Viewpoints: U.S. Mortality Report Paints A Grim Picture, But Not All Hope Is Lost
A selection of opinions on health care developments from around the state.
Los Angeles Times:
How We Can Save 500,000 Lives In 2019 Without Even Trying Hard
The latest mortality report from the Centers for Disease Control casts a wintry pall on American healthcare. For the third consecutive year, U.S. life expectancy fell. Our nation now ranks 29th globally in age-adjusted mortality despite leading the world in healthcare spending by a huge margin. Dig beneath the drifts of data, however, and you’ll find reasons for optimism. Look at the 10 leading causes of death, for example. At least half of these could be dramatically reduced with the knowledge and technology physicians already possess. (Robert Pear, 12/27)
Sacramento Bee:
Texas Judge Is Wrong On Affordable Care Act Ruling
A federal judge’s Dec. 14 decision that the Affordable Care Act is unconstitutional is stunning in its poor reasoning. Few, including conservative opponents of Obamacare, believe that the ruling has a chance to be upheld on appeal. But the decision, from conservative Judge Reed O’Connor in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, jeopardizes health benefits for tens of millions of people. (Erwin Chemerinsky, 12/26)
San Jose Mercury News:
Trump Medicare Drug Plan Would Hurt Most Vulnerable
The Trump administration proposed an “international pricing index” intended to reduce drug spending under Medicare Part B by replicating the rates negotiated in other countries. It seems like a commonsense solution: Why should America pay more than other countries? The truth, however, is more complicated: lower foreign prices emerge from one-size-fits-all health care systems that drive patients to use certain drugs while refusing others, irrespective of individual needs. (Tony Coelho, 1/2)
USA Today:
Gun Deaths Soar To Record 'American Carnage'
When President Donald Trump invoked the term "American carnage" in his inaugural address, he wasn't referring to gun violence, but the label undeniably fits: Record numbers of Americans are killing themselves or each other with firearms. During the first year of Trump's presidency, guns were used to kill 39,773 Americans, the greatest number of such deaths since the government began tracking them in 1979, according to a recent report from federal health officials. Suicides made up more than half the total. (1/3)
The Mercury News:
Why Patients Deceive Their Health Care Providers
A new medical study upholds an old truth about patients deceiving their health care providers: It happens a lot. The deception is, of course, mutual. In medical journals, it’s generally referred to as “nondisclosure” or “withholding.” On the TV drama “House”, it was called “lying” and the lead character, Dr House, famously claimed that everyone did it. (Dr. Kate Scannell, 1/4)
Los Angeles Times:
Want To Reduce Opioid Use? Nudge The Doctors Who Prescribe Them
An Orange County doctor was arrested by federal authorities in December on suspicion of illegally prescribing narcotics, “flooding Southern California with huge quantities of opioids,” according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Dr. Dzung Ahn Pham is accused of distributing drugs to five people who died of overdoses and a sixth who has been charged in a DUI crash that killed a Costa Mesa fire captain. In addition, the gunman who killed 12 people in Thousand Oaks in November had pills that Pham had prescribed for someone else.Although the allegations against Pham paint a stark picture of extreme negligence and violation of the Hippocratic Oath to do no harm, most of us doctors have the best of intentions when prescribing medications, including narcotics. However, even when our motivations are pure, the reality is that we still vastly overprescribe opioids. In Los Angeles County, doctors in 2017 wrote 4,266,149 opioid prescriptions. That includes me. (Atul Nakhasi, 1/1)
Los Angeles Times:
'Just To Be Safe' Is Exactly The Wrong Reason To Get A Medical Test
In tennis parlance, I had my friend Stewart on a yo-yo, pushing the ball from side to side, front to back, forcing him into ever more desperate, lung-searing wind sprints just to stay in the point. On the penultimate exchange, I gently slid the ball rightward into the open court, convinced he’d never recover in time. After all, we’d been playing for more than two hours, and he was red-faced, gasping for air. And yet, recover he did. With a thunderous groan, this 56-year-old former collegiate linebacker lashed at the ball, driving it down the line for a winner. I didn’t even move. (Snoey, 12/30)
San Francisco Chronicle:
California Must Correct Course To Create A Healthy Cannabis Market
California’s first year of legal cannabis offered lots of promise — and failed to deliver.Part of the reason why California’s legal cannabis market has hit the skids has to do with outsize expectations. Proposition 64’s political backers were looking to score points with the public. Business interests were eager to exploit a massive new market. Government officials expected a deep new revenue source for their budgets. (1/1)