Viewpoints: End The Shameful Maternal Mortality Increase Among Black Women; Red States Aim To Overturn Roe V. Wade

The New York Times: Easing The Dangers Of Childbirth For Black Women
The rate of maternal mortality in the United States, already higher than in other wealthy countries, has risen by more than half since 1990. The grim increase is largely because of alarmingly high rates among black women, who nationally are three times as likely to die in pregnancy or childbirth as white women. (4/20)

The Washington Post: D.C.’s Maternal Mortality Rate Is At Crisis Proportions
At 29, she was pregnant with twins. She had no health insurance. Though she’d had complications with a previous pregnancy, she received no prenatal care until late in her second trimester. Diagnosed with gestational diabetes, she had a Caesarean section at 34 weeks but after giving birth suffered a seizure and died. Another woman, 20, tested positive on a home pregnancy kit but didn’t seek care. When she began to experience severe abdominal pain, she went to a clinic and was found to have an ectopic pregnancy. While arrangements were being made for surgery, her blood pressure dropped and she lost consciousness. She also died. The cases, recounted by a Planned Parenthood doctor at a D.C. Council hearing, highlight the national problem of maternal mortality, which has taken on crisis proportions in the District. About 41 women in the District die for every 100,000 live births, according to a 2016 analysis by the United Health Foundation. (4/21)

Boston Globe: The Red-State War On Abortion Rights
A bill passed by the Iowa state Senate last month marks the latest skirmish in the right-wing war on abortion rights in this country. The Republican-controlled body approved legislation that would ban abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected — as early as six weeks into a pregnancy. ... Iowa isn’t alone in this red-state march to block a woman’s right to choose a safe and legal abortion. GOP lawmakers have also passed heartbeat bans in Arkansas and North Dakota — fortunately, federal courts blocked the laws in both states, and the US Supreme Court declined to hear appeals. (It’s also worth noting the alarming shortage of available clinics. One of the plaintiffs in the 2015 case in North Dakota, the Red River Women’s Clinic, was the sole abortion provider in the entire state.) Earlier this year, Mississippi passed a 15-week ban. (4/23)

Seattle Times: Keep Fighting For Health Insurance For All
The Trump Administration has found yet another way to undermine the Affordable Care Act and the individual health insurance market. Lucky for Washington consumers, Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler has their backs. Kreidler is protecting consumers against the Trump Administration’s ill-conceived attempt to allow Americans to sidestep the requirements of the ACA and sign up for short-term medical plans without the protections codified in Obamacare. (4/22)

The Wall Street Journal: Killing An ObamaCare Alternative
The Trump Administration has been looking for lifeboats for Americans trapped in ObamaCare exchanges, and one project is to expand “association health plans,” or AHPs, that let employers team up to offer coverage. But the fine print in the proposed Labor Department rule is causing concern and needs to be cleaned up. The issue is whether the Trump rule will let association health plans set prices based on risk, which is how insurance is supposed to work. The point of the rule is to let businesses enjoy the flexibility that large employers have under a law known as Erisa. Under the Affordable Care Act bigger businesses have fared much better than those stuck in the small group market, which is heavily regulated. (4/22)

The Washington Post: Doctors Are Scrambling To Deal With A New World Of Telemedicine
For years, doctors have been told to look at the patient — not the computer — when providing medical care. What we haven’t been told is what to do when there’s only a computer. Telemedicine is perhaps the most rapidly evolving area in health care. About 15 million Americans receive some form of remote medical care every year. Investment in on-demand health-care services is estimated at $1 billion annually, according to Accenture Consulting. Kaiser Permanente, the nation’s largest integrated delivery system, provides more visits virtually than it does in person. (Dhruv Khullar, 4/22)

The New York Times: An Opioid Crisis Foretold
One of the more distressing truths of America’s opioid epidemic, which now kills tens of thousands of people every year, is that it isn’t the first such crisis. Across the 19th and 20th centuries, the United States, China and other countries saw drug abuse surge as opium and morphine were used widely as recreational drugs and medicine. In the West, doctors administered morphine liberally to their patients, while families used laudanum, an opium tincture, as a cure-all, including for pacifying colicky children. In China, many millions of people were hooked on smoking opium. In the mid-1800s, the British went into battle twice — bombing forts and killing thousands of civilians and soldiers alike — to keep the Chinese market open to drug imports in what would become known as the Opium Wars. (4/21)

Modern Healthcare: A Strategy For Combating Opioid Addiction
Everyone in Washington agrees bold action to combat the opioid epidemic is long overdue. Yet the legislation advancing in Congress barely qualifies as a start. The bipartisan Opioid Crisis Response Act, sponsored by Sens. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and Patty Murray (D-Wash.), would spend a paltry $6 billion over two years in more than two dozen programs. They include more support for research on non-addictive pain relievers; better FDA oversight of pain pill prescribing; and the creation of comprehensive opioid abuse recovery centers in targeted communities. Most are worthy projects. But therein lies the problem. Entirely absent from the bill, besides enough money, is a comprehensive strategy for combating substance abuse. (Merrill Goozner, 4/21)

