Viewpoints: Improve Benefits, Look Beyond Pregnancies For Ways To Improve Health Of Reproductive Women

Stat: Maternal Deaths Represent The Canary In The Coal Mine For Women's Health 
Recent media reports have coupled a startling set of facts with an equally startling explanation. Women who want to start or grow their families face greater risks during childbirth than their mothers did. Over the last two decades, the number of American women who die each year from a pregnancy- or childbirth-related cause has skyrocketed by more than 50 percent. The risks for black women are more than three times higher than for white or Hispanic women, regardless of income or education. The most common explanation? Hospitals have been failing to protect pregnant women. But as maternal health researchers who have been studying this trend, we believe an essential piece of the story is missing. (Eugene Declercq and Neel Shah, 8/22)

The Washington Post: Collins Looks Ready To Toss Her Pro-Choice Credentials Out The Window
[Sen. Susan Collins] must think her constituents are very dim, but no one should be shocked that Collins sounds most of the way to “yes” on Kavanaugh’s confirmation. With zero evidence, she’s been saying that arch-conservative Neil M. Gorsuch(!), whom she voted to confirm, would also uphold Roe and thereby protect women’s constitutional rights. Moreover, her own rationale for voting for John G. Roberts Jr. — that he also would uphold Roe — is belied by the chief justice’s own record on the bench. (Jennifer Rubin, 8/21)

The Wall Street Journal: Kavanaugh And ‘Settled Law’
Brett Kavanaugh continues to make his Senate rounds, and Tuesday’s news was that the Supreme Court nominee reassured Maine Republican Susan Collins on abortion rights. “He said that he agreed with what [Chief] Justice [John] Roberts said at his nomination hearing, in which he said it was settled law,” Ms. Collins told reporters. “We had a very good, thorough discussion.” The High Court’s abortion precedents are a main confirmation concern for Senator Collins, who along with Lisa Murkowski of Alaska is still undecided on Judge Kavanaugh. She says she’s waiting until after the September confirmation hearing, but Tuesday’s meeting sounds like it went a long way to persuading her. (8/21)

The New York Times: Medical School Should Be Free, But Not For Everyone
Research shows that the burden of medical school debt discourages young doctors from going into types of practices that are poorly paid, like primary care, or working in places where many patients are on Medicaid. As a result, there is a shortage of doctors working in these areas. Over all, we have about the same number of doctors for our population as do Canada, Britain and Japan, but American doctors are more likely to be in highly paid subspecialties — orthopedic surgery and the like — rather than on the front lines. N.Y.U.’s plan was a noble attempt to redress this problem. But the medical school got it wrong. And N.Y.U. can look within — to its own law school, in fact — for a far better solution. (Elisabeth Rosenthal, 8/21)

The Wall Street Journal: A Free Tuition Education
New York University announced late last week that it will offer free tuition for every current and future student attending its medical school. That’s pretty cool and will save students some $55,000 a year and a lot of debt. But in the spirit of Milton Friedman’s line that there is no such thing as a free lunch, allow us to suggest that every NYU student should have one obligation in return for accepting the gift—read and write an essay on Ken Langone’s autobiography, “I Love Capitalism!” The medical students should at least know where the money for their free tuition will come from. It doesn’t flow from the good intentions of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and it isn’t a product of the Cuban health-care system. (8/20)

The New York Times: Safe Drinking Water For All
In 2007, the small town of Lanare in California’s Central Valley finally got what it had desperately needed for years — a treatment plant to remove high levels of arsenic in the drinking water. But the victory was short-lived. Just months after the $1.3 million federally funded plant began running, the town was forced to shut it down because it ran out of money to operate and maintain it. More than a decade later, the plant remains closed and Lanare’s tap water is still contaminated — as is the drinking water piped to about a million other Californians around the state. The common barrier to solving the problem is that communities lack access to government financing to run their water treatment systems. (Laurel Firestone and Susana De Anda, 8/21)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: A New Name For The Same Old, Bad Idea: Medicare For All
“Medicare for All” is simply a repackaged attempt to revive an old progressive dream of single-payer health care. Universal government-controlled health care is actually less plausible than President Donald Trump’s dopey plan to build a wall and have Mexico pay for it, yet serious people are still allowed to sing its praises in polite company. (Christian Schneider, 8/21)

San Antonio Press Express: To Address Mental Health, Reduce Texas’ Uninsured Rate
One of the key challenges in addressing mental health in Texas is that the state has the highest uninsured rate and highest number of uninsured people in the nation. Data provided by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in 2016 demonstrates how important health insurance is for getting mental health treatment in Texas. It shows that Texans with health insurance were nearly 50 percent more likely to receive treatment for mental illness or a substance use disorder compared to Texans who lack insurance. The report also confirmed that a huge number of the 1 million Texans without health insurance had experienced mental illness or a substance use disorder during the previous year. (Greg Hansch and Will Francis, 8/21)

Des Moines Register: Prosecute Gun-Owning Parents When Children Shoot Themselves Or Others
Research shows nearly 2 million American children live in homes with guns that are not stored responsibly. Children gain access to these guns and shoot themselves or others. Everytown For Gun Safety, which is dedicated to reducing gun violence, tracks these incidents. As of Aug. 14, the organization had recorded 124 “unintentional” shootings in 2018 where a person age 17 or under killed or injured themselves or someone else with a gun. The group will likely add the Council Bluffs boy to its database now. These shootings are preventable. (8/21)

St. Louis Post Dispatch: An Insensitive And Pound-Foolish Health Care Cut
There are times when government has to make hard choices between doing things that are humane and things that are fiscally responsible. But thankfully, those two imperatives sometimes line up. One example is a Missouri program that provides in-home care to thousands of low-income disabled state residents, allowing them to remain in their homes with the assistance of visiting caregivers, instead of having to go into nursing care. They get the crucial independence that comes from living at home; the state gets a cheaper bill than a nursing home would entail. Given all that, why would the Missouri Legislature cut the program by more than $40 million? The cuts, first instituted last year, affect more than 7,800 Missourians, some of whom are now in danger of having to move into nursing homes. This is not only heartless, it’s a classic case of penny-wise/pound-foolish. Lawmakers should restore that funding as soon as possible. (8/21)

Detroit News: Extend Deadline For Medical Pot Licensing
Michigan voters approved medical marijuana a decade ago, and in that time, shops have popped up around the state to fill a clear demand for this alternative medicine. Yet now that the state has stepped in to license sellers, the slow process threatens to unfairly shut down shops and prevent patients from accessing the product. That's wrong, and as a state-imposed deadline looms, the regulatory agency charged with licensing these shops should find a workaround After Sept. 15, medical marijuana facilities that have not yet received a license but are still in the licensing process will be sent into limbo, unable to sell or produce, and will be forced to destroy their plants. If they attempt to remain open past Sept. 15, they will receive a cease-and-desist letter. (8/21)