will likely have a chilling effect on the already troubled effort to recruit U.S. health care workers to fight the epidemic. (Aizenman, 10/27)

Meanwhile, news outlets also examine how Ebola planning and public fears impact hospitals and public health strategies -

The New York Times: As Ebola Spread In Dallas, New York Honed Protocol
When Craig Spencer, a young doctor just back from treating patients with Ebola in Guinea, fell ill with the virus in New York on Thursday, the paramedics who went to get him were dressed in protective suits. The carefully planned response was a world apart from the scene that unfolded in a Dallas hospital last month when a Liberian man, Thomas Eric Duncan, became the first person to test positive for Ebola in the United States. ... The response also prompted a national reckoning, both by the C.D.C., the federal agency that contributed to the wobbly response in Dallas, and among hospitals nationwide that are now scrambling to prepare, having learned from mistakes in Texas that many say could have happened to any of them. (Tavernise, Hartocollis, LaFraniere and Goodnough, 10/25)

NPR: For Hospitals, Doing More On Ebola May Mean Less Elsewhere
Eighty-one percent of hospitals have started training their staff in caring for an Ebola patient, according to a survey of 1,039 members of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology. They're the folks who manage infection control in hospitals. ... But more time spent on Ebola can mean less time to handle day-to-day demands, particularly the Enterovirus D-68 outbreak and the approaching flu season. "We have to drop so many other things to take this on," says Jennie Mayfield, president of APIC. (Bruzek, 10/24)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Obamacare Remains Top Issue In Georgia Insurance Commissioner’s Race
As Georgia's insurance commissioner, Republican Ralph Hudgens rarely hesitated to voice his criticism of the health care law known as Obamacare. The incumbent continued that mantra Sunday even while caught in a political crossfire from his two lesser-known opponents. (Fouriezos, 10/26)

WBUR: Where Baker, Coakley Stand On Health Care
It’s nearly half the state budget, almost 20 percent of the state’s economy and a perennial top concern for voters. The issue is health care, and so far, neither Democrat Martha Coakley nor Republican Charlie Baker has taken the lead on this topic with voters in the gubernatorial race. (Bebinger, 10/27)

The Associated Press: Walker, Burke Differ On Medicaid Expansion Money
Gov. Scott Walker proudly defends his decision to reject hundreds of millions of federal dollars to pay for expanding Medicaid coverage, even though polls show most Wisconsin residents believe he made the wrong choice. Mary Burke, his Democratic opponent in the gubernatorial race, decries it as irresponsible. How Walker approached Medicaid offers a clear contrast with Burke, who said she would undo Walker's policies and take the money. And though Walker rejected the money offered under President Barack Obama's health care overhaul law, he did expand the program to include childless adults previously on a waiting list. The most recent Marquette University Law School poll showed the race in the Nov. 4 election is tied, with nearly every voter having already made up their mind. That same poll released Oct. 15 showed 59 percent of likely voters would like the state to accept the federal money, while 30 percent agree with Walker in rejecting it. (Bauer, 10/26)

Politico: Found: The First Post-Obama Republican
Mitt Romney publicly hailed Susana Martinez as a “model” for the Republican Party. ... The [New Mexico] governor makes no apology for accepting federal health care support under the Affordable Care Act, calling Obamacare a fact of life, at least for now. “It’s the law. It’s the law,” Martinez, 55, says, repeating herself for emphasis. “There’s so many issues – and that may be one of them – but I hope we don’t get hung up on one and forget all of the important issues that impact families every day.” (Burns, 10/24)

Sacramento Bee: Prop. 46 Aims To Increase Malpractice Awards, Test Doctors
Proposition 46 is the latest salvo in a decades-long fight between medical doctors and trial lawyers. The three-pronged initiative would increase the limit on damages for pain and suffering, require random drug and alcohol testing of doctors and mandate that health professionals consult a statewide drug database before issuing certain medications to patients to prevent “doctor shopping.” (Cadelago, 10/25)

