Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Viewpoints: The ER System Is Broken, And Profit Seeking Is To Blame; Good News On Lowering Drug Pricing
The Boston Globe: The Hellscape Of The Emergency Department
It’s critical to appreciate that each day, round-the-clock shifts of ED staff show up to perform their overwhelmingly difficult tasks without the necessary resources and support to manage the flow as the system crashes around them. But there is also no escaping the conclusion that waiting in the ED could make your condition worse. This is a broken system where the insistence on revenue and profits has accelerated, leading to a massive failure to deliver care. It is a false narrative to call it an inevitable crisis that must be endured. (Lauren Stiller Rikleen, 8/19)
The New York Times: A $6 Billion Breakthrough Or A Drop In The Bucket?
Last week, the White House announced a milestone in health care policy. After decades of effort, and for the first time, the government successfully negotiated drug prices directly with pharmaceutical companies. For years, the fight to control health care prices, perhaps the most significant factor in health care spending, has felt like an unwinnable battle, so it’s no small feat that Medicare is finally flexing its negotiating muscles. But it’s also a drop in the bucket. (Aaron E. Carroll, 8/19)
The Washington Post: Harris And Biden's Well-Earned Victory Lap On Drug Prices
In the raucous rally with Biden, Harris declared, “No senior should have to choose between filling their prescription or paying their rent.” She touted her own background in fighting Big Pharma as California attorney general and in the Senate. Now, she argued, “Medicare can use [its] power to go toe-to-toe with Big Pharma.” (Jennifer Rubin, 8/18)
Newsweek: We Must Build A More Diverse Medical Workforce To Address Our Physician Shortage
Access to medical education is important, because to help communities throughout our nation, we must address shortages and lapses in representative health care. Despite comprising 19 percent of the population, Hispanics only make up 6.9 percent of physicians. While Black and African American individuals make up 13.6 percent of the U.S. population, they only account for 5.7 percent of the nation's physicians. These discrepancies exacerbate the nation's current physician shortage. (Leonardo Seoane, 8/15)
Stat: Private Equity: Health Care's Vampire
Private equity firms are sucking the resources out of America’s hospitals and nursing homes, and feeding on doctors to generate profits. These firms — which pool funds from wealthy investors and are exempt from many of the regulations and disclosure requirements that apply to other types of investments — have spent a half-trillion dollars since 2018 buying up medical resources. (Steffie Woolhandler, David U. Himmelstein, Elizabeth Schrier and Hope Schwartz, 8/19)
