Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Longer Looks: Repeal and Replace; Elusive Cure For Rising Health Care Costs; A Killer Epidemic
Vox: The Complex Process Republicans Want To Use To Repeal Obamacare, Explained With A Cartoon
Senate Republicans have taken the first step to repealing Obamacare. They're doing it through a process called "reconciliation," which you can read about in-depth here. It can be confusing because it's a multi-step process — and for each step, Republicans are saying it's a vote to "repeal Obamacare." But only after entire process is complete will parts of Obamacare actually be repealed. So to clear up what's actually happening, we made this cartoon. (Alvin Chang, 1/11)
The New York Times: Inside A Killer Drug Epidemic: A Look At America’s Opioid Crisis
Public health officials have called the current opioid epidemic the worst drug crisis in American history, killing more than 33,000 people in 2015. Overdose deaths were nearly equal to the number of deaths from car crashes. In 2015, for the first time, deaths from heroin alone surpassed gun homicides. And there’s no sign it’s letting up, a team of New York Times reporters found as they examined the epidemic on the ground in states across the country. From New England to “safe injection” areas in the Pacific Northwest, communities are searching for a way out of a problem that can feel inescapable. (1/6)
The Atlantic: The Republicans Trying To Slow Down Obamacare Repeal
Congressional Republicans knew their push for an immediate repeal of the Affordable Care Act would draw howls of protest from Democrats. But they are now hearing warnings from elected officials who may be harder for them to ignore: Republican governors. In the last week, GOP Governors John Kasich of Ohio and Rick Snyder of Michigan have raised concerns about the impact a full repeal of the health law would have on their states, which rely on billions of dollars in additional federal funding to cover an expansion of Medicaid they carried out as part of Obamacare. Kasich in particular questioned the plans by Republican leaders in Congress to scrap the law without immediately replacing it. (Russell Berman, 1/9)
Vox: What We Know About How Republicans Might Replace Obamacare
If there’s one thing Republicans have been clear about for the past six years, it is that the top of their agenda includes repealing Obamacare. But Obamacare repeal would leave an estimated 22 million Americans without coverage and wreak havoc on the individual insurance market. It’s becoming increasingly clear that Republicans can’t just repeal Obamacare — they need to replace it with something. (Sarah Kliff, 1/5)
Slate: A Failed Cure For Health Care Costs
It’s a new year, and you know what that means: Your health insurance deductible just reset. Which for many of us means looking forward to paying a significant amount out of pocket for health care until we’ve spent enough for our insurance payments to kick in. According to the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, in 2016, the average deductible for an American with employer-based insurance was $1,221. People covered through the Affordable Care Act exchange will likely pay more than that. Close to 90 percent of those enrolled will select a plan with an individual deductible of at least $1,300, or $2,600 for a family. (Helaine Olen, 1/9)
New York Magazine: My First Day Microdosing With LSD
This was certainly not the first time I had tried an illegal drug, though I have never been what you would call a regular drug user. I smoked marijuana a few times in high school, a dozen or so times in college, once or twice as an adult, and then not again until I was prescribed medical marijuana (I live in California), first to end my dependence on the sleeping pill Ambien and then to ease the pain of a frozen shoulder. I have used MDMA six or seven times. In college, I tried cocaine twice, and those mushrooms that purported to be magic once. All together? More than some people my age, less than Presidents Obama and Bush. (Ayelet Waldman, 1/6)
The New Yorker: Could Obamacare Save The Democrats?
During the Presidential campaign, Trump adopted the standard Republican line on the Affordable Care Act—that it was a mess that needed replacing—even as he also expressed support for some of the law’s provisions, such as the one that prevents insurers from shunning people with preëxisting conditions. Since the election, however, two things that should already have been obvious have become impossible to ignore, even for Trump. For one thing, neither he nor the Republican Party has a viable replacement to offer for the A.C.A. And congressional Democrats, led by Chuck Schumer, the new Senate Minority Leader, have no intention of helping them out. (John Cassidy, 1/5)
The New York Times: Fentanyl Outpaces Heroin As The Deadliest Drug On Long Island
An anesthetic commonly used for surgery has surpassed heroin to become the deadliest drug on Long Island, killing at least 220 people there in 2016, according to medical examiners’ records. The drug, fentanyl, is a synthetic opioid, which can be 100 times more potent than morphine. The numbers from Long Island are part of a national pattern, as fentanyl fatalities have already surpassed those from heroin in other parts of the country. (Deutsch, 12/28)
The New York Times: The Japanese Art Of Grieving A Miscarriage
We went home. I didn’t sleep. I spent a week throwing myself around the house I’d decorated to look like a dojo — that’s how many souvenirs I brought when we’d moved back to the States from Japan. I was itchy with sadness. I picked at my cuticles and tore out my hair. I had all this sorrow and no one to give it to, and Brady couldn’t take it off me because his hands were already full of his own mourning. We knew miscarriage was common. But why wasn’t there anything people did when it happened? (Angela Elson, 1/6)