Los Angeles Times: Yes On Proposition 45 Ads Are Going To The Airwaves
With just over a week until election day, backers of Proposition 45, the health insurance rate regulation initiative, are putting their ads on television. Though corporate opponents have used a $55-million campaign war chest to flood the airwaves, Consumer Watchdog, the Santa Monica activist group that put the measure on the ballot, has only $1 million to spend on TV and radio spots. (Lifscher, 10/24)

The New York Times: Abortion Capital Of Bible Belt? Tennessee Vote Tests That Idea
The online video features idyllic snatches of Tennessee daily life: guitar players, old barns, church socials. ... But then there is a strategically placed, and purely fictional, detail: The welcome sign announces Tennessee as “Your Abortion Destination.” The video was designed by abortion opponents here who believe that Tennessee has for too long been a Bible Belt outlier due to a State Supreme Court decision in 2000 that ruled that the state’s constitutional guarantee of a right to privacy includes the right to an abortion. ... Now, anti-abortion forces are trying to change that at the ballot box by passing Amendment 1, which states that nothing in the Tennessee Constitution “secures or protects” a right to abortion. (Fausset, 10/24)

The Chicago Sun-Times: Illinois Aims To Improve Medicaid Patients' Coordination Of Care
Lurie Children’s Hospital is seeking to make these types of helpers available to at least 5,000 Medicaid children who have moderate to severe diagnoses such as cystic fibrosis or spina bifida in order to make sure they’re getting the care they need. It’s part of a larger change to how Illinois Medicaid is being delivered. The state is shifting at least 50 percent of Medicaid’s 3 million people into care coordination programs by Jan. 1, 2015. The state started enrolling most of these people in July, though some Medicaid patients were moved to these programs as early as 2011. (Thomas, 10/26)

Kansas Health Institute News Service: Few Adults Taking Advantage Of New KanCare Dental Coverage
About 6 percent of eligible adults took advantage of new dental coverage offered under KanCare in the first year of the managed care Medicaid program. The switch to managed care Medicaid administered by three private companies extended basic dental cleanings to more than 130,000 adults age 19 to 64. According to Kansas Department of Health and Environment statistics, about 7,600 adults had a cleaning paid for by one of the managed care companies in 2013. Representatives of the managed care companies and dental providers offered several possible reasons why the rate of use of the cleanings, which dentists recommend twice a year, was not higher. (Marso, 10/24)

The Seattle Times: Revamping Doctors' Orders: Quality Care At Lower Cost
Nearly everyone agrees it’s difficult to sustain a health-care system that depends on rewarding doctors for prescribing treatments and tests — whether or not they help patients. Enter accountable care organizations (ACOs), a model that seeks to fundamentally revamp the system so doctors are paid instead for keeping patients healthy and costs down. On Thursday, insurance giant Aetna announced ACO-like arrangements with Providence-Swedish Health Alliance, The Polyclinic, Rainier Health Network and Pacific Medical Centers (PacMed) to offer health care around Puget Sound. (Stiffler, 10/25)

Kaiser Health News: How L.A. County Officials Allegedly Lightened Penalties In Three Nursing Home Deaths
The bleeding started suddenly and lasted 15 minutes, soaking through the sheets and pooling on the floor. Turning pale, Armando Reagan cried out to the nursing home staff. “Help! Help! I do not want to die!” By the time paramedics got Reagan to a Glendale emergency room, he was incoherent, with his heart beating rapidly and his breathing labored, documents show. Within an hour, he was dead. The Los Angeles County coroner determined that Reagan, a 30-year-old paraplegic and former gang member, died that day in July 2010 from hemorrhagic shock due to chronic infections stemming from an old gunshot wound and “neglect by provider.” (Gorman, 10/27)

