Viewpoints: Work Requirements Perpetuate Stereotype That Low-Income Americans Are ‘Parasites’
A selection of opinions on health care developments from around the state.
Los Angeles Times:
Threatening To Take Away Their Care At Gunpoint Isn't The Way To Get Medicaid Recipients Working
According to the Trump administration, having a job makes you healthier. Most people — especially those who aren't coal miners, air traffic controllers or professional football players — would agree with that. So it's not unreasonable for the federal government to encourage states to try to get more of their able-bodied Medicaid recipients into jobs. In fact, it's something Medicaid has been doing for some time with disabled Americans. The question, though, is how to increase the number of Medicaid recipients who are employed. (Jon Healy, 1/11)
The Mercury News:
GOP Holds CHIP Health Care For Kids Hostage To Other Public Health Cuts
Congress has become so embarrassingly dysfunctional that it can’t find a way to fund one of the most admired, fully bipartisan health care programs of the past 20 years: the Children’s Health Insurance Program, which provides basic coverage for 9 million kids, including 200,000 in the Bay Area. House Republicans are using children’s health as a pawn in their never-ending quest to cripple the Affordable Care Act. House Speaker Paul Ryan has to end the petty squabbling over how CHIP is funded and demand that Congress reauthorize it for a minimum of five years. (1/11)
The Sacramento Bee:
Congress, Do Your Job And Fund CHIP
It should go without question that health care for children is key to their development and education, and to the well-being of their families. But due to continued and purposeful inaction by Congress, health coverage and care for 9 million children hangs in the balance. This delay in Children’s Health Insurance Program funding unnecessarily places more than 2 million California children and pregnant women in jeopardy and creates uncertainty about $2.7 billion in the state budget. (Dean Blumberg and Peter Manzo, 1/10)
Los Angeles Times:
Will Medicine Be The Next Field To Face A Sexual Harassment Reckoning?
While a revolution against cultures of sexual harassment and inequality has swept through Wall Street, Silicon Valley, Hollywood and other work environments, one field so far has escaped the reckoning: medicine. Could that be about to change? That's the question pondered by Reshma Jagsi, a professor of radiation oncology at the University of Michigan and director of its Center for Bioethics and Social Sciences. Jagsi was the lead author of a 2014 survey on sexual harassment and gender bias in academic medicine that is getting new attention today. (Michael Hiltzik, 1/10)
Los Angeles Times:
Orrin Hatch Is Leaving The Senate, But His Deadliest Law Will Live On
Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) last made a public splash during the debate over the GOP's tax cut bill in December, when he threw a conniption over the suggestion that the bill would favor the wealthy (who will reap about 80% of its benefits by 2027). Hatch subsequently announced his retirement from the Senate as of the end of this term, writing finis to his 40 years of service. In that time, he has shown himself to be a master of the down-is-up, wrong-is-right method of obfuscating his favors to rich patrons. That was especially the case with his sedulous defense for 20 years of his deadliest legislative achievement. We're talking about the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994, or DSHEA (pronounced "D-shay"). Hatch introduced DSHEA in collaboration with then-Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), but there was no doubt that it was chiefly his baby. The act all but eliminated government regulation of the dietary and herbal supplements industry. (Michael Hiltzik, 1/5)
Orange County Register:
Is It An Emotional Support Animal Or Just Someone’s Pet?
Dogs, cats, monkeys, birds, pot-bellied pigs and miniature horses — frequent fliers have seen them all in the passenger cabin of airplanes, due to federal laws intended to protect the right of people with disabilities to reasonable accommodation. These are not service animals trained to perform specific tasks to assist their owners. Pets with no special training are allowed in the cabin at no charge if they are “emotional support animals,” or ESAs. (1/11)
Orange County Register:
Choosing A Better Social Safety Net
This newspaper recently editorialized on the need to get serious about welfare reform. The following proposal would not only address welfare reform, it would also address our broken, unfair and indecipherable income tax system as well as our dire homeless situation. ... What do I believe the safety net should look like? It should combine a Federal Graduated Flat Tax with the “Negative Income Tax” proposed by Dr. Milton Friedman. (James P. Gray, 1/11)
The New York Times:
Why It’s Still Worth Getting A Flu Shot
This year’s flu season is shaping up to be a bad one. Much of the country endured a bitterly cold stretch, causing more people to be crowded together inside. The strain that has been most pervasive, H3N2, is nastier than most. And, we’re being told, the vaccine this year is particularly ineffective. That last fact has had many people wondering if they should still get a flu shot. If you read no further in this column, know this: The answer is yes, you should still get a flu shot. The flu season typically peaks December through February but can last until May, and it usually takes about two weeks for the shot’s immunity to kick in. (Aaron E. Carroll, 1/11)