Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Viewpoints: The Middle Class Can Expect Health Care Rate Hikes; Is Medicaid Fueling The Opioid Crisis?
Los Angeles Times: The First Projections For Trumpcare 2019 Are In: Expect Rate Increases Of Up To 30%
If anything is predictable about the vandalism of the Affordable Care Act perpetrated by President Trump and his healthcare henchmen, it's that the costs of their handiwork will be felt by ordinary Americans for years to come. Now, thanks to Covered California, the state's ACA insurance exchange, we have the first estimate of what those costs will be for 2019. The bottom line is premium increases in the range of 16% to 30%. (Michael Hiltzik, 1/26)
The Wall Street Journal: The Opioid Dens Of Medicaid
Americans are familiar with the horrors of the opioid crisis, and government at every level has tried to respond with spending on treatment programs and more. But one area that deserves more scrutiny is how government programs may be contributing to the epidemic.Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson released a report this month from the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee that connects the dots between Medicaid and the opioid epidemic. The report doesn’t claim too much, conceding that everything from too many prescriptions to drug marketing contributed to the epidemic.Yet Medicaid offers cheap access to astronomical quantities of pills that can be resold on the black market. (1/26)
The New York Times: Preventive Care Saves Money? Sorry, It’s Too Good To Be True
The idea that spending more on preventive care will reduce overall health care spending is widely believed and often promoted as a reason to support reform. It’s thought that too many people with chronic illnesses wait until they are truly ill before seeking care, often in emergency rooms, where it costs more. It should follow then that treating diseases earlier, or screening for them before they become more serious, would wind up saving money in the long run. Unfortunately, almost none of this is true. (Aaron E. Carroll, 1/29)
WBUR: Why Apple's Move On Medical Records Marks A Tectonic Shift
Apple has just announced a major upgrade that will allow customers with iPhones and iPads access to their own health records. ... So why might this announcement be earth-shaking? Because it represents the first time a mass consumer platform that is in the hands of tens of millions of consumers daily and for hours on end — the iOS operating system — will get officially sanctioned health care observations from the formal institutional health care system. (Isaac Kohane, 1/26)
The New York Times: The Connection Between Retiring Early And Living Longer
You may not need another reason to retire early, but I’ll give you one anyway: It could lengthen your life. That’s the thrust from various research in recent years, and also from a 2017 study in the journal Health Economics. In that study, Hans Bloemen, Stefan Hochguertel and Jochem Zweerink — all economists from the Netherlands — looked at what happened when, in 2005, some Dutch civil servants could temporarily qualify for early retirement. (Austin Frakt, 1/29)
Stat: Disability Should Never Be Used As A Political Strategy
Make no mistake. I am not arguing that efforts to determine the president’s mental state are inherently problematic. What troubles me is weaponizing the rhetoric of disability to remove Trump from office, especially since his behavior has not significantly changed from before he was elected. (Pasquale Toscano, 1/26)
San Jose Mercury News: California Can't Afford Single-Payer Health Care Fantasy
It’s a safe bet that Californians will sour on SB 562 as they learn more about it. Sixty-five percent of residents say they favor single-payer, according to the Public Policy Institute of California. But support drops by nearly one-third after Golden State residents discover the plan would raise taxes. (Sally Pipes, 1/28)
Richmond Times-Dispatch: To Improve Health Care, Virginia Has Better Options Than Expanding Medicaid
Medicaid was intended to help the most vulnerable Americans like the elderly and the disabled. But in state after state, Medicaid’s expansion to able-bodied, childless, working-age adults has created an unsustainable burden on taxpayers and crowded out resources for the truly needy and other priorities, such as roads and schools. (J.C. Hernandez, 1/27)
