Viewpoints: California’s Aid-In-Dying Law Is Safe … Until The Next Challenge Comes Along
Also, following the shooting in a California bar, opinion writers weigh in on how to reduce gun violence.
Los Angeles Times:
California's Right-To-Die Law Needs High Court Intervention
A Riverside County appeals court upheld California’s right-to-die law this week, ending months of legal limbo after a Superior Court judge invalidated the law in May because he believed it had been improperly enacted. That’s great news for the state’s terminally ill patients whose doctors may have been reluctant to write a life-ending prescription while the law was being contested in the courts. The law is now officially valid again — at least until the plaintiffs file a new challenge. (11/29)
San Francisco Chronicle:
California Will Pay For Congress’ Health Care Failures
A new report by the UC Berkeley Labor Center and the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research projects a substantial increase in the statewide uninsured rate by 2020 and an even larger increase by 2023. Specifically, the researchers are projecting that 11.7 percent of Californians under 65 will lack insurance by 2020 — about 4.02 million people — and about 12.9 percent will lack it in 2023 — about 4.4 million people. (11/28)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Gavin Newsom Will Not Fulfill His Health Care Promise
Candidate Gavin Newsom promised the people of California that he would get them universal health care. Gov. Gavin Newsom is not going to fulfill that promise. And that’s fine. He won’t be the first politician to make a commitment on the campaign trail that didn’t happen once he took office. He certainly won’t be the last. (Dan Schnur, 11/26)
Los Angeles Times:
Americans May Be Ready For Medicare For All, But Congress Isn’t
Now that the 2018 election has swung control of the U.S. House of Representatives from right to left, some progressive Democrats are pushing for a vote in the new Congress on Medicare for all, a national health insurance program covering all Americans without charging premiums, deductibles or co-pays. ...Some moderate Democrats have pushed back, noting that such a vast expansion of Medicare doesn’t stand a chance of passing the Republican-controlled Senate, let alone being signed into law by a president who campaigned against it (with characteristic hyperbole) in the weeks leading up to the November election. There could be political consequences too: Forcing newly elected House members from formerly Republican-held districts in the Midwest to take a tough vote on a government-run health insurance system could usher Democrats back into the House minority. (11/24)
Los Angeles Times:
As The World Warms, Deadly And Disfiguring Tropical Diseases Are Inching Their Way Toward The U.S.
Although the environmental costs of global warming may still seem distant to some Americans, there is a growing threat that many may find harder to ignore: infectious disease. As another new report, the Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change, makes clear, warming poses a great diversity of risks for human health. More and more, hot summers will increase mortality and limit our capacity for outdoor labor. Superstorms in some regions will cause flooding of sewage systems and thereby spread gastrointestinal disease, while severe droughts in other regions will increase rates of asthma. Food production will be severely reduced in many countries. Many regions will see increased risks of infection. Although environmental destruction may not scare us in an immediate way, infectious diseases very well could. (Fred Cohan and Isaac Klimasmith, 11/30)
Sacramento Bee:
California Must Improve Conditions For The Workers Who Help Prevent Fires
California’s latest mega-fire disasters have refocused attention on the state’s challenge of the future: how to manage forests and scrubland so wildfires will be less frequent and catastrophic. But often missing from the discussion are the underpaid, marginalized laborers who make up much of the state’s wildlands management workforce. The work of thinning forests, clearing brush, replanting timberland and restoring ecosystems involves backbreaking work with chainsaws and other tools. These jobs typically come with low pay, dangerous work conditions, no job security, little labor law enforcement and scarce training for increasingly complex tasks. (Collier and Wilmsen, 11/27)
San Jose Mercury News:
How California Can Model Caring For The Mentally Ill
Too few individuals with a mental health issue get the care they need. Consider that in 2016 only one in 10 people needing substance use treatment were able to gain access to a specialty facility. California’s health care system — like the rest of the country — remains fragmented, with mental health being seen as a separate and distinct element from physical care. (Norris and Miller, 11/29)
Los Angeles Times:
Take A Holiday From Your Cellphone
As the whirlwind of the holidays descends, you may find yourself wishing that you could slow down time. Here’s the thing: You can.You just need to put down your cellphone. I first discovered this myself a few years ago when, as an experiment, my husband and I took a 24-hour break from all our screens starting at sundown Friday. Saturday morning we accomplished more by 11 a.m. than we’d normally get done in an entire day. We cooked. We talked. We cleaned. We read. I practiced guitar. We played with our daughter. I felt like I’d unlocked a time-stretching superpower that I hadn’t known I possessed. (Catherine Price, 11/30)
Stat:
Why Aren't Gay Teens Taking A Daily PrEP Pill To Prevent HIV?
Every 30 hours, a gay or bisexual adolescent boy under 18 in the U.S. is diagnosed with HIV. Gay and bisexual teen boys are disproportionately affected by HIV, accounting for almost two-thirds of new infections among adolescents. Young gay and bisexual men of color are hit especially hard, accounting for over three-quarters of these infections. HIV rates are rising among Latino adolescent boys , and 1 in 2 black men who have sex with men are expected to become HIV positive in their lifetimes. Given these alarming numbers, you might expect that substantial efforts are aimed at HIV prevention in these groups of boys. But that’s just not the case — out of 61 HIV prevention programs endorsed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that focus on changing HIV risk behavior, zero are for gay or bisexual teen boys. (Kathryn Macapagal, 11/26)