Viewpoints: Will Trump Keep Promise To Tackle Opioid Crisis? ‘Right To Try’ Law Is Right For Patients
Opinion writers express views on health care issues.
The New York Times:
How Trump Can Keep His Vows On Opioids And Infrastructure
President Trump has correctly identified two big challenges that Americans want him to tackle this year — the opioid epidemic and the country’s dilapidated and overstretched infrastructure. Mr. Trump promised to address these vexing issues last year, too, but made almost no progress. ... One recommendation was for the government to increase access to substance abuse treatment. The administration could do so by demanding that health insurance companies cover such care. (2/3)
The Wall Street Journal:
Giving Patients One More Shot
American medicine is producing new treatments for everything from cancer to blindness, and one question is whether government drug approvals can keep pace. One response is to allow some patients access to drugs still in the pipeline, and a “right to try” bill in Congress is an important moment for personal freedom, with a word or two about the finer details. ...Right to try is not a miracle drug. But at minimum it would move the decision over treatment and risk closer to the patient facing a tough diagnosis or death. (2/4)
Bloomberg:
'Right To Try' Law Won't Lead To Miracle Cures
During his State of the Union address, Trump’s brief foray into medical issues sounded almost reasonable. People do want lower drug prices, as he promised. And who could argue when he said he would help people with incurable diseases? But there’s a problem with the channel he endorsed – the so-called right-to-try law that passed last year in the Senate. Experts who’ve been pushing to improve terminally ill patients’ access to experimental drugs say this law isn’t based on any realistic assessment of the problem. The law aims to limit the powers of FDA, but FDA is doing much more good than harm in advancing medical science and promoting the interests of patients. (Faye Flam, 2/2)
St. Louis Post Dispatch:
No Money, No Follow-Through On Trump's Opioid 'emergency'
On the short list of things President Donald Trump did right in his first year in office, the appointment of the President’s Commission on Combating Drug Addiction and the Opioid Crisis is near the top. Unfortunately, appointing commissions is easy. Following through with serious, sustained actions is hard. Trump has skipped the hard part. (2/3)
St. Louis Post Dispatch:
Three Powerful Businessmen Take On Health Care Costs. Good.
UnitedHealth Group Inc., the nation’s largest private health insurer, totaled 2017 earnings of more than $200 billion and a gross profit margin of 23.77 percent. Not quite a month later, Jeff Bezos, the Amazon CEO who once said, “Your margin is my opportunity,” announced Tuesday he and two powerful partners were forming their own health care company, one that would be “free from profit-making incentives and constraints.” This could be the biggest development in American health care since the passage of the Affordable Care Act in 2010. Or the dense and dysfunctional jungle that is the American health care system could prove impenetrable to even Bezos and his partners, Warren Buffett, chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, and Jamie Dimon, chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase, the nation’s largest bank. (2/4)
Columbus Dispatch:
Death Penalty Unjust For Opioid Addict
As a professor and scholar of how our society deals with drug use, I was struck by recent news of Ohio’s plan to kill Raymond Tibbetts on Feb. 13. This decision is fundamentally unjust in view of Tibbetts’ history of untreated addiction. It is also wholly inconsistent with our current effort to address substance use as a health issue. (Leo Beletsky, 2/)
Chicago Tribune:
Raise The Tobacco-Buying Age To 21
Few 20-somethings or older adults take up cigarette smoking. They understand that the health risks are inevitable and often lethal. Put another way: If people don’t get hooked on cigarettes at a young age, they generally don’t start to smoke. How to steer young people away from an addiction that will wreck their health? One way is for Illinois lawmakers to raise to 21 from 18 the legal age to buy tobacco products. That would limit access to cigarettes, and not only for 18-, 19- and 20-year-olds. That’s because younger adolescents who smoke need someone to buy, or give them, cigarettes. (2/2)
Los Angeles Times:
Banning Tackle Football For Kids? There's Nothing 'Nanny State' About It If The Science Is Sound
As the sports-loving part of the population looks forward to the National Football League's annual Super Bowl on Sunday, legislatures in New York and Illinois are zeroing in on a different aspect of the nation's most popular sport: brain injuries among young players. Lawmakers in both states have introduced measures that would ban tackle football for children under age 12. Making kids wait longer to don pads and helmets is not a bad idea, nor would it be a bad choice to extend such limits to other sports, such as hockey, lacrosse and boxing, where children as young as 8 strap on gloves and protective gear and punch each other in the head. (2/2)
San Jose Mercury News:
Forget Diets. Dieting--Learn About Eating Disorders
Eating disorders are silent diseases that develop over time and are often overlooked until a person is seriously ill or hospitalized. A frightening number of people die of eating disorders every year, yet their death is attributed to cardiac arrest, starvation or suicide. (Janice Bremis, 2/1)
