Viewpoints: Trump’s Proposal For Kidney Disease Treatment Deserves Everyone’s Support; Alexa Isn’t Ready To Go Mainstream During Medical Emergencies
Opinion writers weigh in on these health issues and others.
The Washington Post:
The Trump Administration Is Actually Doing Something Great On Health Care
The Trump administration’s latest proposal to reduce the cost of treating kidney disease by encouraging earlier, more convenient interventions and to improve the organ transplant process is extraordinary. It’s not just that the administration has proposed a reasonable policy to rein in health-care costs. And it’s not just that it’s specifically targeting powerful business interests to do so. Rather, what’s most striking — even inspiring — is that the proposal puts much effort toward improving a single, narrow segment of health care that affects only a small portion of Americans. It’s exactly the type of policy we often need but don’t have the will to implement. (Robert Gebelhoff, 7/10)
Bloomberg:
Amazon's Alexa Is An Unhealthy Choice For Britain's NHS
The idea of turning to Amazon.com Inc.’s gaffe-prone Alexa in a medical emergency has always seemed to be a bit of a sick joke. YouTube is packed with examples of amusing ways in which the “black, always-on cylinder the size of a Pringles can” – that’s CEO Jeff Bezos’s own description of the smart speaker – fails the Turing Test. “Alexa, I need medical assistance immediately,” says one user, before getting the soothing yet robotic answer: “I added ‘medical assistance immediately’ to your shopping list.” That hasn’t dissuaded Britain’s National Health Service from trying out the technology for everyday health questions about common illnesses. On Wednesday it announced a partnership with Amazon to help patients get information from the NHS website via voice commands. Ideally, you should be able to ask Alexa things like “how do I treat a migraine?” and get a response sourced from the website in seconds. (Incidentally, the NHS website’s answer to that question is: “There’s currently no cure for migraines, although a number of treatments are available to help ease the symptoms.”) (Lionel Laurent, 7/10)
The Washington Post:
Migrant Children Drew Pictures Of Bars And Cages. They Also Drew These Bright Scenes.
In one, a bright green-and-yellow caterpillar with the letters “USA” written on its body crawls across the page. In another, a heart with wings bears the words “Love Love,” because one apparently wasn’t enough to convey how much it carried. Both drawings were done by children after they were released from U.S. Customs and Border Protection custody and both strike at a universal truth: Hand children a piece of paper and a box of crayons, and they may draw what scares them most. Or, they may sketch what makes them smile. (Theresa Vargas, 7/10)
Los Angeles Times:
Taxing Tampons Isn’t Just Unfair, It’s Unconstitutional
If the government were to require that only men or only women had to pay a tax of several hundred dollars a year solely because of their sex, that would be an unconstitutional denial of equal protection under the 14th Amendment. Yet that is exactly the effect of the so-called tampon tax. Currently, residents of 35 states must pay sales tax on purchases of tampons and pads because they are not deemed necessities worthy of an exemption. And that’s in addition to the roughly $5 to $10 for these products that women have to shell out each month. States collectively profit upwards of $150 million a year from taxing menstrual products. In California alone, women pay $20 million annually. (Erwin Chemerinsky and Jennifer Weiss-Wolf, 7/11)
Bloomberg:
Reckitt's $1.4 Billion Opioid Settlement Offers Some Relief
Reckitt Benckiser Plc has taken the medicine. The company has settled with U.S. authorities to resolve a long-running investigation into the sale and marketing of an opioid addiction treatment by former subsidiary Indivior Plc. (Andrea Felsted, 7/11)
The Washington Post:
Trump Republicans Help Democrats Yet Again — This Time On Abortion
The Affordable Care Act wasn’t popular with a majority of Americans. Then along came President Trump and the Republican-led Congress, which tried to yank it up by the roots. Support for the ACA spiked. Trump accomplished what President Barack Obama and Democrats could not, namely highlighting the benefits — if not the necessity — of an imperfect bill that extended coverage to tens of millions of people. The same thing is now happening with regard to abortion rights. (Jennifer Rubin, 7/10)
Bloomberg:
Blame Sugar Consumption And Obesity On Food Companies
Americans tend to associate our health problems with sin. It’s hard to find a health story in the press that doesn’t blame greed and lack of willpower for our ongoing epidemics of obesity and diabetes as well as a recent upturn in the rate of heart disease. But the problems stem more from a greedy food industry than from any weakness in consumers. Our supermarket shelves are filled with items made with cheap ingredients, especially sugar and corn syrup, whether people want it or not. A fascinating new study out of the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia showed that among 400,000 food reviews on Amazon.com, the primary complaint was that food was too sweet. People used terms like “syrupy, overwhelmingly or cloyingly sweet,” said behavioral geneticist Danielle Reed, who led the research. (Faye Flam, 7/10)
