Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Viewpoints: A 'Value Framework' For Medical Care Is A Bad Idea; What Is The Gov't Doing About Zika?
St. Louis Post-Dispatch: The Looming Threat To Your Health
Do you want to know what the future of health care could look like? You should pay attention to a little-known yet hugely important event taking place in St. Louis on Thursday. But don’t expect a rosy vision — what you’ll actually see is terrifying. The event in question will be hosted by the Institute for Clinical and Economic Research, a national nonprofit funded with millions of dollars from the health insurance industry and like-minded interests. The group — known as ICER — is unveiling its new method of determining the cost of medical treatment for patients. It’s called a “value framework,” and it could potentially harm the health and well-being of the millions of Americans with cancer and other life-threatening diseases. (Jonathan Wilcox, 5/26)
Reuters: We Need To Fight Zika The Way Governments Fight Terror
The Zika virus exploded out of Brazilian slums at 21st-century speeds, and raced north into Central America and the Caribbean in a matter of months. A full-blown outbreak in the United States looks imminent. This statistically small virus is part of a global insurgency that adapts rapidly to developments of human progress. It exploits cultural dynamics: rapid over-urbanization, a changing climate and increased levels of travel and economic activity among countries. (Grey Frandsen, 5/26)
Los Angeles Times: Congress Exploits Zika To Loosen Pesticide Regulations (But Won't Pay For An Anti-Zika Program)
Chronic dysfunction on Capitol Hill is often cause for amusement, but not when lives and public health are at stake. That's what's happening now, with the menace of the spread of the Zika virus to the United States becoming ever more concrete. The House and Senate haven't been utterly idle on the Zika front. Their actions have been merely inadequate and cynical. Both chambers have proposed funding plans to combat Zika -- the Senate at $1.1 billion, the House at $622 million. But neither matches the $1.9 billion President Obama requested in February, and the House proposal would raid other disease programs to cover the bill. (Michael Hiltzik, 5/25)
The Wall Street Journal: Muscular Dystrophy Day At The FDA
Boys with lethal Duchenne muscular dystrophy have waited years for the Food and Drug Administration to approve a safe and innovative treatment, and they’ll have to hold out longer. On Wednesday the FDA delayed a decision on eteplirsen by Sarepta Therapeutics, but the agency can still choose the correct scientific and legal outcome. Sarepta said FDA had notified the company that a decision would not be issued on Thursday as scheduled. The agency offered no clues beyond promising to finish “internal discussions” and the broader review “in as timely a manner as possible.” An FDA advisory panel voted against approval in April, though agency bosses can accept or disregard the input. (5/25)
The New York Times: The Supreme Court’s Wishful Thinking About Compromise
Everyone loves a happy ending, and in this season of political meltdown and partisan deadlock, the impulse is more acute than usual. So the question lingers from the Supreme Court’s non-resolution last week of the latest controversy brought about by the Obama administration’s effort to make birth control available to women in the work force: Was it a sign of a new appetite for compromise or of institutional dysfunction? Along with the many headline writers who stressed “compromise,” I’d like to believe the former. But I fear the latter. (Linda Greenhouse, 5/26)
Huffington Post: Why It’s Actually Terrifying That Donald Trump Doesn’t Sleep Much
Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has said before that he doesn’t get much sleep. And at a campaign event Wednesday in Anaheim, California, less than two weeks before the California presidential primary, Trump bragged again: “I don’t sleep much. I don’t sleep much.” ... That last claim is actually terrifying. (Sarah DiGiulio, 5/25)
Huffington Post: Theranos Teaches Silicon Valley A Hard Lesson About Accountability
The Theranos saga hit another low last week when the company informed regulators that it was voiding two years of tests from its Edison blood testing devices and sending of tens-of-thousands of revised tests results to doctors. This means that thousands of patients received incorrect results and were likely given the wrong treatments. Surely the doctors and the patient victims were not responsible for this misplaced trust. (Vivek Wadhwa and Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, 5/24)
The Denver Post: VA Chief Robert McDonald Is Mired In Denial
[Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert] McDonald has been VA chief two years, and apparently has been co-opted utterly by the bureaucracy. His resignation should be the first one the next president accepts. (Editorial Board, 5/25)
Bay Area News Group: Veterans' Wait For Health Care Is No Disneyland
Bob McDonald inherited a stink bomb when he was appointed Veterans Affairs secretary in July 2014. The agency was bloated with a backlog of nearly 350,000 unprocessed disability claims filed by veterans who put their life on the line for their country. Wait times ranged from months to years. Worst of all, it had come to light that VA employees were covering up average wait times to make the VA appear more efficient than it was. (Gary Peterson, 5/25)
The Wichita Eagle: Even Applying For Medicaid Can Be An Ordeal In Kansas
Not only can it take months for the Brownback administration to process and approve Medicaid applications, but even applying for Medicaid can be an ordeal. No wonder there has been a drop in the number of Medicaid beneficiaries in Kansas. The state’s expensive new online application system and reorganized processing clearinghouse were supposed to make enrolling in Medicaid faster and easier. The opposite happened. (Phillip Brownlee, 5/26)
Raleigh (N.C.) News & Observer: In NC, A Shameful Medicaid Gap Persists
[T]he U.S. Supreme Court ruled that states could “opt out” of the Medicaid expansion, and Republican leaders in North Carolina – ideologically opposed to the ACA and more specifically to all things associated with President Obama – did just that. So now perhaps 500,000 North Carolinians who could qualify for the federal/state health insurance program for the poor and disabled don’t have the coverage thanks to that “Medicaid gap.” It was an astonishingly partisan and cruel step from the General Assembly. (5/25)
