Viewpoints: Pros And Cons Of Trump’s Work Requirements; Does The FDA Have Any Idea What’s Going On With The Opioid Epidemic?

Bloomberg: Trump's Promising Plan To Link Welfare To Work
President Donald Trump’s “Executive Order on Reducing Poverty in America” has produced the expected political reactions. Because it focuses on saving taxpayer money and strengthening work requirements for federal programs, many conservatives are celebrating it, while many progressives have attacked it as punitive and dehumanizing. (Cass R. Sunstein, 4/24)

The Philadelphia Inquirer: 10 Reasons To Resist Work Requirements For Medicaid And Food Stamps
On April 17, the Pennsylvania House passed House Bill 2138, imposing part-time work or training demands on Medicaid recipients. Support for similar legislation looms over food stamps. At best, these legislative proposals are a solution in search of a problem. At worst, they’re a mean-spirited attempt to deny assistance to our most vulnerable neighbors. (Michael McKee, 4/23)

The Hill: How Much Does The FDA Really Do To Promote Public Health?
According to its mission statement, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is responsible for “advancing public health” by providing oversight to the drug development process. FDA has been tasked with helping to ensure there are “effective, safer, and more affordable” health products in America’s market, which helps individuals “maintain and improve their health.”In recent years, FDA has become increasingly more involved in “protecting the public health by ensuring the safety, efficacy, and security” of numerous products, including prescription medications, tobacco, and food and cosmetic products. In many cases, the agency has proven itself to be exceptionally biased against harm reduction devices and services, while at other times, FDA has failed to protect the public from potentially dangerous substances. Such is the case with OxyContin, one of the most important contributors to America’s current opioid epidemic. (Lindsey Stroud, 4/23)

Columbus Dispatch: New Ohio programs show promise in opioid battle
It shouldn’t be a surprise that Ohio is pioneering promising programs to help some of our most vulnerable citizens avoid drug addiction. Necessity being the mother of invention surely has something to do with it: Ohio’s opioid epidemic is among the nation’s worst, with overdose-death tolls continuing to climb from 12 a day in 2016 to 14 a day in 2017. Overdose deaths nationally climbed from 175 to 186 per day in that period, meaning Ohio’s share rose from 6.9 percent to 7.5 percent. It is worth noting that both programs emphasize the importance of helping youngsters learn to identify and rely on trusted adults who can help them make and keep healthy decisions and avoid drug abuse. Those who can play that role are encouraged to do so — and maybe help finally turn the tide against the very real opioid monster. (4/24)

Charleston Gazette: Supervised Injection Places Remove Needles, Save Lives And Money
What if there was a way to get dirty needles off the streets while saving the city of Charleston hundreds of thousands of dollars, reducing infectious diseases such as HIV or hepatitis B and C, and saving dozens of lives in the process? Supervised injection facilities have been tried in other cities with remarkable results and could play a large role in combating the opioid epidemic at home. A supervised injection facility is a place where people who use drugs — such as heroin — can safely inject previously obtained drugs with medical staff supervision. Some facilities also include wraparound services in addition to addiction counseling, such as social services, employment referrals, health education, warm meals and medical care. Some also include smoking rooms to get more drug use off the streets. (Ted Boettner, 4/23)

Indianapolis Star: Adverse Effects Of Marijuana Are Real
In a past column, I reviewed the medical uses of marijuana from the mainstream medical literature.  There’s no question that marijuana has medical benefits for specific conditions .In researching its adverse effects, I found the subject very controversial, and many studies have conflicting results. Although it’s recognized that marijuana causes adverse effects, other untoward effects can be attributed only by association without adequate evidence of causation. (Jack Cain, 4/23)

Stat: Med Schools Need To Get With The Times On Medical Marijuana, Chronic Pain
In bygone days, when social change and the evolution of medical care moved at a more leisurely pace, medical education did the same. Those days are over, but medical schools don’t seem to have acknowledged that fact. Training new doctors in today’s rapidly evolving social, political, and medical climates demands a faster rate of curricular change than ever before, and our medical schools are falling behind. (Suhas Gondi and Andreas Mitchell, 4/24)

