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Those who oppose expanded gun-control legislation frequently argue that instead of limiting access to guns, the country should focus on mental health problems. But mass shootings represent a small percentage of all gun violence, and mental illness is not a factor in most violent acts. (Editorial Board, 12/15)

Seventeen years ago, Democrats and Republicans in Congress made a promise to the American people. We would invest in our nation’s brightest minds. We would spur medical innovation. And, most important, we would find treatments and cures for the diseases that devastate families and debilitate our economy. Congress fulfilled that promise by doubling funding for the National Institutes of Health over five years between 1998 and 2003. Begun during the Clinton administration and completed under President George W. Bush, this was a bipartisan, bicameral achievement with few equals in our recent history. (Tom Harkin and John Porter, 12/15)

Emergency rooms are typically a catch-all, especially for people without health insurance. It's a safety net, but also too easy to misuse. It's a system that can't sustain itself because of the cost of care and demands of the county's growing population. With the Affordable Care Act the healthcare landscape continues to change. Today, emergency rooms are much different. (Jeff Brandt, 12/15)

The Alaska Congressional delegation and the Republican Party suffer from "Obamacare" repeal syndrome, a chronic condition since 2010. The symptoms are a compulsion to selectively use statistics and exaggerate the downside, ignoring all positive aspects of the law, including evidence the health care law has helped people get health insurance coverage -- thousands in Alaska and millions across the U.S. (Dermot Cole, 12/15)

Last month, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a developed-country think tank, released its latest estimates of how much the rich world spends on health care. Yet again, the United States took the top spot. Our nation spends $8,713 per person on health care — more than double the OECD average. A separate analysis by Bloomberg puts U.S. spending even higher — at $9,146 per person. (Sally Pipes, 12/14)

Politics is a poker game — no matter how bad the other guy’s hand might be, you can’t beat something with nothing. So let’s review the hands Republicans and Democrats are playing on ObamaCare. At the moment, Republicans in Congress are looking at their cards and smiling. (Juan Williams, 12/14)

Former U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius staked out a sound economic case on Monday while criticizing attempts in Missouri and Kansas to restrict family planning services. Two strong downward drivers of economic mobility are teen pregnancies and unintended pregnancies among women of all ages, Sebelius said. The former Kansas governor was the keynote speaker at the annual conference sponsored by Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri. (12/14)

Whole Woman’s Health v. Cole, the Texas abortion case that is now before the Supreme Court, is really about the rule of law and how federal judges maintain it by holding states to external standards. The case follows Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pa. v. Casey, which forbade states from using the desire to protect women’s health as a pretext for curtailing their access to abortion services. But how is a judge to distinguish a pretext from a genuine concern for patient safety? (Charles Silver, 12/15)

Would people smoke less if cigarettes were sold in plain packages? Early evidence from Australia, which has required them for three years, suggests they might. The plain packs -- which prohibit design features and logos such as Marlboro's red and white angles or Camel's dromedary, forbid pictures aside from health warnings, and require brand names to be in a uniform typeface -- reduce the appeal of cigarettes, research indicates, and prompt people to think more about quitting. (12/15)