Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Viewpoints: Lessons On The Dangers Of Not Responding To Social Justice Issues In Health Care; Everyone Can Get Around Fraud, Take Advantage Of Crowdfunding
Stat: Why It’s A Mistake For Medical Schools To Ignore Social Justice
During my first days as a supervising resident physician at a large urban hospital, two questions were constantly on my mind, the key drivers of any medical decisions that I would make: How can we stop this from happening again? How can we prevent this suffering from getting worse? These questions, and the principles that guided my approach to them, were largely those I established during my undergraduate education and my four years at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine — an understanding not only of physiology and diagnosis, but also about the importance of social justice in treating illness. (Pooja Yerramilli, 9/16)
The Wall Street Journal: How To Make Health-Care Crowdfunding Work For Everyone
Crowdfunding campaigns have become the go-to funding option for more and more people who find themselves stretched by the costs of a medical crisis, whether that consists of uninsured health-care service or medical equipment, or related costs like making up for missed earnings. But not everyone is equally able to access this source of funding: The ability to raise money online depends heavily on how wealthy a person’s friends and other connections are. For those who aren’t well off, it’s often hard to raise even a fraction of what’s needed. What we need are ways to spread the crowdfunding money around more evenly. (Samuel, 9/15)
The Hill: Saving Surprise Medical Billing Legislation
Before the August recess, Congress seemed poised to pass legislation addressing surprise medical billing. However, as a result of intense lobbying, Congress may not deal with the problem at all — and if they do, they are unlikely to use the best approach.Surprise medical bills usually involve out-of-network emergency or ancillary physicians such as radiologists, anesthesiologists, pathologists, assistant or consulting surgeons and hospitalists. (George A. Nation III, 9/16)
Washington Post: Democrats And Health-Care Reform: How To Get There From Here
The Democratic presidential candidates’ debates on health-care policy have been pretty incoherent. I don’t blame the candidates; it’s virtually impossible to explain these ideas in one-minute bursts, with moderators pushing them to fight with one another. The best most listeners can come away with, I suspect, is that some of them (Sens. Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Kamala D. Harris) want to implement a version of reform that’s a lot bigger than some of the others (former vice president Joe Biden and Sen. Amy Klobuchar).So let me try to clarify the issues under debate and suggest a way forward that ties these two camps together. There’s an important complement: They share the same goal, they both pose a steep challenge to the status quo, and it will take both arguments to achieve their goals. (Jared Bernstein, 9/17)
The Hill: Lack Of Accountability And Oversight Has Become A Significant Problem In The Military
All of us have a responsibility to our service members. We have a responsibility to their families and friends. And we have a responsibility to the American public. No one serving on active duty, the Reserves, National Guard and as veterans should feel trapped and isolated in any given situation leading to suicide being their only remedy. Day-after-day we are informed of active duty service members and Veterans taking their own lives. Although we suspect mental health disorders such as post traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury are only a couple reasons linked to suicide. Moreover, our government continues to withhold information that fails to provide transparent and accurate data so we can better determine root causes. (Andrew Vernon and Jennifer Norris, 9/16)
The New York Times: Fake Clinics Are Not The Answer
In its quest to “defund” Planned Parenthood and end access to clinical abortion care, the federal government under the Trump-Pence administration is poised to recreate a public health disaster that has blighted the already heavily damaged reproductive health care safety net in Texas, where lawmakers recently replaced seasoned medical providers with Bible-thumping grifters. In 2016, an organization of crisis pregnancy centers applied for a Texas family planning grant. (Andrea Grimes, 9/16)
Stat: Tech Companies Are Using AI To Mine Our Digital Traces
Imagine sending a text message to a friend. As your fingers tap the keypad, words and the occasional emoji appear on the screen. Perhaps you write, “I feel blessed to have such good friends :)” Every character conveys your intended meaning and emotion.But other information is hiding among your words, and companies eavesdropping on your conversations are eager to collect it. Every day, they use artificial intelligence to extract hidden meaning from your messages, such as whether you are depressed or diabetic. (Mason Marks, 9/17)
The New York Times: Making Companies Act When Government Won’t
After recent mass shootings, including one in a Walmart in El Paso, Walmart’s chief executive, Doug McMillon, announced that his company would stop selling ammunition for military-style assault rifles, remove handguns from stores in Alaska — the only Walmarts still carrying them — and ask armed people in open-carry states to stay out of its stores. “It’s clear to us that the status quo is unacceptable,” Mr. McMillon said in a statement. (9/16)
Columbus Dispatch: Spree Shooters With Semi-Assault Weapons Aren't Unstable
We can eliminate battlefield weapons from our streets without infringing on so much as a comma of the Second Amendment. In fact, we already ban most military weapons from civilian use. I can’t legally purchase a hand grenade, or a land mine, or an F-15 fighter jet. That the AR-15 is a gun makes no difference. The Second Amendment doesn’t even contain the word, gun. If the F-15 can can be reserved for military use, so can the AR-15.Ignoring this simple fact out of political expedience or cowardice shows a disturbing degree of mental instability. Such a person should neither be trusted with a gun, nor a vote in Congress or the Statehouse. (Mike Larsen, 9/16)
The New York Times: Day Care Directors Are Playing Doctor, And Parents Suffer
Almost anyone with a child in day care or preschool has received the call. They say your child has a minor ailment like pink eye and must go to the doctor. Otherwise, they say, the child won’t be able to return to school or day care. Sometimes, they even say your child can’t come back until they’re on antibiotics. The best evidence, however, says there should be less treatment for pink eye and other minor illnesses, not more. Day care centers usually ignore this evidence — and parents often pay the price. (Aaron E. Carroll, 9/16)
Detroit News: Suicide Is A Greater Threat Than Vaping
Last week, Michigan became the first state in the nation to ban flavored nicotine vaping products, following numerous findings from health officials that high numbers of youth vaping constitute a public health emergency, and several mysterious deaths of individuals using these products. While I commend Gov. Gretchen Whitmer for taking a stand on making our children and all Michigan residents safer from potentially dangerous products, we have a plague far greater than vaping that has been drastically affecting children and families across our state: suicide.In Michigan, the heartbreaking numbers speak for themselves. (Daniel J. Kelly, 9/16)