Stat: The 1 Percent Will Continue To Get Healthier. The 99 Percent Should, Too
Seventy years ago this month, the World Health Organization was created. This milestone offers an opportunity to assess the WHO’s progress toward fulfilling its mandate to promote “health for all.” Amazing advances have been made during the past seven decades, like the increase in average global life expectancy at birth from 48 years to 72. Even greater advances are on the horizon. But will this dazzling health future be shared equitably across communities? Or will only the wealthiest 1 percent of the global population reap benefits that are inaccessible to the 99 percent? (Per Kristian Hong and Erik R. Peterson, 4/24)

USA Today: Paul Ryan May Be Gone, But His Entitlement Reform Battle Remains
Surely, entitlement reforms are a tough sell, especially in an election year. There’s a better chance of Stormy Daniels being invited to a summer cookout at Mar-a-Lago than there is of congressional candidates tackling Social Security and Medicare spending just before voters start casting ballots. But if Republicans recognize that 2018 is going to be a brutal year for their party, it would make sense to pass some common-sense reforms while they still control the House and Senate. There is a limited window to make modest changes to entitlement programs that will help guarantee their solvency — changes that could even be sold to the public in a palatable way. (Christian Schneider, 4/24)

Sacramento Bee: Bill Won't Control Health Costs In California
Last week, a bill that would dismantle California’s health care delivery system as we know it was introduced in the Legislature. Assembly Bill 3087 would penalize millions of patients through massive cuts in services and result in as many as 175,000 hospital workers losing their jobs.The sponsors of AB 3087 – which is to be heard Tuesday by the Assembly Health Committee – falsely believe that this bill would lower health care costs by imposing a mandatory rate-setting system on doctors, hospitals, dentists and insurers. OPINIONThey claim their proposal is based on a similar system that operates in Maryland. As the former head of the Maryland Hospital Association, I know that nothing could be further from the truth. (Caremela Coyle, 4/23)

The Wall Street Journal: English Literature Isn’t Brain Surgery
The U.S. spends about 18% of its gross domestic product on health care, far more than most countries. One contributing factor that often goes overlooked: the high cost, in time and money, of becoming a physician. In a recent paper for the Mercatus Center, Jeffrey Flier and Jared Rhoads argue that the amount of time it takes to become a doctor—almost always at least a decade—constrains the supply, driving up prices. Physician incomes in the U.S. well exceed those in Europe; American generalists earn twice as much as Dutch ones. Much of this education, especially courses required for a bachelor’s degree, has little to do with medicine. In the U.S., aspiring physicians must spend four years in college before med school (another four years) and then residencies. Europeans can begin studying medicine immediately after high school—usually with a five- or six-year course. (Chris Pope and Tim Rice, 4/23)

Bloomberg: Myopia Is Increasingly Common, Linked To Time Indoors
Eyeglass sales are expected to double globally between 2012 and 2026, and the amount of time people are spending indoors may be a leading cause. The reason? An explosion in nearsightedness, especially in Asia, which may be linked to lack of sun exposure. In the 1950s, roughly 20 to 30 percent of 20-year-olds in Hong Kong, Taiwan and South Korea suffered from myopia. Today, the shares are above 80 percent. In the U.S., the increases have been significant though a bit less dramatic. In the early 1970s, 24 percent of 25- to 34-year-olds were nearsighted. By the early 2000s, that share had almost doubled, to 44 percent. (Peter R. Orszag, 4/23)

Los Angeles Times: Give Paramedics The Power To Make Better Choices On Behalf Of Vulnerable People
If a person is intoxicated or suffering from a mental health crisis, a crowded hospital emergency room may not be the right place to get treatment. Yet homeless people are often taken there when they may just need a place to sober up or be seen by a mental health professional. That's because paramedics don't have the option to take homeless people — or anyone else, for that matter — to a sobering center or a behavioral health facility. Under state law, paramedics (unlike police or sheriff's deputies in L.A. County) summoned through 911 calls are legally obligated to take an individual needing treatment to a hospital emergency room. (4/24)