Viewpoints: Boehner, McConnell Renew ‘Commitment To Repeal Obamacare’; Will GOP Keep Vow On Medicare?
A selection of opinions on health care from around the country.
The Wall Street Journal:
Now We Can Get Congress Going
Americans have entrusted Republicans with control of both the House and Senate. We are humbled by this opportunity to help struggling middle-class Americans .... Looking ahead to the next Congress, we will honor the voters’ trust by focusing, first, on jobs and the economy. Among other things, that means a renewed effort to debate and vote on the many bills that passed the Republican-led House in recent years with bipartisan support, but were never even brought to a vote by the Democratic Senate majority. It also means renewing our commitment to repeal ObamaCare, which is hurting the job market along with Americans’ health care.(Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., 11/5)
The Wall Street Journal:
Republicans Won Big, So Now Go Big
There must be a measure repealing ObamaCare, even though the president’s veto will be sustained. Republicans should respond to a veto with regret, not fury, and with bills that kill some of ObamaCare’s onerous provisions, like those that cause people to lose their plans or doctors. These should be coupled with reforms that push health care toward the patient-centered model Republicans prefer. Some Democrats will support these ideas and there is a limit to how often Mr. Obama can wield his veto without becoming the President of No. (Karl Rove, 11/5)
The New York Times:
Mr. Obama’s Offer To Republicans
President Obama refused on Wednesday to submit to the Republican narrative that his presidency effectively ended with the midterm elections. He said he will not agree to the repeal of health care reform, as many Republicans demand. He will not sit around doing nothing while they look for the courage to enact immigration reform. He will continue to demand a higher minimum wage and new spending on public works, and expansion of early education programs. (11/5)
The Washington Post:
The First Steps Republicans Should Take
Unlike the dog that chased the car until, to its consternation, he caught it, Republicans know what to do with what they have caught. ... Repeal the Independent Payment Advisory Board. This expression of the progressive mind is an artifact of the Affordable Care Act and may be the most anti-constitutional measure ever enacted. ... Repeal the Affordable Care Act’s tax on medical devices. This $29 billion blow to an industry that provides more than 400,000 jobs is levied not on firms’ profits but on gross revenues, and it comes on top of the federal (the developed world’s highest) corporate income tax, plus state and local taxes. (George F. Will, 11/5)
Los Angeles Times:
The GOP Sucked Up To The Middle Class -- But Will It Deliver?
Will Saletan at Slate puts his finger on a fascinating development in the 2014 election: A slew of Republican Senate and House candidates ran on Democratic themes. These included poverty relief, black unemployment, equal pay for women, dismal middle-class economics, income inequality and the protection of Social Security and Medicare. Saletan's right about that. These themes cropped up in GOP campaigns in the Deep South, the Midwest and on both coasts. (Michael Hiltzik, 11/5)
The Philadelphia Inquirer:
A 'Fresh Start' On Health Care Starts With Rejecting Corbett's Healthy PA Plan
Tom Wolf made history this week, as the first challenger to defeat an incumbent Pennsylvania Governor seeking a second term. Promising a “fresh start” for Pennsylvania, Wolf picked up 55% of the vote to Corbett’s 45. That means a clear majority of Pennsylvania voters think it’s time to put Governor Corbett’s policies in the past and move forward in a new direction. On health care, we at the Pennsylvania Health Access Network couldn’t agree more. (Antoinette Kraus, 11/5)
Los Angeles Times:
On California Initiatives, Money Talked, The Public Interest Walked
It was obvious from the start that the cascade of corporate cash into ballot initiative campaigns in California this year would be overwhelming. The reality did not disappoint. That reality had to please the biggest spenders, notably the insurance companies and agents who defeated propositions 45 and 46, two pro-consumer healthcare measures. The industries spent some $100 million to kill the propositions, and they have a right to consider it well-spent. (Michael Hiltzik, 11/5)
California Healthline:
An Election Night Murder-Mystery: What Killed Prop. 45?
Back in June, more than 60% of Californians supported it. But on Tuesday night, more than 60% of Californians voted against it. What went wrong with Proposition 45, the once popular rate-review ballot initiative? ... Prop. 45 had several high-profile champions. The measure was introduced by Consumer Watchdog and backed by insurance commissioner Dave Jones (D). The commissioner's support was unsurprising, given that Prop. 45 was intended to give Jones the power to veto excessive rate hikes by health insurers. (Currently, the Department of Insurance can review proposed rates but cannot deny them.) (Dan Diamond, 11/5)
Los Angeles Times:
Why Women Need More Science With Their Breast Cancer Survival Stories
October was National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Football players took to the field in splashes of pink, and women's magazines featured celebrity survivors such as Suzanne Somers and Sheryl Crow, smiling alongside headlines attributing breast cancer survival to an upbeat attitude, personal fortitude and a conscientious shift toward a more healthful lifestyle. You have to applaud the willingness of these survivors to raise awareness of the disease. As a 20-year survivor myself, I recognize that such stories can be empowering. But given current scientific research on the disease, I also know that dispensing knowledge about breast cancer based on individual, anecdotal stories alone isn't nearly enough. (Cynthia Ryan, 11/5)
The New York Times:
An Epidemic Of Thyroid Cancer?
Historically, the science of epidemiology was directed toward identifying and controlling epidemics of infectious disease. In a study just published in the New England Journal of Medicine, my colleagues and I highlight another important job for epidemiologists: identifying and controlling epidemics of medical care. (H. Gilbert Welch, 11/5)
The New England Journal of Medicine:
Panic, Paranoia, And Public Health — The AIDS Epidemic's Lessons For Ebola
For those of us who lived through the early days of the U.S. AIDS epidemic, the current national panic over Ebola brings back some very bad memories. The toxic mix of scientific ignorance and paranoia on display in the reaction to the return of health care workers from the front lines of the fight against Ebola in West Africa, the amplification of these reactions by politicians and the media, and the fear-driven suspicion and shunning of whole classes of people are all reminiscent of the response to the emergence of AIDS in the 1980s. (Gregg Gonsalves and Peter Staley, 11/5)
