Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Viewpoints: Reflecting On VA Health Care On Veterans Day; NRA Needs To Promote Research Efforts To End Gun Violence
The New York Times: By Protecting Veterans’ Health, You May Protect Your Own
This Veterans Day, in addition to honoring those who serve in uniform, we should spend some time remembering the 300,000 employees of the Veterans Health Administration. The V.H.A. — the nation’s largest public health system — doesn’t just keep veterans healthy; it has developed treatments that help all Americans. And if we don’t defend it, it could be dismantled and auctioned off in whatever remains of the Trump era. (Suzanne Gordon, 11/10)
Fox News: Veterans Day – Veterans Have No Better Friend Than President Trump
President Trump has signed the most substantial veterans’ health-care reform in a generation, making Veterans Choice a permanent part of American law. Today our veterans have access to the real-time, world-class care they have earned, whether at a private health-care provider or the Department of Veterans Affairs. This law will also improve the VA’s ability to recruit and retain quality health-care professionals, give veterans access to walk-in care, and expand health-care choices, including options for telehealth and mental health services. (Vice President Mike Pence, 11/11)
Fox News: Veterans Day: By The Time I Saw My VA Doctor, He Said It Was Too Late
As I sat in the Phoenix Veterans Affairs hospital on Dec. 21, 2012, I had no idea my life was about to change. I’d seen a nurse practitioner in 2011 and was finally consulting with a VA urologist almost a year later. I knew something was wrong, but I wasn’t prepared for the diagnosis I was about to receive. “You’ve got one of the worst cases of prostate cancer I’ve ever seen in my life,” the urologist said to me. “Hospice will call you Monday morning.” Those words hit me like a ton of bricks. (Steve Cooper, 11/11)
USA Today: Doctors: NRA Should Work With Us To Reduce Death Toll From Guns
After the American College of Physicians released a paper last week about reducing firearm injuries and deaths in America, the NRA tweeted the statement: “Someone should tell self-important anti-gun doctors to stay in their lane.” A couple of days later, the Centers for Disease Control published new data indicating that the death toll from gun violence in our nation continues to rise. As the NRA demanded that we doctors stay in our lane, we awoke to learn of the 307th mass shooting in 2018 with another 12 innocent lives lost to an entirely preventable cause of death — gun violence. (Megan L. Ranney, Heather Sher and Dara Kass, 11/11)
USA Today: Thousand Oaks: Update Gun And Mental Health Laws To Prevent Shootings
The horrendous killings and pipe bomb threats over the past few weeks have raised the specter of evil and hatred lurking in our society. We should pay close attention to the mindsets of the alleged perpetrators, because there is nothing normal about what they did or said. The rule of thumb is not to render opinions without examining them. But let's be honest: the actions and conduct of these men have been off the deep end. (Stephen N. Xenakis, 11/9)
Los Angeles Times: Save A Grandma. Get Your Flu Shot
A natural disaster is bearing down on our country, one assured to take the lives of thousands and hospitalize tens of thousands more: the annual flu epidemic. Last year’s strains were particularly virulent, with 900,000 Americans hospitalized and more than 80,000 people dying from the flu or its complications.To make matters worse, many of these people died needlessly. The flu vaccination rate in the United States hovers around 45%. If we could increase this rate to 70% — the level required to reach “community” or “herd” immunity and keep an epidemic from propagating — the majority of the deaths, hospitalizations and missed days of work could be avoided. But to do that, we need to properly incentivize vaccination. (Ian Ayres, 11/12)
Stat: Summer Research Opportunities For High Schoolers Should Be Available To All
For some high school students, an ideal summer is one spent on the beach with friends. For others, like me, an ideal summer is one spent hunched over a lab bench carrying out experiments. I had two such summers, which amplified my passion for science and profoundly motivated me in my studies. But I worry that this experience is denied to many who could learn and blossom from summer research opportunities. (Kenneth Pham, 11/12)
Lexington Herald Examiner: Legislature Must Beef Up Staffing At Nursing Homes
In Kentucky, it isn’t unusual to find nursing homes that schedule one registered nurse or nurse’s aide to do the impossible — provide quality care to 40 residents for the entirety of a 12-hour shift. This is nowhere close to the federal government’s recommendation of an “expected staffing” level that provides residents more than one hour of care from registered nurses and two hours and 45 minutes from nurse’s aides every day. The feds also urge states to beef up those requirements, and many have. But not Kentucky. In the Bluegrass, the majority of nursing homes fall short of that goal — and many fall way short. (Sherry Culp, 11/9)
Sun Sentinel: A Triumph For Voting Rights. Next Up, Medicaid?
Also on Tuesday, voters in Idaho, Nebraska and Utah voted in favor of ballot initiatives to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, something that Scott and the Florida Legislature have refused to do. That political spitefulness — rooted in the Republican vendetta against President Barack Obama — left some 1.5-million low-income Floridians ineligible for Medicaid, including about 467,000 who also do not qualify for health insurance subsidies under the ACA. Idaho, Nebraska and Utah are conservative states that voted strongly for Donald Trump. In three other states — Kansas, Wisconsin and Maine — the election of Democratic governors likely means a total of six more states will accept the Medicaid expansion, leaving only Florida and ten others as outliers. (11/8)
