Viewpoints: Voters Look To Congress To Save Subsidies; Hospital Pricing; Handling Anthrax

Los Angeles Times: Opinion Poll Shocker: Voters Want Politicians To Save Obamacare
Members of Congress often take the view that inaction is less dangerous to their political futures than action, but the moment is approaching that doing nothing could cost millions of Americans a cumulative billions of dollars. Unsurprisingly, several recent polls show that the public wants the lawmakers to get off their duffs. The issue is the lawsuit known as King vs.Burwell, which is expected to yield a decision from the Supreme Court before the end of this month. The court could rule to invalidate Affordable Care Act premium subsidies for as many as 6.5 million people. If that happens, the polls show, a majority of respondents want Congress or the states to restore them. (Michael Hiltzik, 6/8)

Miami Herald: Legislature Made The Right Decision
Last week, the Florida House rejected the Senate’s FHIX Medicaid expansion bill. It changed tremendously over the past two months. As it evolved, the state cost increased, the coverage dropped and there was still no chance that the federal government would have approved the plan as written. Yet, every iteration was Medicaid expansion: an entitlement program to primarily serve able-bodied adults with no children. We should be proud that Florida provides a strong safety net for people who cannot provide for themselves. ... Since the federal government created Medicaid in 1965, Florida has never provided coverage for able-bodied adults with no children. Over the past 50 years, before Obamacare, Democratic and Republican administrations supported this decision. It makes sense. (Fla. House Speaker Steve Crisafulli, 6/8)

Bloomberg: Hospitals Price-Gouge, But It's Not Their Fault
U.S. hospitals are price-gouging the people who can least afford it, according to a new paper. But don't blame them. Blame Congress. The paper, written by Ge Bai at Washington and Lee University and Gerard F. Anderson at Johns Hopkins and published Monday in Health Affairs, compared the 2012 list price for services at 4,483 hospitals to what Medicare paid that year for the same services. ... But these data are better interpreted as evidence of policy failure. The Affordable Care Act took some steps to stop hospitals from price-gouging the uninsured, requiring they charge these patients no more than what commercial health plans will pay. But those protections only apply to nonprofit hospitals, which, as Bai and Anderson's data suggest, aren't the problem. (Christopher Flavelle, 6/8)

Bloomberg: The Proper Care And Handling Of Anthrax
The U.S. military's Great Anthrax Giveaway of 2015 gets more worrisome by the day. At last count, Army researchers in Utah had sent out live anthrax samples to more than 50 labs in 17 states, Australia, Canada and South Korea. This mishap is all the more disturbing because it comes less than a year after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention accidentally shipped live anthrax to three labs not equipped to handle it. So it's worth repeating now the calls for reform that were made then: The government has to change the way it deals with deadly toxins and germ agents. (6/8)

The Wall Street Journal: Misplaced Hopes For Curing Alzheimer’s
Alzheimer’s disease affects 5.3 million Americans and is this country’s sixth most deadly disease. It has existed for thousands of years and confounded scientists for more than a century. But that doesn’t stop the dreamers from dreaming. Last week an Ivy League-educated friend shared some big news. “Have you heard?” he asked: Marijuana might stop Alzheimer’s. While neuroscientists, geneticists and biochemists have mapped out the disease’s multi-causal nature and its immensely complex genetic-environmental interaction, the public seems determined to find an easy out. (David Shenk and Rudy Tanzi, 6/8)

Tampa Bay Times: Positive Changes To Improve Health Care Access
Too many of us know what it is like to have a sick family member or friend. Almost anyone you meet can tell you about a friend or family member who has been diagnosed with cancer, suffers from Alzheimer's, or is living with a rare disease (30 million Americans have a rare disease — rare diseases are not a rare problem). On a personal level, I have family members who have suffered with Parkinson's — I witness this debilitating disease through them. How can we get cures and treatments to these people who desperately need them? That is the question the 21st Century Cures Initiative was created to answer. (Gus Bilirakis, 6/8)

Orlando Sentinel: Changes In Health Care Kill Intimacy: My Word
The cost of medicine has increased significantly with recent changes in the health-care system. A procedure that previously cost out-of-pocket $25 plus an insurance payment now costs $250 plus an insurance payment. This large price increase is largely due to the fact that doctors' offices are now "owned" by the hospital, and procedures are coded as "outpatient hospital procedures," which pay significantly more. (Rosemarie Farina, 6/9)

The Philadelphia Inquirer: Health Insurers Balance Long- And Short-Term Moves But Can Pharma?
Commercial success for a new drug brand increasingly depends on whether and, how much, third-party payers will reimburse for it. As more physicians work for large, hospital-based networks, their decision-making role in a drug's success passes to discriminating private insurers and those provider networks that are also offering insurance plans. For that reason it is worth looking at an important trend among health care insurers to see if it holds a message for pharma. Apparently health insurers find their best profit margins in what they call the commercial market, that is, employers. In the words of a strategic analyst at a Blue Cross/Blue Shield in New England, "Commercial is still king, so any insurer that doesn't have a solid book of fully-insured [employee] lives is probably struggling to make money." (Daniel R. Hoffman, 6/8)

The New York Times: What Doctors Say About Transgender Troops
The American Medical Association on Monday challenged the military’s policy barring transgender troops, stating in a resolution that there is “no medically valid reason” to disqualify them from serving. The association urged the Defense Department to offer medical care to transgender troops consistent with the type of treatment that is readily available to civilians. (6/9)

The Washington Post: I’m A Feminist. Here’s Why I Don’t Support The ‘Female Viagra.’
For the first time ever, a committee of scientific advisers has recommended the FDA approve a libido drug for women. “Female Viagra” could be on pharmacy shelves by early next year if the FDA follows that recommendation. Many women’s health advocates are calling this a victory, saying this little pink pill finally will bring gender equity to the field of sexual medicine. I disagree. I’m a pro-sex feminist, but I believe that advocating for women’s health means finding solutions for women’s sexual problems that are safe and effective. That hasn’t happened. Not yet. (Cindy Pearson, 6/8)

MinnPost: 'Faux-Advocacy,' Not Science, Prompted FDA Panel's OK Of 'Low Libido' Drug For Women, Critics Charge
Last Thursday, an advisory committee to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) voted 18-6 to recommend that the drug flibanserin be approved for the treatment of low libido in women. The FDA has said it will make a final decision about the drug by Aug. 18. Thursday’s vote stunned many observers, for the committee had previously rejected flibanserin’s approval — twice. And the scientific evidence regarding this drug has not changed significantly since those earlier votes. So what did change? (Susan Perry, 6/8)

The Statesman: Health Agency Is Still Too Big, Even With New Leadership
The new executive commissioner at the Texas Health and Human Services Commission has his work cut out for him. Last week, Gov. Greg Abbott announced that Chief Deputy Commissioner Chris Traylor will take over the top job from embattled Commissioner Kyle Janek. In fact, Traylor decided to forgo his intended retirement date of May 31 to take the job. (6/8)