Viewpoints: Big Pharma Should Stop Gearing Up To Fight ‘Medicare For All’; Opioid Epidemic Is Devastating All Communities, Not Just White Ones

Stat: Pharma And Biotech Should Embrace 'Medicare For All,' Not Defeat It
As a growing pantheon of Democratic politicians pledge their support for “Medicare for all” and its variants, the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries are gearing up for an epic and expensive battle to kill these proposals. As someone who has worked at the highest levels of the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries, I think this opposition is a huge mistake. (Jim Tananbaum, 2/27)

The New York Times: The Opioid Crisis Isn’t White
Last April, The Baltimore Sun ran an op-ed essay by a woman in mourning. Her sister, a “middle-class suburban mom,” had become addicted to alcohol and opioids and died. Two years earlier, The Wall Street Journal published the names and photographs of some of the 300,000 Americans who had died of opioid overdoses since the 1990s. Smiling faces stared back at the reader with eyes full of promise. The families of the dead described how their once-vibrant loved ones had fallen into opioid use, how an injury or divorce led to medication, which then spiraled into addiction. In 2016, the NPR podcast “Embedded” told the heartbreaking story of a nurse with three children who hurt her back at work and was soon hooked on opioids. (Abdullah Shihipar, 2/26)

The Hill: 4 Ways Congress Can Enhance Addiction Treatment
We know that each day, 10,000 people around the world die of substance abuse and that addiction affects one in five people over the age of 14. So far, substance use disorders are costing society almost five times the cost of HIV/AIDS and twice as much as cancer. As physicians specializing in addiction treatment, our efforts to serve our patients are best assisted by policies which, as outlined by the American Society of Addiction Medicine, place an emphasis on teaching addiction medicine to increase and strengthen our workforce, standardizing the delivery of addiction medicine and expanding access to high-quality, evidence-based care. (Brent Boyett and Stephen Taylor, 2/26)

The Washington Post: Did ICE Ignore Health And Safety Standards For Jailed Immigrants?
Did Immigration and Customs Enforcement turn a blind eye to abusive conditions confronting thousands of immigrants jailed without being convicted of a crime? Apparently so, according to a report by the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General. Instead of using all the tools available to hold operators of immigrant detention facilities accountable for rampant health and safety violations, ICE did not impose financial penalties when it could have. Agency officials gave operators a pass in many cases by allowing them to avoid inmate facility requirements, the inspector general found. (Joe Davidson, 2/26)

The Hill: Raise The Legal Age For All Tobacco Products To 21
Concerted efforts by political leaders, health officials, educators and manufacturers have driven underage use of conventional tobacco products to historic lows. Unfortunately, from 2017 to 2018, use of e-vapor products among high schoolers increased almost 80 percent and almost 50 percent for middle schoolers. FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb has called this an alarming “epidemic” and said that more must be done. I agree. Now is the time to act. (Howard A. Willard, 2/26)

Stat: Hearing Aids Can Help Many Seniors. Medicare Should Cover Them
When Medicare was signed into law in 1965, it did not include any coverage for hearing aids. They were considered “routinely needed and low in cost” and most Americans didn’t live long enough to actually need them. Even though the costs are now high and the need great, Medicare still doesn’t cover hearing aids. Today, hearing loss affects one-third of adults over the age of 65 and has a significant impact on health. Those experiencing it are at increased risk for depression, loneliness, and dementia, and may become socially isolated. Hearing loss also affects physical health, putting individuals at higher risk for falls and disability and possibly causing functional limitations such as reduced mobility or balance. (Elsa Pearson and Austin Frakt, 2/27)

The Wall Street Journal: My Mother’s Second Childhood 
My mother has lived with Alzheimer’s for almost 10 years. Caring for her has been like raising a child in reverse—every month she does less for herself. That’s heartbreaking. But keeping her with us, instead of in a nursing home, has been more enriching than I imagined. Mom was a 75-year-old widow in Florida when my siblings and I learned of her dementia. We’d flown in for a family vacation and walked into an intervention by her friends. After the vacation, she flew straight to my sister’s home in New York. (Brian Gaffney, 2/26)

Arizona Republic: Phoenix VA Doesn't Need Embedded Congressional Offices To Improve Care
Eliminating the distance between agency decision-making and political pressure, as this proposal does, begins to introduce a patronage system. Health care for veterans shouldn’t have to flow through a congressional office. (Robert Robb, 2/26)

The Hill: Washington State Health Secretary: We're Falling Short On Vaccine-Preventable Diseases
My public health colleagues and I will continue the work we’re doing in our individual states and jurisdictions to raise immunization rates, provide science-based information and answer parents’ questions. But if we’re going to eliminate vaccine-preventable diseases in Washington, New York, Texas, or your home state, we have to see the big picture. That big picture means adequately funding governmental public health — this country’s community prevention system, working globally for our health security, funding our school nurse partners and making public policy that protects our most vulnerable. (John Wiesman, 2/26)

Boston Globe: Small Businesses Are Taking The Rap On Health Care Costs 
When it comes to health care in Massachusetts, there’s good news and bad news. The good news? The state recently announced that individuals who buy health care through the Health Connector, our health care exchange, pay the second lowest premiums in the country. The bad news? According to the Massachusetts Health Policy Commission, small businesses and their employees in the state have the second highest premiums in the country. (Jon B. Hurst, 2/26)

The Salt Lake Tribune: Utah’s Medicaid Reversal Makes Us A Fool Coast-To-Coast
Others have noticed what a foolish thing the Utah Legislature did in rolling back the Medicaid expansion that was approved by the voters in November. (George Pyle, 2/26)