Viewpoints: Gun Purchase Delays Can Prevent Hundreds Of Suicides; Outrageous 6-Week Ban Won’t Stop Abortions

USA Today: Gun Purchase Waiting Periods Can Prevent Hundreds Of Suicides A Year
The Parkland tragedy lit a fire under supporters of gun regulation. Raw emotion quickly turned into calls for action. Student survivor Emma Gonzales addressed a rally three days after the shooting: “They say that tougher gun laws do not decrease gun violence. We call BS!”  This activism resulted in an array of new firearm legislation in Florida, including a three-day waiting period for firearm purchases. But will the waiting period actually reduce gun deaths? Whether waiting periods affect gun violence has immediate policy implications outside of Florida, too. Waiting period laws are being debated in other states, and there is at least one bill in Congress that would adopt a federal waiting period. Evidence supporting some gun regulations is limited or mixed, but our research suggests that firearm purchase delays — including waiting periods — will result in fewer gun deaths, although probably not in the way people might expect. (Griffin Edwards, Erik Nesson, Joshua Robinson and Fredrick Vars, 5/4)

Des Moines Register: Six-Week Ban Won't Stop Abortions. Nor Will Guilt-Tripping Iowa Women.
Over some nine hours Tuesday, Iowa's women were scolded, guilt-tripped and branded as selfish, immoral killers and child abusers if they exercise their constitutional right to get an abortion after a fetal heartbeat can be detected, about six weeks into a pregnancy. And that was by their Republican elected representatives, who proceeded to pass a bill making such abortions illegal except in rare cases. ...“This is the third year I feel compelled to stand on this floor and defend my rights as a woman of childbearing age," said Rep. Abby Finkenauer, D-Dubuque. "You are right now stripping from me, your colleague, her rights." "How dare we think the privacy and decisions of a woman, and her medical choices are up to us to determine?" demanded Rep. Vickie Lensing, D-Iowa City. Remember that saying, "I love humanity. It's people I can't stand"? Many Iowa lawmakers seemed to be telling us they love fetuses unequivocally, but have little use for the women whose wombs they inhabit. (Rekha Basu, 4/3)

Des Moines Register: Fetal Heartbeat Bill Brings Back Memories Of Severely Disabled Child
The “fetal heartbeat” bill, which passed both the Iowa House and the Iowa Senate this week, would ban most abortions after about six weeks into a pregnancy. If signed into law, this would be one of the most restrictive abortion laws in the country. Although some exceptions (and perhaps one would be the disease that affected my son) are provided, this would only add another layer of bureaucracy to a woman’s already difficult choice. The decision to end a pregnancy is a private one and must remain so. It is a decision that does not belong in the purview of the Iowa Legislature. ...I have hesitated writing this column with what is essentially a “pro-choice” message because I am not keen to get the hate mail that this view often engenders. Or in these very angry and divisive times, a response that might be scarier. (Fern Kupfer, 5.4)

The Hill: Trump-Pence Administration Can't Ignore Science — We're Here To Stop Them
Last week, courts sent the Trump-Pence administration a clear message: It can’t ignore science and the needs of young people to push its ideological agenda. Three Planned Parenthood affiliates — including Planned Parenthood of the Great Northwest and the Hawaiian Islands, Planned Parenthood of Greater Washington and North Idaho and Planned Parenthood of the Heartland — filed suit challenging the Trump-Pence administration’s early termination of federal grants that fund comprehensive, evidence-based sex ed, known as the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program (TPPP). (Carole Miller and Rachel Todd, 4/3)

The Washington Post: The Immigrant Doctors Who Saved Ronald Reagan’s Life
The photo instantly takes me back to the 1980s : boxy suits and lank haircuts, and most of all, the big-shouldered man with a broad smile. It’s a picture of President Ronald Reagan thanking the doctors who saved his life, sent to me by a relative. The man shaking Reagan’s hand in the photo was her father, George Morales — an immigrant from Mexico. Thirty-seven years ago, Reagan became the first president to survive being shot while in office. He lived, it is believed, because of the expert care he received at George Washington University Hospital. Less widely known is that every doctor on Reagan’s anesthesia team was foreign-born. (Claudia Kolker, 5/3)

