Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Different Takes: Supreme Court Has Chance To Block SB 8; It's Time To Restructure Our Health Care System
The Washington Post: The Supreme Court Is Getting A Second Chance To Block The Texas Abortion Law. It Should Take It
The Biden administration has offered the Supreme Court a chance for a do-over in the Texas abortion case. For the good of the court itself — if not for the women of Texas and the Constitution — the justices should take it. The court flubbed its first opportunity when it allowed Texas’s patently unconstitutional ban on abortions after six weeks to go into effect. The genius, such as it is, of the Texas law is that it outsources enforcement to private parties — and therefore forestalls abortion providers’ ability to go to court to block it. (Ruth Marcus, 10/19)
The Star Tribune: Defund The Health Care System
For the security of our citizens and the well-being of our society the argument is being made that we should "defund the police" and transition to a public health approach to community safety. For similar reasons, why not do the same for our health care system? The "defund the police" argument goes as follows: (Edward P. Ehlinger, 10/19)
The Boston Globe: If The Legislature Wants To Contain Health Care Costs, It Should Empower The Health Policy Commission
Massachusetts is a leader in health care reform. Its pioneering coverage expansion in 2006 achieved near-universal health insurance in the state and served as a basis for the Affordable Care Act of 2010. We still enjoy the nation’s highest level of insurance coverage, at 97 percent. In 2012, the Commonwealth again pioneered with legislation establishing the Health Policy Commission to track health care spending and cajole the payers and providers to restrain cost increases. Both sets of reforms are well resourced and expertly led. Yet, while coverage expansion remains robust, cost containment seems to be stalling. These divergent results suggest the need for yet a third round of reform. (Jon Kingsdale, 10/19)
Stat: Telehealth Skeptics Miss The Forest For The Trees
The role of telehealth and its staying power in our health care system is up for debate. As someone working in the telehealth universe, I’ll be the first to say it’s not a panacea: some people are best served by in-person care. The reality, though, is that even before the pandemic emerged, the U.S. health care system struggled with stark limitations in access, vast disparities in outcomes, and out-of-control costs — largely without ever using telehealth to its full potential. (Melynda Barnes, 10/20)
Bloomberg: Medicare Can Cover Dental, Vision And Hearing Care Inexpensively
As the cost of President Joe Biden’s spending package shrinks from $3.5 trillion closer to $2 trillion, Senator Bernie Sanders’s proposal to add dental, vision and hearing coverage to Medicare has emerged as a sticking point in negotiations. Opposing Sanders are Democrats such as Congressman Jim Clyburn of South Carolina who would like to prioritize spending to benefit low-income people — including by providing health insurance for the poor in states that have refused to expand Medicaid. (Arielle Kane, 10/19)
The Tennessean: A Rise In Black Youth Suicides Ties Back To Experiences With Racism
As conversations on racial disparities in physical health have emerged all over the country, the disproportionate burden of mental health disparities on Black children and adolescents is a topic that is worth being widely discussed. This topic is especially important as the United States reflects upon suicide prevention month this September. Alarmingly high suicide and depression rates among Black youth, as documented by the American Psychological Association in 2020, led pediatricians and child psychologists to question if early experiences of racism are responsible for the increase in mental illness amongst Black children. (Adaeze Umeukeje, 10/19)
Modern Healthcare: Nursing Shortage Can No Longer Be Ignored; They’re The ‘Beating Heart’ Of Healthcare
For almost as long as nurses have been working in American hospitals, industry leaders have been worried that we didn’t have enough of them. Reports of nursing shortages date back nearly a century: The 1930s saw a shortage driven by widespread hospital construction and increased healthcare utilization; the 1940s drained nurses from the U.S. workforce in favor of the war effort; the shortage got so bad in the 1960s that the federal government was compelled to pass the Nurse Training Act. (Cynthia Hundorfean and Claire Zangerie, 10/19)
Stat: Investing In Caregiving: A Social, Public Health, And Economic Issue
As a working daughter, I recently embarked on a new and uncertain phase of my career: taking paid leave for my seriously ill mother. Without children of my own, I never needed to consider paid leave. This new role in caregiving is making me square cultural norms and values engrained in me as a second-generation South Asian immigrant and as a female only child with my senior leadership role in corporate America. (Paurvi Bhatt, 10/19)
