Viewpoints: Fixing Medicare; Promises To Vets Broken; Ohio’s Medicaid Problems
A selection of opinions on health care from around the country.
The Hill:
The Best Sustainable Growth Rate Fix Is A Medicare Fix
On April 1, Medicare physicians will get a 21 percent pay cut, unless Congress stops its own Medicare payment formula from going into effect — for the 18th time. If this seems absurd, well, it is. The annual Medicare physician payment and funding crisis can't be resolved simply by throwing money at it. It must be fixed in a fiscally responsible fashion. In fact, the proper topic of debate should be less about the "doc fix"; it really ought to focus on producing a Medicare fix. We've come to this deadline every year for two decades because Congress refuses to reform Medicare. (Robert E. Moffit, 3/13)
The Wall Street Journal:
Breaking Another Promise To Veterans
Last August President Obama signed the Veterans Access, Choice and Accountability Act, the most significant reform to the Department of Veterans Affairs in decades. Seven months later, the Veterans Choice Program, a core part of the law designed to help veterans see private doctors, is floundering. Yet instead of fixing the many problems, the Obama administration is using them as an excuse to divert funding from the program. (Pete Hegseth, 3/12)
The Wall Street Journal:
Why Not 50 Different Affordable Health-Care Plans?
If the Supreme Court in King v. Burwell strikes down subsidies to the buyers of health insurance on the federal exchange, President Obama will call on Congress to change the law to allow the subsidies. There also will be enormous pressure on elected officials to establish state exchanges in the 34 states that don’t have them. Instead, congressional Republicans should be laying the groundwork for market-friendly health reforms and devolving power to the states, meanwhile helping Americans who have difficulty purchasing coverage made unaffordable by the Affordable Care Act. The seeds of far-reaching reform already exist in an obscure provision of the law. (Lanhee J. Chen, 3/12)
Toledo Blade:
Ohio’s Medicaid Mess
More than 60,000 poor Ohioans lost their Medicaid health-care coverage last month because they failed to take required steps to renew their benefits. The system has safeguards to mitigate the damage, such as retroactive coverage and 90-day renewal periods. But the state Department of Medicaid must act now to prevent mass expulsions that could risk the health and well-being of tens of thousands of Ohio residents. (3/13)
Bloomberg:
Control Costs, Boost Growth
Everyone knows by now that the American health care system is overpriced. We get about the same health outcomes as people in Europe and Asia, but we pay about twice the price. However you measure productivity, the U.S. health-care system comes out looking pretty bad. ... Government subsidizes health care through Medicare, Medicaid and a host of other programs, and also by the tax break on employer-provided health insurance. But its power to negotiate lower prices is constrained. (Noah Smith, 3/12)
Los Angeles Times:
Picking A Preschool Is Hard Enough Without Having To Worry About Vaccination
Finding a preschool might seem at first like just another routine chore of parenthood, another box to check off right about the time your kid turns 2 or 3. But the process is actually quite arduous, with everything from cost (can you afford a second mortgage?) to the guilt caused by leaving your child in the care of a stranger (with extensive training, to be sure) conspiring to make even the most career-oriented parents reconsider the virtues of single-income living. (Susan Rohwer, 3/12)
JAMA:
Ethical Implications Of Patients And Families Secretly Recording Conversations With Physicians
When a conversation is recorded without a physician’s consent, the nature of the relationship between patient and physician can change. Physicians who suspect secret recordings or learn of them after the fact may believe that their perceived right to consent to recordings has been violated. They may feel vulnerable because of the one-sided protections conferred by law to patient-physician communications. This can threaten the integrity of an existing patient-physician relationship and predispose a physician to assume a posture of distrust toward future patients. (Michelle Rodriguez, Jason Morrow and Ali Seifi, 3/12)
