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WHO URGES COUNTRIES TO SUPPORT UNIVERSAL HEALTH COVERAGE: The director general of the World Health Organization, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, on Tuesday called for world leaders to support universal healthcare coverage, even as he acknowledged pursuing such a system was difficult politically.
Tedros campaigned on the issue of universal health coverage when he was running for WHO’s top slot, and on Sept. 23 the United Nations General Assembly is meeting to discuss the issue. Ahead of the meeting, WHO will publish a report showing that countries are not on track to meet their previously agreed-upon 2030 goal to get there.
“My message at the high-level meeting will be clear: universal healthcare is a political choice,” Tedros wrote on Tuesday. “I call on all leaders to make that choice.”
The 2030 timeline was ambitious. About half of the world’s population doesn’t have access to healthcare. While WHO defines universal health coverage as having “all individuals and communities receive the health services they need without suffering financial hardship,” it also notes that countries need a robust healthcare workforce and have to come up with a financially sustainable plan. Even developed countries that have insurance for everyone struggle with access and budget issues.
In his statement on Tuesday, Tedros said he was reminded of how urgent the issue was after returning from a visit to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which is in the middle of a dire Ebola outbreak.
“I was reminded once again that Ebola is just one symptom of a deeper problem: when people don’t have access to health services, or those services are of poor quality or don’t meet their needs, diseases can spread and lives can be lost,” he wrote.
Good morning and welcome to the Washington Examiner’s Daily on Healthcare! This newsletter is written by senior healthcare reporter Kimberly Leonard (@LeonardKL) and healthcare reporter Cassidy Morrison (@CassMorrison94). You can reach us with tips, calendar items, or suggestions at [email protected]. If someone forwarded you this email and you’d like to receive it regularly, you can subscribe here.
SANDERS CAMP SPARS WITH WAPO OVER WHAT THE PAPER CALLS A ‘FLAWED STATISTIC’: Senior advisor to Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign Warren Gunnels demanded a retraction in a letter to the Washington Post after fact checker Salvador Rizzo said Sanders’ oft-cited statistic that “500,000 Americans will go bankrupt this year from medical bills” was inaccurate. Sanders has repeated the statistic on Twitter and CNN.
Where does the stat come from? The figure relies on a 2018 editorial in the American Journal of Public Health in which Dr. David U. Himmelstein surveyed 910 debtors and found that 66.5% said medical costs were “somewhat” or “very much” to blame for the 750,489 bankruptcies last year to arrive at the 500,000 figure.
Rizzo wrote in his fact check that by citing the statistic, Sanders conflated the claim that medical costs are “somewhat” to blame for bankruptcies with the claim that they are solely to blame. Rizzo said instead that the editorial only shows that medical costs contribute to bankruptcies, rather than that they are to blame for two-thirds of them.
Himmelstein, a supporter of a single-payer health system, took issue with Rizzo’s determination, saying that asking for a single cause of bankruptcy “is a meaningless question.” He wrote to the Post that several factors contribute to bankruptcy and people “cannot identify a single problem among them. Thus, if an illness led to lost work time (and hence income) and medical bills, debtors cannot separate out these different problems; they are of a piece.”
What does Gunnels’ letter say? Gunnels accused Rizzo of anti-Sanders reporting and said that Himmelstein’s editorial was, contrary to Rizzo’s reporting, peer-reviewed. Gunnels’ letter, addressed to WaPo editor Marty Baron, demands a retraction of the “inappropriate coverage” immediately as well as a commitment “to covering Senator Sanders in a fair, professional and ethical manner that finally starts honoring the most basic standards of accuracy.”
Sanders plans to erase medical debt if elected president: Sanders has announced that he will be releasing a plan to have the government pay off $81 billion in medical debt. It’s not yet clear how much the plan would cost because the proposal would involve the government negotiating the pay-back amounts.
FEDERAL AND STATE HEALTH OFFICIALS ARE SEARCHING FOR A LINK BETWEEN VAPING AND LUNG DISEASES: After the count of respiratory illnesses across 25 states reached 215 last week, the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced they are teaming up with state health officials to pinpoint exactly how much vaping nicotine and THC contributed to the confirmed cases. Patients are reporting chest pains and difficulty breathing, and one Illinois patient died of a respiratory disease, having reported e-cigarette use. The FDA and CDC asked state officials to figure out what patients were using prior to getting sick, because, as CDC Director Robert Redfield and acting FDA Commissioner Ned Sharpless said Friday: “Even though cases appear similar, it is not clear if these cases have a common cause or if they are different diseases with similar presentations, which is why our ongoing investigation is critical.”
RBG ASSURES DC CROWD SHE’S ON THE CUSP OF FULL RECOVERY: Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg told a crowd of thousands at DC’s National Book Festival that she’s on her way “to being very well” after undergoing radiation treatment for a malignant tumor on her pancreas. She has received treatments for both colon and pancreatic cancers in the past, and recently underwent a lobectomy of one of her lungs after suffering a fall leading to three fractured ribs. Ginsburg is 86 and the oldest member of the Supreme Court on which she has served since 1993.
FBI SEIZED FORMER MARINE’S FIREARMS UNDER AUSPICES OF OREGON’S RED FLAG LAW: The FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force confiscated Oregon resident and former Marine Shane Kohfield’s five guns, including an AR-15, after he threatened to “slaughter” antifa activists who he thought were coming after right-wing activists. He said all of this through a loudspeaker outside of Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler’s home in July. Oregon’s red flag law allows law enforcement officials and family members to ask a judge to take firearms from a dangerous or unstable person using an “extreme risk protection order.”
SERVICE MINI HORSE BOARDS A FLIGHT FROM CHICAGO TO OMAHA, WHICH IS TOTALLY LEGAL: An American Airlines passenger brought her service animal, a miniature horse named Flirty, on a flight from Chicago to Omaha which, believe it or not, is absolutely legal. In fact, the Department of Transportation lists mini horses as one of the most common service animals, among cats and dogs, and must be permitted to travel on aircraft. A tweet from Flirty The Mini Service Horse said Friday: “Flirty was FANTASTIC and handled it all like a pro. That being said, I’m going to keep traveling by car, it’s just easier on Flirty. Flying will be reserved for emergencies and such.” No word yet on whether the trip from Chicago to Omaha was an emergency.
The Rundown
The New York Times The hospital treated these patients. Then it sued them.
Reuters Facing criticism over deportations, U.S. to look again at some deferral requests
WBUR Mass. weighs bringing in drug-sniffing dogs to its psychiatric hospitals
The Associated Press Clock is ticking on NY deadline for student vaccinations
NPR Millennials and Gen-X travelers: need another measles shot?
Politico ‘The nightmare everyone is worried about’: HIV cases tied to opioids spike in West Virginia county
Calendar
MONDAY | Sept. 3
Congress in recess.
WEDNESDAY | Sept. 4
4 p.m. Boston. Washington Post Live event on “Chasing Cancer.” Details.
