Editorial: Heed Other States’ Examples of Health Reforms

California's "leaders -- and state bureaucrats -- like to be seen as national trendsetters," but "this trendsetting impulse" should be "tempered by pragmatism," a San Diego Union-Tribune editorial states. The Union-Tribune writes that state leaders "should take close looks at" Massachusetts and New York, "which have enacted laws with parallels to the federal" health care overhaul. Health care costs have increased in Massachusetts from mandating insurance coverage and in both states from preventing insurers from denying coverage "for any reason." According to the editorial, California's leaders must "figure out how to avoid the health care headaches seen" in these states, the editorial concludes.

• "Health Changes: State Must Be Pragmatic" (San Diego Union-Tribune, 10/20).