Viewpoints: Yes, Premiums Have Dropped, But Imagine How Much Better They Could Have Been Without Trump
A selection of opinions on health care developments from around the state.
Los Angeles Times:
Obamacare Premiums Are Looking Good. They'd Be Even Better If They Hadn't Been Sabotaged By The GOP
In baseball, the winning pitcher is the one who was on the mound just before his team took the lead for good — regardless of how well he pitched. So a reliever who gets hammered, turning a three-run lead into a two-run deficit, nevertheless will get credit for the win if his teammates retake the lead the next time they’re at bat. Keep that in mind whenever President Trump talks (or writes) about health insurance premiums for Obamacare policies, which are sold to people not covered by a large employer’s group plan. (Jon Healey, 10/11)
Los Angeles Times:
Forcing Starbucks To Put A Cancer Warning On Your Coffee Cup Would Violate The 1st Amendment
Coffee is ubiquitous in our society, cancer a horrendous and terrifying disease, and the case is thus of enormous interest in California and beyond. But one aspect of the case has received little public attention: A ruling against the coffee vendors would violate the 1st Amendment of the United States Constitution. (Floyd Abrams, 10/11)
Sacramento Bee:
Trump Administration Is Working To Reduce Violent Crime
Keeping the American people safe is government’s most important duty. After all, we can’t have a strong economy, an effective education system or a functioning democracy if it is not safe to leave your home or walk the streets of your neighborhood. In recent years, this obligation has taken on even greater importance. From 2014 to 2016, violent crime increased by more than 8 percent nationwide, and murders spiked by 21 percent. The increase in the murder rate in 2015 was the largest one-year increase since 1968. (U.S. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, 10/8)
Los Angeles Times:
Battling A California Law, Drug Industry Reveals It May Not Always Have A Good Reason For Price Hikes
It’s proper to observe that there’s considerable doubt that SB 17 will bring down drug prices, and some speculation that it could even lead to price increases — if industry middlemen use the 60-day advance notices to stockpile drugs during the notice period and jack up prices to retailers, or if competing manufacturers use the notices to fix prices on their own products. The industry lawsuit makes these arguments itself. But it’s probably fair to say that the drug industry wouldn’t be mounting this kind of attack on a state law if it thought the law would clear the way for higher prices. (Michael Hiltzik, 10/8)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Ex-ER Psychiatrist: More Inpatient Treatment Needed In SF
I sat down with Dr. Paul Linde, who for a quarter-century worked in the psychiatric emergency room at San Francisco General Hospital before leaving to work part-time as a primary care psychiatrist. He described San Francisco’s revolving door for mentally ill homeless people, the shortage of treatment beds and how California’s newly passed law strengthening the conservatorship program might help. (Heather Knight, 10/9)
Los Angeles Times:
L.A.'s Jail Reform Activists Are Proposing Maddeningly Modest Demands
It is exceedingly difficult to qualify an initiative for the Los Angeles County ballot, so the Reform L.A. Jails movement achieved something remarkable earlier this year when it gathered nearly a quarter-million signatures on a petition to require a reexamination of jail funding and to enhance oversight of the Sheriff’s Department. Now the Board of Supervisors must choose whether to allow the measure to proceed to the March 3, 2020, presidential primary ballot or to short-circuit the process and grant the activists instant victory by passing the substance of their measure into law. If only the activists’ demands weren’t so maddeningly modest. (10/9)
Sacramento Bee:
Academic Pressure Can Cook Up Dubious Science Research
The public’s waning faith in science is only partly a reflection of our social and political times. Yes, there are the willfully ignorant people who refuse to admit that climate change is real and caused in large part by human activity, because that would mean giving up gas guzzlers and other polluting comforts of life. Others get their woeful information about vaccines from social media instead of finding out the facts about the billions of lives that have been saved by immunization – half a billion from smallpox alone, compared with the last century before its eradication. (Karin Klein, 10/10)
The San Francisco Chronicle:
Vote No On Prop. 2. Don’t Divert Mental Health Funds
Family-member advocates for those with a serious mental illness know that Proposition 2, while well-meaning, will not solve the homelessness problem for those who are most ill. Prop. 2 is a misuse of funds, an unnecessary giveaway to investors and bureaucrats, that further reduces access and quality of treatment for people with severe mental illnesses. (Catherine Lauren Rettagliata, 10/6)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Homeless Outreach Team Helps Nudge SF’s Street Souls Into Better Lives
Working as a HOT member is draining, physically and emotionally, but it’s also essential to nudging the thousands of people living on San Francisco’s sidewalks into better lives. ... Top pay is $27.78 per hour, or about $57,800. That’s compared with the $71,760 the city is paying new members of the Poop Patrol — meaning city officials place a higher value on getting homeless people’s feces off the sidewalks than getting homeless people themselves off the sidewalks. (Heather Knight, 10/12)
San Jose Mercury News:
Why Voters Should Approve Prop. 1 Housing Bond
California can’t hope to solve its housing crisis unless the state makes a serious investment in building more units. Proposition 1 does just that, authorizing a $4 billion bond for housing loans for veterans and affordable housing for low-income households. Voters should support it on Nov. 6. (10/6)
Fresno Bee:
Physician Assistants Want To Help Homeless People
Currently, in order for PAs to provide care, California law requires that a physician sign a delegation agreement making the physician legally responsible for the care provided by the PAs. ... Because of this outdated law, two well-qualified providers who want to provide more assistance to an incredibly vulnerable population simply can’t. And that needs to change. (Adam Marks, 10/12)
The Mercury News:
Monte Sereno Dad Fighting ALS With Daughter At His Side
A couple of weeks ago, I received an email from Monte Sereno resident Doug McNeil. I wrote about him a few years ago when he was honored at the White House for his work on a literacy project for the Los Gatos Morning Rotary Club. This time around, he wanted to get the word out about a fundraiser he and his daughter were working on together for the Silicon Valley Walk to Defeat ALS on Oct. 13. “I’m typing this email with my eyes, as the disease has claimed all my motor functions,” McNeil wrote. (Sal Pizarro, 10/8)