North Carolina Health News: Current Medicaid Reform Debate Has Familiar Look
As lawmakers meet during the legislative interim this fall, one of the biggest topics under discussion is how Medicaid will look into the future. And as those talks take place, the debate looks very familiar. At a subcommittee meeting this week, representatives from stakeholder organizations gave testimony similar to that given last winter to the Medicaid Reform Advisory Group. At the same meeting, lawmakers from the House voiced support for a plan that moves Medicaid into a system delivered by accountable care organizations, which put providers at financial risk, but that keeps the Division of Medical Assistance as overseer of Medicaid. (Hoban, 10/24)

WBUR: Gottlieb Leaving Partners HealthCare For Partners In Health
The CEO at Partners HealthCare, the state’s largest private employer, plans to step down. Dr. Gary Gottlieb agreed Friday to become the CEO at Partners in Health, a global health organization whose latest project is an Ebola response effort in West Africa. Gottlieb is scheduled to make the transition on July 1, 2015. His decision comes amid acourt review of Partners’ controversial expansion plans and questions about Gottlieb’s ability to manage political dynamics outside the hospital network. (Bebinger, 10/25)

The Bloomington Pantagraph: Nurse Practitioners Help Fill Primary Care Gaps
Talk to a few students or professors in the family nurse practitioner program at Illinois State University and it's easy to see the passion they have for health care. All students in the program already are registered nurses. They will be expected to play key roles as demand for health care goes up at the same time a shortage of primary-care physicians is anticipated. ... Nurse practitioners are advanced practice nurses who receive additional training after becoming registered nurses, allowing them to provide primary care in areas including diagnosis, disease prevention and management of chronic diseases. ... Students are trained to look at the whole patient and their circumstances — not only diagnosing what's wrong and how to treat it, but considering how the patient can pay for it, whether they have someone to help them and whether their home is safe, said Wilson, who leads the family nurse practitioner sequence. (Sobota, 10/27)

The Wall Street Journal: The Incredibility Infection
So the Obama Administration is pressuring the Governors of New York and New Jersey behind the scenes to reverse their decision on Friday to impose a mandatory quarantine on health workers returning from treating Ebola patients in West Africa. Well, if it weren’t for the Administration’s incompetence in handling Ebola risks on U.S. soil, maybe the state leaders wouldn’t have felt they had to take matters into their own hands. (10/26)

The New Republic: An Ebola Quarantine For New York
Of course, the argument for quarantine may be less about medicine than it is about mass psychology. Ebola is a scary disease and quarantine's main, perfectly worthy goal may simply be to calm the public. But in public health, as in medicine, the first principle is Do No Harm. Medical experts and health officials worry, for example, that quarantine might discourage aid workers from traveling to West Africa, at a time when the region desperately needs more personnel to fight the epidemic. (Jonathan Cohn, 10/25)

The Washington Post: The Cure For Our Ebola Panic Is More Panic
Just start typing “can I get ebola from” into Google and it suggests all kinds of frenzied questions. “A toilet seat?” “sneezing?” (Soon: “A czar?” “Dreams?” “Impure thoughts?”) We have enough panic to fill the 24-hour cable news channels 24 hours a day, seven days a week, with the occasional break for commercials (to panic about the loss of our sexual potency or panic about what will happen to Grandma if she falls in the house when she is alone). ... Now people are saying we need to calm down. That this panic is doing more harm than good. That, in the scheme of things, we (in America, anyway) are far less likely to contract Ebola than to be killed by lightning, bees or sharks. People say this as though it is reassuring. Frankly, it is the opposite. If you want me to calm down, do not tell me about other things that are more likely to kill me. (Alexandra Petri, 10/24)

Bloomberg: You Can't Cure Ebola With Money
I support government spending on basic research. But I really do not support the wrongheaded idea that medical research is like ordering groceries from Peapod: Just dial up what you want, and if you’re willing to pay the cost, you can have the goodies. In fact, it’s more like a lottery: if you don’t play, you can’t win, but at best, you still lose an awful lot. An Ebola vaccine is entering trials right now, and if it succeeds, that will be incredible news. But it could fail in many ways, and acting as if it’s a guarantee is grossly irresponsible. (Megan McArdle, 10/24)

