Viewpoints: Regardless Of Fiscal Issues, Don’t Underfund CDC; Trump’s Health Care Agenda Is ‘Robust’

The Washington Post: The Next Pandemic Will Come Sooner Or Later. The CDC Needs Money To Prepare. 
The basic facts, that pathogens don’t stop at passport control and move fast in today’s globalized world, are why the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been active in so many places abroad since the Ebola catastrophe. ...Congress should not let the CDC effort lapse. We’re not sanguine about the fiscal situation, with big tax cuts now in place and a new budget deal just signed that seems to be opening up the spending spigots. However, if the resources are available, this program merits a claim on them. The next pandemic will come along sooner or later. The United States should not wait for the winds and waters to carry it here; far better to be prepared and vigilant abroad, and to fully underwrite the CDC’s ability to do so. (2/11)

Forbes: Trump's Domestic Policy Chief: We Have An Ambitious Health Care Agenda For 2018
Recently, I spoke with Andrew Bremberg, Director of the President’s Domestic Policy Council, about Trump’s health care agenda for 2018. His view—and his boss’s view—is that the Trump administration has done more than people appreciate on Obamacare, and on health care more broadly. On health care, Trump’s “policy direction is more robust and substantive than some people understand,” Bremberg said. (Avik Roy, 2/4)

The Washington Post: The So-Called Obamacare Death Panel Meets Its Unfortunate End
This is one story, of many, about how the current generation of Americans is mortgaging their children and grandchildren’s future. Tucked into the massive spending agreement negotiated by Senate leaders is a repeal of an obscure panel of experts, the Independent Payment Advisory Board. The IPAB, created under Obamacare, represented Congress’s peak effort at serious spending restraint on health care, which is probably why it had few champions and a long list of enemies. Now, before ever beginning its work, IPAB has been smothered. In a health-care bill that was mostly about extending benefits to uninsured Americans, the IPAB was one of the few checks on how much national wealth would go to the inefficient health-care industry. (2/9)

Los Angeles Times: The Koch Network Uses A Flagrant Falsehood To Defend A Dangerous And Irresponsible Law
You can always tell that defenders of a dangerous and irresponsible law have nothing to offer when they resort to flagrant misrepresentation to make their case. Step forward, Nathan Nascimento and David Barnes of the Koch brothers network. Nascimento and Barnes are representatives of the Koch brothers group's Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce and Generation Opportunity, respectively. They were sufficiently ticked off at my takedown of one of their hobby horses, a federal "right-to-try" law, to complain about it in a letter to the editor, published Thursday. (Michael Hiltzik, 2/9)

The New York Times: Another Of Obamacare’s Unloved Provisions Is Gone
When congressional Republicans were hoping to repeal the entire Affordable Care Act, they often railed against its least popular features as a sign of the structure’s overall dysfunction. Now that several big legislative repeal efforts have failed, they’ve instead started picking off those pieces, one at a time. The law’s individual mandate, the rule that anyone who can afford insurance must obtain it or pay a penalty, was effectively repealed in last year’s tax bill. A few weeks ago, Congress suspended or postponed enactment of several unloved taxes raised by the bill, including one on expensive employer health plans. (Margot Sanger-Katz, 2/9)

Los Angeles Times: California Confronts The Complexities Of Creating A Single-Payer Healthcare System
California Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon may have expected to torpedo the idea of a statewide single-payer healthcare system for the long term last June, when he blocked a Senate bill on the issue from even receiving a hearing in his house. He was wrong, of course. His shelving of the Senate bill created a political uproar (including the threat of a recall effort), forcing him to create a special committee to examine the possibility of achieving universal health coverage in the state. On Monday and Wednesday, the Select Committee on Health Care Delivery Systems and Universal Coverage held its final hearings. (Michael Hiltzik, 2/9)

The New York Times: Heart Stents Are Useless For Most Stable Patients. They’re Still Widely Used.
When my children were little, if they complained about aches and pains, I’d sometimes rub some moisturizer on them and tell them the “cream” would help. It often did. The placebo effect is surprisingly effective. Moisturizer is cheap, it has almost no side effects, and it got the job done. It was a perfect solution. Other treatments also have a placebo effect, and make people feel better. Many of these are dangerous, though, and we have to weigh the downsides against that benefit. (Aaron E. Carroll, 2/12)

San Jose Mercury News: How Trump Decision Puts Women's Health At Risk
This devastating scenario where women are turned away at the most vulnerable time of their lives despite their doctor’s wishes could become more common thanks to the Trump administration’s Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). This month, they announced the intention to create a new “conscience and religious freedom” division that introduces sweeping interpretations of so-called conscience protection laws covering medical providers, backed by aggressive enforcement. (Jody Steinauer and Lori Freedman, 2/10)

Columbus Dispatch: How Trump Could Really Help Women's Safety
The White House ousted a top aide, Rob Porter, after it was reported that he had physically and verbally abused two ex-wives. President Donald Trump was ″very saddened″ by the reports, spokesman Raj Shah said at Thursday’s news briefing, adding the White House does ″take violence against women and these types of allegations very seriously.” ... If they become interested in doing more than talk, here are some ideas: Push for more federal research dollars toward preventing domestic violence. Family abuse is a massive public-health problem in the United States. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one in four women and one in nine men are the victims of intimate-partner violence in their lifetimes. Significantly more research is needed on what drives batterers to abuse their partners and how best to prevent this particular form of domestic terror. (2/11)

Kansas City Star: Missouri's Medicaid Payment Rate Hurts Seniors Who Need Help
The Show-Me State is in a real crisis — one of its own making.Missouri is neglecting its most vulnerable citizens by refusing to provide adequate reimbursement for care and services provided under Medicaid. As a result, the care provided to our state’s oldest citizens at skilled nursing centers is being threatened today. And if this trend continues, that care may not be accessible in the future. (Daniel Rexroth, 2/10)

Lexington Herald Leader: Coal Miners, Who Helped Donald Trump Win, Could Now Use Some Help As Their Pensions And Health Are Imperiled
If coal miners could spend President Donald Trump’s words of praise, they’d be fine. Since they can’t, they need the government to keep its pension promises and protect them from an epidemic of severe black lung disease. Miners recently got hopeful news. Congress has agreed to develop a bipartisan plan by year’s end for easing the crisis that threatens 1.5 million workers and retirees, including 24,000 coal miners and Teamsters in Kentucky. (2/9)

San Jose Mercury News: AG Becerra's Delay Enables More Opioid Deaths
While state Attorney General Xavier Becerra has fiddled, thousands more Californians have died from opioid overdoses. It’s been more than 16 months since Gov. Jerry Brown signed legislation mandating that physicians check a statewide database before prescribing addictive medications. (2/10)

Chicago Tribune: Should Illinois Legalize Recreational Marijuana?
When it comes to easing restrictions on cannabis, Illinois has not been a pioneer. Medical marijuana was legal in 19 other states and the District of Columbia before state law allowed it here in 2013. Nine states and D.C. have gone beyond, legalizing the sale and use of recreational pot. Lawmakers in Illinois have hung back, letting other states lead the way. And that’s exactly the right approach. The case for legalization is not one we dismiss. But there are good reasons not to rush into such a momentous decision. (2/9)