Viewpoints: Proposals Like Single-Payer Are More About Wealth Transfers Than Health Care
A selection of opinions on health care developments from around the state.
Orange County Register:
Health Policy Reform Or Wealth Transfer?
Our health insurance debate has become so contentious largely because it has allowed massive wealth transfers to be mis-represented as improving health insurance. It helped dishonestly sell Obamacare, and now portrays reducing massive theft from those government targeted to hold the bag as imposing heartless harm on others. (Gary Galles, 5/9)
The Mercury News:
U.S. Seniors Deserve More Than Canadian Health Care
[I]n the California Legislature, Democratic lawmakers, at the urging of the California Nurses Association, are pushing a statewide single-payer system. Before Americans rush to implement Canadian-style health care, they should ask their northern neighbors about life under single-payer. Their answers would surely curb American enthusiasm for the concept. According to a new study from the Commonwealth Fund, one in three Canadian seniors isn’t satisfied with the quality of care she receives — a far larger share than in any similar country, including the United States. (Sally C. Pipes, 5/9)
Los Angeles Times:
Rushing Foster Kids Into Quick Adoptions Isn't Always In Their Best Interest
A 1997 federal law called the Adoption and Safe Families Act forces states to push for quick adoption, regardless of whether another arrangement may make more sense. ... Yet, we know too little to conclude that adoptions make sense for all of them. (Vivek Sankaran, 5/10)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Those Needles Littering The Streets? The City Gave Them Out
For all of City Hall’s tough talk of late about getting needles off the streets, the city itself is responsible for helping fuel the problem — handing out millions of syringes a year with little or no controls over their return. And while the easy access to clean syringes is intended to protect public health, the city’s residents are not happy with the situation. (Phillip Matier and Andrew Ross, 5/8)
Los Angeles Times:
Cancer Warnings For Coffee May Be Overkill, But Proposition 65 Is Not
It's official: Coffee sold in California must carry cancer warnings, a Los Angeles judge ruled this week. The warnings are required by California law, Superior Court Judge Elihu Berle said, because of the presence of acrylamide, a chemical that is formed when coffee beans are roasted and that remains in the final beverage. The decision finalized a tentative ruling Berle had made in March. Since the initial ruling, an outpouring of commentary has suggested that, as one opinion writer put it, California has gone off the "deep end." There is no evidence that coffee causes cancer, many pointed out, and warnings about trivial risks could cause more serious notifications to lose resonance. (Jennifer Liss Ohayon and Claudia Polsky, 5/10)
Los Angeles Times:
Just Three Months After Congress Gave Children's Healthcare A 10-Year Lifeline, Trump Reneges
Those of us with long memories — defined in this turbocharged world as memories that date back more than 90 days — will recall that one of the biggest cliffhangers of that bygone season involved the funding of the Children's Health Insurance Program, or CHIP. CHIP, which costs the federal government a paltry $14.5 billion a year but covers 9 million children and pregnant mothers, finally got funded by Congress in January, more than three months after the lawmakers allowed it to expire. (Michael Hiltzik, 5/8)
Los Angeles Times:
Target 'Gay Conversion Therapy,' Not Religion
In 2012 California enacted a law that bars licensed mental health providers from engaging in therapy designed to change the sexual orientation of patients under the age of 18. Now the state Senate is considering a sequel of sorts. But this new legislation is broader in its application — so broad that some critics are claiming that it could be used to interfere with the sale of religious books, even the Bible. Such fears may be farfetched. But AB 2943, which was passed by the Assembly last month, contains ambiguities that need to be cleared up if the legislation is to become law. (5/7)
Sacramento Bee:
California: Shouldn't Trump's Big Mac Habit Be More Hazardous To His Health?
Until recently, when his doctor purportedly insisted that he start eating less junk food and more salads, President Donald Trump was among McDonald’s most loyal customers. It was said that during his campaign run, to maintain the energy necessary for all that extemporaneous speechifying, the famously non-exercising tycoon would routinely scarf down two Big Macs for lunch along with two Filet-of-Fish sandwiches, washing down all that with a chocolate milkshake. For anyone keeping score, that’s about 2,400 delicious, artery-choking calories, or 400 more than the maximum number the FDA says an average adult male is supposed to consume in an entire day. (David Freed, 5/9)