Viewpoints: Don’t Write Of California’s Single-Payer Plan
A selection of opinions on health care developments from around the state.
Sacramento Bee:
The Real Barrier To Single Payer Health Care
Under SB 562, a Medicare-for-all bill, not only would every Californian be guaranteed health coverage, but all premiums, as well as deductibles and copays, would be eliminated. ... Revenue to achieve a truly universal system could be raised with two fair taxes with exemptions for low-income residents and small businesses. (Deborah Burger, 8/3)
San Jose Mercury News:
Covered California's Obamacare Reforms Still Work
Despite the resolve of Republicans in Congress and President Trump to destroy the Affordable Care Act, California — with 11 insurers in its state exchange — continues to have a stable health care market that is far superior to what the state would have today without Obamacare in place. The bipartisan work by moderates in Congress to repair the ACA makes far more sense than Republicans’ flailing attempts to repeal and replace it with an alternative system that covers fewer people at higher cost. (8/2)
Los Angeles Times:
Bailout Talk Poisons The Efforts To Fix Obamacare Problems
President Trump and other top Republicans are trotting out a new phrase in their rhetorical war on the Affordable Care Act: “insurer bailout.” That’s how they want you to think about a number of the steps Congress may need to take to stabilize the Obamacare insurance markets that are struggling in some states. ... But contrary to some critics’ rhetoric, reimbursing insurers is no more a “bailout” than it is when the Department of Transportation pays for the road and bridge repairs it orders. Insurers provide the subsidies because Congress ordered them to, with the promise that they would be repaid. (Jon Healey, 8/2)
Sacramento Bee:
This Is What Should Happen Next On Health Care
Now that the Obamacare repeal has crashed and burned in the U.S. Senate, this is what would happen if we had a president who knew how to govern and a Congress that could work together:There would be a bipartisan summit to come up with ways to fix and strengthen the Affordable Care Act to slow rising premiums and create more competition in California and across the country. (7/28)
Los Angeles Times:
Democrats Decide That There's Room In The Tent For 'Pro-Life' Candidates
Encouraged by President Trump’s abysmal approval ratings and dysfunction in the Republican-controlled Congress, Democrats are entertaining scenarios of recapturing control of Capitol Hill in 2018 — and key to that scenario is coaxing back voters who supported Trump in 2016. Part of that strategy is a message heavy on economics and light on identity politics, but it also involves recruiting candidates in swing districts who might depart from liberal orthodoxy on social issues. (Michael McGough, 8/1)
Los Angeles Times:
Don't Delay Regulations For Electronic Cigarettes
Public health advocates should be jumping for joy at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s announcement that it would explore ways to reduce nicotine levels in conventional cigarettes to non-addictive levels. Such a policy could save millions of lives if it caused the estimated 36.5 million Americans who smoke regularly to lose interest in lighting up. Smoking may be on the wane, but it is still the leading cause of preventable death in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (8/1)
The Mercury News:
Richard Lara Dialysis Bill Puts Lives At Risk
An insidious bill in the California Legislature that purports to improve medical care will actually endanger the most vulnerable of lives: Low income and elderly residents who need regular dialysis for their very survival. SB 349 by Sen. Ricardo Lara would establish the strictest-in-the-nation staffing minimums for nurses and technicians in dialysis clinics, where patients in kidney failure have their blood cleansed several times a week. It may sound humanitarian, but it’s a craven play for union support in the senator’s run for Insurance Commissioner next year. (8/1)
Sacramento Bee:
The Next Step For Healthy School Food
Schools aim to protect students by fingerprinting adults and holding fire drills. So it makes sense that schools now are required by federal law to teach students about wellness.These policies need full engagement from school boards, administrators, teachers and parents to model the healthy behaviors we’re asking kids to follow. (Amber K. Stott and Debra Oto-Kent, 8/2)
Los Angeles Times:
I Watched My Childhood Home Go From Idyllic To Drug-Ravaged. Trump's Opioid Commission Isn't Going To Fix It
Growing up, my town in West Virginia was the kind of place where kids played flashlight tag in the streets after dark and neighbors didn’t lock their doors. Coming home to visit 10 years later, I find a ghost town. My mom’s face peeks out of the blinds first when I knock on the door. Houses where we trick-or-treated as children are now flop dens. Friends we played soccer with are in jail. At the hospital, my dad tells me, 20% of the babies are born screaming, experiencing their first withdrawal as they draw their first breath. My Facebook feed is a dull stream of funeral announcements and disbelief. West Virginia has the highest drug overdose rate in the country. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, opioid overdoses — both prescription and not — make up the majority of those deaths. How did we get here? (Cassady Rosenblum, 8/2)
Fresno Bee:
Proud Autistics Belong ‘In The Room Where It Happens’ When Mental Health Policy Is Topic
Recently, at the state capitol in Sacramento, in honor of Bebe Moore Campbell Minority Mental Health Month, I spoke to legislators as an autistic born into white culture. I spoke as an autistic person about my peers, my people, our community and autistic culture; and communicated about needs of our no-served/underserved community, lack of resources for all autistics and the utter devastation that our kids are facing upon adulthood. (Eve Hinson, 7/28)
Los Angeles Times:
Does Carrying A Gun Make You Safer? No. In Fact, Right-To-Carry Laws Increase Violent Crime
John J. Donohue, a Stanford law professor and economist, is a lead author of the analysis, which used more than 30 years of crime statistics and a novel algorithm: Researchers identified states whose crime rates paralleled those of states like Texas before it passed a “right to carry” law, and came up with models -- called synthetic states -- to look at before-and-after violent crime in right-to-carry states and non-right-to-carry “synthetic” states. It’s comparing apples and virtual apples, and Donohue – who’s also an expert witness in a right-to-carry lawsuit against the state of California -- concluded that gun-toting indeed makes a difference in violent crime: it can increase it, by as much as 15%. (Pat Morrison, 8/2)