Viewpoints: Is A Statewide Tax To Improve Drinking Water Safety Fair?
A selection of opinions on health care developments from around the state.
Sacramento Bee:
A Statewide Tax Is An Unfair Path To Safe Drinking Water
For most Californians, safe drinking water is a given, thanks to extensive public investments in pipelines, reservoirs and treatment plants. Not so for some Californians who live in rural, low-income communities where water sources are contaminated by nitrates and arsenic and where treatment is financially out of reach. It’s unacceptable, and the situation will worsen without a strong state commitment. (Kathleen Tiegs and Brent Hastey, 8/18)
The Desert Sun:
Safe Water Fund Bill SB 623 Deserves Legislators' Support
Accessing clean, safe drinking water is as simple as opening the kitchen tap for most of us in California. Yet for as many as 2 million residents – including many of our neighbors in more rural, often lower-income areas of the eastern Coachella Valley -- the Golden State’s 5-year-old stated policy that “every human being has the right to safe, clean, affordable and accessible water” is not the reality. (8/24)
Sacramento Bee:
Ag Industry Is Stepping Up For Safe Drinking Water
If there’s one thing a farmer knows, it’s the importance of water. Access to clean, safe drinking water ought to be a fundamental right for all Californians. But there are about 300 unsafe drinking-water systems across the state, many of them in the Salinas Valley or in the Central Valley’s Tulare Lake Basin. These 1 million Californians must buy or obtain drinking water in jugs or bottles. (Tim Johnson, 8/18)
The Mercury News:
California Water Tax Can Provide Safe Water To Poor
In 2012, California became one of the first states in the nation to establish access to clean, safe drinking water as a legal right. Yet five years later, far too many California residents, including children, are still exposed to contaminated water. (Monning and Steyer, 8/24)
Los Angeles Times:
Here's How Expanding Medicare Could Set Us On The Path To Universal Health Coverage
With the near-complete collapse of the Republican attack on the Affordable Care Act having locked away the GOP’s traditional repeal-or-nothing stance, the path to a clear-eyed assessment of how to improve American health coverage.That has given the idea of single-payer a jump-start. But it hasn’t done much to clarify the most important question: How do we get there from here? (Michael Hiltzik, 8/18)
Stat:
Why Did HHS Pull The Plug On Programs To Prevent Teen Pregnancy?
A month ago, the federal government sent a “Dear John” letter to the Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. “Due to changes in program priorities,” the letter began, “it has been determined that it is in the best interest of the Federal government to no longer continue funding” the grant for one of our hospital’s teen pregnancy prevention programs. This one-page form letter, sent from the Department of Health and Human Services, arrived almost a year to the day that HHS initially approved our five-year project with glowing reviews about how the Children’s Hospital Los Angeles is “recognized for innovative service and training models, leadership in community collaboration, and research regarding adolescent issues” and has “over 50 years of experience in implementing programs in safe and supportive environments for youth and their families.” (Marvin E. Belzer and Arlene Schneir, 8/23)
Los Angeles Times:
How Many Nurses Does It Take To Change A Patient's Blood?
The rising demand for dialysis has led to a boom in outpatient clinics that specialize in it. ... Those centers and their profits are now the subject of a pitched battle in Sacramento over proposals to supplement federal regulations on the centers with new state requirements. Unfortunately, the proposals would raise the cost of dialysis without necessarily improving it. (8/21)
San Diego Union-Times:
How Mental Health Laws Can Harm Severely Ill
The recent opinion pieces on mental health (”Five years after Aurora,” July 23) did not address the biggest roadblock to getting people with severe mental illness the help they need: mandatory medication. Our current system places civil rights laws over the right of a delusional person to achieve mental health, which hurts them, their families and society. (Linda L. Mimms, 8/24)
Sacramento Bee:
Union Bill Threatens Dialysis Patients
The United Healthcare Workers West union is in all-out attack mode against California dialysis clinics and providers in its attempt to unionize dialysis workers. But in its war, dialysis patients are the ones who will be harmed. (Naveen Atray, 8/23)
Los Angeles Times:
Lawmakers, Activists Say Nursing-Home Residents Must Have Right To Sue
Healthcare, tax reform and the debt ceiling probably will be among the highest-profile issues when Congress returns from a monthlong recess Sept. 5. But Democratic lawmakers and consumer advocates already have served notice that they’re also going to keep a spotlight on protecting people’s right to sue nursing homes for neglect or abuse of elderly patients. (David Lazarus, 8/22)
Orange County Register:
Orange County Needs To Invest In Senior Care
Orange County seniors need our support now more than ever. With the impending cuts in health care on the national level, we will see an increase in the number of seniors requiring care. For Orange County, that means we need to see more from our Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly, or PACE. It is a program that is not currently reaching enough of our senior population, but could provide vital benefits for all participants. Over the next two decades, California’s senior population is expected to grow by nearly two-thirds. Indeed, by 2035, nearly one in four Californians will be age 60 or older, and today in Orange County, 622,907 of our residents are already there. (Reuben D. Franco, 8/24)
The Mercury News:
Why It Took A Foreign-Born Doctor To Blow The Whistle On The NFL's Concussion Epidemic
It’s difficult to believe now, but concussion awareness was a thing even before Dr. Bennet Omalu came to the United States. During the early 1990s, you didn’t have to say “please” to get super-agent Leigh Steinberg to address the risks faced by his oft-concussed super-clients, quarterbacks Steve Young of the 49ers and Troy Aikman of the Cowboys. This at a time when Cowboys quarterback Roger Staubach and Jets receiver Al Toon had been famously chased from the game after multiple concussive events. (Gary Peterson, 8/24)