Viewpoints: Medicaid Work Rules Punish Unpaid Caregivers; Surprise At A MAHA Roundtable
Opinion writers weigh in on these public health topics.
Big changes are coming to the Medicaid system this time next year 鈥 and I fear they will quietly but profoundly decimate the unpaid workforce that already props up our long-term care system. (Emily D. Tisdale, 2/12)
I want to be clear about my posture going in: I am not ideologically aligned with many who were in that room. As an immigrant physician and scientist, I worry that national funding cuts and policies that make this country less welcoming will deter the next generation of lifesaving talent and leadership from coming to the United States. I understand why many of my colleagues feel frustrated or concerned. What I heard at the event was more complex and constructive than much public discourse would suggest. (Chethan Sathya, 2/11)
Moderna spent years and hundreds of millions of dollars developing a flu vaccine using the same technology that allowed the United States to produce covid-19 vaccines in record time. But now the drug company鈥檚 flu shots are not getting a fair shake from the Food and Drug Administration. (2/11)
Pharmacist education includes patient assessment, differential diagnosis, laboratory testing, drug administration and prescribing. But outdated statutes often limit pharmacists to testing without treatment or require referral even when clinical care is straightforward and well established. Some state legislatures are considering proposals to modernize these laws and expand access to care. Yet pharmacists in many states remain legally prohibited from providing care they are trained to deliver. (Tim Frost, 2/11)
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., making a calculated election-year pivot away from vaccines, staged a Hollywood-style event on Wednesday promoting his 鈥淓at Real Food鈥 agenda, featuring a celebrity cast that included the boxer Mike Tyson in a campaign to make healthy food 鈥渁chievable, practical, affordable and within reach of every American family.鈥 He was not specific. But underlying those promises was a political reality: Mr. Kennedy鈥檚 healthy eating agenda is popular. His vaccine agenda is not. (Sheryl Gay Stolberg, 2/11)