Viewpoints: Individual Mandate Survives Another Challenge; GOP Debate Sidesteps Health Law

Los Angeles Times: Obamacare's Individual Mandate Survives Again
A federal appeals court rejected yet another legal challenge to Obamacare's individual mandate Friday -- so resoundingly, in fact, that even the dissenting judges dismissed the challengers' core constitutional argument. The suit -- Sissel v. the Department of Health and Human Services -- was brought by artist Matthew Sissel of Washington, who objected to the requirement in the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act that virtually all adult Americans carry health insurance. Backed by the Pacific Legal Foundation, he argued that the individual mandate was unconstitutional because it was a revenue-raising measure (that is, a tax) that originated in the Senate, contrary to the constitutional requirement that all revenue bills originate in the House. (Jon Healey, 8/7)

Bloomberg: Don't Scrap The Cadillac Tax
Everyone likes having health insurance. Nobody likes paying new taxes. So the growing campaign against Obamacare's tax on expensive health plans was to be expected. But this tax deals with a root problem in the U.S. health-care system, and it would be better to fix its eminently fixable flaws than to kill it outright. The tax is meant to address a critical weakness in the way Americans pay for their health insurance: The coverage they get from their employers -- unlike salaries and other forms of compensation -- is not subject to income or payroll taxes. (8/7)

The New York Times: G.O.P. Candidates And Obama’s Failure To Fail
What did the men who would be president talk about during last week’s prime-time Republican debate? Well, there were 19 references to God, while the economy rated only 10 mentions. Republicans in Congress have voted dozens of times to repeal all or part of Obamacare, but the candidates only named President Obama’s signature policy nine times over the course of two hours. ... Strange, isn’t it? The shared premise of everyone on the Republican side is that the Obama years have been a time of policy disaster on every front. Yet the candidates on that stage had almost nothing to say about any of the supposed disaster areas. (Paul Krugman, 8/10)

The Wall Street Journal's Washington Wire: At CMS, The Mission Is Broader Than Medicare And Medicaid
The Department of Health and Human Services agency known as CMS oversees Medicare and Medicaid, among other programs. It is responsible for a trillion dollars in annual spending, more than a hundred million beneficiaries, 39% of total health spending, and 43% of hospital revenues. Daily decisions at CMS can affect millions of lives and billions of dollars. (Drew Altman, 8/10)

Vox: The Biggest Winner At The Republican Debate Was Obamacare
Ten Republican presidential hopefuls took to the debate stage last night to prove their conservative bona fides. They swore they'd unravel President Barack Obama's legacy. But there was one place they barely went: repealing Obamacare. ... candidates mentioned Obamacare exactly six times during the course of a two-hour debate. Only one candidate, Scott Walker, uttered the Republican rallying cry: "Repeal Obamacare." The near-complete absence of Obama's health overhaul is remarkable. The rhetorical shift shows a fundamental change in the calculus of Obamacare: It's one thing to talk about dismantling a theoretical law. It's another to take away insurance that tens of millions of Americans now receive. (Sarah Kliff, 8/7)

The New York Times: California Is Proving That Health Reform Works
Californians got a double dose of good health care news late last month. The number of Californians who have trouble finding a doctor or paying their medical bills has sharply declined since the Affordable Care Act took effect. And premiums charged by private insurers have risen only modestly, contrary to warnings that insurers were likely to get double-digit premium increases. (8/10)

Alaska Dispatch News: No Rational Alaskan Can Believe Medicaid Expansion Is A Good Idea
As Gov. Bill Walker’s campaign promise to expand Medicaid in Alaska without the pesky Legislature’s approval chugs along, it only gets curiouser and curiouser. There are reasons galore to question the program’s fait accompli expansion as of Sept. 1: We are broke and may get broker; Walker could be breaking the law; the idea stinks as public policy; expansion without the Legislature presents a separation-of-powers thingy; it could shred the economy; arguments supporting expansion are questionable; it hoses the elderly and military families; and, perhaps worse, it could threaten education, pensions and other critical spending. That is just for openers. (Paul Jenkins, 8/8)

The Chicago Tribune: Sen. Kirk, Reconsider Your Position On Planned Parenthood Funding
Like many Americans, my wife and I have watched the Planned Parenthood undercover videos in horror. ... Luckily, members of the U.S. Senate watched these videos with the same horror we did, and held a vote on legislation that would end taxpayer funding of Planned Parenthood while fully funding women's access to health care. Every Republican senator — except for one — joined two Democrats in voting to advance this measure. The lone Republican to vote against this bill? U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk of Illinois. (Bobby Schilling, 8/8)

Bloomberg: Free Contraception Can't End The Abortion Debate
For squishy pro-choicers -- a category I have spent many years in myself -- believing that free birth control can reduce abortion to negligible levels is very convenient. It is the "torture doesn't work" of the feminist movement. Instead of forcing a hard moral choice between the autonomy of the woman and the value of the potential life that is terminated, belief in the birth control fairy lets us off the hook. It would certainly be lovely if programs such as the Colorado Family Planning Initiative could make abortion so rare that it no longer required us to make those moral and political choices. But hoping for something to be right doesn't make it so -- and neither does bad data. (Megan McArdle, 8/7)

The Wall Street Journal: A Simple Way To Reduce VA Waiting Lists
Recent news reports suggest that despite efforts by the Department of Veterans Affairs, many veterans continue to wait a long time to get medical care at a VA facility. Yet a simple administrative change could reduce or even eliminate many of the waiting lists. I recently retired after a 25-year career as a VA physician, the last 14 years of which I spent providing primary care at an outpatient clinic. A large proportion of the veterans I saw were already receiving care from private doctors. However, to get their medications at a lower cost, they had to enroll in the VA system—because VA pharmacies can only fill prescriptions written by a VA health-care provider. So these veterans had to get in line along with the many others who truly do need VA health care. (Nasser Gayed, 8/9)

Los Angeles Times: An Issue Potent Enough To Divide Brown And Nader: The Malpractice Damage Cap
Ralph Nader goes way back with Gov. Jerry Brown. Their relationship dates to the 1970s, when both men were eagerly shaking things up from their respective perches on the progressive left. Between them, they've run for president eight times. In 1992, Brown said he'd appoint Nader to his Cabinet if elected to the White House. But when I spoke with Nader this week, the man who wrote the playbook for consumer advocacy was mad as hell at his former comrade. ... What has Nader so cheesed is Brown's reluctance to take a leadership role in fixing California's Medical Injury Compensation Reform Act, a 1975 statute that Brown signed into law during his first stint as governor. (David Lazarus, 8/7)

The New York Times: Failing Patients With Heart Failure
Heart disease is the world’s No. 1 killer, despite advances in medical technology, as well as public health initiatives that have eased the burden of heart disease drastically. While one marvels at the progress, we often ignore how heart-disease patients die. Patients with heart disease are more likely to suffer excessively at the end of life than those with other conditions. While surveys show that people overwhelmingly want to die at home, patients with cardiovascular disorders are much less likely to do so than patients with other diseases, such as cancer. (Haider Javed Warraich, 8/10)

The New York Times: A Stronger Web Of Care For The Mentally Ill In New York
Mayor Bill de Blasio announced a plan on Thursday for a coordinated attack on mental illness, violence and homelessness. ... For the relatively small number of people whose untreated psychiatric and drug problems threaten public safety, his plan promises to patch some holes in a threadbare web of care. People who otherwise end up on the streets or in jail might instead get a hospital bed, therapy and medication. (8/7)