Los Angeles Times: There's No Easy Way To Put A Lid On Healthcare Costs
Critics of the 2010 Affordable Care Act complain that it doesn't do much to control the healthcare costs that are becoming unsustainable for families and businesses. In fact, the law does many small things; the latest is the grant program announced last week to teach Medicare and Medicaid doctors new ways to offer higher-quality, better-coordinated, more cost-effective care. ... Part of the challenge is figuring out how doctors can prosper by delivering better care at lower cost. ... Such statistics won't be the ultimate measure of the program or of the act's other cost-control initiatives, however. It will be whether doctors fundamentally change the way they do business, so the savings continue after the federal dollars expire. (10/26)

The New York Times: Deficit Talk In An Election Year
There is one unmistakably good piece of news on the budget deficit this election season, but self-proclaimed deficit hawks in the Republican Party have no grounds to boast about it: Since 2010, the pace of health care spending has fallen dramatically and with it, projected deficits over the next decade and beyond. The slowdown is evident in all major health programs, including Medicare, Medicaid and subsidies to buy insurance under the Affordable Care Act. (10/26)

Bloomberg: John Kasich's Big Obamacare Mistake
[Ohio Gov. John] Kasich is one of several Republican governors trying to do the same balancing act: opposing Obamacare while taking its Medicaid money. He pushed Ohio to participate in this expansion over the objections of many state Republicans. His remarks highlight the difficulty his party is having on Medicaid -- and point to a weakness that could hurt his chance at the presidential nomination. (Ramesh Ponnuru, 10/24)

Richmond Times-Dispatch: Gillespie For Senate
It’s time to retire a Democratic establishment politician: Sen. Mark Warner, whose record of accomplishment at the Capitol is thin. His vote to support President Obama’s health care “reform” — a vote that was absolutely essential to its passage — has damaged the country by injecting federal power into our health system in hopes of modest gains purchased at exorbitant costs to our economy, our health and our freedom. This vote alone should disqualify Warner. (10/26)

The New York Times: The Invisible Moderate
[O]ne of the enduringly weird aspects of our current pundit discourse [is]: constant calls for a moderate, sensible path that supposedly lies between the extremes of the two parties, but is in fact exactly what Obama has been proposing. ... The Affordable Care Act subsidizes insurance premiums for lower-income workers, and pays for those subsidies in part by eliminating overpayments for Medicare Advantage. So conservatives are celebrating both ends of that deal, right? Oh, wait, death panels. (Paul Krugman, 10/24)

NPR: A Diary Of Deaths Reminds Doctor Of Life
Doctors rarely talk about death. Mostly it's because we're in the business of trying to help people prolong their lives, which almost always makes death an unwelcome topic of discussion. Too often, death is seen as failure, though it shouldn't be. ... Even though my medical practice is mostly confined to the office now, I still confront death regularly. As a part of my practice, I decided to be more mindful about it by keeping a list of the patients I've cared for who have died. I call it my necrology. I started by keeping names in a small notebook. (John Henning Schumann, 10/25)

Los Angeles Times: A Radical Cancer Therapy: Don't Treat
We learned about my husband's inoperable brain tumor from a nurse who doled out the news as though providing his cholesterol count. ... we readily agreed to the arduous treatment course the specialist suggested: six weeks of chemotherapy and radiation conducted concurrently. ... a doctor told us that 50% of the UCLA patients with his kind of tumor were alive after five years. We never thought about that other 50%, ... But amid the flurry of medical meetings, a friend introduced Mark to a doctor who had also been diagnosed with a brain tumor, though one considered less aggressive. Mark spoke with him. Oddly enough, this fellow had passed up certain treatments. Why? Because doctors don't die like the rest of us. Physicians often decline treatment in cases of terminal illness, (Nora Zamichow, 10/24).