Viewpoints: Trump’s Pre-Existing Conditions Lie Signals Importance Of Health Care In Elections; Health System Is Primed For Bad Actors To Take Advantage In Emergencies
Opinion writers tackle these and other health issues.
The Washington Post:
Why Trump Has To Lie About Health Care
What’s notable here isn’t the lie that “I was the person who saved Pre-Existing Conditions in your Healthcare.” He didn’t, of course — in fact, it was the Affordable Care Act that for the first time protected people with preexisting conditions, and Trump tried to repeal the ACA in Congress and now supports a lawsuit that would overturn that law root and branch. No, what’s interesting is that he feels the need to make this preposterous claim. (Paul Waldman, 1/13)
The New York Times:
Trump’s Plot Against Health Care Continues
Make no mistake: Health care will be on the ballot this November. But not in the way ardent progressives imagine. Democrats running for president have spent a lot of time debating so-called Medicare for all, with some supporters of Bernie Sanders claiming that any politician who doesn’t demand immediate implementation of single-payer health care is a corporate tool, or something. But the reality is that whatever its merits, universal, government-provided health insurance isn’t going to happen anytime soon. (Paul Krugman, 1/13)
Axios:
The Affordable Care Act Is Doing OK Without The Individual Mandate
The Affordable Care Act’s insurance market has not been materially affected by the elimination of the individual mandate penalty — undercutting a key argument in the lawsuit urging the courts to strike down the health care law. The big picture: Healthy enrollees have not left the market in droves, premiums have not spiked and there has been no market death spiral. (Drew Altman, 1/14)
Forbes:
Republican Health Care Reform: The Congressional Republicans' Irrational Opposition To Medicaid
Congressional Republicans have consistently, if not unanimously, opposed Obamacare's expansion of Medicaid. Their opposition is irrational. It is also unpopular with voters. ... While Obamacare's individual health insurance reforms and subsidies have been a disaster for the middle class, the Medicaid expansion in the states that have approved it has covered millions of people that would never have been covered otherwise––at a cost that could never have been less. (Robert Laszewski, 1/13)
The Washington Post:
The Health-Care Industry Is Letting Surgeons Behave Like Muggers
We’ve been hearing a lot about surprising medical bills lately — horrible stories about wages being garnished because of large unpaid bills, people losing their homes, even people taking their own lives because of medical debt. Yet the public still seems largely unaware that such horrendous situations could happen to anyone — even those with great health-care plans. That’s because our health-care system is ripe for bad actors to abuse patients in emergency situations. I should know; it happened to me. (Cynthia Weber Cascio, 1/13)
The Hill:
Mental Health Crisis: We Must Speak With One Powerful Voice In 2020
For many, the start of a new year represents a clean slate — a chance to take stock of what truly matters in life and course correct in search of a better path. Human resiliency is a powerful thing. Mental health and addiction professionals often say it’s why they do what they do. People can recover from their challenges and go on to lead productive, meaningful lives. (Former Rep. Patrick Kennedy, 1/13)
Stat:
The Downside Of Strong Growth In Health Care Jobs: Higher Costs
Jobs growth soars (CNBC). November Job Growth Booms (USA Today). US economy smashes forecasts (Business Insider). That enthusiasm was the general reaction to the November jobs report tallying an increase of 266,000 jobs. (Ezekiel J. Emanuel and Bob Kocher, 1/14)
Health Affairs:
Why Aren’t More Patients Electronically Accessing Their Medical Records? (Yet!)
