Viewpoints: In Washington, Honest Partisanship Isn’t The Problem, Bipartisan Dishonesty Is
A selection of opinions on health care developments from around the state.
San Francisco Chronicle:
Health Care Fight Shows Washington At Its Worst
I like partisan fights when those fights are about something real. The Medicaid fight was at least about something real. But most of this nonsense is a battle of liars trying to protect past lies in the hope of being able to make new lies seem just plausible enough for the liars to keep repeating them. (Jonah Goldberg, 7/21)
East Bay Times:
D.C. Should Look To Alameda County On Health Care
As both sides of the aisle in Washington debate the many facets of health care, our representatives would be wise to look at Alameda County as an example of how the Affordable Care Act (ACA) has improved lives while saving health care costs. Since the ACA expansion of Medi-Cal, community health centers in Alameda County have worked to ensure that residents have access to health care — many for the first time in their lives. Thanks to the ACA, more than 42,000 new patients have enrolled at Community Health Centers in Alameda County. Lives have changed – previously ill persons are now able to work; those with chronic illnesses are making fewer trips to the ER for complications; and many who previously used the ER for care have a medical home and enjoy better health. (Ralph Silber and Sue Compton, 7/17)
Los Angeles Times:
As The Healthcare Bill Goes Down, It's Another Bad Week For Male Separatists
It’s been a bad week for male separatists. In Washington, D.C., the all-male Republican Senate leadership, which chose not to invite any female senators to their working-group meetings on repealing the Affordable Care Act, watched in frustration as their bill fizzled after those women declined to support it. Sen. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, demonstrating that overconfidence and sexism often go hand-in-hand, had insisted the bill could succeed without women senators’ input. “Nobody’s being excluded based upon gender,” he said. “Everybody’s at the table.” Sure, if your definition of everybody is “13 middle-aged guys in ill-fitting suits.” (Ann Friedman, 7/20)
Los Angeles Times:
With Obamacare Repeal Off The Table, Will Republicans Start Trying To Actually Improve Healthcare?
Miillions of Americans whose healthcare coverage was imperiled can breathe a sigh of relief now that congressional Republicans’ reckless efforts to dismantle the Affordable Care Act have foundered. They can thank a handful of courageous moderates in the Senate Republican Caucus for being unwilling to repeal the ACA without having a replacement ready that wouldn’t make matters worse for their constituents. (7/19)
Los Angeles Times:
Uh-Oh, The GOP Has No Choice But To Work With Democrats On Healthcare Reform
The sudden collapse of Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell’s healthcare bill on Monday was much more than a tactical setback for the Senate Republican leader once considered an unbeatable legislative wizard. It was a catastrophic failure for the GOP’s attempt to make one-party government work. It’s one thing to produce gridlock when control of Congress is divided. When one party manages to produce gridlock all by itself, something is seriously wrong. The setback means that Obamacare will almost certainly survive for the foreseeable future, despite seven years of GOP promises to repeal it. (Doyle McManus, 7/19)
The Mercury News:
The Game Is Not Over For Mitch McConnell
McConnell’s biggest challenge was getting 50 Republican senators to agree to vote for a “motion to proceed” on a bill that they disagreed with — knowing that it was unlikely to be amended in ways that would make a difference to their final votes given the split between Republican conservatives and moderates and given the Democrats’ refusal to cooperate. Instead of cooperation, Republicans would have to endure an onslaught of politically toxic Democratic amendments, as Senate Democrats forced them to cast one vote after another designed to make them look like monsters come Election Day. (Marc Thiessen, 7/18)
Los Angeles Times:
The Trump Administration Is Using Obamacare Marketing Dollars To Attack Obamacare
President Trump keeps saying Obamacare will fail on its own. So why is his administration trying so hard to kill it? The latest effort was uncovered by the Daily Beast website, which reported Thursday that Trump’s Department of Health and Human Services was dipping into its “consumer information and outreach” budget — money Congress provided to encourage people to obtain insurance through Obamacare — to produce nearly two dozen YouTube videos blasting the law as burdensome and harmful. (7/21)
Los Angeles Times:
Is Rand Paul's Opposition To The GOP Health Bill Principled, Or Cynical?
