Viewpoints: What The Presidential Election Could Mean For Obamacare Subsidies And Medicare
A selection of opinions on health care from around the country.
The Wall Street Journal:
What If The Next President Cuts Off Obamacare Subsidies For Insurers?
Humana’s announcement Wednesday that it is considering raising premiums and changing or eliminating plans makes it only the latest insurer to say it might scale back involvement on the Affordable Care Act exchanges next year. Here’s the $9 billion question those insurers that remain on the ACA marketplaces ought to consider: What happens if Donald Trump is elected–and cuts off their access to Obamacare cost-sharing subsidies? (Chris Jacobs, 5/5)
Modern Healthcare:
Would A President Trump Stick To His Promise Not To Cut Medicare?
No one honestly knows what presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump will say about healthcare policy—or anything else—during the general election campaign, and no one can confidently predict what health policies he would pursue as president. It's likely that Trump himself doesn't know, given his frequent reversals on issues such as taxes, abortion, and the minimum wage. (Harris Meyer, 5/5)
Huffington Post:
More Red States Embrace Obamacare, As Long As You Don’t Call It That
Presidential candidates and other national politicians throw around a lot of rhetoric about health care reform, but the real action is happening in conservative state legislatures across the country. Red state governors and lawmakers are deciding what health care for low-income people and those with disabilities delivered through Medicaid, the joint federal-state health benefit program, will look like in the post-Obamacare era. (Jeffrey Young, 5/4)
The Charlotte Observer:
Obamacare Is Flawed, But There Is A Solution
Why, in the age of the Affordable Care Act, would a large, respected group of physicians develop A Physicians’ Proposal for Single-Payer Health Care Reform? On Thursday, this document was released by a panel at the National Press Club and published online in the American Journal of Public Health. (Jessica Saxe, 5/5)
U.S. News & World Report:
The New Health Care Rationing
The Affordable Care Act recently passed its sixth birthday, and while voting for it contributed to my 2010 loss, I could not be prouder to see it increase access to care and patient choice while lowering overall costs. Before the health care law, insurance company bureaucrats, rather than doctors and patients, made too many health care decisions. Thanks to the law, insurance coverage restrictions based on preexisting conditions have gone the way of the dodo bird. Yet, when it comes to prescription drugs, the health insurance industry has evolved a new way of rationing health care. Advancements in specialty drugs have the potential to significantly improve the lives of patients suffering from serious, chronic and life-threatening conditions – from cancer to heart disease to rheumatoid arthritis. But, because these new pharmaceuticals often come from the latest breakthroughs in biotechnology, utilizing complex formulas made from living organisms, they are bound to be more expensive. So, many insurance companies and pharmacy benefit managers, protective of their bottom line, are finding ways to restrict coverage despite the drugs' effectiveness. (Dan Maffei, 5/5)
Health Affairs:
Twenty-First Century Medicaid: The Final Managed Care Rule
The modern contours of a 21st century regulatory framework finally came into full view on April 25 with the release of a 1,425-page final rule that will guide the delivery of health care for tens of millions of children and adults. All insurance regulation is important given the population health and welfare considerations at stake in modern health care financing structures. But nothing quite rivals Medicaid managed care in terms of the complexity involved in delivering and paying for health care for the poorest populations, who face particularly high health risks. As such, the importance of the Medicaid managed care rule for coverage, access, quality, efficiency, and value hardly can be overstated. (Sara Rosenbaum, 5/5)
The Washington Post:
The FDA Sets A New Course To Save Lives From Opioid Addiction
More details about Prince’s final days are emerging to the effect that the legendary pop star may have been addicted to prescription opioid painkillers at the time of his death in April. Officials have not yet confirmed that such medications caused Prince’s death; the drugs may have had nothing to do with it. If, however, Prince was killed by an overdose, there would, sadly, be nothing unusual about it. Death from prescription opioids is an everyday occurrence in the United States; as a matter of fact, in 2014 it occurred about 52 times per day, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (5/5)
St. Louis Post-Dispatch:
'Check The Box' Mentality Is Obstacle To Rural Health Care
Missouri’s public policy of “banning the box” as a way to remove obstacles for ex-offenders as they attempt to re-enter society has fallen on deaf ears at the Missouri Board of Healing Arts. In a March 28 order denying reinstatement of Dr. Rajitha Johnson’s medical license, the board isolated their denial on her past white-collar guilty pleas from 2002 and 2009. The board ignored almost everything else in her multivolume, 4-inch-thick license application and filed documentary record. It closed its eyes to the detailed evidence of her background, education, medical career, work history, and social, religious and volunteer work, both before and after her convictions. This attested to her medical skills and compassion, her rehabilitation, her value to the community and her good moral character. (Mike Dandino, 5/6)
The Miami Herald:
Alzheimer’s Disease Is No Laughing Matter
Over the past few years, I’ve met nearly a dozen metro Atlantans suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, the most common cause of dementia in older adults. In all that time, I have yet to meet even one or a loved one who found the debilitating disease funny. So like so many others, I was shocked when I read last week that Will Ferrell even considered accepting a role in a comedy project about Ronald Reagan’s second term in the mid-1980s, when he is thought to have begun showing symptoms of the disease that in 2004 killed him. (Gracie Bonds Staples, 5/5)
Los Angeles Times:
Will Hospitals Reject California's Assisted Suicide Law?
Medical leaders at Huntington Hospital in Pasadena voted behind closed doors this week for the facility's hundreds of doctors and affiliated personnel to opt out of California's assisted suicide law, which goes into effect June 9. If the proposed amendment to the hospital's medical rules is approved by the board of directors this month, Huntington will become one of the largest non-religious medical institutions statewide to turn its back on a law that Gov. Jerry Brown called "a comfort" to anyone "dying in prolonged and excruciating pain." (David Lazarus, 5/6)
The Cleveland Plain Dealer:
When Talcum Powder Can Make You Rich, It's Time To Reassess Our Litigation Mania
I read a piece earlier this week in The Plain Dealer which gives new meaning to the expression "keep your powder dry." A jury in a Missouri state court ruled that Johnson & Johnson must pay a defendant $55 million dollars because the jury was convinced that the company's talcum powder caused her ovarian cancer. Earlier this year, another Missouri jury ordered Johnson & Johnson to pay $72 million under similar circumstances. (Michael Kirsch, 5/6)
The Kansas City Star:
Gov. Sam Brownback’s Shameful Attack On Planned Parenthood
As usual, the sun rose in the East this week. And, par for the course, Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback’s administration again tried to unfairly punish Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri. The governor carried out his threat to cut off Medicaid reimbursements to the group, which immediately and properly filed a lawsuit challenging that pitiful decision. (5/5)
Lexington Herald Leader:
Kentucky Needs A Better-Educated Nursing Workforce
It is clear that nursing will long remain a high demand career choice. The Bureau of Labor Statistics continues to rank nursing as one of the top two job growth areas. The registered nurse workforce is expected to grow from 2.71 million in 2012 to 3.24 million in 2022, cited by the American Association of Colleges of Nursing. The public seems well versed in this high-demand workforce need as evidenced by our large pool of undergraduate students declaring nursing as an intended college major. (Marcia J. Hern and Velinda J. Block, 5/5)
