Viewpoints: Examining The Health Law’s Insurance Coverage Expansion; Donald Trump’s Medicaid Plan
A selection of opinions on health care from around the country.
Bloomberg:
A Scary Obamacare Mystery
Conservatives should acknowledge that the coverage expansion is real, it is large (though not as large as we were led to expect), and that while it is not necessarily going to make people much healthier, it is probably going to reduce financial hardship among at least some of the people who have gained coverage...Liberals, however, should also acknowledge uncomfortable facts. The first is that most of the decrease in the uninsured population came in 2014 and 2015, and is now leveling off. (Megan McArdle, 9/8)
Modern Healthcare:
An Important Data Point Within The Latest CDC Health Insurance Numbers
Even though the Affordable Care Act has stumbled lately, with large national insurers drastically reducing their footprints in the marketplaces, it's difficult to ignore how the law has greatly decreased the number of people who don't have health insurance. (Bob Herman, 9/9)
Forbes:
Why Donald Trump's Medicaid Plan Won't Work
A key domestic policy directive presidential aspirant Donald Trump made to Congress as a way to reform the healthcare system is to “block-grant Medicaid to the states.” ... But a new analysis from the Urban Institute takes issue with Medicaid proposals like the Republican presidential nominee’s, saying block grants would create huge disparities in spending from state to state. Not only would one Medicaid patient be valued at a higher level just because they lived in a certain state, taxpayers would end up paying more money if states expanded Medicaid coverage by broadening eligibility. (Bruce Japsen, 9/8)
The New York Times' The Upshot:
Full ‘Medical Records’ For Trump And Clinton? That’s Fiction
One of Donald J. Trump’s recent attack lines against Hillary Clinton focuses on her health: If she has nothing to hide, he asks in a tweet, why doesn’t she release her medical records to the public? For the moment, put aside Mr. Trump’s own revelations about his medical history, which consist of a hyperbolic, undated letter with little detail from his gastroenterologist. And put aside Mrs. Clinton’s own recent disclosures, which include a somewhat more detailed accounting of her health and medication history from the internist who has overseen her care in recent years. Put aside, finally, the question of whether complete medical records would allay the conspiracy theories of some of Mrs. Clinton’s critics, who say a recent cough is a sign of disqualifying illness or believe she experienced a seizure during a recent news conference. (Margot Sanger-Katz, 9/8)
The New England Journal Of Medicine:
Caring For High-Need, High-Cost Patients — An Urgent Priority
Improving the performance of America’s health system will require improving care for the patients who use it most: people with multiple chronic conditions that are often complicated by patients’ limited ability to care for themselves independently and by their complex social needs. Focusing on this population makes sense for humanitarian, demographic, and financial reasons. (David Blumenthal, Bruce Chernof, Terry Fulmer, John Lumpkin and Jeffrey Selberg, 9/8).
Los Angeles Times:
Allergan CEO Is Shocked (Shocked!) By Insane Drug Prices
So it’s come to this: The chief executive of a major drug company is a hero because he won’t rip off customers any more. Brent Saunders, CEO of Allergan, the company best known for making Botox, made headlines this week after posting an announcement on his company’s website that future price hikes will be limited to single digits and he’ll no longer jack up prices to crazy levels right before a patent expires. “While we have participated in this industry practice in the past, we will stop this practice going forward,” Saunders said. (David Lazarus, 9/8)
The Wall Street Journal:
The Patrick Murphy Zika Filibuster
Maybe Democrats aren’t so confident anymore about retaking the Senate in a romp. This would explain why they’d rather reserve the Zika crisis as political ammunition for the campaign than pass the bipartisan $1.1 billion bill to wipe out the mosquito-borne virus that can cause birth defects. On Tuesday Senate Democrats for the third time this year filibustered the Zika rescue legislation, which failed 52-46. They have claimed for months that more money is urgently needed for prevention, research and health services. Mosquitos are now carrying Zika in the continental U.S. and some 16,800 and rising Americans are infected, mostly in Puerto Rico with more than 700 in Florida. (9/8)
Reuters:
‘Franken-Bugs’ May Be Our Best Weapon Against Zika
On Nov 8, the residents of a suburb of Key West will vote on whether to allow scientists to release genetically-modified mosquitoes into their backyards. Inserted into the mosquito's genetic makeup would be an artificial stretch of DNA that renders them unable to reproduce. As the “transgenic” mosquitoes mate with wild ones, the plan goes, their offspring would die, bringing the local population of skeeters down significantly — by as much as 90 percent, according to Oxitec, the for-profit firm that wants to release the modified mosquitoes. That would potentially reduce the risk to local residents of catching mosquito-borne diseases such as dengue and Zika. (Fred Guterl, 9/8)
The Washington Post:
As A Mental Health Provider, I Ask All My Patients About Guns. Here’s Why.
