Viewpoints: Stopping Surprise Medical Bills Might Be Easier Than It Looks; Waiting To See Whatever Happens Next In Flint Water Cases

The Hill: Insurers Must Do More To Prevent Surprise Medical Bills
At a time of hyper-partisanship, there is one issue around which both Republicans and Democrats have coalesced: protecting health-care patients and ending surprise billing. Since the beginning of the year, the House has held two hearings to discuss surprise billing, and this week, the Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee will turn its focus on the issue. President Trump has also held several news conferences to highlight this problem. However, lost in all of the conversation is one critical element: The role that private insurers play in putting patients in the middle and jeopardizing access to life-saving care. (Carter Johnson, 6/13)

Detroit Free Press: Why New Prosecutor Wants A Do-Over In Flint
To understand Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel's decision to drop all criminal charges stemming from her predecessor's investigation of the Flint water crisis, you have to understand a couple of things: The first thing is that it wasn't Nessel's decision — although she'll certainly bear the blame, or reap the credit, for whatever happens next in Flint. (Brian Dickerson, 6/13)

The Hill: We Need Federally Funded Research On Gun Violence 
It’s been 20 years since 13 people were shot and killed at Columbine High School. It’s been even longer since our federal government conducted any real research into the public health epidemic of gun violence. Every day, 100 Americans are killed by gun violence, with another 210 injured. But as devastating as this public health epidemic is, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) haven’t received any substantial Congressional funding to study gun violence for more than two decades. (Kris Brown, 6/13)

The Wall Street Journal: The Perilous Blessing Of Opioids
On a beautiful Memorial Day weekend four years ago, I left my home in Germantown, Md., on one of my rare motorcycle trips, but I did not get very far. A few blocks from the townhouse where I lived with my partner and our baby girl, a young man drove his large white van directly into the side of my bike. My left foot was crushed, and I was tossed to the ground. That day radically changed my life, and not just because of the injury itself. As a bioethicist at Johns Hopkins University, part of my job is to think about the moral quandaries raised by the practice of medicine. (Travis Rieder, 6/14)

The Hill: Democrats Constantly Overlook Conservative Solutions To Fix Our Broken Health Care
Why do Democrats support small businesses grouping together to cut costs on retirement plans but oppose them doing so for health insurance plans? That's the question small business owners across the country are asking after the Democrats passed significant retirement legislation last month that allows small businesses to band together in association retirement plans (ARPs), yet remain opposed to association health plans (AHPs). Both vehicles let small businesses form associations to create the economies of scale necessary to negotiate cheaper plans enjoyed by their big business competitors. (Former Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.) and Alfredo Ortiz, 6/13)

The New York Times: Republicans Once Supported Fetal Tissue Research. Not Anymore.
President George H.W. Bush was staring down a tough re-election campaign in the spring of 1992, when he found himself caught in a shifting political debate. A ban on the use of federal funding for research using fetal tissue — which women can donate after terminating a pregnancy — had been in place for four years, despite two federal advisory panels deeming such a ban unnecessary. Mr. Bush vowed to continue the ban, a move that anti-abortion activists supported. (6/13)

Stat: Quitting Smoking Is Hard. Mindfulness Offers A New Approach
Smoking kills. The science behind that stone-cold statement has been indisputable for decades. Yet smoking remains the leading cause of preventable death in the United States and around the world. (Jud Brewer, 6/14)

Bloomberg: Young Blood To Reverse Aging? It's Quackery Now But Has Potential
There are two kinds of quackery in medicine. There’s the kind that’s been tested over and over and never works, usually based on some outlandish hypothesis involving energy fields. Then there are practices that work in animals, or cells, or are predicted by a widely accepted theory, and might eventually be made to work in people. In that second category is the promise of retarding aging with infusions of blood from younger individuals. It works in mice – reversing not just physical but also cognitive decline. This month, scientists published a demonstration that two proteins isolated from young blood changed the behavior of human neurons in culture – stimulating them to grow new connections. The paper, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences – doesn’t show it will work in people, but leaves the possibility open. (Faye Flam, 6/13)

Stat: Many Americans Have Trouble Getting Lifesaving Oxygen Therapy
What could a fit mountaineer scaling the world’s tallest peak possibly have in common with an obese store clerk living at sea level? Both need equipment that can deliver extra oxygen but may have trouble getting it. The New York Times recently published a harrowing story detailing how oxygen suppliers on Mount Everest have put climbers at risk by cutting costs to maximize profits. Some climbers have been harmed — the exact number is unknown — and some may have died due to a lack of oxygen. (Brian Block and Neeta Thakur, 6/14)

The Washington Post: Gillibrand’s Vilification Of Pro-Life People Proves How Hopeless She Is 
One measure of the seriousness of a Democratic candidate for president is his or her understanding of the importance of religion in our common life. I am not talking here of the perfunctory bow toward personal, sectarian belief, which is neither qualifying nor disqualifying in a prospective president. I refer instead to a candidate’s recognition that faith helps define compassion and justice for millions of Americans. (Gerson, 6/13)

The New York Times: Rep. Pramila Jayapal: The Story Of My Abortion
I call my child a miracle. Born unexpectedly in India at 26.5 weeks, shortly before I was due to come back to the United States, and weighing only 1 pound 14 ounces, Janak survived against all odds. Their early months were spent in Mumbai, in a neonatal intensive care unit that had only just opened. Many of their medications were too expensive and rare for the hospital to stock and had to be procured, by Janak’s father and me, from pharmacies around the city, whenever needed, often in the middle of the night. (Rep. Pramila Jayapal, 6/13)

Sacramento Bee: California Juveniles Should Not Be Incarcerated
A central theme and focus of this movement has been to encourage California to shift its orientation from punishment to prevention in terms of how we treat young people who have been impacted by the justice system. Last year, California passed the Youth Reinvestment Fund, the first-ever state fund specifically dedicated to keeping young people out of the justice system and in the care of community-based organizations that are best able to provide guidance and support. (Chet Hewitt and Shane Goldsmith, 6/13)