Summaries of two opinion pieces that address issues related to health care reform appear below.

• Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.), Wall Street Journal: The "unwillingness" of the Republican party to reform "the terribly broken American health care system" has allowed "an emboldened Democratic Party well equipped to push a government-centered health care agenda," Price, a physician and newly appointed chair of the Republican Study Committee, writes in a Journal opinion piece. According to Price, "this is deeply disappointing ... because patient-centered health care is, at its core, conservative." According to Price, "Atop the list of worrisome ideas proposed by" former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) -- President-elect Barack Obama's nominee for HHS secretary -- "is the creation of an innocently termed 'Federal Health Advisory Board.'" The board "would offer recommendations to private insurers and create a single standard of care for all public programs, including which procedures doctors may perform, which drugs patients may take, and how many diagnostic machines hospitals really need," he writes. "In an overtly political ruse, Democrats will claim they are dictating nothing to private providers, while whipping noncompliant insurers in place through the tax code," Price writes, adding, "To be sure, this strategy seeks to eliminate private providers completely" as they would be "[f]orced into accepting rigid Washington rules and unsustainable financing mechanisms." Price writes, "If we fail to recognize the scope and scale of Democratic ambition on this issue, we will find ourselves with a permanent Washington bureaucracy prescribing patient care." He continues, "Our goal, however, must not be confined to defeating a Democratic proposal," but "[i]nstead, we must advocate for a positive approach to health care reform that does not sacrifice patient care to achieve its goals." He writes that the GOP "must fundamentally reform the tax code so that it makes sense for all people to have health insurance," which "may be readily accomplished through the adoption of tax equity for the purchase of insurance, active pooling mechanisms for increased purchasing power, and focused use of tax deductions and credits." The GOP also "must transform our health care model to one that is owned and controlled by patients," he adds. Price concludes, "A historic debate about American health care is fast approaching," adding, "We are not doomed to a Washington-run bureaucratic health care system, so long as Republicans push for the right remedy for health care and return to being the party of solutions" (Price, Wall Street Journal, 1/7).
  
  
• Michael Gerson, Washington Post: "Obama can expect a serious fight" from Republicans over his health care reform plan because it could result in a "predominately publicly run health care" system, Gerson, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, writes in a Post opinion piece. Under Obama's plan, "all but the smallest businesses" would be required "to provide health coverage to employees -- or pay a tax." He continues, "[Obama] would also create a government-run insurance plan similar to Medicare that would compete with private companies to cover the uninsured." According to Gerson, "The problem is" that "[b]ecause government can impose price controls, it can make the public option cheaper." He adds, "Companies, tired of dealing with complicated health care burdens, would have an incentive to drop employees from coverage, and uncovered individuals would have an incentive to join the public system -- achieving universal nationalization of health care by small steps." Gerson writes that government-administered health care "is an ideological red line for Republicans." Gerson notes that "[n]ot even the most compassionate conservative is going to accept government control of 16% of the economy." However, "If Obama's proposal demonstrates genuine neutrality between public and private health options -- empowering individuals to make a free choice -- it could gain significant Republican support," according to Gerson (Gerson, Washington Post, 1/7).