Viewpoints: We Need Tools To Intervene To Help Homeless With Mental Illnesses
A selection of opinions on health care developments from around the state.
Ventura County Star:
Legislators Add To Broken Mental Health System
On June 26, the California Senate Judiciary Committee heard testimony regarding Assembly Bill 1971, which would expand the definition of “gravely disabled” to include medical necessity. Existing law does not recognize a person’s inability to provide for his or her basic personal needs for health as an element of grave disability. AB 1971 can change this. Homelessness and homeless encampments have become a part of the permanent landscape of California, and approximately 33 percent of these people suffer from serious mental illness. A subset of the mentally ill lack the capacity to understand that without medical intervention, they will die. (Mary Haffner, 7/14)
Sacramento Bee:
California’s Sanctuary Laws Also Hurt Immigrants
California needs to have a serious conversation about illegal immigration, without the vapid posturing of politicians on both sides who view immigration as a political football used to score political points. This state needs to address the long-term deleterious effects of a two-tiered system that restricts deserving and qualified immigrants from coming here legally, while opening the door to a flood of illegal immigrants offered every incentive to make California their home – welfare benefits, free education, scholarships to our UC system, subsidized or free healthcare – even the right to practice law. (Harmeet Dhillon, 7/18)
The Mercury News:
It's Time Migrant Children Labor Laws Grew Up
Public attention has never been more focused on the plight of migrant children. Americans are demanding these children have what humanitarian organizations call children’s rights: education, safety, basic health care, and the right to be with their families. Let’s use this attention to recognize that many migrant children – documented or not – are denied those very same rights once they cross the border to live and work on American soil. (Adrienne Rose Bitar, 7/19)
Los Angeles Times:
Big Pharma Is Quietly Using Nonprofits To Push Opioids
Last month, Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri introduced a bill going after, of all things, nonprofits. The word “nonprofit” tends to conjure images of idealistic charities committed to saving vanishing forests, teaching underprivileged kids or counseling the victims of sexual assault. The reality can be far different. McCaskill’s proposed legislation follows from a scorching report she released in February detailing how opioid manufacturers funneled almost $9 million over five years to various advocacy groups that amplified messages and policies favorable to their industry. Many of these nonprofits had lobbied against laws to decrease opioid use and tried to downplay charges against physicians and pharmaceutical industry officials responsible for over-prescribing. (Paul D. Thacker, 7/19)
Ventura County Star:
Single-Payer Supporters Keep Pressing
Nothing frustrated California’s politically dominant liberal Democrats more this year than having to live with the reality that their holy grail of single-payer health care won’t happen here for years to come. This is in part because of fiscal realities — the cost would be enormous. It’s also because of political reality. So long as Donald Trump is president, there’s no chance the federal government will cede Medicare dues paid by Californians to state government. Those dollars would be a key component in paying for any state single-payer plan. (Tom Elias, 7/17)
Los Angeles Times:
Americans Like Socialism Now
American socialism is having one hot summer. In New York, 28-year-old Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, running as a Democratic Socialist, upset Rep. Joe Crowley, favored to succeed Rep. Nancy Pelosi as leader of the House Democrats, in the Democratic primary. Democratic gubernatorial candidate Cynthia Nixon, running in the September primary against Gov. Andrew Cuomo, has proclaimed herself a Democratic Socialist too. Its numbers surging in the wake of Ocasio-Cortez’s stunning victory, the Democratic Socialists of America now claims 45,000 members. That’s a nine-fold increase over the 5,000 members (myself included) it had before Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders began his presidential run in 2015. (Harold Meyerson, 7/19)
The Mercury News:
Region Can't Afford To Lose Four Hospitals
Here we go again. Nearly three years after the financially beleaguered Daughters of Charity made a deal that kept four Bay Area hospitals afloat, the current operators, Verity Health System, said last week that they can’t make their financing work and that the hospitals may be put up for sale. It’s a potential health care disaster for Santa Clara County and San Mateo County residents if any significant number of the hospitals’ 924 beds were no longer available. (7/18)
San Jose Mercury News:
Don't Let Children Be Undercounted In 2020 Census
The 2020 Census will have a tremendous impact on federal funding that states and localities receive for the next decade. And that means our kids are in jeopardy of being shortchanged on funding for programs that help them thrive. (Moira Kenney, John Dobard and Ted Lempert, 7/13)