Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Viewpoints: Congress Could Learn From Mark Cuban's Drug Company; US Health Insurance Is Absurd
The Washington Post: Medicare Could Have Saved $3 Billion Buying Drugs The Mark Cuban Way
Many of our patients struggle to afford their medicines, and it’s agonizing to have a front-row seat to this injustice. Despite politicians’ frequent promises to lower drug prices, Congress has failed to pass any meaningful reforms in decades. As different states experiment with their own solutions, one approach spearheaded by Mark Cuban, the billionaire owner of the Dallas Mavericks, has attracted growing attention. (Hussain S. Lalani, Benjamin N. Rome and Aaron S. Kesselheim, 7/7)
The New York Times: What’s Wrong With Health Insurance? Deductibles Are Ridiculous, for Starters
More than 100 million Americans have medical debt, according to a recent Kaiser Health News-NPR investigation. And about a quarter of American adults with this debt owe more than $5,000. This isn’t because they’re uninsured. More often, it’s because they’re underinsured. (Aaron E. Carroll, 7/7)
The New York Times: These New Breastfeeding Guidelines Ignore The Reality Of Many American Moms
Last week, the American Academy of Pediatrics released an updated policy statement on breastfeeding that suggested increasing the duration of breastfeeding to two years or more from one year or more. As my Times colleague Catherine Pearson explained, this is the first update to the breastfeeding recommendations in a decade. (Jessica Grose, 7/6)
Modern Healthcare: Healthcare Leaders, Let Your Voices Be Heard
The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent rulings are creating fundamental, swift changes in how healthcare is delivered in this country and how the industry will operate. We won’t know for some time just how seismic those shifts will be. (Mary Ellen Podmolik, 7/5)
Houston Chronicle: Shootings Aren't Inevitable. Imagine Mental Health In The DNA Of Our Schools
“There are no words.” That grief-stricken statement echoed throughout the world as yet another mass shooter ripped apart a community, this time in Chicago on our nation’s birthday, July 4, 2022. It had been just six weeks since our country suffered an elementary school shooting in Texas that echoed the Sandy Hook tragedy in 2012. (Patricia Gail Bray and Wendy Ward, 7/7)
Stat: Nonprofit Hospitals' Tax Breaks Should Focus On True Community Aid
Nonprofit hospitals in the U.S. are exempt from most taxes. To earn this status, they are supposed to engage in activities that benefit their communities, such as providing free care to uninsured people or programs to improve neighborhood health. For many, though, their real community contributions fall far short of the tax breaks they receive. (Judith Garber and Vikas Saini, 7/7)
The Mercury News: Young Doctors Struggle With Navigating Human Suffering
I am a resident physician, a brand-new doctor. I am just beginning my residency training. The process of becoming a doctor is long and tedious and involves a tremendous amount of work and dogged commitment. We complete undergraduate education, four years of medical school, and three to five years of residency. The hardest part, though, is not academics or occupational stamina — but rather developing a personal and professional identity as you bear witness to the suffering of your fellow man. (Kathryn Tabor, 7/6)
Stat: Hospitals And For-Profit PBMs Are Diverting Billions In 340B Savings
America’s economically disadvantaged patients can point in two directions when talking about what is wrong with the 340B Drug Pricing Program, which is designed to help hospitals caring for underserved communities — and the patients they treat — keep necessary medicines reasonably priced: large supposedly “nonprofit” hospitals and for-profit pharmacy benefit managers that serve as 340B contract pharmacies, which together divert billions of dollars in savings that should be helping patients in need. (Ted Okon, 7/7)
