Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Viewpoints: Here's Hoping Trump Finally Shows Care For Veterans' Health; GOP's War On The Poor Expands
The Washington Post: Our Veterans Require Great Care. Trump Hasn’t Shown Any.
“We will take care of our great veterans like they have never been taken care of before.” That promise from Donald Trump after he won his party’s presidential nomination is worth revisiting in light of the debacle (completely of President Trump’s own making) that surrounded the nomination, and subsequent withdrawal from consideration, of White House physician Ronny L. Jackson as veterans affairs secretary. Facing — for the third time in his presidency — the question of who should lead this critical agency, Mr. Trump needs to recall what is paramount: the welfare of the men and women who have selflessly served their country. (4/26)
The Wall Street Journal: The Character Assassination Of Ronny Jackson
Attacking the character of presidential nominees is among Washington’s favorite sports. But by creating and distributing a compilation of anonymous smears against White House physician Dr. Ronny Jackson, Montana Democrat Sen. Jon Tester appears to be setting a new Beltway record for unsportsmanlike conduct. Today Dr. Jackson, a rear admiral in the U.S. Navy, withdrew from consideration to be Secretary of Veterans Affairs. This followed Mr. Tester’s unique contribution to public discourse and civility—a collection of unsourced and unverified claims that the man lauded and trusted by Presidents of both parties is in fact a reckless, dishonest, mean-spirited drunk. (James Freeman, 4/26)
The New York Times: Trump’s War On The Poor
America hasn’t always, or even usually, been governed by the best and the brightest; over the years, presidents have employed plenty of knaves and fools. ...This year, however, the G.O.P.’s main priority seems to be making war on the poor. That war is being fought on multiple fronts. The move to slash housing subsidies follows moves to sharply increase work requirements for those seeking food stamps. Meanwhile, the administration has been granting Republican-controlled states waivers allowing them to impose onerous new work requirements for recipients of Medicaid — requirements whose main effect would probably be not more work, but simply fewer people getting essential health care. (Paul Krugman, 4/26)
The Detroit News: Reform Welfare For Able-Bodied
Michigan is experiencing the longest sustained period of job growth since World War II, but you wouldn’t know it from the number of work-capable people on food assistance. Despite significantly lower unemployment, more residents receive food assistance today than in 2008. Back then, the unemployment rate was 8.4 percent and 12.9 percent of the state received Food Assistance Program (FAP) payments. Now, the unemployment rate has plunged to 4.7 percent, yet 13.4 percent of the population still claims FAP benefits. Part of this is due to a loophole in federal law that allows Michigan to exempt large numbers of able-bodied adults from welfare work requirements, even if they have no dependents. Amid a roaring recovery, the state is enabling adults fully capable of working to instead sit on the sidelines and out of the labor force. (Mimi Teixeira, 4/26)
USA Today: Paying For Health Care In Retirement Is Expensive. Here's How To Plan
Retirement and health care are intricately linked, though Americans often don't think of them in the same context. And just as many people are behind in accumulating the money needed to pay for a comfortable retirement, plenty are falling short in estimating and preparing for out-of-pocket health-related expenses. (Russ Wiles, 4/26)
The Detroit News: Vaccines Can Save Childrens’ Lives
As parents, we do everything in our power to protect our children. When we consider all the ways we keep our children safe, immunization may not always be top of mind. In reality, it’s one of the most important things you can do to protect your child, from the moment they are born through their teens and into adulthood. In fact, for kids born between 1994 and 2016, vaccines will prevent an estimated 855,000 deaths in their lifetimes. (Veronica McNally, 4/25)
WBUR: Defending Hospitals Against Life-Threatening Cyberattacks
Protecting hospitals’ computer networks is crucial to preserving patient privacy -- and even life itself. Yet recent research shows that the health care industry lags behind other industries in securing its data. (Mohammed Jalali, 4/26)
The Washington Post: Robert Redford: The Biggest Scott Pruitt Scandal Is The One Right In Front Of Us
(Scott) Pruitt has become a one-man public-health risk to the air we breathe, the water we drink and the food we eat. From day one, he has worked to gut the EPA and hamstring its ability to protect the environment and public health. He works on behalf of the fossil-fuel industry and other industrial polluters, not the American people. That’s the greatest scandal — and the reason, first and foremost, he’s got to go. (Robert Redford, 4/26)
Des Moines Register: Before Environment Was A Partisan Issue, Ding Darling, Ray Led The Way
"As land goes, so goes man," says a cartoon by the late Des Moines Register cartoonist Ding Darling. About a century later, his warnings about environmental degradation feel more urgent than ever. Our soil is eroding because of a lack of land stewardship and a monoculture of corn instead of healthy biodiversity. Our waterways are tainted by runoff from phosphorus and nitrogen from livestock confinements. (Rekha Basu, 4/26)
Seattle Times: Lawmakers, Stop Shortchanging Anti-Smoking Programs
Slapping a $3.03 tax on each pack is part of the state’s multipronged approach to dissuade people from smoking. Yet increasingly, the state is failing to reinvest its substantial tobacco-tax windfall into tried-and-true prevention programs that further reduce smoking rates and help people trying to quit. (4/25)
San Diego Union-Times: Opioids And County Jails: A Lesson For U.S.
The failure of Congress and the Obama and Trump administrations to aggressively address the opioid epidemic is a bipartisan indictment of our political establishment. That’s not just because opioid overdoses have killed more than 250,000 people over the past decade. It’s because of the growing reasons to think other drugs could have been used much more safely for pain relief in place of habit-forming drugs like OxyContin and Percocet that have created so many American addicts. ...Now there’s more evidence from our own backyard that opioids have been grossly overprescribed. A recent report in The San Diego Union-Tribune detailed how county jail officials had cut back opioid prescriptions from nearly 1,000 in early 2013 to 23 last month after adopting best-practices standards that focused on the risk prisoners face from opioids and the effectiveness of far less potent medicines like acetaminophen and ibuprofen. This was done, reassuringly, with relatively few complications. (4/26)
Richmond Times-Dispatch: When It Comes To The Opioid Crisis, Medicaid Is Part Of The Solution
Opioid use across the country is rampant, and the impact on our communities is terrifying. Lack of health insurance and ongoing stigma about mental health and substance use keep many from seeking treatment. (Eric Blevins, 4/27)
Los Angeles Times: Conversion Therapy For Gays Is Awful, But So Is California's Bill To Ban It
That a tiny market for conversion therapy to "cure" homosexuality still exists today is deeply sad, even infuriating. But here's the question: If a competent adult knows the most devastating critiques, and wants to pay for it anyway, should California law thwart him or her? The Assembly thinks so. Assembly Bill 2943, which State Rep. Evan Low shepherded through passage last week, declares that "the potential risks of reparative therapy are great, including depression, anxiety and self-destructive behavior, since therapist alignment with societal prejudices against homosexuality may reinforce self-hatred already experienced by the patient." (4/27)
Boston Globe: Beginning To Talk About The End
It’s the conversation no one wants to have. But on a chilly spring afternoon, 18 people have come to a small office building to start to have it. They are older residents of Cambridge and surrounding towns, and they’re meeting to talk about death — “but not so much about death,” says one of the presenters, paraphrasing the writer and physician Atul Gawande, “as about living a good life right up until the end.” The meeting is held at Cambridge Neighbors, a nonprofit group that helps people stay in their homes, and stay connected to their communities, as they get older, with programs ranging from wellness and exercise classes, to book groups, to assistance with transportation and grocery shopping. (Joan Wickersham, 4/27)
