Viewpoints: Like It Or Not, Warren’s ‘Medicare-For-All’ Plan Is Economically Feasible; Put Teens’ Health At Center Of Debate On Cracking Down On Vaping

Opinion writers weigh in on these health topics and others.

CNN: Elizabeth Warren's Medicare For All Plan Won't Raise Taxes On The Middle Class

It's no secret that I'm not a fan of Medicare for All. That's why I'm impressed that Senator Elizabeth Warren's campaign reached out to me to independently review her proposed financing plan for the program. Her numbers add up and her plan fully finances the program without imposing any new taxes on middle-class families. The most important source of revenue for Warren's Medicare for All plan is simply to have businesses pay their employees' health insurance premiums to Medicare instead of private insurance companies. (Mark Zandi, 11/13)

The Washington Post: Trump Must Keep His Promises On Vaping

“Will be meeting with representatives of the Vaping industry, together with medical professionals and individual state representatives, to come up with an acceptable solution to the Vaping and E-cigarette dilemma,” President Trump tweeted Monday. “Children’s health & safety, together with jobs, will be a focus!” This might not sound like one of Mr. Trump’s alarming tweets. But it is. The president announced two months ago that he would crack down on e-cigarettes, following dire news about their appeal to teenagers. Now — reading “together with jobs” — public-health advocates are worried he might reverse course. (11/13)

Los Angeles Times: EPA Would Limit Science's Impact On New Regulations

Science doesn’t get much respect from the Trump administration. Among other things, the administration has brushed off as unimportant the effect of burning fossil fuels on global warming, and has ignored the effect of emissions of mercury and other toxins from power plants on the environment and human health. But now the administration wants to further reduce the influence of science on public policy through a bit of regulatory subterfuge that is stunning in its malign craftiness. If the administration succeeds, we’ll all be the worse for it. (11/14)

Stat: #NeedHerScience: Shining A Light On Gender Disparities In Medicine

Medicine has an abundance of highly trained and qualified women. So why are there so few of them at the highest levels, including full professors, chairs, and deans? For many years, the belief was that when there were enough women in medicine, critical mass alone would correct such gender disparities. Yet this theory has not panned out and it is now clear that despite the fact there are many qualified women for any given leadership position, they are not promoted equitably. (Julie K. Silver, 11/13)

The Philadelphia Inquirer: Veterans Need Better Access To Mental Health Care. Here’s How That Can Happen

It was a typical day in the clinic. A new client came in for an initial assessment. They disclosed that they had been feeling depressed for a while and, after a little more questioning, acknowledged that they had attempted to take their life just a few days prior – a fact they had not shared with anyone since.Unfortunately, this client was National Guard member, so they were not eligible for many veteran services. And, because this Guard member did not have stable work, they couldn’t afford the National Guard subsidized health insurance. They were afraid to go to the hospital, because they couldn’t afford it, but let their clinician know that they weren’t sure they could keep themselves safe after their appointment. (Leah Blain, 11/14)

The New York Times: Why It Is So Hard To Figure Out What To Eat

Most diet trials in the best journals fail even the most basic of quality control measures. That’s the finding of a study by us published today on JAMA Network Open. Investigators receiving funding for any clinical trial from the National Institutes of Health must register in advance what they plan to test, among other design features, to ensure that the data are fairly analyzed. Comparing the original registries with the final published studies, we found that diet trials in the past decade were about four times as likely as drug trials to have a discrepancy in the main outcome or measurement — raising concern for bias. (David S. Ludwig and Steven B. Heymsfield, 11/13)

Stat: The FDA Must Pull Makena From The Market

Should doctors be able to prescribe and use a drug that doesn’t work, and may cause harm? That’s the question currently in front of the FDA as it decides what to do about a drug called Makena. The FDA approved 17-hydroxyprogesterone caproate (Makena) in 2011 as a way to prevent preterm birth in women with a prior spontaneous preterm birth. The drug got the green light through the FDA’s accelerated approval pathway, which is reserved for drugs that treat a serious or life-threatening disease or condition. That certainly applies to preterm birth — birth before 37 weeks of pregnancy — which is a major problem in the United States and around the world. (Adam C. Urato, 11/14)

The New York Times: I’m A Police Chief. We Need To Change How Officers View Their Guns.

Few things are more harrowing than watching a video of a police officer confront a person in emotional crisis armed with a knife or other similar object. The officer almost always points a gun at that person and yells, “Drop it!” If staring down the barrel of a gun isn’t enough to give a person pause, yelling at him or her is unlikely to make a difference. If that person advances on the police officer, gunfire often results. Each year, American police officers shoot and kill well over 125 people armed with knives, many of them in this manner. (Brandon del Pozo, 11/13)

Stat: My Daughter's Legacy Lives On Through Her Writing, Phage Therapy

“Who lives, who dies, who tells your story?” That line from the musical “Hamilton” inspires me to keep telling the story of my daughter Mallory. She died two years ago Friday at the age of 25, two months after receiving a transplant to replace both of her lungs, which had been ravaged by cystic fibrosis and an infection that no drugs could eradicate. (Diane Shader Smith, 11/13)

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