Free Republic

WASHINGTON -- More than a year after taking office, President Obama yesterday released his own health-care plan -- with a trillion-dollar cost, no public option and higher taxes on the wealthy. Obama's advisers called the plan a "starting point" for negotiations with Republicans at a health summit the president is hosting Thursday, although the GOP slammed him for pushing old ideas, liberals said it doesn't do enough, and conservative Democrats felt they were left hanging. The proposal, which is similar to legislation passed by the Senate, is the first major step to revive the issue after Democrats' plans were dashed...

With President Obama hoping this week's "bipartisan summit" will move his health-care bill out of the ICU, it's worth taking a look at a recent high-profile operation -- the heart work done on former President Bill Clinton. Clinton, of course, got the best of care -- a cardiac stent (a tiny metal cylinder) coated with a drug to help keep his artery open. Recent studies in the New England Journal of Medicine and elsewhere have shown that these drug-eluting stents are more effective than bare metal ones. But they cost two-to-four times more -- and the technology is relatively new....