USA Today: Gen Z Is The Loneliest Generation And It's Bigger Than Social Media
One out of five Americans has no person they can talk to. And the loneliest generation? That would be Generation Z, defined in this survey as those 18 to 22. Their average loneliness score is nearly 10 points higher than the least lonely generation — the Greatest Generation, those 72 and older. While it’s tempting to blame Gen Z’s reliance on smartphones and social media, the data don’t bear that out: The survey didn’t find a significant difference in loneliness levels between those who used social media often or infrequently. Given the worrying consequences, the loneliness of Gen Z — and other generations — should be taken seriously. In fact, Cigna, citing a 2010 Brigham Young University study, says “loneliness has the same impact on mortality as smoking 15 cigarettes a day, making it even more dangerous than obesity.” (Katrina Trinko, 5/4)

Stat: Real-World Data Can Help Make Better Drugs And Do It Faster
The beauty of clinical trials is that they provide a standardized approach to developing a medical treatment within carefully prescribed conditions. The downside is that they focus on highly selective, homogenous populations and provide limited outcome measurements. Incorporating real-world data can help overcome these limitations and mitigate risk. That’s why the pharmaceutical industry needs to embrace it more strongly. (Neile Grayson, 5/2)

Stat: Meet Nature's New Editor: She Reads Scientific Papers Like Page-Turners
After 149 years, Nature, one of the top scientific journals in the world, is getting its first editor-in-chief who’s a life scientist. And its first editor-in-chief who’s on Twitter. Magdalena Skipper also happens to be the first editor-in-chief who is a woman. A geneticist by training and a longtime editor at other Nature publications, Skipper will take the helm as the eighth editor-in-chief of the prestigious journal in July. She will replace Philip Campbell, who is moving to a new role as the editor-in-chief at Nature’s publisher, Springer Nature. (Megan Thielking, 5/4)

The Hill: My Remarks On Individual Mandate Repeal Were Taken Completely Out Of Context
The elimination of ObamaCare's individual mandate was a major victory for tens of millions of Americans struggling to pay inflated health-care costs. It has freed them from the mandate of propping up flawed aspects of ObamaCare by subsidizing the coverage costs for others — or paying a stiff fine for opting out.In today's era of "gotcha" politics, my recent remarks before the World Health Congress about the effects of the individual mandate repeal were taken completely out of context. Having made the commonsense observation that absent other reforms, I noted that ObamaCare patients will have to bear more of their own health-care costs as a result. (Tom Price, 5/3)

New England Journal of Medicine: Care For Undocumented Immigrants — Rethinking State Flexibility In Medicaid Waivers
Ever since President Donald Trump took office, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has promised that states would enjoy more flexibility in structuring their Medicaid programs than had been allowed under prior administrations. HHS leadership promised, among other things, to improve access to care and “create innovative programs for the people [states] serve.” Signaling its commitment to flexibility, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) subsequently authorized Medicaid work requirements under section 1115 of the Social Security Act, which allows states to waive certain federal restrictions for Medicaid funding. But for some states, the “people they serve” include millions of undocumented immigrants, many of whom have low incomes and no access to health insurance. How will states navigate an antiimmigration federal policy environment, and how will HHS interpret its promise of state flexibility when proposals include providing coverage for undocumented immigrants. (A. Taylor Kelley and Renuka Tipirneni, 5/3)

