Viewpoints: Insurers Are Pushing Changes That Help Their Bottom Line, And GOP Is Giving In
A selection of opinions on health care developments from around the state.
Los Angeles Times:
How Trump And The GOP Are Plotting To Give Big Health Insurers Exactly What They Want
The nation’s biggest health insurer, UnitedHealth Group, had a pretty good quarter, judging from the preening by its executives during a conference call with Wall Street analysts this week. The company turned a profit of $2.2 billion on revenue of $48.7 billion for the quarter ended March 30. That was partially the result of the company’s bailing out entirely on Affordable Care Act individual insurance exchanges, on which it was losing money. (Michael Hiltzik, 4/21)
Los Angeles Times:
He's Covered, He Makes His Payments And His Insurer Still Drags Its Feet
Most attention on the healthcare front has been focused on Republicans’ single-minded efforts to eviscerate Obamacare. Largely overlooked has been the frustration Americans with employer-based coverage often face in dealing with tight-fisted insurers. For the roughly 150 million workers and family members covered by employers, healthcare all too frequently is an obstacle course of denied claims, bureaucratic headaches and go-slow tactics intended only, or so it seems, to boost insurers’ bottom line. (David Lazarus, 4/28)
Modesto Bee:
Jeff Denham Ignores Crucial Health Concerns Of 15,000 In His District Who Depend On Planned Parenthood
Congressman Jeff Denham made it abundantly clear at his April town hall that he doesn’t put a priority on the health of women in his district. When asked why he doesn’t support Planned Parenthood and the reproductive health services the organization provides to thousands of his constituents, Rep. Denham responded that he’s “pro-life” and always has been. “It’s a personal view for me,” he said. (Cheri Greven, 4/26)
Los Angeles Times:
This One Unbelievably Expensive Iowa Patient Makes The Case For Single-Payer Healthcare
Back in mid-2016, Iowa customers of Wellmark Blue Cross Blue Shield, the dominant company in the state’s individual insurance market, got a shock: Premium increases of 38% to 43% were in store for many of them for this year. Three weeks ago they got a bigger shock: Wellmark was pulling out of Iowa’s individual market entirely, leaving the state with one company selling individual policies. Wellmark placed some of the blame on congressional Republicans’ failure to come up with a coherent repeal plan for the Affordable Care Act, leaving plans for 2018 in legislative limbo. With Wellmark’s departure, Iowa’s individual market may be down to a single insurer next year. (Michael Hiltzik, 4/24)
Sacramento Bee:
Aging California Needs A Fountain-Of-Youth Solution
Within two decades, 25 percent of Californians will be 65 and older. Under current guidelines, they’ll be Medicare-eligible and almost eligible for full-retirement age Social Security benefits. They’ll also increase California’s aging dependency ratio, one comparing the percentage of those typically not in the workforce to those who are. (Edward Joseph Pierini Jr., 4/21)
Sacramento Bee:
Use Tobacco Tax Money As Intended: To Help Fund Dental Program
Voters clearly understood the urgency and made the crucial connection: tobacco use causes big, expensive health problems, including long-term oral disease across our state. Given that nearly 14 million children, seniors and working families rely on the state’s Denti-Cal program, the lack of access to dental care for our most vulnerable residents is a problem that carries negative consequences for our physical and economic health, school attendance and workplace productivity. (John Luther, 4/24)
San Jose Mercury News:
Here Are Five Issues On Which California Is Flying Data-Blind
Sometimes the state has legitimate reasons for not collecting or publishing such data: confidentiality concerns, resource constraints, the inherent limitations of what technology can and cannot track. Sometimes the explanations are less compelling. Whatever the case, the data points below represent a diverse set of policy questions for which Californians are flying data-blind. (Matt Levin, 4/26)
San Jose Mercury News:
Cupertino Sex Education Plan Is Not Age-Appropriate
The proposed new curriculum, Teen Talk MS (published by Health Connected), was unacceptable to many parents who found it to be neither age-appropriate nor culturally sensitive for the proposed target group (11-13 year olds in 7th grade, in a school district with a unique demographic)... This conflation of parental concerns about an inappropriate curriculum with LGBTQ issues polarizes the debate by portraying Cupertino Union parents as being out of touch with their children’s needs. (Srividya Sundaresan and Vaishnavi Sridhar, 4/26)
Los Angeles Times:
I'm Not 'Addicted' To My Smartphone. I Depend On It To Survive
In a recent “60 Minutes” segment, Anderson Cooper interviewed Tristan Harris, a former product manager at Google, who compared smartphones to slot machines because both have a built-in reward system that we find hard to resist — the thrill of pulling a lever and making money versus pushing a button and getting a notification. Cooper suggested that tech companies, by getting us hooked on mobile apps, are “hijacking” our brains. This argument seems inarguably correct to those who’ve seen comScore reports suggesting that Americans spend more than 70 hours a month on average using smartphone apps, and that the number is growing each year. (Jamison Hill, 4/24)