Viewpoints: Obamacare Product Problems; Health Care’s Costs And Disparities

The Wall Street Journal: ObamaCare Catches Fire
Outside of politics, perhaps the worst new-product launch of 2016 was the Samsung Galaxy Note 7. Released in August, it was recalled twice and finally withdrawn from the market last week, all because the device has a tendency to catch fire or explode. It’s an apt analogy for the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, known colloquially as ObamaCare—and that’s not our opinion but that of President Obama himself. (James Taranto, 10/21)

Boston Globe: Disparities And High Costs Fuel The Health Care Crisis 
America's health crisis is really three crises rolled into one. The first is public health: America’s life expectancy is now several years below that of many other countries, and, for some parts of the population, life expectancy is falling. The second is health inequality: The gaps in public health according to race and class are shockingly large. The third is health care cost: America’s health care is by far the costliest in the world. Obamacare certainly did not solve these crises. Its main positive contribution has been to expand health coverage. (Jeffrey Sachs, 10/24)

Forbes: Hillary's Right: Obamacare Reduces Medicare Spending
After Donald Trump declined to offer a Medicare reform plan when presidential debate moderator Chris Wallace asked him last week, Hillary Clinton reminded Americans the Affordable Care Act spares seniors cuts to their health benefits for at least another decade. While this year’s election campaign has focused on rising premiums for Americans buying individual private coverage on public exchanges under the health law, key reforms to a much larger outlay of federal dollars from the Medicare entitlement wasn’t largely discussed until Fox News’ Wallace brought it up. (Bruce Japsen, 10/23)

Modern Healthcare: Predicting Medicare Spending Is Hard, Especially If It's In The Future
The debates are over, but let's not pick on the candidates. Let's take a closer look at the nonsense spouted by Fox News moderator Chris Wallace on the state of our “entitlements,” which I prefer to call retirement benefits after a lifetime of hard work and paying taxes. Medicare, Wallace said, “is going to run out of money in the 2020s … and at that time, recipients are going to take huge cuts in their benefits.” That's not true. (Merrill Goozner, 10/22)

Des Moines Register: Branstad's Unproven Medicaid Claims Piling Up
Iowans do not know what is being saved, gained or improved by the privatized Medicaid model Branstad foisted on this state. What we do know: Health care for vulnerable people has been disrupted, providers have been run out of business and for-profit insurers are pocketing millions of public dollars. And the governor says things are great. (10/22)

Boston Globe: Children’s Hospital Expansion Effort Didn’t Have To End This Way 
For months I have railed against the Children’s expansion plan. Not necessarily because the services this new medical monument will provide aren’t needed, but because the hospital has deftly crafted a false choice.Its message? You can have your 23,000-square-foot patch of emerald green with its bunny rabbits and tinkling fountains, or we can save dying kids — our little patients fighting for their lives. That’s always been a bogus argument. (Thomas Farragher, 10/21)

U.S. News & World Report: The Enemy Of The Good
The economics of American health care is undergoing a profound shift. Employers, policymakers and other purchasers of health care are increasingly paying health care providers based on the benefit to the patient. For instance, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, or CMS, the agency that runs Medicare, adjusts payments to hospitals based on how well they perform on measures of patient experience, readmissions and patient safety. Private payers, too, are increasingly negotiating contracts tied to quality and safety performance. (Leah Binder, 10/21)

USA Today: Marijuana On The Ballot: Our View
As voters in five states consider ballot measures next month to legalize marijuana for recreational use, supporters and opponents can pluck a statistic to back just about anything they want to argue about the issue. But amid a gaggle of dueling studies, the truth is that the state experiments in legalizing recreational use are still too new to yield definitive results about the harms and benefits to society. (10/23)

USA Today: NORML: Marijuana Is Here To Stay
Contrary to the fears of some, these policy changes are not associated with increased marijuana use or access by adolescents, or with adverse effects on traffic safety or in the workplace. Marijuana regulations are also associated with less opioid abuse and mortality. In jurisdictions where this retail market is taxed, sales revenue has greatly exceeded initial expectations. (Paul Armentano, 10/23)

Stat: How My Forever Moments Have Shaped Me As A Doctor
Health care is filled with forever moments for patients and their family members, who often feel vulnerable and isolated during these stressful experiences. One of the many important jobs of health care providers is to help patients and families through these times by being sensitive to and supportive of what they are going through. ... Complicating matters further is that time with patients is often dominated by digital distractions and measured productivity pressures. (Nathan Merriman, 10/21)

Los Angeles Times: Ensuring Access To Safe Drinking Water Ought To Come Before A Push For Soda Taxes
Tobacco executives must be thrilled that soda has become a prime target of public health activists. These days, it is seen as a slow-acting poison that contributes to type 2 diabetes, obesity and other health disorders. To some health officials, it is as threatening as cigarettes. ... But before they determine that such taxes are the appropriate policy prescription everywhere, public health advocates need to know that consumers have affordable, accessible, healthy alternatives to soda. ... Drinking water is clearly the best answer, but that assumes everyone has access to clean water. They don’t. (10/21)

Bloomberg: House Republicans Wage War On Medical Research
The House Energy and Commerce Committee has a Select Investigative Panel on Infant Lives that has held only two hearings since it was created a year ago. Its meetings are marked by walkouts and little substantive discussion. Many House members, including some Republicans, hope it will expire by year-end. Some medical experts say this special committee may seem like a joke but is nonetheless having a chilling effect on important medical research. The issue is the use of fetal tissue taken from aborted fetus that would otherwise be discarded. (Albert R. Hunt, 10/23)

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Why Medical Research Advocates Are So Concerned About Amendment 3
Missouri Cures and its coalition partners have deep concerns that the proposed tobacco tax initiative known as Amendment 3 will adversely affect patient care, medical research and innovation in our state. Our coalition includes BioSTL, Missouri Biotechnology Association, Stowers Institute for Medical Research and Washington University and thousands of disease groups and patients. (Dena Ladd, 10/23)

RealClear Health: When Good Intentions Do Bad Things
Breast cancer is a common disease – 1 in 8 women and a small number of men will be afflicted over their lifetimes. This year alone, approximately a quarter of a million new cases will be diagnosed and 40,450 women will die. That means everyone is more and more likely to have a wife, mother, daughter or friend with the disease. Naturally, we want to “do something” about it. A just released study in the New England Journal of Medicine by Dartmouth researchers suggests that mammography screening, as presently practiced, may be the wrong prescription. (Joel M. Zinberg, 10/24)