Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Viewpoints: Detention Centers Are Destroying Immigrants' Health; Think Twice About People Who Are Addicted To Nicotine Before Enacting Total Ban On Vaping
The Hill: Physicians To Trump: Immigration Detention Centers Must Close
On Saturday, Oct. 19, thousands of doctors and medical students will gather on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Donning our white coats, we will stand together to deliver a simple and firm message: Immigration detention centers must close.As physicians who have worked with detained migrants and asylum seekers, we have seen firsthand the harm that detention can have on the physical and mental health and wellbeing of all migrants, especially children and pregnant women. (Katherine McKenzie, Ranit Mishori and Kate Sugarman, 10/14)
Bloomberg: Migrant Children Detained At U.S. Border Need Flu Vaccine
Every child older than six months should get a flu vaccine. That’s according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The American Academy of Pediatrics agrees. The science is clear: Vaccination against flu saves children’s lives.Meanwhile, in the past year three migrant children have died of illnesses related to influenza in U.S. government custody. With flu season here, will the government follow its own recommendations and vaccinate the children in its care? Earlier this year a group of public-health experts asked that question in a letter to lawmakers. U.S. Customs and Border Protection gave its answer: No. (10/11)
Philadelphia Inquirer: Too Many Unanswered Questions About Vaping
One needn’t be an anti-smoking or anti-weed zealot to be concerned about the apparent dangers of vaping electronic cigarette cartridges that have been illicitly modified to deliver THC, the psychoactive ingredient in cannabis. The unregulated addition of THC oils, as well as additives found to be toxic, to the liquid inside commercially manufactured or underground cartridges has been associated with many of the 30 deaths and 1,300 cases of lung injuries nationwide, including many among young people. Fatalities include a Pennsylvania resident and a woman in Northern New Jersey; the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is warning people not to use any THC-infused vaping product, especially those purchased on the street. (10/15)
Stat: Mean Survival Gain Is A Better Metric For Pricing New Cancer Drugs
We need a better measure to resolve the raging debate over the value of new and highly effective cancer therapies compared to their high costs. Over the last two decades, the rise in cancer drug launch prices in the U.S. has quickly surpassed the growth in household incomes. Almost all new cancer drugs that enter the market have price tags higher than $100,000 per year of treatment. Notably in 2017, Kymriah, a chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapy, launched at $475,000 per treatment. Even with negotiated discounts, such a cost poses challenges to anyone responsible for the bill. (Alice Chen and Dana Goldman, 10/14)
Georgia Health News: We Must Fix Federal Drug Discount Program
340B is administered by HRSA within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. HRSA has failed to set proper regulations in order to ensure that this program is used appropriately, rather than being misused by DSH hospital systems. Hospitals are not required to report how the savings are being used within the hospital – allowing that money to go virtually anywhere. (Kim Schofield, 10/14)
Stat: Using CRISPR To Edit Eggs, Sperm, Or Embryos Does Not Save Lives
The startling announcement by He Jiankui almost one year ago that he had created the first genetically modified human beings unleashed a torrent of criticism. It also brought to the surface common misunderstandings — even among scientists and ethicists — that reproductive uses of this genome-modifying tool have therapeutic value, will treat people with genetic disorders, will save lives, and will eradicate disease. None of those are true. (Tina Rulli, 10/15)
Kansas City Star: Clay County Legal Bills Climb In Push To Starve Jail Inmates
Clay County commissioners Luann Ridgeway and Gene Owen have stuck taxpayers with more than $150,000 in legal bills in their bizarre effort to starve Sheriff Paul Vescovo of money for inmate food and health care. That’s just for the billing period covering late July and the month of August. There was no word Monday, a government holiday, on how much more the battle cost taxpayers in September. (10/15)
Charlotte Observer: The Weak Republican Case Against Expanding Medicaid In NC
State Sen. Jim Perry, a Republican from Lenoir County, was appointed to his seat only in January after Sen. Louis Pate resigned because of ill health, but the freshman senator has quickly taken on his party’s most daunting challenge — trying to make the Republicans’ irrational opposition to Medicaid expansion sound reasonable.Perry gets credit for making a new argument. Unfortunately, it’s also the weakest. In a News & Observer op-ed last week, he said Medicaid expansion would be too much of a good thing. He said that’s because “adding hundreds of thousands of additional people to the Medicaid rolls will only further exacerbate the primary care shortage that already exists in the state.” (10/13)
Philadelphia Inquirer: Pennsylvania’s Opioid Crisis Has Made More Grandparents Primary Caregivers. They Need State Support.
All across Pennsylvania, grandparents are stepping up to provide care for their grandchildren as a result of the devastating opioid crisis or other difficult circumstances. Right now, there are currently an estimated 89,000 households statewide where older Pennsylvanians are caring for approximately 100,000 grandchildren.Children who can’t be with their parents are better off both physically and emotionally when they are cared for by their grandparents or other relatives. Having grandparents serve as caregivers eliminates the need for foster care and gives children improved odds of a brighter, healthier, and safer future. (Robert Torres and Bill Johnston-Walsh, 10/14)
