Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Viewpoints: The Medical Device Tax's Comeback; 2018 Brings Fresh Health Policy Choices, Controversies
The Wall Street Journal: Happy New Year’s Tax
The medical device tax apparently has more comebacks than Mariah Carey. In the first minutes of 2018, while the pop star was redeeming herself on ABC for her widely panned New Year’s Eve performance the year before, the 2.3% excise tax had its own comeback after Congress had suspended implementation for two years. The tax was originally imposed in 2013 to fund Obama Care. But it proved unpopular, and not only among Republicans. Democrats from states with medical device companies squawked too. Even Al Franken, the unlamented former Senator from Minnesota, had vowed to fight this “unfair burden on the medical device industry.” (1/3)
USA Today: Your Health Care And GOP Majority Are At Stake In Congress Starting Now
This new year brings brings fresh choices and fresh controversies in health care. President Trump and Republicans tried last year to repeal the Affordable Care Act and, when that failed, to chip away at the law in other ways. But in the end, with no legislation passed, the principal result was to galvanize a once ambivalent public. Now we enter 2018 with health care as a top concern of American voters and the ACA as popular as ever. More importantly, Americans recognize the ACA’s flaws and by large margins just want them to be fixed. Take it from me, the backlash is coming. Serious proposals from both sides should be listened to. (Andy Slavitt, 1/3)
NorthJersey.com: Medicare Penalties And Improving Patient Safety
Often lost in the heated rhetoric toward the Affordable Care Act -- whipped into high flame by President Donald Trump and his hard-line Republican allies in Congress -- are the lesser known accountability measures the original act contained. Among them is a mechanism aimed at prodding hospitals into taking steps to improve patient care. (1/3)
Axios: Don’t Read Too Much Into Health Care’s High Poll Rankings
An AP/NORC poll published late in December found that health care ranked number one on the list of the public's priorities for government. It's a well done and well reported poll, and as the head of a health policy and journalism organization, I suppose I should be happy that health ranked number one. Yes, but: Having conducted and watched health care polling for decades, I'd caution readers not to over-interpret health care's first place finish, which may not mean very much for upcoming elections. They are unlikely to be about health care and are much more likely to be about the candidates and President Trump. (Drew Altman, 1/4)
The Kansas City Star: Are Missouri Prisons Prepared For Mass Nicotine Withdrawal When Smoking Ban Takes Effect?
Our first reaction to the news that the Missouri Department of Corrections will soon ban smoking in the state’s prisons was: Wait, you can smoke in prison? Yes, making Missouri one of only a few states where the official view on prisoners lighting up has been smoke ‘em if you got ‘em, boys. And they do got ‘em, because they’re sold in all the prison canteens. (1/3)
JAMA: A Piece of My Mind: The Envelope
When I move to shake hands with Jack, a 70-year-old new patient and my last of the morning, I see the large white envelope. Records, most likely. Perhaps because of noticing the way he clings to it, or perceiving his urgency, I interrupt my usual routine of logging on to the computer and preparing the history template. “Is that something you would like me to see?” I ask, eyeing the envelope. He hands it to me, looking relieved. ... I write a brief synopsis of our discussion in the chart after Jack leaves and recall being taught that the most important clues to the diagnosis usually come from the history. “Just listen to your patient, and he will tell you what the diagnosis is” was the proverbial teaching wisdom. But there is something missing in that statement: the patient must feel that I am interested. (Jeffrey H. Millstein, 1/2)
Bloomberg: A 2018 Pharma Deal Revival Is No Sure Thing
Last year was the sector's third straight year of sequential deal-volume decline and the slowest since 2013. And the $95 billion deal total for the year is a little flattering -- 31 percent of that came from Johnson & Johnson's purchase of Actelion. The good news is that most of the potential M&A drivers I mentioned last year are still intact. There's a lot of money sitting around -- cash stashes have grown for just about everyone but Johnson & Johnson and Gilead Sciences Inc., which both made sizable acquisitions last year. Limited patent lives and the high and growing rate of R&D failure mean big pharma is constantly hungry for new drugs and drug candidates. And debt is cheap. (Max Nisen, 1/3)
Los Angeles Times: Writer Laurie Kilmartin Shows Americans How Badly They 'Suck' At Handling Death
Do you know what we’re bad at in this country? Death. Not the act of dying, but dealing with it. The Victorians were horrified by sex but practically fetishized death, and we do just the opposite. Sex is one of our major cultural food groups, but death? Death, we treat like it’s some embarrassing lifestyle choice. Maybe Laurie Kilmartin can help. She’s a TV comedy writer, and in 2014, as her father was dying, she tweeted about it, from bedside to graveside. From that comes her new book, “Dead People Suck: A Guide for Survivors of the Newly Departed.” (Patt Morrison, 1/3)
