Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Different Takes: Homelessness Won't Be Fixed By Fining People Who Can't Pay; ALS 'Moonshot' A Disappointment
Los Angeles Times: Grants Pass Ruling Will Do Nothing To End Homelessness
“Homelessness is complex.” So wrote Supreme Court Justice Neil M. Gorsuch even as he and the majority of the court upheld a law that does nothing to recognize the complexity of homelessness. In a 6-3 ruling on Friday, the justices sided with a law passed by Grants Pass, Ore., that criminalizes homeless people for sleeping outside on public property. On a day of bleak Supreme Court decisions, the ruling in City of Grants Pass vs. Johnson raises the grim question of whether cities and counties will rely more on anti-camping ordinances to deal with homeless people and encampments rather than doing the hard work of creating interim housing, such as motel and hotel rooms, and permanent affordable housing, often with services. (6/29)
Stat: An ALS Moonshot Plan Barely Gets Off The Ground
The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine recently released a congressionally mandated report on how to make amyotrophic lateral sclerosis — a brutal, always fatal condition — a “livable” disease in the next 10 years. Essentially, the committee was tasked with delivering a plan for a moonshot. As a health care innovation expert and someone living with ALS, I have to say that the report barely gets off the ground. (Bernard Zipprich, 6/30)
Stat: It's A Duty Of Psychiatrists To See Medicare And Medicaid Patients
There has been much handwringing about how difficult it is for Americans with mental health issues to see a psychiatrist. Failures in the health insurance market are often blamed for the problem. As a new class of psychiatry residents begins work in hospitals across the country this week, I see an additional cause: the lack of commitment to honor the subsidies that made it possible for psychiatrists to enter the profession. (Richard G. Frank, 7/1)
The New York Times: The Supreme Court Puts The Pro-Life Movement To The Test
I believe the law should protect the lives and health of both unborn children and their mothers. As the Idaho case progresses, the anti-abortion movement will have to make a choice: Will it love mothers as much as it loves children, or will it violate the fundamental moral principle that undergirds this American republic — that all people are created equal? (David French, 6/30)
The New York Times: How To Help Americans Eat Less Junk Food
Chile and many other countries with front-of-package labels have a constitutional right to health. This helps give authorities the ability not just to implement warning labels but also to ban certain health claims and codify advertising restrictions. (Mexico’s Supreme Court recently upheld its front-of-package labeling regulations in part because of the right to health.) In the United States, new labeling laws will be much more challenging to enact. (Kat Morgan and Mark Bittman, 6/30)
