Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Perspectives: Lessons On The Importance Of Finding Purpose, Being Willing To Cooperate
Stat: Did The Pursuit Of Purpose Affect This Year's Presidential Election?
As a people, Americans are exceptionally unhappy. In a survey conducted at the start of October, we found that 30% of U.S. adults felt depressed. That’s double what we found in a similar survey last April and triple the rate reported in 2017 and 2018. In fact, over the almost 50 years since pollsters began measuring the national mood, never have so few people — only 14% — reported feeling very happy. (Vic Strecher and Will Johnson, 11/13)
The Washington Post: Trump’s Failure To Cooperate With Biden’s Transition Is Unthinkable
We need vaccine development and distribution. We need to create protocols to reopen the economy. At the same time, we must protect ourselves from foreign adversaries and defend cyberspace. That requires providing the president-elect and his team with intelligence briefings and access to the agencies across the government. Protecting our national and health security interests requires the coordination and cooperation between the departing team of the 45th president and the incoming team of the 46th. For the sake and health of the American people, that work should start today. (Thad Allen, 11/12)
Fox News: ObamaCare Court Challenge No Threat To Preexisting Conditions Coverage
The Supreme Court heard oral arguments Tuesday in a Trump administration challenge to ObamaCare. The case, which the justices reacted to with skepticism during proceedings, has generated hundreds of breathless media reports about its supposed threat to Americans with preexisting health conditions. "Back to the dark ages on preexisting conditions," reads a headline on a column by Michael Hiltzik in The Los Angeles Times. President-elect Joe Biden claimed Tuesday that the challenge was a "cruel" attack on Americans' health care. This perspective is fearmongering, not facts. In reality, people with preexisting conditions are not threatened by the legal challenge to ObamaCare. (Alfredo Ortiz and Tom Price, 11/12)
The Salt Lake Tribune: ACA Was A Huge Relief For Disabled Utahns. It Must Stay In Place.
For years, patients have fought against attempts to undo the protections that barred discrimination against people with chronic illness, mental illness and a variety of other disabilities. Now, with another pending legal challenge heard by the Supreme Court this week, the disabled community is again fighting to protect our care and grappling with the risk to our health. (Stacy Stanford, 11/12)
The New York Times: What Biden Can Do About Climate Change
During the months that Joe Biden and President Trump were campaigning against each other, vast sections of the American West caught on fire. More than five million acres burned, and the air in California, Oregon and Washington was sometimes more harmful to breathe than in the pollution-clogged cities of India. (David Leonhardt, 11/13)
The New York Times: Leave Fat Kids Alone
I was in the fourth grade, sitting in a doctor’s office, the first time my face flushed with shame. I was, I had just learned, overweight. I will remember the pediatrician’s words forever: It’s probably from eating all that pizza and ice cream. It tastes good, doesn’t it? But it makes your body big and fat. I felt my face sear with shame. (Aubrey Gordon, 11/13)
