Viewpoints: Lawmakers Should Be Ashamed Over Zika Gridlock
A selection of opinions on health care developments from around the state.
Sacramento Bee:
Gridlock In Congress Gets Dangerous As Anti-Zika Funding Delayed
Given how dysfunctional Congress is, we expect partisan battles to sometimes block important legislation. Still, the current standoff over $1.1 billion to fight the Zika virus is absurd – and dangerous. Lawmakers ought to be ashamed – if they have any shame left – that they’re holding hostage essential funding for what is a real public health emergency. (6/29)
Orange County Register:
Congress' 'Outrageous' Obamacare Exchange Fraud
In defiance of the ACA, the Office of Personnel Management implemented a rule allowing congressmen and their staff to enroll in the D.C. Small Business Exchange, a health insurance marketplace Vitter says is “explicitly reserved” under ACA “for employers of … 50 persons or fewer.” In order to be eligible to purchase health insurance on the D.C. Exchange, Congress, which employs about 20,000 people, needed to enroll as a qualifying “small business.” In October 2013, unnamed staff in both the Republican-led House and Democrat-led Senate applied separately to the D.C. Exchange as employers with only 45 employees each, a designation they have kept – quite dishonestly – ever since. (Justin Haskins, 7/1).
Los Angeles Times:
The Supreme Court Ruling Is An Abortion-Rights Victory. But It Doesn't Guarantee Access To Services
Over seventy percent of American women who live in rural areas already have to travel more than 50 miles to get an abortion. Making it ever more onerous, a 2011 Texas sonogram law requires each woman to either view an image of her fetus or hear it exhaustively described, and then wait at least 24 hours before the procedure (often, the wait time is longer due to the demand for services providers face). This means that there is no single-day abortion procedure available in Texas. Even simpler medical abortions, ie. pill-based procedures, require an overnight visit, or a series of visits.The court’s ruling does not affect that law, and offers no guarantee of universal access. (Melissa Batchelor Warnke, 6/28)
Los Angeles Times:
After A SCOTUS Setback, Pro-Lifers Should Focus On Preventing Unwanted Pregnancies
Hopefully antiabortion activists will take this opportunity to focus more on preventing unwanted pregnancies. Colorado offers a good example of how prevention programs result in less unwanted pregnancies. Since 2009, the state has offered intrauterine devices and implants to teenagers and poor women. The birth rate among these populations declined by 40% between 2009 and 2013. (Berta Graciano-Buchman, 6/29)
Modesto Bee:
States Can’t Block Right To Abortion
A woman has the right to determine when and whether she will bear a child. That right – first established by the U.S. Supreme Court in Roe v. Wade in 1973 – was reaffirmed on Monday when the court struck down a law that placed obstacles in front of Texas women who wanted to get an abortion. The 5-3 decision in Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt stems from a 2013 law that set specific “safety” requirements on abortion providers. (6/28)
LA Daily News:
Abortion? Immigration? No, Court’s Biggest Rulings Are Yet To Come: Susan Shelley
The Supreme Court’s ruling in Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt, striking down two provisions of a Texas law as an unconstitutional burden on women seeking an abortion, was a reassuring victory for supporters of abortion rights. But Hillary Clinton sounded the alarm. “This fight isn’t over,” she tweeted after the decision was announced. (Susan Shelley, 6/30)
LA Daily News:
Should Pharmacists Have Religious Freedom?
The U.S. Supreme Court has refused to hear a case involving religious freedom and the pharmacy profession. This lets stand a Washington state law requiring pharmacies to dispense all federally approved drugs — including so-called morning-after birth control pills that some pharmacists object to for religious reasons. Was this the right decision? (Ben Boychuk and Joel Mathis, 6/30)
Orange County Register:
California Law Should Be Strengthened To Allow Rape Victims To Seek Civil Justice
The U.S. Department of Justice has five open Title IX sexual assault investigations ongoing against Stanford. According to Michele Landis Dauber, a Stanford law professor, only one student in its history has been expelled for sexual assault. That statistic illustrates that Stanford has, at best, an institutional indifference and, at worst, an acceptance of a rape culture. (John Manly, 7/1)
Orange County Register:
The High Price Of "Cheap" Drugs
Fifty percent more people overdose today than in 2006.
Fortunately, the Food and Drug Administration just approved the anti-addiction treatment Probuphine. It’s an implant placed in a person’s upper arm, where it releases a steady stream of an anti-addiction drug called buprenorphine to help addicts stay sober. (Sally C. Pipes, 6/27)
Bakersfield Californian:
Everyone Deserves Health Care
Orange County is simply not the same without Disneyland. Silicon Valley would suffer without Google and Apple. Kern County would fail without agriculture, and Kern County’s agricultural economy would collapse without farm workers...Undocumented Californians constitute a vast majority of farm workers in our state. Thousands of these adult residents plant our crops, pick our produce, pack our trucks and keep the agricultural industry humming, yet the only access they have to health care in Kern County is in the emergency room, and the county spends billions of dollars each year on emergency room costs because that’s where families go when they don’t have health care. (Pilar Medrano, 6/29)
Oakland Tribune:
Health Care Needs 'High-Risk Pools
Obamacare guarantees all Americans health insurance. But it doesn't guarantee that coverage will be affordable. That's becoming a bit of a problem. This year, premiums were up an average of 8 percent. In many states, double-digit premium hikes were the norm. Next year, they're likely to be even bigger, according to Marilyn Tavenner, the former chief of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services under President Barack Obama and current head of the insurers' main trade group -- America's Health Insurance Plans. (Sally Pipes, 6/28)
Los Angeles Times:
Take It From A Trauma Center Physician — Gun Violence In America Is As Routine As The Sunrise
As an emergency physician working at a trauma center, I recently got a call for a gunshot wound victim headed to us just as I walked in the door. We received another call for a second victim while still trying to revive the first. Neither one survived. Being unable to save these lives was tough. The difficult conversations with the families of these victims were devastating. But somehow, the worst part of my day was when I walked out of the hospital and realized that nothing out of the ordinary happened at work that day. Seeing patients die from gun violence is just normal for me. (Erick Eiting, 6/26)
Orange County Register:
State Officials Addicted To Nicotine Taxes
The tobacco-tax initiative’s backers say “an increase in the tobacco tax is an appropriate way to decrease tobacco use and mitigate the costs of health care treatment.” It’s true that a higher tax discourages smoking. So a higher e-cigarette tax would also discourage vaping, which happens to be a great way to stop smoking. The logic seems inescapable that hiking taxes on vaping products is more about revenue than public health. (Steven Greenhut, 6/25)
Los Angeles Times:
Stop Worrying About GMOs; It's That Organic Granola Bar That Could Make You Sick
Karma can be so cruel. Just think how many times anti-GMO activists have protested against the imaginary risks of food that has been genetically modified. Now a favorite snack of those same protesters, the sacred granola bar, has been found to pose an actual health risk. ... Recalls of organic foods amounted to 7% of all food units recalled in 2015, even though organic farms account for only about 1% of agricultural acreage. In early June, several types of Clif Bars were recalled from stores because they contained organic sunflower kernels potentially contaminated with a bacterium called listeria. (Henry I. Miller, 6/30)