Viewpoints: Don’t Buy Into Universal Praise Around Cures Bill

Los Angeles Times: The 21st Century Cures Act: A Huge Handout To The Drug Industry Disguised As A Pro-Research Bounty
To judge from the huzzahs, the [21st Century] Cures Act represents a landmark in funding for biomedical research — a $5-billion bounty for the Obama administration’s “cancer moonshot” as well as its initiatives on brain research and genomics-based “precision medicine.” ... If universal praise for a measure makes your B.S. detectors twitch, you’re on the right track. The 21st Century Cures Act is a huge deregulatory giveaway to the pharmaceutical and medical device industry, papered over by new funding for those research initiatives. The punchline is that the regulatory rollback is real, but the funding may not be — it’s subject over the next decade to annual appropriations by Congress that might never come. (Michael Hiltzik, 12/5)

Los Angeles Times: On Obamacare Repeal, GOP Ideology Is Colliding With Reality 
If there weren’t so much at stake, one would be amused at the spectacle of Republican politicians writhing as they try to make good on their ideological promise to “repeal and replace” Obamacare without ruining the lives of millions of their own constituents. In the few short weeks since the GOP added control of the White House to its existing control of both houses of Congress, the GOP has been grappling with the recognition that taking potshots at the Affordable Care Act and weakening its consumer protection provisions is no longer just a parlor game, but actions that could have genuine consequences. (Michael Hiltzik, 12/5)

Los Angeles Times: Have Hay Fever Or Hives? If Obamacare Is Repealed, You Could Be Denied Health Insurance Again 
As congressional Republicans double down on their promise to repeal the Affordable Care Act but defer a replacement for as long as several years, healthcare stakeholders and experts are stepping up their warnings of the consequences of half-baked policymaking. That’s important, because none of the proposals that Republicans have put on the table during the last six years is close to fully baked. But hospitals, actuaries and economists are warning that it’s easy to vandalize the healthcare system in ways that make it worse for tens of millions of Americans dependent on Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion and individual insurance exchanges. (Michael Hiltzik, 12/7)

Modesto Bee: If Republicans Repeal Obamacare, Their Own Constituents Will Be The Ones Most Likely Harmed  
As McCarthy was speaking in Washington, 2,377 miles away in Sacramento, the liberal California Budget and Policy Center was releasing a report on Obamacare’s importance to low-income residents, revealing the state’s greatest impact in the state would be felt in McCarthy’s district – making some of his constituents victims of the repeal he advocates. The ACA gave states the option of expanding Medicaid – called Medi-Cal in California – to a new cohort of low-income residents whose incomes had been too high to qualify previously. This economic segment has been dubbed “the working poor” and its members historically comprised a large portion of the state’s medically uninsured. (Dan Walters, 12/7)

Sacramento Bee: Opioid Treatment For The Poor? That Could Die With Obamacare
California, thankfully, has never been the epicenter of the country’s opioid epidemic, but even in the state’s agricultural hubs, such as Stanislaus County, the number of people hooked on prescription painkillers and heroin is truly staggering. There, roughly 1,100 are in treatment and 400 more are waiting to get in. The story is the same all over the Central Valley and in the sparsely populated rural north, where many voters picked Donald Trump but never would have been able to afford help curbing their addictions without the Affordable Care Act that the president-elect so detests. (12/4)

Ventura County Star: Solutions To Opioid Crisis Start At Home
Ventura County has a serious drug problem. And while many people — from impacted families and health specialists to school authorities and law enforcement — are working hard to combat the county's seemingly growing addiction to heroin and prescription opioids, it is clearly not enough. ... We need to increase our efforts to reach people not only in the throes of addiction, but also those who are edging toward use and abuse of these opioid drugs, whether it be to combat physical pain or to escape a reality where they are having difficulty coping. (12/3)

Los Angeles Times: Warning: That Warning Label May Be Useless In Conveying Danger 
A paper published in the Harvard Business Review last week concluded that the U.S. warning-label system “fails miserably at distinguishing between large and small risks.” To illustrate that point, researchers from Harvard and Vanderbilt universities said consumers should think about the difference between wolves (potentially very dangerous) and puppies (not so much). (Lazarus, 12/6)

Sacramento Bee: Marijuana Regulation Is Most Responsible Course For Sacramento
California voters have spoken and with the passage of Proposition 64, adult use of marijuana is now legal in our state. Regardless of one’s personal feelings about marijuana, this new reality presents both challenges and opportunities for our community. The Sacramento City Council has taken the position that strict regulations to control every element of the industry is the best and most responsible way to protect public health, deal with illegal activity, mitigate potential negative impacts, employ thousands of Sacramentans and increase city tax revenues. (Jay Schenirer, 12/3)