Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Viewpoints: Lessons On How To Reform, Improve Quality Of Health Care; Single-Payer Cost Estimate Isn't Really So Shocking
The Hill: Overcoming Health-Care Challenges By Moving From Volume To Value
While we served in different administrations, we faced similar challenges in trying to improve the nation’s health-care system. The basic goal was to improve the quality of the care delivered and moderate the costs. While there are several key reforms that will help us address this challenge, one idea that nearly all health leaders in the Bush, Obama and Trump administrations agree on is that we need to move as quickly as possible from a fee-for-service, volume-based model to a health system that pays for what happens to the patients — the outcome or value of care. (Kathleen Sebelius and Tommy G. Thompson, 7/18)
The Baltimore Sun: $24 Billion For Single Payer In Maryland Sounds Like A Lot — Until You Consider How Much We Spend Now
You can feel the glee radiating from Gov. Larry Hogan’s re-election campaign at The Sun’s report Tuesday on a Department of Legislative Services estimate of what it would cost to implement a Maryland single-payer health care plan like the one Democrat Ben Jealous is proposing in this year’s election. The grand total — about $24 billion in new state spending, which is more than half of the entire existing state budget — sounds like an enormous amount of money, and it fits right in with the Hogan campaign’s efforts to paint Mr. Jealous as a wild-eyed tax-and-spend liberal, if not outright socialist. (7/17)
The Washington Post: Did We Win The War On Poverty?
“Based on historical standards of material wellbeing and the terms of engagement, our War on Poverty is largely over and a success.” That’s from a new report by the White House Council of Economic Advisers. Naturally, the announcement triggered a certain amount of incredulity. Had the CEA visited the nation’s poorer urban, exurban and rural communities? If the War on Poverty is largely over and a success, why does poverty still seem to hold so many fortified positions? (Megan McArdle, 7/17)
The Wall Street Journal: No More Union Skimming
The Supreme Court said in its Janus ruling last month that unions must obtain clear and affirmative consent from public employees before they collect fees. Now the Department of Health and Human Services has taken the first step toward affording home-care providers the same protection against unions that want to confiscate their money on the sly. States receive federal funds to defray the cost of in-home care for the poor and ill or disabled. These caregivers are often family members who devote their time to changing adult diapers, making sure medications get taken as prescribed, and other labors of love. But unions wanted a cut of the cash from Medicaid, the Child Care and Development Fund, and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program. So they have argued that home-care providers should be counted as dues-paying state employees—regardless of whether caregivers want to join the union. (7/17)
Stat: Insurers Are Helping Shape The Future Of Our Health Care System
It’s one thing to look at America’s health care system as a business leader, legislator, or administrator. It’s quite another to look at it as a patient or a parent. That came into sharp focus when both of my children were born more than five weeks prematurely and suffering from respiratory distress syndrome. Long days became even longer nights in the hospital neonatal intensive care unit. Fear, anxiety, and questions swirled. What are we supposed to do when we get home? What if they stop breathing? Are they going to be OK? (Matt Eyles, 7/18)
Detroit Free Press: Would Abortion Be Legal In Michigan If Roe V. Wade Were Overturned?
Since President Donald Trump nominated Brett Kavanaugh to replace retiring U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, the prospect that a conservative-majority court would overturn Roe v. Wade has been the subject of heated debate. A clear majority of Americans support abortion rights: Seven in 10 Americans oppose overturning Roe, according to the Pew Research Center, and 57% say abortion should be legal in most or all cases. ...If the high court overturned Roe, abortion would be illegal in Michigan. (Nancy Kaffer, 7/18)
The Philadelphia Inquirer: The Problem With Bob Sears' Alternative Vaccination Schedule
Pediatricians work hard to keep children safe. They rely on reams of evidence to support their interventions and spend their careers striving to deliver the best care possible. One voice should not drown out thousands of others simply because that voice invokes unnecessary fears. (Emiliano Tatar, 7/18)
Boston Globe: Proposed Big Hospital Merger Shouldn’t Come At The Expense Of Low-Income Patients
As Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Lahey Health continue to pursue their merger dreams, those questions are front and center. The answers have huge implications for the many residents of the state — many of them working-class and people of color — who worry about becoming collateral damage. (Adrian Walker, 7/17)
The Baltimore Sun: At 78, A Need For Speed
Now that youth has blown away with successive winds, it feels imperative to try to preserve some sense of vitality, of stamina — some recognition in the present of what had been the enthusiasm in the past for a vibrant life, especially as talk about illness and dying is endemic among the elderly. I’m not frail; I exercise at the gym three times a week. But after 30 years of smoking from my mid-teens to early middle-age, I have lung issues. Modern medicine has kept them under control, but I’m limited in what I can do. Take, for instance, the motorcycle course I failed. The lightweight Japanese bikes proved to be too heavy for me. It’s disillusioning and disappointing when the body can’t follow through on what the mind wants it to do. (Richard C. Gross, 7/17)
