Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Viewpoints: Big Mistake Is Being Made By Repealing Health Law's Cadillac Tax; Maybe Now Homeless People Will Get Shelter Rather Than Being Shooed Away Or Arrested
Bloomberg: Save Obamacare’s Cadillac Tax
Congress is likely this week to eliminate two taxes designed to help pay for Obamacare, one of which has never even taken effect. Ironically, that’s the one Congress should keep. It’s a mistake to repeal the so-called Cadillac tax, which has never actually been collected, because it would have made the tax code more progressive and health insurance more affordable. By contrast, eliminating the medical-device tax, which was in effect only from 2013 to 2015, is a sensible move that will encourage growth and sacrifice little revenue. (Karl W. Smith, 12/17)
The Washington Post: Congress Just Revealed How Hard It Will Be To Pass Health Reform
All the Democrats running for president, even the more moderate ones, are proposing sweeping health insurance reform should they take the White House. If you want a lesson in how difficult it’s going to be to pass that reform through Congress, you need only look at what just happened there — the story of something the health-care industry didn’t want and something else it wanted very much.In both cases, the industry got its way, which is good for it but not so good for the rest of us. (Paul Waldman, 12/16)
Washington Examiner: Nancy Pelosi Just Skipped Out On The Obamacare Tab
When Democrats passed Obamacare in 2010, they beat their chests and bragged that the massive raft of mandates, subsidies, regulations, and spending hikes would be “paid for.” Their “pay-fors,” to use the parlance of Capitol Hill, included taxes on health insurers, employers, and the makers of medical devices. If you know how Congress works, you’re not surprised by what’s happening in the bipartisan spending bill set to sail through Congress this week: All three taxes will be repealed, while Congress keeps in place the subsidies, handouts, and spending the taxes supposedly financed. (12/17)
Los Angeles Times: Will L.A. Finally House Homeless Instead Of Shooing Them Away?
The U.S. Supreme Court did the right thing Monday when it refused to reconsider an appeals court decision that homeless people may not be prosecuted for sleeping on public property if there is no other shelter available. In Martin vs. City of Boise, six homeless people had challenged that city’s enforcement of ordinances prohibiting sleeping or camping on public property at night. (12/17)
Boston Globe: I Nearly Died From Vaping
It seemed like food poisoning. All weekend, I lay in bed with such abdominal pain that I cried, moaned, even yelled. It was the worst stomach bug I had experienced in my 40 years. By Sunday, I began to improve. I held down fluids, I ate a banana. But that night I grew sicker. No matter how much water and sports beverage I drank, my mouth dried out and my fever rose. Instead of immersive fever dreams, my dreams were of a single object, receding into the distance, emptiness all around me. (Jeff Rawson, 12/16)
Fox News: NY Times Columnist Is Wrong About Depression And Suicide Rates In Red States
Paul Krugman of The New York Times has posited a theory: Red states cause depression and suicide. In a column titled "America's Red State Death Trip," Krugman wrote: "In 1990, today's red and blue states had almost the same life expectancy. Since then, however, life expectancy in Clinton states has risen more or less in line with other advanced countries, compared with almost no gain in Trump country. At this point, blue-state residents can expect to live more than four years longer than their red-state counterparts." On this basis, Krugman blasts Attorney General William Barr, who suggested this year that militant secularism lies behind rising mortality in the United States. Instead, Krugman suggested that "these evils are concentrated in states that voted for Trump, and have largely bypassed the more secular blue states." (Ben Shapiro, 12/15)
NPR: Obesity Is Linked To Food Insecurity. SNAP Cuts May Make Both Worse
The closest grocery store is a few miles away and your paycheck doesn't clear until Friday. You even skipped lunch. With no car, only a few dollars and kids at home, you decide dinner will have to, yet again, be the local fast-food restaurant within walking distance. It's cost-effective, but you're already bracing for the "healthy weight" conversation at the pediatrician's next month. Over 11% of all households in the United States are food insecure. They worry about running out of food and rationing what they do have. It is clear food insecurity leads to poorer health. (Elsa Pearson, 12/16)
The New York Times: Young Black People Are Killing Themselves
I recently took a panicked call from a friend who’d just received a text from his 22-year-old brother that sounded like a suicide note. “Thank you for all that you’ve done to try to help me,” it read. “Nothing has gone right for me in life. I don’t have a job, any friends or a girlfriend. I hate being alone all the time. I feel like a failure. You and everybody else would be better off without me.” My friend didn’t know what to do, so he called me because I’m a clinical psychologist. (Inger E. Burnett-Zeigler, 12/16)
The Washington Post: Two Women Found Help And Hope At N Street Village
Cheryl knows what a lot of people think of drug addicts. They think you’re stupid because you started and weak because you can’t stop. They stigmatize you. “They call you ‘junkie,’ ” she said. Cheryl, 62, is an alumna of N Street Village, a nonprofit near Logan Circle that helps women who have experienced homelessness and is a partner in The Washington Post Helping Hand. (John Kelly, 12/16)
