Viewpoints: Defunding Planned Parenthood ‘Incompatible’ With Anti-Abortion Goals; Mentally Ill People, The Police And A Rising Death Toll
A selection of opinions on health care from around the country.
Des Moines Register:
Defunding Planned Parenthood Does Not Accomplish Pro-Life Goals
It is not impossible to want to reduce abortions, while supporting women’s reproductive choices. These are not incompatible views: You can want to uphold access to rights, while hoping that a person does not need to access them. The problem is, the move to defund Planned Parenthood is absolutely incompatible with a desire to reduce abortions, and with a desire to limit public funding of abortion. Further, such a move has disastrous public health outcomes for women. (Renee Ann Cramer, 1/24)
Cincinnati Enquirer:
Too Many Mentally Ill Dying At Hands Of Police
Our community cannot resign itself to the rising death toll among mentally ill persons who encounter Cincinnati police. An Enquirer story, "Mentally ill make up nearly half of those killed by CPD" (Jan. 22), revealed that nearly half of the individuals recently killed by Cincinnati officers were in the midst of a mental health crisis. We can and must do better for this vulnerable population. (Al Gerhardstein, 1/24)
Morning Consult:
The Importance Of Nonemergency Medical Transportation For Vulnerable Patients
The link between transportation access and health has been recognized for at least half a century. Medicaid, established in 1965, required each state to include in its plan a provision for assuring transportation of recipients to and from providers of services. This transportation guarantee for disadvantaged population has been affirmed time and again in federal court .... nonemergency medical transportation (NEMT) has evolved into an enormous system that spends more than $3 billion each year nationwide to help millions of low-income, elderly and disabled patients reach care. Transportation assistance is both cost-effective and cost-saving. (Imran Cronk, 1/25)
Stat:
America Needs To Keep The Door Open To Immigrant Physicians
Those who receive medical degrees elsewhere — often called international medical graduates — face obstacles ranging from visa limitations and additional tuition costs to physical relocation and its myriad accompanying social and cultural implications. Foreign medical licenses often don’t transfer to the US, requiring physicians to spend up to $15,000 over a three-to-five-year period for duplicative training. Resource constraints force some foreign-trained physicians to alter their career paths to become nurses or physician assistants in the US. (Jason J. Han and Neha Vapiwala, 1/24)
The Kansas City Star:
Hospital, Campus Are No Places For Guns
The Kansas Personal and Family Protection Act goes into effect in July, allowing adults to carry a concealed handgun on college campuses and in hospitals in Kansas, without a background check and with absolutely no training. I’m an emergency physician. I’m comfortable with guns because I grew up around them in rural western Kansas. Some of my best memories are of the hunting trips taken with my dad and brother when we were young. However, many people I work with in the medical center do not share this level of comfort around guns. For most, the thought of sitting down with a patient who has a hidden gun or dealing with an angry patient or family member who may be carrying a gun is absolutely terrifying. (Andrew Park, 1/24)
San Jose Mercury News:
It's Time To Have 'The Talk' With The Kids (About Pot)
Marijuana is now legal in some form in 30 states and the District of Columbia. Even if you are among the shrinking number of Americans who still live in a state in which marijuana remains illegal, your children will likely travel to places where pot is legal – Venice Beach in Los Angeles, the mall in Washington, D.C., or the Las Vegas strip. (Mike Lynn, 1/24)
The New York Times:
If Sugar Is Harmless, Prove It
Over the past half-century, the rate of obesity in America has nearly tripled, while the incidence of diabetes has increased roughly sevenfold. It’s estimated that the direct health care costs related to obesity and diabetes in the United States is $1 billion a day, while economists have calculated the indirect costs to society of these epidemics at over $1 trillion a year. (David Bornstein, 1/25)
USA Today:
Cancer Fear-Mongering Has Got To Stop
Imagine what a typical American might do for breakfast: Fry a few slices of bacon, slather Nutella on a piece of toast, and pour a hot cup of coffee while checking e-mail on a smartphone. If we are to believe everything we read in the news, then that rather common daily ritual could cause you to die from cancer. (Alex Berezow, 1/24)
