Viewpoints: Support for HPV vaccinations; Compassion and GOP debates

Sep 17 2011

Bloomberg: Perry Was Right On HPV Vaccine, Schools Should Follow Suit: View
Imagine that scientists invented a vaccine that was proved to safely prevent cancer. Imagine that it was licensed and recommended in the U.S. for all preadolescent girls and available to boys as well, yet five years later only 11 percent of children were receiving the full course of shots. That's the actual situation with the human papillomavirus vaccine, the subject of recent debate among Republican presidential candidates. ... HPV should be on every state's list for girls, with an opt-out provision for parents who object (9/14).

The Washington Post: A Dose Of Reality For The HPV Debate
If Republican presidential candidates want to debate sexual health and hygiene, it would be nice if they displayed more collective knowledge and judgment than your average eighth-grade family-life class. During the Tampa debate, a viewer longed for a blunt, part-time football coach -; or whomever they draft into teaching health classes nowadays -; to mount the stage and present the facts of life (Michael Gerson, 9/15). 

The Washington Post: Where Are The Compassionate Conservatives?
We heard plenty of contradictions, distortions and untruths at the Republican candidates' Tea Party debate, but we heard shockingly little compassion -; and almost no acknowledgement that political and economic policy choices have a moral dimension. The lowest point of the evening -; and perhaps of the political season -; came when moderator Wolf Blitzer asked Ron Paul a hypothetical question about a young man who elects not to purchase health insurance (Eugene Robinson, 9/15). 

The New York Times: Free To Die
I'm referring, as you might guess, to what happened during Monday's G.O.P. presidential debate. CNN's Wolf Blitzer asked Representative Ron Paul what we should do if a 30-year-old man who chose not to purchase health insurance suddenly found himself in need of six months of intensive care. Mr. Paul replied, "That's what freedom is all about -; taking your own risks." Mr. Blitzer pressed him again, asking whether "society should just let him die." And the crowd erupted with cheers and shouts of "Yeah!" (Paul Krugman, 9/15). 

Kaiser Health News: Different Takes: How To Set The Health Law's Essential Benefits Package
Kaiser Health News asked a group of experts what core principles should steer the development of this rule if it is to both benefit consumers and the marketplace. Commentaries follow from Utah state Rep. James Dunnigan; A. Mark Fendrick, who directs the University of Michigan Center for Value-Based Insurance Design; and Debra L. Ness, president of the National Partnership for Women & Families (9/15).

iWatch News: Cynical Attempts To Undo Health Care Reform
House Republicans, unable to repeal President Obama's health care reform law outright, have decided to go after it piece by piece. If they are successful, what's likely to remain is the kind of reform the insurance industry dreamed of but never really thought could be the law of the land. ... If the bills' sponsors are successful, health insurers would be free to spend as little of our premium dollars on our health care as they want, and they would be able to continue setting lifetime limits on policies and cancel our coverage at the time we need it most (Wendell Potter, 9/15).

Politico: Letter To The Editor
Rep. Darrell Issa's opinion piece "Health Care Law Will Deepen Deficit" reminded me of the late great Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan's famous riposte: "You are entitled to your own opinions. You are not entitled to your own facts." Despite Issa's claims, the Congressional Budget Office projects that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will reduce the deficit by $132 billion between 2010 and 2019. The CBO has stated repeatedly that its deficit-reduction projections are largely due to the ACA's reform of Medicare (Rep. Joe Courtney, 9/16).

The New Republic/CBS News: Could "Obamacare" Be Working?
Need a reason to believe the Affordable Care Act is starting to work? The Census Bureau just gave you a half million of them. That's how many young adults had health insurance in 2010, as compared to 2009, according to the official estimates. Or, to put it another way, the proportion of 18- to 24-year olds without health insurance fell, by roughly two percentage points, last year (Jonathan Cohn, 9/15). 

Philadelphia Daily News: Don't Raise Medicare Age
If we really want to preserve Medicare for the future, the last thing we should do is raise the eligibility age to 67 -- yet that is what President Obama, shockingly, seems willing to do. In his jobs speech last week, Obama made a good case for government action to stimulate the economy. But he also said this: "With an aging population and rising health-care costs, we are spending too fast to sustain [Medicare]. And if we don't gradually reform the system while protecting current beneficiaries, it won't be there when future retirees need it." The president didn't say what he means by "reform," but it has been reported, and not denied by the White House, that during talks with Republican leaders over raising the debt, he offered to gradually raise the eligibility age for Medicare from 65. This is a colossally bad idea (9/16).

The New York Times Economix Blog: The Role Of Prices In Health Care Spending
The term "health care" evokes different images in people's minds. To patients who find a miraculous cure, health care may be almost sacred. For physicians, nurses and other health care professionals it is a compassionate human activity. To hard-nosed economists, health care represents just another exchange of favors embedded in a wider market economy that consists of exchanging favors (Uwe E. Reinhardt, 9/16). 

San Francisco Chronicle: How The Bay Area Can Afford Old Age
The Bay Area can't afford to grow old. Half of all Bay Area voters age 40 or older could not afford three months of nursing home care (which in California carries a hefty average price tag of $6,500 a month), according to a new poll released by the SCAN Foundation and UCLA Center for Health Policy Research. ... California voters across the political spectrum want elected officials to make these issues a high priority. Respondents to our survey embraced the core concepts of the Community Living Assistance Supports and Services plan, or CLASS, which is part of the new federal health care law (Bruce Chernof and Steven P. Wallace, 9/16).