Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Parsing Policy: Ways to Control Spending On Health Care; New Chances For States To Adopt Medicaid
Stat: A U.S. Institute Of Health Technology Assessment Could Help Control Costs
The public outcry to “do something” about health care spending keeps growing, but fear about what that might entail stymies action. Americans need affordable, accessible, and innovative health care. They don’t need rationing of treatments or a regime of price controls that could hobble medical progress. (Darius Lakdawalla, Peter Neumann and Gail Wilensky, 3/2)
The Charlotte Observer: Medicaid Expansion Comes Knocking Again In NC. This Time It’s A Better Deal.
The gridlock over expanding Medicaid in North Carolina – an impasse now entering its seventh year – can get tiresome, but fortunately for the state’s working poor it’s an issue about which Democrats are tireless. Gov. Roy Cooper vetoed the last state budget passed by the Republican-led General Assembly in part because it did not provide for expanding Medicaid, a change that would mostly benefit low-income working adults without children. Now President Joe Biden is making a pitch to North Carolina and 11 other holdout states in an effort to extend health insurance to millions of people who are braving the pandemic without it. (3/1)
Sun-Sentinel: Florida Can Run On 100 Percent Clean, Renewable Energy
We are at a tipping point when it comes to how we power our lives. Nationwide, and in Florida, we are still producing, consuming and wasting energy in ways that damage our environment and our health. In 2021, we have the opportunity and know-how to tap into clean and renewable energy from sources such as the sun and wind, but doing so will require the nation and state to transform the way they produce and consume energy. But it isn’t. (Anna Vishkaee Eskamani, 3/1)
Los Angeles Times: New Homes Need To Be Fossil Fuel-Free
In September, while touring the charred wreckage left by yet another devastating wildfire, Gov. Gavin Newsom declared: “This a climate damn emergency.” The state’s ambitious strategies to curtail greenhouse gas emissions were not enough to counter the effects of a warming planet, Newsom warned, and he pledged to “accelerate all of them, across the board.” Except, apparently, at the California Energy Commission, where officials want to delay a requirement that new homes be built only with electric appliances. (3/2)
New York Post: A Society That Can't Debate Trans Ideology's Effects On Kids Isn't A Democracy
Should children be given life-altering treatments to help them transition from one gender to another, including puberty blockers and body-mutilating surgeries? Should doctors be encouraged to allow minors to make a choice that will block their physical development and ability to have children when they get older? Is there evidence that doing so might do more harm than good? These are weighty medical and ethical questions that a responsible and compassionate society would vigorously debate. After all, what’s at stake isn’t the right of adults to live as they please, but the well-being of children, something that ought to transcend ideologies and political agendas. But America in 2021 isn’t such a society. (Jonathan S. Tobin, 3/1)
Stat: Remembering Bernard Lown: Physician, Activist, Nobel Prize Winner
I have long thought that there are three types of physician. The first is fascinated by the intricacy and complexity of biomedical science. The second finds inspiration in the personal relationship between doctor and patient. The third is committed to the broader context of health, to social justice and to making the world a better place. (Iona Heath, 2/28)
