Viewpoints: Lessons On How To Make ‘Medicare For All’ Acceptable; Surgeon General Has It All Wrong On Vaping

The Washington Post: How Bold Should Democrats Be On Health Care? Here’s One Answer.
The most intense policy debate going on in the Democratic Party right now concerns health care, but it’s about more than just what sort of specific reform should be pursued. It’s also about how to approach both policy and politics, about what it means to be a Democrat, and about competing theories of change. Though at times it can get heated, there’s nothing wrong with that — Democrats argue passionately about this issue because they care about people who don’t have coverage and people who are ill-served by the system we have now. (Paul Waldman, 2/13)

The Wall Street Journal: Vaping Is Harm Reduction
‘'A lot of people still think e-cigarettes are not harmful,” U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams said last week. “But studies show that nicotine is, pound for pound, as addictive as heroin.” Dr. Adams, speaking to the Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America, was making an appeal to fear, not science. Drug consumption is measured by the dosage, not the pound. More fundamentally, the concept of “addictiveness” is so vague that it can easily be manipulated. (Sally Satel, 2/13)

USA Today: Federal Communications Commission: E-Cigarette Ads Are Back, Addicting
Gone are the days of the rebellious, rugged Marlboro Man hawking cigarettes with little more than a smile and a tip of his wide-brimmed, 10-gallon hat. The iconic cowboy, who was created to reposition Marlboro from a mild cigarette marketed to women to a brand with wider appeal, rode off our television screens and disappeared from our radio broadcasts for the last time more than five decades ago, never to return.His leaving wasn’t a choice. It was required by federal law: the Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act. (Jessica Rosenworcel, 2/13)

USA Today: Measles Outbreak: New York Smart To Consider Narrow Vaccine Exemptions
Polio, measles, epiglottitis, pertussis — all preventable by immunizations. As a pediatrician, I have experienced the supreme joy of seeing childhood diseases that had caused such suffering and loss in earlier generations become absolutely preventable, consigned to history. But this amazing public health success story is being undercut by the modern anti-vaccination movement, which was built on discredited research published in 1998 that associated the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine with autism. (Howard A. Zucker, Opinion 2/13)

New England Journal of Medicine: Reducing Unfair Out-Of-Network Billing — Integrated Approaches To Protecting Patients
High charges for out-of-network care are demonstrably unfair when health plans have inadequate networks and when patients are treated by providers they don’t choose. An integrated approach for addressing both circumstances could involve streamlined dispute resolution. (Mark A. Hall, Loren Adler, Paul B. Ginsburg and Erin Trish, 2/14)

Los Angeles Times: Helping Addicts Stay Alive Shouldn't Be A Crime 
Few places in the United States have been as hard hit by the opioid crisis as Philadelphia, where about 1,150 people died from overdoses last year. So it is fitting that this is where the nation’s first “safe injection facility,” where addicts can use drugs under medical supervision without fear of arrest, is likely to open its doors. At least, it was going to open. Now its future, and that of the addicts it would serve, is less certain. (2/14)

The Hill: Pre-Existing Conditions: Political Versus Financial Reality
The truth is there are better ways to ensure coverage for Americans with pre-existing conditions than the wholesale hijacking of the U.S. health care system embodied by the ACA, or even worse, a "Medicare for All" scheme. Market-based principles and more freedom of choice can help keep Americans covered and protect the long-term health of our nation’s health care system. (David Balat, 2/13)

The Washington Post: I’m A Cancer Patient. The FDA’s ‘Wait And See’ Approach Is Not Helping.
“Now we sit and wait to see if the cancer comes back,” my doctor said as she unhooked the hanging bag of chemotherapy. That moment marked the end of my nine months of treatment for osteosarcoma, a rare bone cancer disproportionately afflicting children and young adults like me. There have been no therapeutic advances in treating osteosarcoma in the United States since the advent of chemotherapy nearly 40 years ago. The cancer affects fewer than 1,000 Americans annually, and it has a five-year survival rate of 60 to 80 percent if the cancer remains localized, according to the American Cancer Society; if the cancer has spread, the survival rate drops to 15 to 30 percent. (Olivia Egge, 2/13)

Louisville Courier-Journal: Kim Moser Wants Support For Bill Targeting 'Bad Drug' TV Ads
February is quite a month for advertisers with major events like the Super Bowl and the Academy Awards ushering in a new crop of big-budget TV spots. However, another kind of advertisement flooding the airwaves should be raising our concerns — the nearly omnipresent “bad drug” advertisements. We’ve all seen them. These ads with their sirens and faux public service announcement posturing are effective — bad news for fearful Kentuckians who may be compelled to stop a prescribed treatment. (Kim Moser, 2/12)

The Philadelphia Inquirer/Philly.com: We Should Do A Better Job Supporting Families, Not Separating Them
Out of all the kids that are in foster care in Pennsylvania, 14 percent entered for inadequate housing, These removals raise important flags about the stress points in the city’s families, especially those in poverty – which can often be confused for neglect. In fact, it’s a disturbing coincidence that the city with the highest poverty rate also has the highest child removal rate. (2/14)

Los Angeles Times: Stupid Medicaid Tricks: Utah Figures Out How To Spend More To Cover Fewer People
It has become obvious over the past few years that the Affordable Care Act has the power to cloud Republicans’ minds. But few are as befuddled as the legislature and governor of Utah, who just enacted a partial expansion of Medicaid under the ACA that will cover 60,000 fewer residents while costing the state more than full expansion. (Michael Hiltzik, 2/13)

Boston Globe: Charlie Baker Is Not Punishing Drug Company Success By Challenging Costs
Big Pharma is getting very annoyed with Governor Charlie Baker. Good for Baker. His plan to rein in the cost of prescription drugs in the state Medicaid program will “punish success,” complained Robert K. Coughlin, president and CEO of the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council, which represents 1,200 biopharma companies. (Joan Vennochi, 2/13)