USA Today: Calorie Counts On Menus Are Good For Business And Our Health
When I walk into a Starbucks or a Dunkin Donuts these days, the calorie count on my favorite cruller or apple fritter or frappe glares at me across the aisle, and I frequently choose the lower calorie blueberry crumb with a no sugar latte. But the point is that I don’t choose nothing. The idea that knowing what we are eating is somehow bad for business is unproven at best, destructive at worst. Do you want to know how many calories are in your hamburger or pizza or even salad? I do. Consider that we Americans eat and drink one third of all our calories away from home, and this is frequently where we get into the most trouble, especially at fast food chains or pizza joints. A year ago, the Food and Drug Administration, under new leader Scott Gottlieb, delayed implementation for a year of the so-called Menu Labeling rule of the Affordable Care Act. The rule requires that 20 or more locations operating under the same brand offer comprehensive nutrition information to consumers and display easily-seen calorie counts. where they can make a difference in terms of customer choice. The FDA has now decided to take the brakes off and the new rule will go into effect Monday. (Marc Siegel, 5/4)

New England Journal of Medicine: Reform At Risk — Mandating Participation In Alternative Payment Plans
The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation was meant to be the government’s innovation laboratory for health care. But HHS has quietly hobbled the agency, imperiling its ability to generate meaningful data on strategies for reducing spending on Medicare and Medicaid. (Scott Levy, Nicholas Bagley and Rahul Rajkumar, 5/3)

Houston Chronicle: Maternal Mortality Rate In Texas Is Too High
Indeed, it is very good news that after the data were correctly adjusted, Texas’ 2012 maternal mortality rate was corrected from 38.4 deaths per 100,000 live births to 14.6 per 100,000 live births for 2012. But this is hardly cause for celebration. A maternal mortality rate of 14.6 percent is unacceptably high — especially when some of these deaths are possibly preventable. (Rakhi C. Dimino, 5/4)

Wichita Eagle: Kansas’ Vulnerable Children Deserve Best Social Workers
In an editorial last week, The Eagle editorial board began its consideration of a Kansas Department for Children and Families staffing proposal with this statement: “At first glance, it seems a preposterous and careless proposal: Spend $5.4 million to hire 200 unlicensed social workers to investigate reports of child neglect and abuse around Kansas.”The editorial wondered whether the department really “wants neophytes watching over our state’s most vulnerable children.” Despite these rational reservations, the editorial throws caution to the prairie winds and endorses this misguided proposal. While this approach would make a mockery of the concept of protecting vulnerable children in Kansas, it is also an assault on the social work profession and a direct attack on the ability of these professionals to have a voice on how to care for abused or neglected children — and what resources are needed to perform this essential service. (Becky Fast and Sarah Lafrenz, 5/4)

St. Louis Post Dispatch: Missouri Report Is A Good First Step Toward Preventing Opioid Abuse And Addiction
St. Louis County’s prescription drug monitoring program marked its one-year anniversary with data showing that opioids are still vastly overprescribed and that opioid overdose deaths in the region reached a record high last year. The report said that enough painkillers are prescribed in the county for every adult and child to get three pills a month. Although the statistics are grim, there is at least a record of what is prescribed, how often, by whom and for whom. Before the program, there was an information void that prevented policymakers from identifying a major source of the addiction epidemic. The program also issued alerts for nearly 14,000 instances involving someone filling three different prescriptions at three different pharmacies over six months, indicating possible doctor-shopping or drug abuse. (5/3)

Cleveland Plain Dealer: Address Opioid Crisis - Vote Yes
It is not news that the scourge of opioid abuse, made more lethal by the addition of fentanyl and its analogues, is one of the major problems we face in this country. In Ohio, drug overdose deaths rose by nearly a third from 2015 to 2016, the last full year for which data are available. Of the 4,050 unintentional drug overdose deaths in 2016, fentanyl and other synthetic opioids were implicated in more than half. And apart from the toll in human life, the craving for these drugs has spawned an increase in crime that reaches into every village and town. As local law enforcement and social services agencies struggle for solutions, there is one constant: They don't come cheap. But the problem cannot be ignored, and efforts to combat it should be supported. (5/4)