Viewpoints: Rubio’s Health Plan; Drop In Uninsured Levels Linked To Economy
A selection of opinions on health care from around the country.
Politico:
My Plan To Fix Health Care
[W]hen I am president, repealing and replacing ObamaCare will be an urgent priority of my administration. ... First, I will work with Congress to create an advanceable, refundable tax credit that all Americans can use to purchase health insurance. ... Second, I will reform insurance regulations .... Those with pre-existing conditions should have access to affordable care through mechanisms such as federally-supported, actuarially-sound and state-based high risk pools. Americans should be able to purchase coverage across state lines so they can seek out affordable coverage regardless of where they live. ... Third, I will take up the difficult work of saving and strengthening Medicare and Medicaid by placing them on fiscally-sustainable paths. ... We must move Medicaid into a per-capita block grant system .... While current seniors on Medicare, like my mother, should see no changes to the program, future generations should be transitioned into a premium support system. (Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., 8/17)
Forbes:
Has Obamacare Really Reduced The Uninsured By 16 Million And Continued To Show Strong Growth?
Recent reports have touted a significant drop in the number of uninsured and generally credited Obamacare for it. ... As one headline put it, “After Obamacare Number of Uninsured Hits Five Year-Low.” Now, this headline might be technically correct but it hardly gives us the proper impression for why the uninsured rate has dropped so low. ... more than half of the reduction in the number of people who are uninsured is coming from an old fashioned increase in the number of people being covered in employer health plans. You will recall that the Obamacare employer mandate was delayed during 2014 so we can hardly credit the big employer gains to that part of Obamacare. ... I will suggest those employer coverage gains could just as easily have more to do with a recovering economy and employment improvement. (Robert Laszewski, 8/17)
Richmond Times-Dispatch:
Medicaid Expansion: Kentucky Governor Explains His State's Success
Critics of Medicaid expansion in Virginia who reference Kentucky’s experience with federal health care reform should beware: Our success undercuts your whole opposition.
Having proved from the beginning that health care reform is both the right thing and the smart thing do, Kentucky has become the poster child for why states should expand Medicaid. ... Kentuckians’ collective health has long been among the worst in the nation, ranking at the bottom in almost every health category. That’s had a negative impact on our quality of life, workforce, economy and state government finances. Poor access to care is partly to blame. Back in 2013, we had about 640,000 people without health insurance. But health care reform has given us a transformative opportunity to attack this weakness. (Ky. Gov. Steve Beshear, 8/17)
The New York Times:
The Medicaid Two-Step
[B]efore the ACA went into effect the very same people loudly insisted that expanding Medicaid was worthless, because instead of insuring more people it would mainly crowd out private insurance, making only a small dent in the number of uninsured Americans. ... maybe the Medicaid expansion has in some cases led people to drop the private coverage they would have had otherwise. But the number of uninsured has dropped sharply, especially in Medicaid expansion states. So if there was crowding out, it was more than offset by the expansion in private coverage due to the other features of Obamacare. (Paul Krugman, 8/17)
Indianapolis Star:
Obamacare’s Winners, Losers
Obamacare is an important advancement in meeting our country’s moral and economic obligations to provide health insurance to all Americans and address our unbridled and unsustainable health-care system. It is simply inhumane in a wealthy industrialized country to deny individuals health coverage on any basis. Congress needs to stop the political rhetoric and start working together to fix the ACA’s flaws and the inequities experienced by its losers. (Richard Feldman, 8/17)
The Wall Street Journal:
A Doctor-Assisted Disaster For Medicine
Since the voters of Oregon narrowly legalized physician-assisted suicide 20 years ago, there has been a profound shift in attitude toward medical care—new fear and secrecy, and a fixation on death. Well over 850 people have taken their lives by ingesting massive overdoses of barbiturates prescribed under the law. Proponents claim the system is working well with no problems. This is not true. As a professor of family medicine at Oregon Health & Science University in Portland, as well as a licensed physician for 35 years, I have seen firsthand how the law has changed the relationship between doctors and patients, some of whom now fear that they are being steered toward assisted suicide. (William L. Toffler, 8/17)
The New York Times' The Upshot:
How To Know Whether To Believe A Health Study
Every day, new health care research findings are reported. Many of them suggest that if we do something — drink more coffee, take this drug, get that surgery or put in this policy — we will have better (or worse) health, or longer (or shorter) lives. And every time you read such news, you are undoubtedly left asking: Should I believe this? Often the answer is no, but we may not know how to distinguish the research duds from the results we should heed. (Austin Frakt, 8/17)
The New York Times:
Ebola Isn’t Over Yet
Recent news from West Africa that the number of new Ebola cases continues to fall and that an Ebola vaccine appears to provide protection against infection is heartening. But focusing only on these positive developments overlooks the huge challenges that remain. The West African epidemic, which has caused at least 11,298 deaths since it was first reported in Guinea in March 2014, is incredibly stubborn and has proved hard to control. With a grave shortage of health professionals in the region, the international community needs to remain committed to rebuilding health care systems in the wake of Ebola’s destruction. (Craig A. Spencer, 8/17)
JAMA:
Obstacles To Developing Cost-Lowering Health Technology
The United States leads the world in creating new drugs, diagnostics, and other health care technologies. Some advances, such as oral rehydration therapy and the Haemophilus influenzae type B vaccine, have substantially improved health at modest cost. However, other technologies, such as prostate-specific antigen testing and robotic surgery, have increased spending without producing commensurate gains in health. Realigning incentives to encourage inventors and their investors to develop cost-lowering products could transform technology, which is currently one of the most potent drivers of health care spending in the United States, into a powerful creator of value. Once that is done, ingenuity will take care of the rest. (Arthur L. Kellermann and Nihar R. Desai, 8/17)