Viewpoints: The Marketplaces And The Health Law’s Fate; Privacy, Data And Health Apps
A selection of opinions on health care from around the country.
Bloomberg:
Eight Possible Fates For The Obamacare Exchanges
A lot's been happening in the health-care markets. California announced that premiums would rise by an average of 13.2 percent on its exchanges, after years of being one of the standouts for low premium growth. Meanwhile, Anthem, a large insurer, said it would expand its presence in the Obamacare exchanges -- but only if its merger with Cigna is allowed to go through. (Megan McArdle, 8/3)
Chicago Tribune:
Use A Health Or Medical App? Your Data Is Rarely Private
Have you ever researched the side effects of a medication online, sent an email to a relative about your health, "liked" a health care organization on your Facebook page or downloaded a medical app? If so, it's likely that data aggregators collected that information without your knowledge or consent. Then they marketed their assumptions about your health to employers, insurers, mortgage brokers or other third parties who can use it to discriminate against you. In one instance, an insurer bought health-related data about 3 million people from a data aggregator. (Lori Andrews, 8/3)
The Washington Post:
Nonprofits Serve As A Bridge To Better Health Care
Although the District’s uninsured rate has fallen in recent years, many of the District’s most vulnerable patients are struggling to keep up with the premium payments necessary to maintain their health-care insurance. While the Affordable Care Act was an important step to help increase access to health care locally, without a sustainable solution to address the rising cost of treatment, thousands of D.C. residents could be left out in the cold. Fortunately, local charitable assistance programs have stepped in to serve as a temporary bridge to care, at no added cost to the public. (Dana Kuhn, 8/3)
The Philadelphia Inquirer:
A Better Way To Affordable, Quality Health Care
The Affordable Care Act has done little to actually make health insurance affordable. Insurers may raise rates by more than 60 percent in some states next year. Marilyn Tavenner, Obama's former head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the current chief of insurer trade group America's Health Insurance Plans, has predicted that premium hikes will be "higher than we saw previous years." (Sally C. Pipes, 8/1)
The Wall Street Journal:
Give A Kidney, Get A Kidney
The numbers are staggering. Because of a lack of donor kidneys, an average of 13 people die every day while waiting for a transplant. There are more than 100,000 names on the kidney waiting list in the U.S. and another 30 million people with chronic kidney disease who are at risk of joining them. More than 85% of those on the waiting list in 2015 are still waiting. (Jeffrey Veale, 8/3)
Stat:
Let’s Cure Cancer, Not Just Turn It Into A Chronic Disease
Many new therapies for cancer have come on the market since my dad died. Some offer short-term fixes. Others have converted some cancers into chronic diseases that patients live with in unsettling harmony as the cancer depletes their finances. Cure is usually elusive, while an ever-present fear that the disease will return often remains. (June M. McKoy, 8/3)
The Atlantic:
The FDA's Dueling Priorities
In February 2012, a dozen members of the Food and Drug Administration’s Neurological Device Panel spent a Friday on the stage of a Hilton ballroom hearing about cranial electrotherapy stimulation (CES) devices. Tracey Kirsch was in the audience while the panel was warned by FDA personnel no fewer than 25 times that CES—a weak, pulsed electrical current delivered across the head—causes seizures. Kirsch runs a company that produces AlphaStim, one such device that attaches to the ear lobes and may treat anxiety, depression, and insomnia by briefly inhibiting activity in the brain’s cortex. (Jessa Gamble, 8/3)
Lexington Herald Leader:
Bevin’s Red Tape No Miracle Cure
After hearing about the work, volunteerism and education requirements and the My Rewards Account incentives that would have to be documented and tracked under Gov. Matt Bevin’s Medicaid proposal — not to mention the premiums, co-pays and penalties that would need to be collected and recorded — KET’s “Kentucky Tonight” host Bill Goodman asked, logically enough, if the mechanisms for all that paperwork are already in place. (8/3)
Louisville Courier-Journal:
Mental Illness Is Not The Whole Of A Person
When I was 16 years old, something I never saw coming struck me without apparent warning. It was not a car accident or other shocking, unforeseen event. Mental illness is what gripped me, brought me to my knees and rocked my whole family. As a high school junior, I began a confusing, painful, and sometimes shameful journey of understanding what was happening to me. Yet, today, 38 years later, I thrive despite my mental illness and help others in recovery learn to do the same. (Ruth Marlatt, 8/3)
The New York Times:
Health Secrets Of The Amish
In recent decades, the prevalence of asthma and allergies has increased between two- and threefold in the United States. These days, one in 12 kids has asthma. More are allergic. The uptick is often said to have started in the late 20th century. But the first hint of a population-wide affliction — the sneezing masses — came earlier, in the late 19th century, among the American and British upper classes. Hay fever so closely hewed to class lines, in fact, it was seen as a mark of civilization and refinement. Observers noted that farmers — the people who most often came in contact with pollens and animal dander — were the ones least likely to sneeze and wheeze. (Moises Velasquez-Manoff, 8/3)
The Cleveland Plain Dealer:
Make Health More Than Just A Number By Reducing Health Disparities In Cuyahoga County
Place matters when it comes to health. Just look at the numbers. Take the number 12. Life expectancy differs by as much as 12 years if you travel less than 10 miles from Cleveland's northeastern neighborhoods to the region's more affluent, eastern, outer-ring suburbs. (Heidi Gullett and Greg Brown, 8/3)
The Hill:
Feds Warn Truck Drivers About Dangers Of Transporting E-Cigs
A federal agency in charge of the trucking industry is warning drivers about the potential dangers of storing and transporting electronic cigarettes.The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) issued a safety advisory Wednesday to alert owners and operators of commercial motor vehicles about the safety risks associated with possessing and using battery-powered portable electronic smoking devices in their vehicles. (Melanie Zanona, 8/3)