Few topics stir more controversy in this country than guns. Mass shootings and urban gun violence inflame public passions. Gun control measures divide our political leaders, and elections often hinge on candidates' views of guns. I struggle with issues related to firearms every day, but in a different way. To me, it's not about politics or elections. It's part of my daily job. As a mental health provider, I have to ask all my patients about guns. (Nathaniel P. Morris, 9/8)
The Lexington Herald Leader:
Rand Paul Quips As Coal Miners’ Retirement And Health Plans Teeter
As thousands of union coal miners rallied at the U.S. Capitol urging Congress to approve a bipartisan plan to protect their retirement and health-care benefits, Sen. Rand Paul tweeted that the Clinton Foundation should “shore up miner’s pensions” because “ her agenda ... bankrupted the coal industry.” Paul’s flip response to the serious problem facing many of his constituents evaded the question of whether he supports the Miners Protection Act. (9/8)
The New England Journal Of Medicine:
Need For A New Lyme Disease Vaccine
Despite the development of two vaccines against Borrelia burgdorferi, the bacterium that causes Lyme disease, there is no such vaccine currently on the market. But the problem of Lyme disease is large and growing. Fortunately, the future seems reasonably bright for new vaccines. (Stanley A. Plotkin, 9/8)
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:
Opoids: A Public Health Response Required
A recent explosion in the number of fentanyl-related drug overdoses in Milwaukee County has gone largely unnoticed — the exception being the few who are closely following the trajectory and body count associated with the opioid epidemic sweeping the country. Fentanyl is a synthetic opiate that is 50 to 100 times more powerful than heroin. Fentanyl-laced heroin has flooded the illicit user market in many cities. The tragedy is compounded because many users, enslaved by heroin addiction, are clueless as to the potency of this mixture, and succumb to a fatal overdose. (Michael Murphy, 9/8)
The Cleveland Plain Dealer:
Carfentanil's New Wave Of Drug Overdoses
Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner Dr. Thomas Gilson calls it a "clear and present danger." The Washington Post, casting Ohio as ground zero for the drug in the United States, says a tiny dose a fraction of the weight of a paper clip could send 500 people to the morgue. It's been showing up in Columbus, Cincinnati and maybe Akron. And unlike heroin, it is so lethal -- 10,000 times more potent than morphine -- that the naloxone antidotes used to save lives in heroin overdoses may not work. (9/8)
The Cleveland Plain Dealer:
Join Cleveland Rally For Women's Abortion-Care Access On Saturday
Ohioans have faced an onslaught of unconscionable restrictions designed to limit access to abortion for the women of our state, many passed by politicians in recent years. One of the oldest and harshest of these restrictions is the federal Hyde Amendment, which has been used to ban Medicaid coverage for low-income women. So while women enrolled in Medicaid have coverage for other reproductive services, one procedure is barred from being covered: abortion. (Angel Rucker, 9/9)
Houston Chronicle:
Why Houston Will Have Hospital Construction Forever
A few weeks ago, the monthly purchasing managers index — a broad measure of the economy that takes into account things like wages and product orders — sent a warning signal about health care. The industry that had buoyed Houston through the oil bust might be losing steam, the numbers showed, as the once-breakneck pace of hiring looks to be slowing down. That impression appears to have been born out by a new report from Colliers, showing that only about 2 million square feet of medical office space were under construction in the second quarter of 2016, compared to more than 2.7 million at the same time last year. Net absorption, or the rate at which new buildings are leased or purchased, declined by more than 60 percent. (Lydia DePillis, 9/8)
St. Louis Post-Dispatch:
Raising Tobacco Purchase Age Saves Lives, Money
Imagine if we could reduce by half the number of teens who use tobacco, and prevent a lifetime habit that leads to high risks for cancer, heart disease and stroke. In other communities, one simple policy change has been shown to dramatically lower the rates of teen tobacco use: raising the age at which people can legally buy the product. Almost 200 cities, including Chicago, Kansas City and Columbia, Mo., have followed suit. The young people of the St. Louis region deserve no less. (Dr. Timothy J. Eberlein, 9/9)