Today’s Op-Eds: The Individual Mandate And The Commerce Clause; Access To Medicare Providers; Obama’s Fiscal Commission
GOP's Odd Bid To Kill Health Reform PoliticoThe public has grown fond of many of the government activities (Medicare? Social Security? farm subsidies?). It's not easy to distinguish health care reform from other activities and determine somehow that it alone is not supported by the commerce clause. The attempt to do this has led down some odd, entertaining byways (Michael Kinsley, 12/7).
UnitedHealthcare Hits Some Insulin Users In The Wallet Los Angeles Times
UnitedHealthcare is thus putting many diabetics in the position of having to choose between paying a significantly higher price for the medication favored by their doctor or accepting the cheaper (and potentially less-effective) alternative preferred by the insurer (David Lazarus, 12/7).
Defragmenting Care Annals of Internal Medicine
Compelling evidence from a series of controlled studies, in which interventions to improve the transition from hospital to posthospital care have reduced rehospitalizations by 30% to 50%, suggests that the rehospitalization problem represents a failure of those transitions rather than willful overuse of hospital services. It is a symptom of fragmented care (Stephen F. Jencks, 12/7).
Seniors Should Have Access To Doctors Natchez (Miss.) Democrat
Seniors in Mississippi have worked hard over many years to earn their Medicare benefits. When the money comes out of our paychecks for the Medicare tax, it doesn't come with an asterisk warning, "Doctors may not be available" (Bruce Brice, 12/7).
Health Cost Threat The (Riverside, Calif.) Press-Enterprise
Congress should build on provisions in the law that seek new ways to structure payment systems. Payment should reward better medical care, instead of encouraging more services (12/6).
A Political Charade (Milwaukee-Wis.) Journal Sentinel
The (individual) mandate has been controversial from the start and may yet prove to be the soft underbelly of the new law. But it is absolutely essential to have a mandate if health insurers are going to be required to cover people with pre-existing conditions - a key promise of health care reform and one that is exceedingly popular with the public (12/6).
Find Key Savings In Health Care Delivery Detroit Free Press
Most automakers and suppliers in North America know AIAG for its work addressing supply-base pain points, including projects to reduce warranty return rates and speed up the flow of parts through international borders. But our concern over rising health care costs has been growing ever since GM and Ford acknowledged in 2005 that they actually spend more for health care than steel (J. Scot Sharland, 12/5).
Taming Texas' Primary Care Shortage Dallas Morning News
It's no secret that Texans need improved access to primary medical care, but lowering the minimum standard of education and training required to practice medicine is not the answer. Producing more primary care physicians and supporting integrated, team-based medical care is (Robert Youens, 12/7).
Errors Of Commission National Review
When it comes to health care, the (National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform's) plan would hardly prevent a fiscal collapse: Instead, it would guarantee one. By replacing the meaty plan of the old Breaux-Thomas group with a hodgepodge of half-measures, the commission did nothing to address the fundamental flaws in government health policy (Avik Roy, 12/7).