2017 is just getting started.
Barack H. Obama, J.D./NEJM:
Repealing the ACA without a Replacement — The Risks to American Health Care
Health care reform isn’t about a nameless, faceless “system.” It’s about the millions of lives at stake — from the cancer survivor who can now take a new job without fear of losing his insurance, to the young person who can stay on her parents’ insurance after college, to the countless Americans who now live healthier lives thanks to the law’s protections. Policymakers should therefore abide by the physician’s oath: “first, do no harm.”
Republicans are focusing on access (in a bad way) and ignoring cost (repeal costs billions) and quality (they don’t care a whit about that).
Resist.
STATNews:
‘Like a slap in the face’: Dissent roils the AMA, the nation’s largest doctor’s group
Even before the recent election, physicians felt perched on a precipice.
Changes sweeping health care have threatened their independence, income, and influence. An epidemic of burnout and depression shadows the profession. And the incoming Trump administration promises still more upheaval.
Who represents doctors in this unsettling environment? Decades ago, the answer would have been clear: the American Medical Association, the nation’s oldest and largest medical organization.
But today, medicine is a house more divided than ever.
The AMA still has more clout — and spends far more on lobbying — than the scores of medical specialty societies and splinter groups that sort doctors by political leanings. But it counts fewer than 25 percent of practicing physicians as members, down from 75 percent in the 1950s.
And the association infuriated many doctors recently with its quick endorsement of President-elect Donald Trump’s choice for secretary of health and human services — Representative Tom Price, an orthopedic surgeon-turned-congressman who’s led the charge to overturn Obamacare. Just two weeks earlier, the AMA’s House of Delegates had reaffirmed the association’s support for coverage expansions under Obamacare.
“That felt like a slap in the face, and many physicians aren’t sure if the organization really stands for us any longer,” said Dr. Christian Pean, an orthopedic surgery resident at NYU Hospital for Joint Diseases and a 2014 recipient of the AMA Foundation’s leadership award for young physicians.
Cleveland Plain Dealer:
Cleveland Clinic wellness doctor bashes vaccines in op-ed
Cleveland Clinic doctor and Wellness Institute executive Daniel Neides sparked outrage among colleagues across the country when he posted an oped on cleveland.com espousing the widely discredited and anti-scientific notion that vaccinations are linked to autism.
Doctors began sharing the story and condemning the message on Twitter soon after, calling it "dangerous misinformation" and asking the Clinic to discipline Neides.
Clinic officials quickly distanced themselves from Neides' words, saying the doctor penned and submitted the post on his own and the op-ed "absolutely does not reflect the position of the hospital." In a statement on Twitter, the Clinic said: "We fully support vaccines to protect patients & employees. Statements made by our physician do not reflect the position of Cleveland Clinic."
Neides, medical director and chief operating officer of the Cleveland Clinic Wellness Institute, began with a rant against flu shots, just as flu season starts in earnest here in Northeast Ohio…
The Clinic said it will release a more detailed statement in the coming days.
And an ill informed rant it was. We are starting a relatively serious flu season, says CDC. Get your flu shot. See also Doctor’s anti-vaccine claims ignite PR firestorm for Cleveland Clinic.
Kevin Folta/Blogspot:
You don't have to be in medicine to understand that the Cleveland Clinic has a tremendous reputation for research and clinical care. They were the reason I always hoped that if I were to blow a bio-gasket or have "The Grabber" I'd do it in in front of the Frank Zappa display at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame-- a stone's throw from this esteemed institution.
But their social media presence does not reflect excellence in medicine. To the contrary, it reflects an acceptance of alternative medicine quackery and wacky medical advice. I figured that they hired the Food Babe's sister to run their Twitter feed.
Today they seriously crossed the line. Their Twitter feed promoted an article in the local Cleveland paper. Both Clay Jones and Johnathan Jarry noticed and discussed in tweet-space. I had to check it out.
I thought it was satire.
It wasn't.
SF Gate:
That cold you have might actually be the worst Bay Area flu outbreak in a decade
Emergency rooms in the Bay Area are being inundated with people who’ve come down with an especially virulent form of the flu, some waiting for hours to see a doctor.
“Things have exploded upon the scene,” said Dr. Ronn Berrol, director of Summit Campus Emergency Room, Sutter Health Alta Bates Summit Medical Center. “We, in the last week-and-a-half, have seen a massive surge in the amount of patients with flu symptoms, the number of positive flu tests. I don’t know in the last 10 years I’ve seen a surge this bad in such a short period.”
In other news:
Salina Zito/Washington Examiner:
That is a lot of rejection, something Democrats will have to endure for the foreseeable future. Democrats cannot just rely on minority voters. What do they do? Begin with courting their New Deal Democrats rather than mocking them. And for those suburban Republicans who did not care for Trump and cast a vote for Hillary Clinton, find a way to keep them on their side.
While the Republicans are in the cat bird seat with historic majorities, politics is always moving forward, which could be the Democrats way ahead if they are smart.
One thing is for certain, the swing voter lives in the suburbs as Brad Todd, founding partner of OnMessage strategies, pointed out in his story in the Federalist.
Todd explains that "America now has two groups of swing voters: center-right suburbanites and rural populists. Politicians ignore either group at their own peril."
He's right.
Robert Reich/blog:
Republicans are preparing to repeal the Affordable Care Act, and have promised to replace it with something that doesn’t leave more than 20 million Americans stranded without health insurance.
But they still haven’t come up with a replacement. "We haven’t coalesced around a solution for six years,” Republican Senator Tom Cotton admitted last week. “Kicking the can down the road for a year or two years isn’t going to make it any easier to solve.“
They won’t solve it. They can’t and won’t replace Obamacare, for three big reasons [abbreviated, more detail in post — ed.].
- First, Republicans say they want their replacement to be “market-based.” But Obamacare is already market based – relying on private, for profit health insurer
- Second, every part of Obamacare depends on every other part.
- Which gets us to the third big reason Republicans can’t come up with a replacement. Revoking the tax increases in Obamacare – a key part of the repeal – would make it impossible to finance these subsidies.
William J Burns/NY Times:
There have been more than enough illusions on both sides. The United States has oscillated between visions of an enduring partnership with Moscow and dismissing it as a sulking regional power in terminal decline. Russia has moved between notions of a strategic partnership with the United States and a later, deeper desire to upend the current international order, where a dominant United States consigns Russia to a subordinate role.
The reality is that our relationship with Russia will remain competitive, and often adversarial, for the foreseeable future. At its core is a fundamental disconnect in outlook and about each other’s role in the world.
It is tempting to think that personal rapport can bridge this disconnect and that the art of the deal can unlock a grand bargain. That is a foolish starting point for sensible policy. It would be especially foolish to think that Russia’s deeply troubling interference in our election can or should be played down, however inconvenient.
William J. Burns is president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and a former Deputy Secretary of State. He served as U.S. ambassador to Russia from 2005 to 2008.