Viewpoints: Latest Administrative Roadblocks To Getting Insurance Can Be Deadly; Urgent Care Centers Should Be For Everyone, Not Just Wealthy Neighborhoods

Stat: Administrative Burdens Are Blocking Access To Health Insurance
Despite a relentless eight-year Republican campaign to repeal the Affordable Care Act, it remains largely intact. Through it, nearly 20 million Americans gained health insurance. Many others benefited from new protections, such as ensuring that people can’t be denied coverage because of pre-existing conditions and the elimination of limits on lifetime benefits that has protected thousands of vulnerable Americans from bankruptcy. Unable to achieve legislative success, Republicans have found a new strategy to remake health policy: deploying administrative burdens to make it harder for millions of Americans to gain access to health care. (Pamela Herd and Donald P. Moynihan, 1/15)

Boston Globe: We All Get Sick. It Shouldn’t Be Harder For Poor People To Have Access To Urgent Care Centers 
Like every other business, health care goes where the money is. The latest local example: walk-in urgent care centers. Chestnut Hill has three within a 15 minute drive. Cambridge has four. “But no companies have rushed to open urgent care centers in Dorchester, Roxbury, or other low-income neighborhoods in Boston,” reported the Globe’s Liz Kowalczyk and Priyanka Dayal McCluskey. It’s more proof — as if more is needed — of America’s two-tiered health care system, and the growing divide between the haves and the have-nots. (Joan Vennochi , 1/14)

Washington Examiner: Poll Shows Americans' Views Of Healthcare System Depend On Whether Their Party Is In Power
At first glance, the new Gallup data showing that 70 percent of Americans view the U.S. healthcare system as having "major problems" or being in a "state of crisis" suggests a remarkable amount of stability on the question.With all the changes that have taken place in healthcare since 2002 — most notably, the introduction of the prescription drug benefit to Medicare and Obamacare — the number of Americans seeing at least major problems with the healthcare system has been relatively constant. It's reached as low as 65 percent during that time and as high as 73 percent, but always basically within the range of seven in 10 people. (Philip Klein, 1/14)

The Hill: Is Homelessness Hopeless? Ending The Crisis Is Urgent
As a nurse working in the health-care system in Chicago, I have witnessed many  homeless patients who weeks after discharging them, are nearby on the street holding cardboard signs with the words, “No home, no food, no job.” Knowing what some of these patients were treated for, I also know they can add, “No way to pay for medications.” What puts these people in this position is a failure in the system—not just locally, but nationwide — to address lack of access to health care as a factor of homelessness. (Tricia Kierny, 1/14)

Seattle Times: Physicians Should Be On Front Lines Of Gun-Safety Education
About 100 Americans die every day from gun violence. While deaths continue to rise, an endless debate pits “gun control” against “gun rights” advocates.  As a primary care physician and epidemiologist, I think we’re having the wrong conversation.  If we’re serious about saving lives, physicians need to promote gun safety literacy— an understanding of the risks and benefits of gun ownership and of what we, as a society, can and should do to make our communities safer. (Gregory Engel, 1/11)

The New York Times: The Gender Politics Of Fasting
Last summer I took part in a 24-hour fast, as part of a “Break Bread Not Families” prayer and fasting chain. I spent a day not eating, in spiritual solidarity with the 2,400 children who had been separated from a parent at the border. Many of these children were being detained a few miles from my house in McAllen, Tex., where their parents were signing deportation papers on the promise of reunification — and where President Trump visited last Thursday. The hosting organization was LUPE (La Unión del Pueblo Entero), a nonprofit organization that works on local issues in South Texas and was founded by the labor activists Dolores Huerta and Cesar Chavez in 1989. (Mariana Alessandri, 1/14)

San Jose Mercury News: I Live With Mental Illness And I'm Not A Bad Person.
Today, mental illnesses are considered shameful. We are associated with depravity, with uncleanliness, with being “druggies” or we are thought to be dangerous. Society is harsh toward people with a mental illness. Being on the receiving end of this is rough. Although my behavior has not always been pristine, I try my best to do the right thing. (Jack Bragen, 1/11)

The New York Times: The Reasonable Way To View Marijuana’s Risks
Are we underestimating the harms of legalizing marijuana? Those who hold this view have been in the news recently, saying that research shows we are moving too far too fast without understanding the damage. America is in the midst of a sea change in policies on pot, and we should all be a bit nervous about unintended consequences. (Aaron E. Carroll, 1/14)

Tampa Bay Times: Why Vaping Is Not Safe
Any assumption that vaping is safer than smoking has been dispelled by many studies, including one at the University of Miami School of Medicine. Vaping is not safe, and there is no safe level of exposure to secondhand smoke. (John Michael Pierobon, 1/11)

San Jose Mercury News: Gov. Newsom's Early Childhood Plans Face Dilemmas
No governor has grasped the evidence so firmly: Nurturing the health and cognitive growth of children before they start school yields the strongest returns to public investment. Suffering from dyslexia as a child, [Gavin] Newsom felt the pain of falling behind at school and in everyday life. ...Newsom must now work with legislative leaders, children’s advocates and labor chieftains to mix the bricks and mortar, bringing his pro-family village to life. They already face prickly dilemmas. (Bruce Fuller, 1/13)

San Francisco Chronicle: Newsom’s Bold Proposal — A Cost-Of-Living Refund To Make California Affordable
A cost-of-living refund to put money back in the pockets of low-income Californians who need it most is one solution. Delivered as a tax refund based on earnings, the Earned Income Tax Credit is one of the most powerful mechanisms to address affordability and inequality, while giving people the ability to put resources toward their most pressing needs. (Natalie Foster and Chris Hoene, 1/14)

San Francisco Chronicle: California Should Transition Retired Public Employees To Covered California
By transitioning retired employees to Covered California (the state’s excellent health care exchange under the federal Affordable Care Act), unblending the medical insurance premium rates paid by active and retired employees, and limiting subsidies to retirees with less than $50,000 in household income, Glendale reduced in 2015 its retiree health liabilities and spending by more than 90 percent. If that model was applied to the state’s 2017 retiree health liability, it would allow the state to reduce its liabilities by more than $80 billion and to save more than $2 billion per year. (David Crane, 1/14)

Tampa Bay Times: Safety And Surveillance In Age Of School Mass Shootings
Both educators and the police have important roles to play in protecting public safety. But confusing those roles can do more harm than good. Children learn best when they are in a trusting, supportive environment. (Sara Collins and Amelia Vance, 1/11)