Excerpts from recent editorials in the United States and abroad:

March 14

The Washington Post on a step toward lower, more transparent Medicare payments

As if to prove that every rule has an exception, the usually dysfunctional Republican-majority House of Representatives has at least one sensible piece of bipartisan legislation on its record: In December, it passed a health care measure called the Lower Costs, More Transparency Act on a 320-71 vote. Also contrary to Congress’s occasional practice, the bill’s name is not hype. It actually would end a longstanding, but irrational, disparity in Medicare reimbursements for certain treatments, depending on whether they are administered in doctors’ offices or hospitals. The savings would be more than $3.7 billion over the next decade, according to the Congressional Budget Office. And beneficiaries’ co-payments would go down, too — by $40 a visit. The next thing that needs to happen is for the Senate to follow suit.

At issue is how…

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