Viewpoints: President Lacks Constitutional Right To Do Away With Health Law; Few Good Answers Exist On Value Of Work Requirements

The New York Times: Trump’s Sabotage Of Obamacare Is Illegal
From the moment he took office, President Trump has used all aspects of his executive power to sabotage the Affordable Care Act. He has issued executive orders, directed agencies to come up with new rules and used the public platform of the presidency in a blatant attempt to undermine the law. Indeed, he has repeatedly bragged about doing so, making statements like, “Essentially, we are getting rid of Obamacare.” But Mr. Trump isn’t a king; he doesn’t have the power to dispense with laws he dislikes. He swore to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. That includes the requirement, set forth in Article II, that the president “take care that the laws be faithfully executed.” (Nicholas Bagley and Abbe R. Gluck, 8/14)

The Washington Post: Do Work Requirements For Federal Assistance Help People Escape Poverty? No. Here’s What Really Happens.
Last month, the Trump administration reopened its effort to allow Kentucky to require low-income citizens to work in exchange for health-care coverage — part of its larger goal of imposing work requirements nationwide for all kinds of benefits, including assistance buying food. The Kentucky effort has run afoul of at least one federal judge, who wrote that the administration “never adequately considered whether Kentucky HEALTH would in fact help the state furnish medical assistance to its citizens, a central objective of Medicaid.” (Sanford Schram, Richard Fording and Joe Soss, 8/13)

Boston Globe: How Law Enforcement Is Taking On The Opioid Crisis 
President Donald J. Trump has a comprehensive plan to end this national crisis by bolstering treatment, educating the public about addiction, and revamping our law enforcement efforts against drug traffickers who propagate this catastrophe. He has negotiated and signed bipartisan legislation to spend $4 billion this year to address opioid abuse. He has launched a national awareness campaign about the dangers of opioid abuse. And he has set the ambitious goal of reducing opioid prescription rates in America by one-third in three years. Law enforcement plays a key role in his plan — and for good reason. By putting traffickers and crooked doctors and pharmacists behind bars — going after the distributors, not the users suffering from addiction — we prevent the criminals from committing more crimes and spreading addiction. That saves lives. (U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, 8/14)

The Wall Street Journal: The Terminally Ill Need More Than The ‘Right To Try’
After decades of medical research, why is chemotherapy still a mainstay for cancer patients? Why do many Alzheimer’s patients still slide inexorably into helplessness? How did developing a new drug become a multibillion-dollar venture that can take a decade or more? Government deserves a share of the blame. Regulators, including at the Food and Drug Administration, have shackled every aspect of drug development under the guise of doing no harm. But how exactly does it “harm” patients facing certain death to provide them with an experimental treatment? Congress took a small step in the right direction this May by passing a Right to Try law, which theoretically grants terminal patients the right to access investigational drugs that haven’t shown clinical efficacy. But Right to Try legislation gives only crumbs to these patients. (Paul J. Marangos, 8/13)

St. Louis Post Dispatch: Bumping Into Republican Cowardice On Guns
Both parties and President Donald Trump generally agreed on the need to ban bump stocks. Against the carnage in Las Vegas, it looked like a no-brainer. Whatever the Second Amendment was meant to do — and that remains a worthwhile debate — precious few believe it was meant to protect a hunk of plastic. Congressional Republicans, paralyzed as always on guns, couldn’t get themselves to act decisively. At the NRA’s urging, they turned it over to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, which now is poised to ban bump stocks by rule. That’s not the same as passing a law. A rule can be undone, and it doesn’t make the unified statement from our elected leaders that the moment called for. (8/13)

The Washington Post: Our Doctors Are Too Educated
I had just finished an eye examination for one of my patients and swiveled around to the computer. It was clear that he needed cataract surgery; he was nearly blind despite his Coke-bottle glasses. But even before I logged in to the scheduling system, I knew what I was going to find: He wouldn’t be able to get an appointment with an ophthalmologist for more than three months. Everyone’s schedule was full. Moments like these are far too common in medicine. An aging population with numerous health needs and a declining physician workforce have combined to create a physician shortage — the Association of American Medical Colleges projects a shortfall of up to 100,000 doctors by 2030. (Akhilesh Pathipati, 8/13)

Stat: Lessons From 'The Bleeding Edge': If You See Something, Say Something 
As a neurosurgeon who focuses mainly on spine surgery, I sometimes use medical devices like pedicle screws and intervertebral cages to treat spinal instability. Watching the Netflix documentary “The Bleeding Edge” made me wonder what the misuse of medical technology means for patients and for doctors. According to the video’s teaser, “This eye-opening look at the fast-growing medical device industry reveals how the rush to innovate can lead to devastating consequences for patients.” In a nutshell, “The Bleeding Edge” warns of the potential dangers posed by the cozy relationship between industry, doctors, and regulators. It’s a relationship that’s hard to avoid. (Erich Anderer, 8/14)

Cleveland Plain Dealer: Needle Exchanges A Proven Way To Prevent Disease, Deaths
The Ohio Department of Health has released 2017 HIV data for the state, which shows a tremendous decrease in new infections in Cuyahoga County. The county saw 158 new infections in 2017, a 19 percent decrease from 196 new infections in 2016. This positive development continues a more modest downward trend since 2013. Our good news comes at a time when state HIV and Hepatitis C rates are increasing, at least partially driven by the opiate epidemic. In 2017, HIV infections associated with injection drug use (IDU) were up for the third straight year in Ohio, and now represent 12 percent of new HIV infections diagnosed each year --compared to 5 percent of new infections just a few years ago. New Hepatitis C infections in Ohio have more than doubled since 2015. (Melissa Federman, 8/12)