In November 2019, Health Affairs published an article by Sunny C. Lin and colleagues that analyzed data on the number of patients who accessed their health records online as a result of the federal Promoting Interoperability Program (formerly known as Meaningful Use). The low proportion (10 percent of patients with online access to their records used it) led the authors to conclude that the patient access aspect of the program was a “public policy failure.” As consumer advocates, we strongly agree that the program’s patient access requirements should have been much stronger, and we advocated against the changes that weakened them substantially in previous years. But it’s also important to recognize — and address — the major underlying problems: misaligned financial incentives and significant gaps in usability. (Christine Bechtel, Lygeia Ricciardi, Dave deBronkart, Casey Quinlan and Donna Cryer, 1/13)
Boston Globe:
In The ER? Sign Up To Vote
What if long emergency room wait times, an unfortunate fact of life, could also be a key to increasing voter participation among traditionally underrepresented groups in our electorate? The demographic overlap between those who most use the ER for their health care and those who don’t vote presents a potential opportunity. (Alister Martin and Cass R. Sunstein, 1/13)
The Hill:
The War Against Cancer
The long war against cancer has not been won, but there is real progress, as we are finally graduating from having only primitive weapons to use like toxic chemotherapy. The new era of targeted therapies has changed the battlefield. Personalized immunotherapies and genetic treatments mean identifying abnormal proteins on the surface of the tumor that varies from one patient and one tumor to the next. (Dr. Marc Siegel, 1/13)
The Hill:
New Nutrition Facts Labels Are Big Win For Consumers, Public Health And Bipartisanship
Do you know what you are eating? If you’ve looked at the back of a food package recently, you may have noticed that the Nutrition Facts label looks different. Calories are bigger and bolder. The serving size is more visible and more accurately reflects the amount people eat. There is also a new line for added sugars, along with a percent daily value that specifies how much of the day’s added sugar limit is in a serving. This is the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) helping you to make informed and wise choices for the health of you and your family. (Dr. Karen DeSalvo and Andrew C. Von Eschenbach, 1/13)
Modern Healthcare:
Care Coordination Needs To Be More Than Just A Goal
Patients in fragile health need a champion, and I had been by [my godmother's] side nearly every day for a month. Other relatives called for daily updates. But in those last moments with her, it finally occurred to me that we had never asked for a comprehensive care plan. I hadn’t asked if all of the clinicians, some of whom we only saw once during that last month, had a plan to keep my godmother alive. I don’t know if that would have made enough of a difference. But a friend whose own mother died in hospice during these past holidays had a completely different experience. (Aurora Aguilar, 1/11)
The Washington Post:
What It’s Like For One Boy Living With Autism And Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy
At the end of a long day at the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario in Ottawa, the Barber family sits in a dimly lit exam room. As cartoons play on a television in the background, J.J., a 13-year-old boy with Duchenne muscular dystrophy and autism, sits on an examination table while his father, James, sits in his son’s wheelchair and his mother, Lisa, sits in a chair. It’s one of the first moments of respite the family has had after a long day. They’ve been going nonstop since 8 in the morning. (Andrej Ivanov, 1/13)
The Washington Post:
MLK Day: Volunteers Explain How Helping Others Improved Their Lives
Two months before he was killed, Martin Luther King Jr. described a mistake that wastes many lives. He called it the drum major instinct, “a desire to be out front, a desire to lead the parade, a desire to be first.” In some ways, there is nothing more natural. Foals and shorebirds can fend for themselves the day they’re born, but human children remain helpless for years. They must crave attention; without it, they would die. (Jamil Zaki, 1/13)
Dallas Morning News:
The Idea Of Bringing A Weapon To Church For Self-Defense Is A Punch In The Gut
I could have lived an entire lifetime without hearing the words that opened our Sunday morning worship service in church last week. A wonderful gentleman who we have befriended at our Collin County church stood before us and implored those in our congregation who have a State of Texas-approved concealed handgun permit to bring their weapons with them to worship. To be brutally honest, the message from our friend hit me like a punch in the gut. (John Kanelis, 1/12)
Atlanta Journal-Constitution:
Georgia's Maternal Mortality Crisis Is A Test For Pro-Life Lawmakers
After much work, one of the greatest contradictions of governmental policy in Georgia – political, theological and moral in aspect – has been crystallized into a 14-page report. Georgia is one of the 10 most dangerous states in the U.S. to be a new mother. Our maternal mortality rate is among the highest in the developed world. (Jim Galloway, 1/10)
