Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Viewpoints: DeSantis Wants To Make Doctors' Jobs Even Harder; Ideas To Control Rising Health Care Costs
Miami Herald: DeSantis' Plan To Make Hospitals Ask Patients' Immigration Status Is Dangerous
As someone who has worked for decades leading a healthcare technology and services company, I have seen firsthand the devastation that policies can cause when they target the ability of immigrants to get the healthcare they need — and not only on their health. They also diminish the quality of care available to everyone, whether or now a citizen. (Bill Lucia, 3/20)
The Boston Globe: Health Care Costs Need To Be Contained
A new report from the state’s Center for Health Information and Analysis found that between 2020 and 2021, total health care spending in Massachusetts grew by 9 percent to $67.9 billion, or $9,715 per resident. That reflects an unprecedented drop in health care spending in 2020 due to the COVID-19 lockdown, with utilization bouncing back in 2021 with patients who were sicker after deferring care. (3/20)
Modern Healthcare: Healthcare Leaders Must Realize The Source Of Authentic Service
Much has been studied and written in the past few years about the high levels of burnout and moral injury among healthcare staff. The unfortunate reality threatens our ability to attract, train and retain the number of workers and caliber of talent needed to care for our communities and build our future. (Delvecchio Finley, 3/20)
Stat: Update HealthCare.Gov To Allow For Voter Registration
The last time you renewed your driver’s license, you likely had the opportunity to register to vote at the same time. As former administrators at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services in the Department of Health & Human Services, we believe Americans should have a similarly frictionless opportunity for voter registration when they submit an application for health insurance on HealthCare.gov, the federal government’s online health insurance marketplace. While no legal change is needed to make this a reality, HHS would have to make technical upgrades to the HealthCare.gov platform and workflow. (Andy Slavitt, Don Berwick and Cindy Mann, 3/21)
Stat: Will New Biosecurity Risk Policies Really Make Anyone Safer?
The Covid pandemic exacerbated fear and panic regarding the potential for a future bioterrorism agent. As the lab leak theory continues to cause debate, politicians want to be able to tell their constituents that they are solving the problem by adding more oversight to biological research. But if all they are doing is adding more burden, bureaucracy, and box-checking, is it really making anyone more secure? (Sam Weiss Evans and David Gillum, 3/21)
CNN: We've Been Drinking Dangerous Chemicals For Far Too Long
President Joe Biden pledged to make the toxic “forever chemicals,” also known as per- and polyfluorinated substances, or PFAS, a priority during his campaign. When the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released a proposed drinking water standard for six PFAS compounds last week, he delivered on his promise. As EPA Administrator Michael Reagan said while announcing the new standard, “[c]ommunities across this country have suffered far too long from the ever-present threat of PFAS pollution.” (Scott Faber, 3/20)