Bloomberg: Pot Legalization Picking Up Steam, Just in Time
OK, I was wrong. Back in November, I wrote an item explaining all the reasons it wasn't surprising that marijuana legalization wasn't a popular policy position despite polls showing a massive voter shift in favor of it. About five minutes after I wrote that one, Democrats started aligning themselves more and more with legalization. It's even bipartisan: Former Republican Speaker John Boehner joined in, and Colorado Republican Senator Cory Gardner successfully pushed the Donald Trump administration to leave his state and other legalization states alone. And Thursday, Senate Democratic Minority Leader Chuck Schumer joined them. (Jonathan Bernstein, 4/20)

The Hill: The E. Coli Outbreak Doesn't Surprise Me
The news has been flooded recently with stories about contaminated food items, recalls and a host of infections we’re all at risk of getting. Two million eggs were pulled from shelves last week because of a salmonella outbreak, putting the country on edge over their favorite breakfast staple. Then this week an E. coli outbreak tied to romaine lettuce made headlines. As of now, this infectious outbreak has been isolated to 16 states across the country. Close to 60 people have become ill according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Thankfully, as of today, there have been no fatalities. (Joseph Galati, 4/21)

The Wall Street Journal: In The War On Cancer, Truth Becomes A Casualty
If you live in a major U.S. media market, you’ve probably seen the cocksure television spots from Houston-based MD Anderson Cancer Center. From the marquee ad in the series, which premiered in 2015: Patient (addressing cancer): “You try to take everyone.” Doctor: “But I wont let you.” Second doctor: “We will stop you . . .”Patient: “My dad will survive you.” Several doctors: “We’re an army, thousands strong . . . and cancer, you’re going to lose.'' No asterisks. No cleverly parsed disclaimers. The Anderson advertisement says, simply: Come to us and you will beat cancer. The word “cancer” in the company’s logo is even rendered in red strike-through to reinforce the triumphant aura. (Steve Salerno, 4/20)

Stat: Combination Immunotherapy May Have Failed In A Trial, But It's Here To Stay
The failure of Incyte’s Phase 3 clinical trial of epacadostat combined with Keytruda, Merck’s breakthrough checkpoint inhibitor, for people newly diagnosed with melanoma was a big disappointment to the companies, the pharmaceutical industry, and patients. This negative trial prompted some to question whether combination immunotherapies have a future. Not me. I believe that immunotherapy and combination therapy are here to stay. (Raymond J. Tesi, 4/23)

The New York Times: What Hospitals Can Teach The Police
When a police officer in Cambridge, Mass., punched a black male Harvard student in the stomach multiple times while subduing him this month, the nation was reminded yet again of how quickly confrontations between the police and civilians can intensify beyond what the situation seems to call for. (The student was naked in public and apparently behaving erratically.) Much of the recent conversation about police violence in the United States has focused — quite rightly — on concerns about racism and the flagrant abuse of power. (Douglas Starr, 4/21)

The Detroit News: House Should Ease Medicaid Work Rules
Michigan needs more workers to fill the jobs now vacant in its expanding economy. And it needs fewer residents collecting Medicaid benefits, if it is to keep that program solvent for those truly in need. Both goals can be accomplished with a reasonable version of the Medicaid work requirement bill moving through the Legislature. But it must be the right version, and the bill passed by the Senate last week is not the one. (4/21)

Columbus Dispatch: Ballot Can Cure Legislative Inaction On Guns
Among nations, only the United States makes it easy for criminals and the deranged to buy all types of weapons with practically unlimited firepower. Ohio is not among the 19 states (and the District of Columbia) that require universal background checks. The Ohio General Assembly shows no interest in the subject. That being the case, gun-safety advocates should take the steps necessary to qualify such an issue for the statewide ballot, either in November 2018 or November 2020. If carefully crafted, it almost certainly would win approval. In November 2016, voters in California, Nevada and Washington approved initiatives to prohibit any transfer of a firearm without a background check. A similar initiative failed narrowly in Maine. (4/23)

The New York Times: California, Coffee And Cancer: One Of These Doesn’t Belong
About two-thirds of smokers will die early from cigarette-based illnesses. Cigarettes are also very addictive. Because of this, it seems reasonable to place warnings on their labels. If a Los Angeles Superior Court judge has his way, California businesses will have to put similar warnings on something else that can be addictive, coffee. His ruling, which is being challenged by coffee producers, is harder to justify in terms of health — if it can be justified at all. (Aaron E. Carroll, 4/23)

Arizona Republic: NRA Support Proves Ducey’s School Safety Plan Is A Joke
Sometimes, an endorsement of a political proposal is the best evidence that the proposal is a joke.Case in point:The National Rifle Association has endorsed Gov. Doug Ducey’s plan to improve school safety.Republican lawmakers gleefully announced the NRA’s support.As I’ve said before, Ducey’s plan is not nothing.Not nothing. But next to nothing. But it is next to nothing. That is not enough to deal with our gun violence problem but is plenty enough to satisfy the NRA. It adds officers to schools and a few other things, but it doesn’t deal with Arizona’s gun-show loophole, which allows any private citizen to sell a weapon to another private citizen without a background check. If there is no universal background check there is no real protection. (EJ Montini, 4/21)