Viewpoints: ‘Impressive’ Growth In Coverage; Middle Ground In Supreme Court Fight
A selection of opinions on health care from around the country.
Bloomberg:
Obamacare: The Third-Fastest Expansion Of Health Insurance In U.S. History
The Obama administration announced today that the Affordable Care Act has expanded health coverage to 16.4 million people who were previously uninsured. This means Obamacare has expanded medical insurance faster than any new policy since Medicare and Medicaid were created in 1965. The announcement today counts 14.1 million people who have enrolled in private plans or expanded Medicaid coverage since 2013, and 2.3 million young adults who were allowed to stay on parent's health plans until the age of 26. The percentage of Americans without health insurance dropped from 20.3 percent two years ago to 13.2 percent today, according to the administration's analysis of Gallup polling data. That's impressive. (John Tozzi, 3/16)
Los Angeles Times:
A Middle Way To Resolve The Obamacare Case
At the Supreme Court argument in King vs. Burwell, the case challenging how the Affordable Care Act works, someone should have asked, “If a state with a federally run health insurance exchange now adopts or ratifies that marketplace as its own, wouldn't it qualify as a state-established exchange?” An affirmative response opens a middle way out of the dilemma posed by that lawsuit. (Edward J. Larson, 3/16)
The New York Times:
Could Obama Bypass The Supreme Court?
It is time to talk about President Obama’s contingency plan for health care. The Supreme Court heard oral arguments earlier this month in King v. Burwell, a case challenging the provision of tax credits on federal insurance exchanges. ... The government estimates that millions of Americans will be left without affordable health insurance if it loses. ... But luckily the Constitution supplies a contingency plan, even if the administration doesn’t know it yet: If the administration loses in King, it can announce that it is complying with the Supreme Court’s judgment — but only with respect to the four plaintiffs who brought the suit. (William Baude, 3/17)
Bloomberg:
Jeb Bush And Florida's Medicaid Meltdown
To appreciate what went wrong with Jeb Bush's attempts to reform Florida's Medicaid program, and why they bode so poorly for the health-care policies he would pursue as president, you could look at the state's dismal quality-of-care scores, or its sharp drop in Medicaid spending, or a judge's ruling from December that Florida is failing low-income children. ... In 2013, almost half the children covered by Florida's Medicaid program didn't get the recommended number of doctor visits in their first 15 months, putting Florida in the bottom quarter of Medicaid plans nationwide. (Christopher Flavelle, 3/16)
Bloomberg:
Obamacare, Assessed
It’s been more than a year since the U.S. Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, took full effect. How’s it doing? No single statistic can cover all of its many aspects. But there are some data sources than can shed some light. It’s helpful to step back from the day-to-day partisan battle and recall the sweeping goals of the law: to give more people health insurance while reshaping a medical system that spends more and delivers less than that of any other wealthy country. (Alex Wayne, 3/16)
Los Angeles Times:
The Paradoxical Path From Sequester Cuts To A Larger Federal Budget
GOP leaders of the House and Senate budget committees are due to release their budget outlines Tuesday for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1, a hotly anticipated event in Republican circles. That's because it's the first time during the Obama presidency that Republicans will have full control over the process. No doubt the proposals will look very different from the multiyear budget deals that House Republicans struck with Senate Democrats in 2011 and 2013. Nevertheless, the spending restraint in the proposals may be short-lived. Republicans may soon find themselves trying to roll back the automatic spending cuts imposed by the 2011 Budget Control Act, just as Democrats sought (successfully) in 2013. ... Many forms of so-called mandatory spending, such as Social Security, Medicaid and food stamps, are excluded from the sequester cuts, so lawmakers could trade reductions in these areas for increases in discretionary spending. (Jon Healey, 3/16)
USA Today:
Balance The Budget For A Prosperous America
We promote patient-centered health care by repealing all of Obamacare — the taxes, spending and mandates. This would end the raid on Medicare that was used to create this new entitlement, and it would allow Congress to start over on health care reform to build a system that works for patients, families and physicians, not Washington. At the same time, while making no changes for those in or near retirement, we propose needed improvements to Medicare so we save and strengthen this vital program. These structural reforms would give beneficiaries more choices and more access to affordable care. (Rep. Tom Price, R-Ga., 3/17)
Fox:
Medicare: Time For Congress To Repeal And Replace The 'Sustainable Growth Rate' Formula
It’s time we in Congress do our job and show leadership by enacting permanent legislation to repeal and replace the flawed SGR formula. The entire medical community recognizes the problem with the SGR, and now Congress has a responsibility to stop the bleeding. We have drafted a meaningful, proactive solution—and now Congress must have the courage and political will to see it through. Continually kicking the can down the road is only perpetuating Washington’s spending problem, while yet another SGR deadline quickly approaches. (Rep. Renee Ellmers, R-N.C., 3/16)
The Wall Street Journal:
Wanted: Guidelines For Access To Experimental Drugs
A year ago this month a social-media crisis thrust a set of complex ethical questions and dilemmas onto life-science companies. The family of a 7-year-old boy turned to patient advocates and social media to pressure Chimerix, a small biotech company of which I was CEO, to provide access to an experimental drug, brincidofovir, to fight his life-threatening viral infection. ... Requests for expanded access increased 92% in 2014, a trend that will continue. In the aftermath of Josh Hardy’s story and others, eight state legislatures have enacted and over 20 are considering “right to try” laws, under which terminally ill individuals are deemed to have a “fundamental right” to receive experimental medicines and devices via expanded access. Last month the Food and Drug Administration took steps to simplify the expanded access application form for physicians. (Kenneth I Moch, 3/16)
Bloomberg:
Want Miracle Drugs? You Have To Get Lucky
The saliva harvesters at 23andMe have struck upon what sounds like a smart idea -- using the genetic data they gather about their customers to develop new medicines. ... If 23andMe is collecting all that genetic data anyway, why not use it to identify drug targets? You probably shouldn’t hold your breath, though, for a slew of world-changing drugs to emerge from this effort. Developing truly new drugs around specific genetic targets isn't as easy as it is sometimes made to sound. (Justin Fox, 3/16)
