Viewpoints: Drug Prices Are Meaningless — And That’s The Problem
A selection of opinions on health care developments from around the state.
Los Angeles Times:
Trump Tries To Save Obamacare Exchanges While Undermining Them
With the drive to “repeal and replace” Obamacare losing steam, the Trump administration quietly moved to shore up a key feature of the healthcare law this week: the state exchanges where people shop for non-group coverage. And to its credit, Trump’s Department of Health and Human Services zeroed in on some of the factors that have led a handful of major insurers to leave the exchanges. But before you praise (or condemn) Trump for coming to Obamacare’s rescue, consider this: Another arm of the new administration has taken a step that could undo much of the work the department is trying to do, and leave the exchanges no better off — and possibly in worse shape — than they are today. (Jon Healey, 2/16)
Los Angeles Times:
Trump's IRS Stages A Stealth Attack On Obamacare
e Internal Revenue Service has become the first agency to follow President Trump’s directive to start undermining the Affordable Care Act. In a quiet rule change, but an important one, the IRS has told tax preparers and software firms that it won’t automatically reject tax returns that fail to state whether the tax filer had health insurance during the year. That effectively loosens enforcement of the ACA’s individual mandate. It appears to be a direct response to Trump’s Jan. 20 executive order requiring federal agencies “minimize...the economic and regulatory burdens of the Act.” (Michael Hiltzik, 2/15)
Sacramento Bee:
California Provides Model To Replace The Affordable Care Act
The new administration and Congress are under intense pressure to craft a market-based alternative to the Affordable Care Act. It won’t be easy. To achieve the financial stability required to make the market work, reformers should heed some important lessons from California. Health plans and risk-taking medical groups essentially made a “deal” with Congress to participate in the ACA. They agreed to cover applicants with pre-existing conditions without charging higher premiums in return for: an expanded individual market driven by a federal mandate that everyone buy insurance; premium and cost-sharing subsidies financed by insurers and the government; and three federal risk-mitigation programs to help stabilize the new marketplaces. (Leonard D. Schaeffer and Dana Goldman, 2/14)
Sacramento Bee:
Republicans Are Running Away From Their Constituents
As recent town-hall meetings of GOP Reps. Tom McClintock of Elk Grove, Jason Chaffetz of Utah, Gus Bilirakis of Florida, Diane Black of Tennessee and others turn into well-publicized tongue-lashings, their colleagues are ducking and running. ... In Roseville, McClintock left his town-hall meeting with a police escort. “It’s the first time I’ve ever had a police department have to extract me from a town hall, and I’ve done well over 100 of them,” he told the Los Angeles Times. The scene is reminiscent of the tea party summer of 2009, but the energy is on the other side this time. Now, as then, the victims say the perpetrators are outsiders – Chaffetz said those who protested him included “paid” people from out of state, an echo of Nancy Pelosi’s claim of “astroturfing” – but now, as then, the anger is real. (Dana Milbank, 2/15)
Orange County Register:
California Job Losses From Obamacare Repeal? Fear Not!
Obamacare was a cash cow for providers, which now argue it was a program for jobs and economic growth. They now say that repealing Obamacare will kill California jobs. That grabs any politician’s attention, but it is not true. According to a study by the UC Berkeley Labor Center, which is promoted by the California Hospital Association, “The majority (135,000) of these lost jobs would be in the health care industry, including at hospitals, doctor offices, labs, outpatient and ambulatory care centers, nursing homes, dentist offices, other health care settings and insurers. (John R. Graham, 2/16)
Los Angeles Times:
With Billions At Stake, A Federal Judge Just Nullified The GOP's Most Cynical Attack On Obamacare
Moda Health, a small Oregon health insurer, just won a $214-million judgment against the federal government. Normally that wouldn’t be worth reporting, except that in awarding Moda the money, the federal judge in the case dismantled the most cynical attack on the Affordable Care Act that congressional Republicans had devised... OP politicians such as House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) talk continually about a lack of competition on the Affordable Care Act exchanges as though that’s a structural flaw in Obamacare. They don’t admit that much of that lack of competition is their own handiwork. (Michael Hiltzik, 2/13)
Los Angeles Times:
Direct-To-Consumer Drug Ads: A Bad Idea That's About To Get Worse
Direct-to-consumer, or DTC, drug ads on TV became a thing in 1997, when the Food and Drug Administration greenlighted such marketing. Prior to that time, the thinking among policymakers was that consumers lacked the medical expertise to make informed decisions about prescription meds, and that such matters were best to left to doctors. (David Lazarus, 2/15)
Los Angeles Times:
How Aetna Frittered Away $1.8 Billion On A Merger Destined To Fail
Let’s calculate the financial carnage of Aetna’s breakup with Humana, a $34-billion merger deal that was shut down by a federal judge three weeks ago and ended by the two big insurance companies on Tuesday... This is the usual unspecific pap employed to justify any big merger, especially in healthcare. If we’ve learned anything from experience, it’s that such mergers end up raising prices and reducing efficiencies and innovation. In other words, the opposite of what [Mark] Bertolini claimed. That’s because lower prices and greater efficiencies and innovation stem from competition, which is exactly what mergers like the Aetna-Humana deal destroy. (Michael Hiltzik, 2/15)
Santa Rosa Press Democrat:
Keeping Sonoma Valley Hospital Healthy: Yes On B
Last year, Sonoma residents celebrated the 70th anniversary of one of the community’s most cherished assets — Sonoma Valley Hospital. Since its founding in 1946, the hospital has played a central role in ensuring both the physical and economic health of the valley. With some 476 employees and a payroll of roughly $30 million, the hospital is reported to have an overall economic impact on the region of about $100 million. But as anyone associated with health care today knows, there are no long-term guarantees, especially for rural hospitals. (2/14)
Los Angeles Times:
Dr. Oz Takes On Those Bogus For-Profit Stem Cell Clinics--And Cuts Them To Shreds
The undercover investigation you’re about to see today is going to make you really angry, because we’re exposing the worst kind of scam — one that takes advantage of those most vulnerable, stealing not just their money, but their hope, their dignity.” That’s how Dr. Mehmet Oz introduces a series of segments scheduled to run on his daytime television program Tuesday. His quarry: those for-profit clinics offering supposed stem cell treatments for an implausible host of diseases — unproven, unlikely and very expensive cures. (Michael Hiltzik, 2/13)