Viewpoints: An Actual Feasible Plan For Universal Health Coverage Exists
A selection of opinions on health care developments from around the state.
Los Angeles Times:
Finally, A Universal Healthcare Proposal That Would Work For Everyone
Up to now, single-payer and universal health coverage proposals in the U.S. have foundered on one shoal or another: They're ungodly expensive; they replace plans that people like; they're too sudden; they're not sudden enough; they're politically impossible, etc., etc., etc. But now take a look at "Medicare Extra for All." It's a universal coverage proposal released last week by the Center for American Progress, a progressive think tank associated with the Democratic Party. (Michael Hiltzik, 2/27)
Sacramento Bee:
California: Stop Nursing Homes From Sedating Seniors With Antipsychotics
Three years ago, I had to make a decision that broke my heart: I had to move my 88-year-old mother into a nursing home. Eight years earlier, my mom, Lenora, was diagnosed with dementia. For years, I cared for her in my home but after she fell and broke her hip in January 2015, the hospital where she received treatment would not release her to my care. They told me it was no longer safe to have her at my home. Reluctantly, I found my mom a spot in a nursing home just outside of Los Angeles. At least she will be safe there, I told myself. (Laurel Cline, 2/28)
Los Angeles Times:
The Stupidity Of Trumpcare: Government Will Spend $33 Billion More To Cover 8.9 Million Fewer Americans, As Premiums Soar
Those fiscal geniuses in the White House and Republican-controlled Congress have managed to do the impossible: Their sabotage of the Affordable Care Act will lead to 6.4 million fewer Americans with health insurance, while the federal bill for coverage rises by some $33 billion per year. Also, by the way, premiums in the individual market will rise by an average of more than 18%. (Michael Hiltzik, 2/26)
Sacramento Bee:
Stop Finger Pointing On Hoarded Mental Health Millions. Just Spend It Wisely
It turns out that Sacramento County isn’t alone in stashing millions of dollars that could be spent to help Californians with mental health problems. A new state audit uncovered that California’s 59 county and local mental health agencies had piled up $2.5 billion in unspent cash as of 2015-16. State Auditor Elaine Howle blames state agencies for failing to give enough guidance or oversight. (3/1)
The Mercury News:
High Schooler Says Youth Will Bridge Gun Divide
As the gun control debate rages across the country once again, we see the same talking points spewed out. Republicans call for safer schools while not infringing on the Second Amendment. Democrats call for expanded background checks and weapon bans. But, as adults talk and talk and do nothing, a new group of activists has risen. The students of Stoneman Douglas High School are speaking out on gun control and forcing the American public to recognize, once and for all, the importance of this issue as it pertains to the physical and emotional safety of my generation. (Zeigler, 3/1)
Los Angeles Times:
How Can A Place With 58,000 Homeless People Continue To Function?
Homelessness affects the lives of all Angelenos, not just those forced to live on the streets. And it does so almost daily, in ways large and small. Consider the pairs of thick gloves that George Abou-Daoud has stashed inside the nine restaurants he owns on the east side of Hollywood. When a homeless person accosts his customers, Abou-Daoud says, he can no longer count on the police for help; unless there’s an imminent threat to safety, he contends, they don’t respond quickly and can’t just haul the person away. So he’s had to take matters into his own hands, literally, by physically ejecting problematic homeless people himself. That’s why he has the gloves — to keep his hands clean. (3/1)
Los Angeles Times:
Treating And Housing The Mentally Ill Is Harder Than Jailing Them. But It Might Actually Work
If only we could make Les Jones’ story more commonplace. As the 62-year-old Texas native leans back from his desktop computer in his small apartment, he details his journey from a successful radio career to a mental breakdown, to the streets, to shelter and finally to treatment and a healthy, happy life in this tidy complex at perhaps the most enviable corner of Santa Monica, steps from the Third Street Promenade, a short walk to the beach. “I am one verse,” Jones says of the composition of the American population of the mentally ill. “There are others. Modern treatment of mental illness produces miracles. It literally saved my life.” (2/28)
Los Angeles Times:
The Homeless In L.A. Are Not Who You Think They Are
Many people think of homelessness as a problem of substance abusers and mentally ill people, of chronic skid row street-dwellers pushing shopping carts. But increasingly, the crisis in Los Angeles today is about a less visible (but more numerous) group of “economically homeless” people. These are people who have been driven onto the streets or into shelters by hard times, bad luck and California’s irresponsible failure to address its own housing needs. (2/26)
Los Angeles Times:
Don't Let NIMBYs — Or Weak-Kneed Politicians — Stand In The Way Of Homeless Housing
“Homes end homelessness.” That was the simple and ultimately persuasive slogan of the Proposition HHH campaign in 2016. In November of that year, an overwhelming 77% of Los Angeles city voters opted to raise their own property taxes to pay for $1.2 billion in homeless housing — 10,000 units to be built over a decade. Politicians exulted in the win and vowed that after years of short-lived strategies and half-hearted measures, they would finally address the crisis with the resolve and the resources needed to bring it under control. (2/27)