Daily Rounds: New Insurance Exchange Rules; Faux Vaccination Plan For Bin Laden; A 16-Pound Newborn

Anna Wilde Mathews explains the new health insurance exchange rules in The Wall Street Journal: "States could allow agencies to select which plans can be offered and to contract with insurers—an approach used in Massachusetts. But states can also opt for largely open marketplaces, with all plans that meet certain standards available for sale. The split between these robust and minimalist approaches has been "the biggest debate" in exchange design, said Jon Kingsdale, a consultant who headed the agency that ran the Massachusetts exchange."

A fake vaccination program helped in the pursuit of Bin Laden, The New York Times' Mark Mazetti reports: "In the months before Osama bin Laden was killed, the Central Intelligence Agency ran a phony vaccination program in Abbottabad, Pakistan, as a ruse to obtain DNA evidence from members of Bin Laden’s family thought to be holed up in an expansive compound there, according to an American official. The vaccination program was set up as the C.I.A. was struggling to learn whether Bin Laden was hiding in the compound, and adds a new twist to the months of spy games that preceded the nighttime raid in early May that killed the Qaeda chief."

Ouch! The Associated Press, via The Boston Globe, reports the birth of a 16-pound, potentially record-setting baby: "Janet Johnson remained in an East Texas hospital yesterday after giving birth to what her doctors called one of the biggest newborns they have ever seen. She was awaiting word on whether her son, JaMichael Brown, ranked among the biggest births in state history. “Everybody was amazed that he was so big,’’ said Johnson, 39. “I don’t think too many people have heard of having a 16-pound baby.’’