Viewpoints: The Insurance Industry’s Approach To Health Law Has Been Not-So-Benign Neglect
A selection of opinions on health care developments from around the state.
Los Angeles Times:
IInsurance CEOs Haven't Been Speaking Up For Obamacare — Except For One
President Trump and congressional Republicans finally goaded the health insurance industry into defending the Affordable Care Act this week — sort of. But the industry’s pusillanimous response to the GOP’s point-blank threat to Obamacare’s survival is a reminder that health insurance companies, which have made hundreds of millions of dollars from the law, have in many ways been its worst enemies. (Michael Hiltzik, 4/13)
Los Angeles Times:
It's Back To The Future For Trumpcare
When Congress and the Obama administration sought to reform the healthcare system in 2009, they focused on insuring more people, lowering the cost of care and raising the quality. The Trump administration appears to be aiming at a different target: reducing the cost of insurance for healthy people. That may sound like a fine goal, but the administration is going about it the wrong way — by returning us to the bad old days when sick people had to pay exorbitant premiums, if they could get coverage at all. (4/10)
Los Angeles Times:
'Job-Killing' Obamacare Actually Created 240,000 Well-Paying Healthcare Jobs
This attack on the ACA never was based on facts. But a new report from the Altarum Institute, a nonprofit healthcare think tank in Ann Arbor, Mich., adds evidence that, in fact, the law is a job-creator. From 2014 through 2016, the researchers found, the law triggered the creation of 240,000 jobs in the healthcare field alone. The main reason is that increased insurance enrollments spurred more demand for healthcare services. (Michael Hiltzik, 4/7)
Sacramento Bee:
Here’s A Bipartisan Approach Of Simple Fixes To Reform Health Care
If Obamacare is here “for the foreseeable future,” as [House Speaker Paul] Ryan forecasts, there are some simple fixes that can make a big difference. For the 20 million Americans who depend on the individual health insurance marketplace for their coverage, inaction is unacceptable. (John Kabateck and David Panush, 4/12)
East Bay Times:
New Tobacco Tax Money Should Go To Help Medi-Cal
While Californians wait for President Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress to decide what, if anything, to do about the future of health care in the United States, a battle is brewing in California: How the money generated by the state’s $2-a-pack increase in the tobacco tax will be spent. (4/10)
The San Diego Union-Tribune:
Give California An A For Its Kindergarten Immunization Rate
In a win for science and for student safety, school vaccination rates are the highest they have been in California in at least 15 years. A year after the implementation of tougher state-mandated vaccination requirements, a new report by the California Department of Public Health shows that 95.6 percent of kindergartners in the current school year received all their required immunizations. The state called it the highest immunization rate since at least the 2001-2002 school year when the number of needed inoculations expanded to include the varicella vaccine. (4/13)
Los Angeles Times:
California Prosecutors Have Turned The Tables On Planned Parenthood's Undercover Video Tormentors
At least seven states and five congressional committees launched investigations, none of which found wrongdoing by Planned Parenthood, though the movement to strip its funding is alive and well. How much taxpayer money will be wasted before our elected officials realize that abortion and fetal tissue research are not just legal, but critical to the greater social good? (Robin Abcarian, 4/12)
Sacramento Bee:
Planned Parenthood Not Deterred By Illegal Tapes
The right of privacy is a constitutional right in California. The law prohibiting taping of private conversations without consent was enacted 50 years ago. David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt broke the law not once but 14 times. Anyone who breaks the law in California should be held accountable. (Kathy Kneer, 4/11)
Sacramento Bee:
Concerns About Women’s Health As Lawmakers Curb Legal Access To Abortion
If abortion becomes illegal nationwide – if a conservative majority on the Supreme Court determines that a zygote has Fourteenth Amendment rights or the “heartbeat bill” now before Congress barring abortion after about six weeks becomes law – what will doctors do when women ask for help? (Molly Selvin, 4/7)
San Francisco Chronicle:
To Stop Abortions, Protect The EPA, Don’t Attack Planned Parenthood
What would it mean for us to commit ourselves as a society to caring for the development of human life? What would be the best way to stop abortions and protect human life? As an embryologist, I’m glad to say that the interventions needed are low tech and readily available: Curb pollution and protect social safety net policies. (Scott Gilbert, 4/11)