What editorial writers are saying about President Obama's plan for health care reform

Most commentators reacted positively to the outlined principles. In this new feature, we bring you opinion highlights from around the nation.

Obama delivers a health care challenge

Obama's budget includes tax changes on top incomes that will bring in more revenue, along with some steep savings in Medicare. Both will touch off fierce fights in Congress. But the status quo no longer works for so many Americans that their senators and representatives have to be attuned to the need for change. Obstruction without serious negotiations cannot be an option this time around. Detroit Free Press, Feb. 27

President Obama's budget: Progress on health care

The plan calls for creating a $634 billion reserve fund for health care reforms over the next decade. And unlike the ill-fated Clinton health reform plan of the early 1990s -- whose many complexities were worked out behind closed doors only to crash in Congress -- Mr. Obama has mainly issued guiding principles. The New York Times, Feb. 27

Healthy approach: President Obama showed courage in keeping health care reform as a priority

Given all the other four-alarm fires confronting him, it would have been understandable if Obama had chosen to shelve health care for now. He could have been talked out of grouping it with more traditional lunch-bucket items such as roads, bridges and other infrastructure. But he wasn't. Instead of putting it off to a later time, Obama specifically listed health care as one of his three priorities, along with energy and education. (Houston Chronicle, Feb. 25; no longer available)

Obama health team faces a conundrum

Our concern is that he needs much more than those reforms to reduce health costs, especially those that will make Medicare unfathomably expensive once baby boomers retire. It's not a good sign that he has proposed taking savings from Medicare and spending them on his plan to expand coverage. The Dallas Morning News, March 2

Obama's bold health plan

Overhauling the health care system to make coverage accessible to all Americans is not only a moral imperative but an economic one. And if it's done properly -- unlike the Medicare prescription drug plan, for example -- it will save money and help stimulate the economy. (Schenectady, N.Y.) Daily Gazette, Feb. 27

Obama's health care challenge

Republicans are already objecting to Obama's proposal, announced last week, to raise taxes on the wealthy to help pay for covering the uninsured. And Obama may be over-promising on what he can deliver with his budget plan, which also calls for substantial deficit reductions and expanded education programs. San Jose Mercury News, Feb. 28