Commentary | Georgia Health News

Medicare for all is not scary, but a great idea

Commentary April 15, 2019 1

This Commentary is written by Jack Bernard and Dr. William Elsea The following statistic shocked us, even as jaded as we may be: The U.S. 2014 infant mortality rate was 70 percent higher than that of other wealthy nations, all of which have national health care. It also indicated that... Read more

New federal regulations will seriously undermine family planning services

Commentary April 8, 2019 3

This Commentary is written by Sarah Blake and Andrea Swartzendruber For nearly 50 years, Title X, the national family planning program, has provided millions of low-income and uninsured people access to high-quality health care in line with national medical and ethical practice standards. This important program has helped... Read more

CMS mapping tool on prescriptions helps communities fight opioid crisis

Commentary March 10, 2019 3

This Commentary is written by Jean Moody-Williams, regional CMS administrator Leveraging community partnerships and critical data is one of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ key strategies to help tailor prevention and treatment efforts to combat the opioid crisis, particularly in rural communities. With that aim, CMS launched... Read more

This is the year to finally reform Certificate of Need

Commentary February 27, 2019 4

Perhaps the biggest health care battle of our lifetime exploded almost a decade ago when Congress rammed through Obamacare. As a result, patient choices have been limited while the cost of health care skyrocketed. What consumers have cried for since then is not only some sanity in the cost... Read more

Eliminating CON laws would put profits ahead of patients

Commentary February 24, 2019 0

There are many good reasons why Georgia, like most other states in this country, has rejected decades of efforts by cream-skimming profit-seekers to repeal certificate-of-need laws. CON laws strike a balance between improving access to care, recognizing that a “free-market” system won’t work because hospitals must legally and ethically... Read more