Viewpoints: GOP Needs Plans For Health Care; Kill IPAB; Selling Oil To Pay For Drug Cures

The Wall Street Journal: An ObamaCare-Inspired Rebellion
The long battle over ObamaCare’s subsidies that culminated at the Supreme Court last week has overshadowed a consequential shift in health insurance: toward high-deductible plans that will help put market forces back into medicine. (David Goldhill and Paul Howard, 7/1)

The Wall Street Journal: Tell Us Your Health-Care Plans, GOP Hopefuls
Now more than ever, it is imperative for every Republican presidential candidate to present a concrete plan to replace ObamaCare. The Affordable Care Act remains unpopular: Wednesday’s RealClearPolitics average of polls showed 51.4% disapprove while only 43.6% approve. Voters are more likely to be opposed than are adults overall, and opponents are more fervent than supporters. (Karl Rove, 7/1)

The Wall Street Journal: Killing ObamaCare’s Rationing Board
The Supreme Court has left the ObamaCare demolition job to Republicans, who at least until 2017 will have to chip away at its architecture piecemeal. Last week the House made a good start by voting to kill the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB), aka ObamaCare’s rationing board. Eleven Democrats joined 233 Republicans to abolish IPAB, a 15-member jury of high priests appointed by the President that’s charged with making cost-cutting recommendations for Medicare. (7/1)

Fortune: Obamacare: The Business World's Biggest Disruptor
While the U.S. Supreme Court has removed much of the uncertainty surrounding the future of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the impact of this far-reaching change in U.S. health care financing and delivery will be a complex story unfolding gradually for years to come. The ACA is a huge “disruptive innovation,” to borrow a popular term from the business school literature. Like other disruptive innovations, it will generate winners and losers and have a slew of unforeseen consequences. (Alice M. Rivlin, 6/30)

The Wall Street Journal: Amid Merger Talk, A Look At Health Insurers’ Medicare Business
Discussion is growing about what rumored mergers between health insurance companies could mean for shareholders and the public. Initially, it was Humana exploring acquisitions by Cigna and Aetna. Then UnitedHealthcare approached Aetna. More recently, Aetna made a takeover proposal to Humana and Anthem announced a takeover bid for Cigna that seems to have been rejected. When the Justice Department grapples with these mergers, it can be expected to take into account these companies’ growing Medicare business. (Drew Altman, 7/1)

Politico: Congress’ Bizarre Idea To Pay For Health Care
Now that the Supreme Court has settled the latest challenge to Obamacare, the next big health care news in Washington will likely be the 21st Century Cures Act, a $106.4 billion health care research bill that could come to the House floor in July. How will Congress pay for it? If you haven’t been watching, you’ve missed one of the stranger decisions of the year: the Energy and Commerce committee proposes to sell off 64 million barrels of crude oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. (Larry Goldstein and Lucian Pugliaresi, 7/1)

Los Angeles Times: Supreme Court Should Strike Down Texas' Unnecessary Abortion Law
The Supreme Court's decision Tuesday to allow nearly a dozen Texas abortion clinics to stay open while it considers whether to review an an onerous new antiabortion law was not just a welcome course of action for women in that state. It was also a promising indication that the court is concerned about the burdensome and unnecessary law, which requires clinics to be outfitted as ambulatory surgical centers and doctors to have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals. (7/1)

The Washington Post: California’s Vaccination Bill May Go A Bit Too Far
The right to swing one’s fist ends at the next person’s nose, and — at least according to California legislators — the right not to get vaccinated ends at a statewide measles outbreak. That’s what lawmakers decided last week when they passed a bill mandating vaccinations for schoolchildren, regardless of personal or religious objections. California’s move to increase vaccination rates is welcome, though it may go slightly too far. (7/1)

The New York Times' Opinionator: How To Talk About Dying
Too many people we love had not died in the way they would choose. Too many survivors were left feeling depressed, guilty, uncertain whether they’d done the right thing. The difference between a good death and a hard death often seemed to hinge essentially on whether someone’s wishes were expressed and respected. Whether they’d had a conversation about how they wanted to live toward the end. (Ellen Goodman, 7/1)

Forbes: What Many 65-Year Olds Don't Know About Medicare
You know the old mantra: When you turn 65 you are eligible for Medicare and Social Security. But matters are no longer that simple. And because growing numbers of older Americans are not taking Social Security benefits until past 65, they may be making poor Medicare choices or missing out on some benefits entirely–simply because the government is not telling them they need to actively enroll for health coverage. (Howard Gleckman, 7/1)

JAMA: Strategies To Improve Survival From Cardiac Arrest
Maximizing survival and minimizing disability are fundamental goals of patient care, but a new Institute of Medicine (IOM) report released this month, “Strategies to Improve Cardiac Arrest Survival: A Time to Act,” suggests that the United States is falling short in efforts to improve outcomes from cardiac arrest during the next decade. ... cardiac arrest is not a futile situation: it is a treatable event. Most survivors of cardiac arrest are not neurologically devastated but have long-term health-related quality of life. If advances achieved within some US communities could be implemented nationally, the rate of favorably functional survival from cardiac arrest could substantially improve. (Lance B. Becker, Tom P. Aufderheide and Robert Graham, 7/1)