Viewpoints: Fundamental Issues In Play As GOP Crafts Obamacare Alternatives; Expanding Medicare To Solve Problems?

The Wall Street Journal: What If GOP Alternatives To Obamacare Cover Fewer People–And That’s Not A Flaw?
Republican lawmakers crafting alternatives to Obamacare face a fundamental decision: whether to focus on expanding coverage or containing costs. Their choice may be driven, at least in part, by budget scorekeepers. The Congressional Budget Office released a report in December 2008 on key issues in analyzing major health-care proposals. Included was a chart projecting individuals’ willingness to enroll in health insurance at various levels of subsidy (in technical terms, an elasticity curve). That curve suggested that insurance enrollment would remain below 40% until subsidies reached 70% of cost and that even if costs were 100% subsidized, about a fifth of individuals would decline to enroll. (And that level of subsidy is probably much greater than many Republicans would be willing to offer.) (Chris Jacobs, 6/1)

Modern Healthcare: New Health Reform Bill Shows Why Republicans Struggle With Replacing Obamacare
Sweeping new legislation unveiled by two congressional Republicans to partly repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act highlights the formidable political and policy challenges the GOP faces in taking on a law that has significantly expanded coverage and made popular changes in insurance practices. ... With most Republicans demanding total repeal of the ACA, what's unusual is that the bill would allow people in ACA exchange plans to keep their plans and premium subsidies or switch to a new system under which everyone is eligible to receive a $2,500 per person refundable tax credit for buying coverage. (Harris Meyer, 5/31)

The New York Times: Expanding Medicare Would Solve Some Problems, Create New Ones
In 1998, President Bill Clinton suggested a partial solution to help millions of Americans without health insurance: The country should let those 55 and older without employer coverage buy into the government Medicare system. A few weeks ago, Hillary Clinton brought the idea back. It’s a proposal she’s talked about before: It was part of her 2000 Senate campaign platform and an option she mentioned for health insurance expansion when she ran for president in 2008. But a lot has changed with the passage of the Affordable Care Act, leading several health policy experts to wonder whether a Medicare buy-in would be a welcome new option, or a confounding misfit. (Margot Sanger-Katz, 6/2)

Bloomberg: Obamacare, Executive Power And The Rule Of Law
A few weeks back, I noted that a judge had ruled against the Obama administration in a dispute over health-insurance subsidies. Some background: Obamacare makes insurers reduce out of pocket costs, like deductibles, to low-income people who purchase qualifying plans; the government is supposed to reimburse the companies directly. However, Congress didn’t appropriate any money to pay for these subsidies. When the administration went ahead and paid the insurers anyway -- distributing about $7 billion without congressional approval -- House lawmakers sued. (Megan McArdle, 6/1)

The Wall Street Journal: Why Clinton Should Fear ObamaCare
Will ObamaCare be a top issue in this fall’s presidential and congressional campaigns? Republicans better make it one if they want to prevail. The continuing unpopularity of President Obama’s signature domestic achievement gives Republicans an enormous opportunity. Only 39.2% of Americans favor ObamaCare in the Real Clear Politics average of recent polls; nearly half, 48.8%, oppose it. There’s also a sharp partisan divide that benefits the GOP: While 78% of Democrats approve of ObamaCare, according to an April survey from the Pew Research Center, 58% of independents and 89% of Republicans disapprove of it. (Karl Rove, 6/1)

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Sen. Roy Blunt Can't Have It Both Ways On Veterans Issues
It’s nothing new to hear politicians talk out of both sides of their mouths, but it is unusual to be caught as blatantly as Missouri’s junior senator was recently. Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., joined the drumbeat of those calling for the resignation of Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert McDonald after he compared waiting lines at VA hospitals with those at Disney theme parks. No question it was a callous and tone-deaf comment, for which McDonald later apologized. But Blunt’s hypocrisy in calling for McDonald’s resignation is galling when you consider his record on caring for veterans. (6/1)

Los Angeles Times: Forbes Cuts Estimated Wealth Of 'Billionaire' Theranos Founder To $0
Forbes, the publisher of seemingly countless lists of the world’s billionaires, is patting itself on the back for seeing through the hype about the blood-testing company Theranos and its glamorous 32-year-old founder, Elizabeth Holmes. In connection with the release Wednesday of its second annual list of America’s richest self-made women, it cut the estimate of Holmes’ net worth from $4.5 billion—the tally that placed her at the very summit of the list last year – to zero. In doing so, however, Forbes unwittingly exposed the essential fatuousness of such lists.The question Forbes should answer is how Holmes got listed in the first place. (Michael Hiltzik, 6/1)

The New York Times: Hustling Dollars For Public Health
On Tuesday, a woman infected with the Zika virus gave birth to a girl with microcephaly, a malformed head, in New Jersey. Federal officials say there are more than 300 pregnant women possibly infected with Zika around the country. Yet every time an emergency like this happens, public health officials must go begging bowl in hand to Congress for the funds to deal with it. And as the current squabble between Republicans and President Obama over money for the Zika virus shows, there’s no guarantee of significant or even timely relief. The obvious answer is to establish a permanent pool of money that federal health authorities can tap into quickly, much like the disaster relief fund that enables the Federal Emergency Management Agency to respond quickly to hurricanes and other natural disasters. (6/2)

The Charlotte Observer: A Lesson From Prince? Addiction Is A Disease, Not A Personal Failure
I have followed news of Prince’s death this spring with a mix of anger and insight. While the cause is still under investigation, officials suspect prescription drugs played a role; authorities found opioid medication on him when he died and in his Minnesota home. From my experience as a doctor specializing in treating those addicted to such pain medications, I believe it likely he was taking more and more of these medications because of withdrawal symptoms until he overdosed and died. I hope his death inspires people to look at how we treat those with addictions, as much as his music inspired them in life. (Lee Tannenbaum, 6/1)

Seattle Times: A Feeding Cup Designed By A Seattle Team Is A Lifesaver
CAN a Nobel Prize be awarded for a reusable cup to feed breast milk to newborn and premature babies who are having trouble with breast-feeding? Why not? Such venerated recognition would be wholly appropriate. The transformative invention is the result of a collaboration of Seattle talent and a nonprofit Norwegian-based firm that specializes in global-health technologies. (6/1)

JAMA: Sodium Reduction—Saving Lives by Putting Choice Into Consumers’ Hands
Although sodium reduction has been proposed as a public health strategy in the United States for more than 4 decades, there has been no progress reducing consumption. One reason for this lack of progress is the continued ubiquity of dietary sodium in the US food supply. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has released draft proposed voluntary guidelines to encourage companies to steadily reduce sodium in processed and restaurant foods, a change that would increase consumers’ control over their sodium intake. The proposed guidelines set targets for the gradual reduction in sodium across a range of food categories for both manufactured and restaurant products and would lead to a sustained reduction in the amount of sodium added to the food supply before foods reach consumers’ hands. (Thomas R. Frieden, 6/1)