Viewpoints: Last Big Test For Obamacare; Hospital ‘Sticker Shock’; Underage Drinking
A selection of opinions on health care from around the country.
Vox:
Obamacare's Final Test: If It Survives The Supreme Court, It's Here To Stay
In the next two weeks, the Supreme Court will rule in King v. Burwell, a challenge that threatens to dismantle Obamacare by ending financial subsidies for 6.4 million Americans. If the challengers win, it would throw the health-care law into chaos. But if the White House prevails, something equally momentous will have occurred: President Obama's signature legislative accomplishment will actually, really, definitely be here to stay. (Sarah Kliff, 6/15)
The New York Times:
Sticker Shock In For-Profit Hospitals
Two reports published this month provide fresh evidence of the hard-to-justify high prices that many hospitals charge for common procedures. The prices drive up premiums for many privately insured patients and can be ruinously expensive for those who are uninsured or inadequately insured or who go to a hospital or doctor outside their insurance network. A study published in the June issue of Health Affairs, a policy journal, found that the 50 hospitals with the highest prices in 2012, the latest data available, charged an average of 10 times what is allowed by Medicare, which was used as a baseline for cost. ... A second report, released on June 1 by the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, showed a similar pattern. For a major joint replacement, the most common reason for hospitalization, the average hospital charged more than $54,000 in 2013 while Medicare on average paid less than $15,000. (6/15)
Bloomberg:
Congress Doesn't Understand Health Costs, Or Care
Health-care costs are starting to accelerate again in the U.S., a sign that more effort is needed to constrain cost growth. Yet the House of Representatives is set to vote this week to do the opposite -- by repealing the Independent Payment Advisory Board. Following a 31-8 vote for repeal in the Ways and Means Committee, the vote in the full House looks to be overwhelming. It's crucial that the Senate not follow suit. (Peter R. Orszag, 5/15)
Nashville Tennessean:
Tennessee Forces Uninsured People To Make Tough Choices
Last September, days before her 16th birthday, my daughter was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. ... In the hours after her diagnosis, through my own tears, I went to pick up her lifesaving prescriptions. As I reached across the counter for two armloads of meds, I handed over $60. If we had been uninsured, the cost would have been more than $1,100. I want everyone to have good insurance just like my family has. The Tennessee legislature has already refused to cover hundreds of thousands of our citizens by refusing to expand TennCare. ... Now our state is apparently ready to exclude hundreds of thousands more because the legislature still refuses to authorize a state "exchange." (Lisa Quigley, 6/15)
The Denver Post:
Colorado Voices: Take Health Care Into Your Own Hands
I first experienced chest pain and shortness of breath when my wife and I were vacationing in London several years ago. An ambulance took me to University College Hospital, where, after routine tests, I was told I suffered from indigestion and should return to my hotel and take antacids. The next day, I was barely able to walk back to our hotel from a nearby museum, and was whisked again to the same hospital. This time, after additional tests, a cardiac condition just short of a heart attack was diagnosed. I was entrusted to the National Health Care program of the United Kingdom — a system that many Americans would have us emulate. I was treated well, if somewhat indifferently. And, as I lay in my bed, no longer able so much as to sit up, I was told that several people were ahead of me for treatment, and that I could be attended to in about three weeks. (Stuart Clark Rogers, 6/15)
Bloomberg's Quick Take:
The Vanishing U.S. Abortion Clinic
Abortion clinics are closing in the U.S. at a record pace. In four states — Mississippi, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming — just one remains. American women were having fewer abortions before clinic closings accelerated in the last couple of years. So no one can be sure how much the push to restrict clinics is connected to falling abortion rates. But the new strategy adopted by abortion opponents, and the court battles it has set off, may define how far abortion rights can be limited without being overturned. (Esmé E. Deprez, 6/15)
The Washington Post:
Cutting Down On Underage Drinking
Parents everywhere received welcome news last week: underage alcohol use has decreased significantly in the past decade. Better still, binge drinking among minors has also declined. Cause and effect is always hard to determine in these matters, but the many prevention measures adopted in recent years by governments, schools and other public service organizations seem to be having an impact. (6/15)
JAMA:
Powdered Alcohol Products
In March 2015, the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) approved several powdered alcohol products, sold under the brand name Palcohol, for sale in the United States. ... Although alcohol has been converted into crystalline form for more than 200 years, Palcohol constitutes the first entry into a new US alcohol market. ... Public health concerns about powdered alcohol focus primarily on its use in binge drinking (ie, drinking to the point of intoxication) or youth drinking and its potential for undermining retail businesses and alcohol regulations. In terms of binge drinking and alcohol poisoning, the use of powdered alcohol introduces the potential for overdose on the basis of the amount of powder used or the amount of liquid or food into which it is diluted or mixed. (Timothy S. Naimi and James F. Mosher, 6/15)
