Viewpoints: New Administration Needs To Reboot Medicare, Medicaid; Lessons On Reopening Schools

The New York Times: After 4 Years Of Trump, Medicare And Medicaid Badly Need Attention 
President-elect Joe Biden has pledged to “marshal the forces of science” in his administration. Undoubtedly he needs to start by bolstering the credibility of the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But a third health agency, central to the lives of older Americans, low-income families and the disabled, is sorely in need of his attention. Science has also been under assault at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, which provides federal health insurance to more than 130 million Americans at a cost of more than $1 trillion, nearly twice the Pentagon’s budget. (Peter B. Bach, 12/1)

Fox News: Fauci Admits What We All Knew Months Ago -- Schools Must Stay Open
In case you missed it over the Thanksgiving weekend, the country's public health establishment admitted it has tortured your children for eight months for no apparent reason. Sixty million American children have been languishing in their rooms since spring, sitting in front of screens, learning nothing, isolated from human contact, in many cases driven to mental illness -- and there was no reason for any of that. The experts were wrong. They had no idea what they were doing. But the most amazing part is that they knew they were wrong when they did it, but they kept lying about it, even as American children began to kill themselves. (Tucker Carlson, 12/1)

The Wall Street Journal: De Blasio Gets Schooled On Reopening
Perhaps New York City parents didn’t know their own strength. In less than two weeks, Mayor Bill de Blasio went from shutting down in-person learning in the city’s public schools to reopening it for a large share of students. The reversal shows how public pressure can curb the power of the teachers union. (11/30)

The New York Times: On Pandemic Schooling, De Blasio Is Actually Leading
Sometimes it seems like the single point of consensus in America’s fractured politics is contempt for New York City’s mayor, Bill de Blasio. Even before Covid, animus against him was a widely recognized phenomenon. (“Why Bill de Blasio is so hated, explained,” said a Vox headline from last year.) During the protests set off by the killing of George Floyd, the left — including many of the mayor’s current and former staff members — excoriated him for refusing to stand up to the New York Police Department. In a failed bid to save his House seat in a pro-Trump district, the Democrat Max Rose ran an ad in which he simply faced the camera and said, “Bill de Blasio is the worst mayor in the history of New York City.” But if de Blasio has often been a bad mayor, when it comes to educating kids during the pandemic, he’s been one of the best big city leaders in the country. That’s both to his credit and to others’ disgrace. (Michelle Goldberg, 11/30)

Stat: The U.S. Must Support Innovation As Well As Access To Care For All 
The deadly spread of Covid-19 around the world has highlighted the importance of innovation and cooperation between the various actors in the U.S. health care system. It has shown what can be achieved in an environment that rewards innovation and promotes scientific advances. But it has also exposed that the system does not work for everyone. (Giovanni Caforio, 12/1)

USA Today: COVID Turns Everyone Into A Potential Serial Killer Just By Breathing
As coronavirus burns an exponential path of destruction across the American terrain, an insidious blanket of shadow damage is quietly unfurling in its name. It’s not just the death and scarred lungs. COVID-19 has turned every man, woman and child into a potential serial killer. So far, I’ve been fortunate. But not a day goes by that I don’t wonder whether my streak of good luck is about to end, because the person in front of me in the grocery line is wearing a mask below his nose — expelling a cloud of radioactive COVID dust that I cannot escape, short of dropping $50 on the conveyor belt and trying to outrun the security guard. (Michael J. Stern, 11/30)

St. Louis Post Dispatch: Politicians Chose Votes Over Saving Lives. Hospitals Confront The Aftermath.
Republican opponents of Obamacare tried hard to derail the health insurance law by invoking the image of “death panels” that determine who lives and who dies. That very reality now looms at hospitals here in St. Louis, in large part because of Republican leaders’ own lax management of the pandemic response. Emergency rooms and intensive care units are so overwhelmed that doctors are bracing for the moment their triage choices must include deciding which patients receive care and which ones must be allowed to die because hospitals are running out of beds, equipment and staff. (11/30)

Arizona Republic: A National Coronavirus Strategy Is My Top Priority
It’s clear that the lack of a national strategy is still hurting our response and recovery. And yet, Washington hasn’t provided the additional support that Arizonans need now. As cases spike yet again, programs to help Arizonans make ends meet are facing deadlines that, if not met, could damage our economy even further. (Sen. Mark Kelly, 11/30)

Houston Chronicle: Gov. Abbott Must Act To Counter Holiday Virus Surge In Texas 
Despite warnings from elected officials and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, millions of Americans traveled to visit friends and family for Thanksgiving. While many will come home renewed, their spirits cheered by shared food and conversation, many will also return with an unseen, potentially deadly companion. As experts forecast a spike in COVID-19 cases after the holiday, piling on top of what are already record numbers of infections and deaths throughout the country, Texas must be ready to meet the public obligation that comes when personal responsibility turns out to not be enough to slow the virus. (11/30)

Boston Globe: Governor Baker Shouldn’t Enact Price Setting Legislation On Life-Saving Medicines 
As COVID-19 continues to present enormous public health challenges here and around the world, America’s biopharmaceutical companies remain committed to ending this pandemic. While scientists and researchers at many companies — including more than 90 in Massachusetts — work around the clock to develop new tests, therapies, and vaccines, Governor Charlie Baker is once again targeting these companies with a dangerous proposal in the state budget that would enact government price setting on life-saving medicines and potentially slow the type of innovation patients need now more than ever. (Stephen J. Ubl and Robert Coughlin, 12/1)