Insurance news: COBRA subsidy expiring for some, health-reform battle is joined in the Senate, and local lawmakers say reforms will help, not hurt, seniors

Big news of the day, of course, is that the Senate's launching the health care debate. Or, as the Seattle Times summed it up: "Turbulence Ahead."

Fox News argues that a better solution would be national regulation of health insurers, freeing up families to buy insurance that best fits their needs, from companies anywhere in the country.

The immediate worry for millions of Americans is the fact that the 65 percent federal COBRA subsidy is starting to expire. That's a potential huge hit to the household budgets of the 7 million laid-off Americans who are getting the subsidy.

Here in Washington state, two lawmakers argue in an Everett Herald op-ed that the health reform bills in Congress would help senior citizens, by improving "Medicare's finances so it will remain viable for generations to come."