Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Parsing Policies: Supplement Helped Unemployed And Economy; Lockdowns Didn't Cause Economy To Tank
The New York Times: The Unemployed Stare Into The Abyss. Republicans Look Away. - The New York Times
In case you haven’t noticed, the coronavirus is still very much with us. Around a thousand Americans are dying from Covid-19 each day, 10 times the rate in the European Union. Thanks to our failure to control the pandemic, we’re still suffering from Great Depression levels of unemployment; a brief recovery driven by premature attempts to resume business as usual appears to have petered out as states pause or reverse their opening. Yet enhanced unemployment benefits, a crucial lifeline for tens of millions of Americans, have expired. And negotiations over how — or even whether — to restore aid appear to be stalled. (Paul Krugman, 8/3)
The Washington Post: The Myth Of Unemployment Benefits Depressing Work
Through no fault of their own, 30 million jobless Americans just had their benefits slashed. Many may soon face eviction, hunger, bankruptcy. Unfortunately, the White House and Republican lawmakers are in no rush to help. Instead, GOP officials have essentially accused these desperate families of being lazy welfare queens, choosing to remain on cushy government benefits rather than savor the dignity of work. But five recent economic studies find no such thing is happening. (Catherine Rampell, 8/3)
The Baltimore Sun: The Truth About The COVID-19 Economy
What’s Mr. Trump’s plan to revive the economy? The same one he’s been pushing for months: Just “reopen” it. He wants the public to believe the shutdown orders that began in March caused the economy to tank in the first place, so reversing them will bring the economy back. Rubbish. It was the virus that caused the downturn, and its resurgence is taking the economy down again. The virus is surging back because governors reopened prematurely, before the virus was under control — at Mr. Trump’s repeated insistence. (Richard B. Reich, 8/4)
Fox News: Coronavirus Shutdown Madness Must End -- Haven't We Suffered Enough, Dr. Fauci?
Right from the start, we told you the truth about this virus, that most people have nothing to fear. That the right response is to protect the vulnerable, that the mass shutdowns were a massive mistake. President Trump, he had the right instincts, too, right from the start. But the media, the medical establishment, the political establishment, they didn't have a clue. (Steve Hilton, 8/3)
The Wall Street Journal: Fear And Loathing In Covid America
The fear surrounding Covid-19, combined with the media’s judgmental portrayal of new coronavirus cases as failures of political leadership and citizen morality, are backing policy makers into a corner and seeding social turmoil. Rising case numbers are the expected result of basic, powerful human desires to participate in life. Rather than acknowledge this, politicians are allowing fear to fuel poor policy decisions. A course correction will require empowering Americans to prevent illness and absolving ourselves from the prevailing narrative. (Joseph A. Ladapo, 8/3)
CNN: Donald Trump Spinning Virus Failure As A Win Again By Celebrating 'Encouraging' Progress
Every time President Donald Trump and his political team claim great progress in the pandemic it's a dangerous sign: things are likely about to get worse. Forever spinning their failure in handling the crisis, Trump and Vice President Mike Pence on Monday made selective claims of "significant" advances and "very encouraging" signs and celebrated "plateauing" cases in Sunbelt areas that might have escaped their disasters by ignoring the President's advice. (Stephen Collinson, 8/4)
Bloomberg: Italy And Sweden Are Taming The Coronavirus's Potential Second Wave
The lifting of Covid-19 lockdowns around the world was never going to be easy. But as infections are flaring up from Spain to Australia, it’s worth noting that two of the hardest-hit countries at the pandemic’s peak — Italy and Sweden — are keeping the virus’s spread under control. Daily confirmed cases in both nations are now averaging at around 200 each, well below their respective peaks, with no rebound in sight and no strain on hospitals. By contrast, the daily case count in Spain rose past 2,000 last week and France’s surpassed 1,000. This is by no means a second wave, but it’s worth asking what Italy and Sweden might be doing differently to manage the virus. (Lionel Laurent, 8/4)
The Washington Post: Trump Promised A Health-Care Plan In Two Weeks. It’s Been Two Weeks.
Here’s what didn’t happen on Sunday: The signing of a “full and complete” health-care plan, which Trump had promised in an interview with Fox News’ Chris Wallace that had aired July 19. Wallace, as good an interviewer as there is, had tweaked Trump over the fact that he had yet to deliver on one of his signature campaign promises, which was to replace the Affordable Care Act with “something terrific.” "You’re going to have such great health care, at a tiny fraction of the cost — and it’s going to be so easy,” he boasted the month before the 2016 election. (Karen Tumulty, 8/3)
The Hill: Short-Term Health Plans Are A Threat, Not A Victory, For Sick Patients
Your money or your life. For a robber, it's a threat. For supporters of junk insurance, asking Americans to waste their money or risk their life counts as a “victory [for] sick patients.” At least that was the sentiment expressed by Michael F. Cannon in his recent op-ed “In a win for consumers, a court ruling affirms the legality of short-term health insurance plans” (The Hill, July 24). Cannon cheers a court decision that upholds a Trump administration regulatory loophole that seeks to eviscerate the Affordable Care Act through the proliferation of junk insurance. (Margaret A. Murray, 8/3)