The greatest trick any politician can pull off is to get his self-interest and his principles in perfect alignment. As Thomas More observed in Robert Bolt’s “A Man for All Seasons,” “If we lived in a State where virtue was profitable, common sense would make us good, and greed would make us saintly.” (Jonah Goldberg, 7/18)
Los Angeles Times:
How I Got Caught In The Crossfire Between V.P. Pence And Ohio Gov. Kasich Over Medicaid
At the National Governors Conference on Friday, Vice President Mike Pence took Ohio Gov. John Kasich to task in a speech attacking the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion. Pence presumably had two goals. The first was to silence Kasich, the loudest voice among GOP governors opposed to congressional Republicans’ efforts to drastically roll back Medicaid as part of their ACA repeal plans. The second was to justify that rollback by claiming that the Medicaid expansion eroded services for the program’s traditional beneficiaries, including the disabled. (Michael Hiltzik, 7/17)
Los Angeles Times:
USC’s Silence On Its Medical School Dean’s Double Life Is Deafening
Dr. Carmen A. Puliafito, the former dean of the USC Keck School of Medicine, led quite a rollicking double life. According to a Times investigation, he was a highly respected doctor, administrator and prolific fundraiser for the university — but at the same time, according to explicit videos and interviews, he found time to party with a circle of criminals and drug users who said he used methamphetamine and other drugs with them. (7/19)
Los Angeles Times:
USC Bosses Flunk The Leadership Test Amid Shocking Allegations About Former Medical School Dean
By now you probably know the details.Dr. Carmen Puliafito, a $1.1-million-a-year professor, doctor, dean and big-bucks rainmaker for the University of Southern California, left plenty of time in his busy schedule for extracurricular activities. They included drug-fueled parties with a prostitute, convicted criminals and drug addicts. Los Angeles Times sleuths dug up photos of Puliafito’s exploits in hotel rooms, apartments and even the dean’s office at USC, including a shot of him using a butane torch to light a glass pipe while a female companion smoked heroin. (Steve Lopez, 7/20)
Los Angeles Times:
Dear Media: When You Cover Death By Suicide, Do It Thoughtfully
When a family member died by suicide, my parents chose not to tell me his method. They wanted me to remember him as he lived, for both of our sakes. While I didn’t understand their decision at the time, I now see it as one borne out of deep care. I was especially thankful for my parents’ thoughtfulness after reading the media coverage of Linkin Park singer Chester Bennington’s death by suicide this week. (Melissa Batchelor Warnke, 7/21)
Sacramento Bee:
Laura's Law Helps Severely Mentally Ill People
Passed in 2002, the law allows participating counties to obtain court orders to provide assisted outpatient treatment for seriously mentally ill people... Since we adopted Laura’s Law, Yolo County has experienced a 50 percent reduction in police calls and transportation to psychiatric hospitals involving the individuals being cared for under the law. (Matt Rexroad, 7/15)
Orange County Register:
‘Urgent … Alarming’ – But Rehab Investigator Won’t Be In Thick Of SoCal Action Any Time Soon – Orange County Register
AB 572, by Assemblywoman Sharon Quirk-Silva, D-Fullerton, would shatter the California Department of Health Care Services’s regulatory model by stationing a single inspector in or near Costa Mesa – home to the densest concentration of licensed addiction treatment facilities in California outside of Malibu – rather than having all inspectors based in far-off Sacramento, as they are currently. It can take up to a 18 months for a Sacramento analyst to respond to a local complaint, and that’s only when the people complaining can tease out precisely who to complain to, and how to contact them, Quirk-Silva said. (Teri Sforza, 7/20)
Los Angeles Times:
Domestic Violence Victims Shouldn't Have To Choose Between Deportation And Medical Care
When Elena attempted to break up with her abusive boyfriend, he beat her horribly, saying he would leave her with scars by which to remember him. Although badly injured, she did not contact the police to report the domestic violence. Nor did she seek medical care for her open wounds or the ringing in her ear. She had heard news of President Trump’s expanded immigration enforcement policies and stories of immigration agents arresting domestic violence and human trafficking victims inside courthouses. She had also learned that her state, California, requires medical professionals to report domestic violence and sexual assault to the police, and she feared deportation more than she desired medical care. (Jane K. Stoever, 7/17)
East Bay Times:
Geronimo! 71-Year-Old Woman Who Hates Flying Will Skydive To Support Cancer-Stricken Grandson
Rebecca Byrom freely admits that she hates to fly. Also known as Grandma Bee, Byrom has passed on trips to exciting locales because she didn’t want to deal with the anxiety of getting on an airplane.On Saturday, Grandma Bee, 71, will jump out of one. (Gary Peterson, 7/19)
Sacramento Bee:
Why California Must Step In For EPA On Pesticides
More than a million pounds of Dow’s brain-damaging pesticide chlorpyrifos are dumped on California crops every year, accounting for a fifth of all U.S. use.So when Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt announced this spring he was stopping plans to ban the dangerous pesticide, he knew he was laying a disproportionate share of well-documented health risks squarely on Californians, especially farm workers and their children. (Sarah Aird and Jonathan Evans, 7/12)