News and Views on health insurance reform:

Health reform will help young people avoid brushes with the law: Youth crime and access to health care and mental-health treatment are intertwined, argue the police chiefs of Renton, Auburn and Burien. They make a case for reform that will help young people stay out of trouble. | Seattle Times

The big picture on health reform and cost containment: Imagine a past where, in 1970, private sector health costs had been taken fully onto the federal government’s budget with a dedicated revenue source that made them budget-neutral. If these costs had been managed as effectively as Medicare, family health insurance policies today would cost Americans roughly $7,000, most likely in higher taxes, instead of the $12,400 they actually pay today in insurance premiums. | Economic Policy Institute

Health reform = big benefits for small businesses: The current market for health insurance sticks small businesses with more expensive and more variable risk-rated premiums; offers only limited competition among insurance providers; and higher administrative costs. Workers also lose due to lower overall wages. Small wonder, then, that 59% of small-firm proprietors were in favor of including a government-run insurance option in a new national health insurance exchange (Mainstreet Alliance 2009). | Economic Policy Institute