Recent editorials from Tennessee newspapers:
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Feb. 7
The Knoxville News Sentinel on free health clinics and access to health insurance:
About 1,000 people sought exams and procedures last weekend at Remote Area Medical’s annual free health clinic at Knoxville’s Chilhowee Park.
Meanwhile, in Pigeon Forge, hundreds of Sevier County residents affected by November’s massive wildfires received care at a free health clinic organized by Healthy Tennessee and physicians from Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
That so many people do not have access to regular health care providers is shameful. Tennessee’s political leaders need to keep these citizens in mind when making decisions about the future of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
Healthy Tennessee President Dr. Manny Sethi said that the Sevier County clinic was organized to demonstrate the power that communities have to unite and help each other.
Doctors, nurses and nursing students from across East Tennessee volunteered at the clinic to help show their support for the wildfire victims and community members. Healthy Tennessee has organized several similar clinics across the state in cities like Memphis and Chattanooga.
RAM Founder and President Stan Brock said that his organization’s event at the Jacob Building is vital to people who cannot afford to go the doctor or the dentist regularly.
“We come here every year at the same time and we always see about the same number of patients, around 1,000,” Brock told the News Sentinel. “That means that we are the sole healthcare opportunity for the same thousand people who wait every year for RAM to be in this building.”
“When you can’t afford health insurance, this is the place to be,” he added.
The Affordable Care Act was designed to help people living in or near poverty, or who have pre-existing conditions, obtain health insurance. Congressional Republicans, who now have a majority in both houses, have vowed to repeal and replace the signature legislative achievement of former President Barack Obama.
However, they also want to keep several of its popular provisions. Key GOP leaders, including Tennessee Sen. Lamar Alexander, have begun talking about repairing the law instead of immediately rescinding it.
“No one is talking about repealing anything until there is a concrete practical alternative to offer Americans in its place,” Alexander said at a recent hearing.
At the state level, a plan to expand TennCare, the state’s Medicaid program, faces an uncertain future. The 3-Star Healthy pilot program would not expand Medicaid to cover all the people allowed under the Affordable Care Act or Insure Tennessee, Gov. Bill Haslam’s ill-fated expansion alternative.
As Republicans at the state and federal level move forward, they should remember the hundreds of East Tennesseans whose only option for basic health care is an annual clinic put on by compassionate medical professionals. These practitioners do heroic work, but they cannot replace a regulatory framework that makes insurance affordable and accessible.
The Affordable Care Act has flaws, but it is helping many Tennesseans whose access to health care is limited. Any changes to the law or a replacement plan should keep its goal of expanding health insurance coverage to as many Americans as possible.
Online:
https://www.knoxnews.com
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Feb. 6
The Johnson City Press on fetal heartbeat legislation:
State Rep. Micah Van Huss, R-Jonesborough, is pushing passage of legislation to make it a criminal offense to abort a fetus when a heartbeat is detected in utero. The so-called “Heartbeat Bill” also requires all health professionals to perform ultrasounds to look for a heartbeat.
As Press Assistant News Editor Nathan Baker reported last month, Van Huss’ bill requires the medical provider performing the ultrasound to record the gestational age of the fetus, the ultrasound method used, time of the test, the results of the test and inform the mother in writing whether a heartbeat is detected.
Under the proposed law, a woman who is not provided such information would be allowed to sue the medical professional and would be eligible to receive more than $10,000 in damages. The bill also provides exceptions for medical emergencies, but requires doctors to list the specific condition that constitutes the medical emergency.
“If enacted, it will eliminate about 90 percent of abortions in the state, and it goes in tandem with my belief that unborn children should have the right to life,” Van Huss told Baker.
The point during gestation in which a heartbeat can be detected is the earliest markable point in pregnancy, usually between six and 12 weeks, but at an average of eight.
“It’s quite a jump,” Van Huss said of the proposed change from the state’s current criminal abortion statute, which sets the threshold at the point of viability of the fetus, which is normally between 24 and 26 weeks.
Van Huss said he did not speak with any medical professionals before introducing the bill.
The current 24-week viability limit was set by the landmark 1973 Supreme Court case Roe v. Wade, which legalized abortion in the United States.
Fetal heartbeat bills have been introduced in recent years in Alabama, Kansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, Texas and Wyoming, but were all defeated in the legislative process. The Ohio Legislature added fetal heartbeat provision to a unrelated bill, but it was vetoed by Gov. John Kasich.
Similar laws were approved in Arkansas and North Dakota, only to be but struck down as unconstitutional by federal judges.
Online:
https://www.johnsoncitypress.com
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Feb. 6
The Commercial Appeal on Shelby County Drug Court:
During a moving ceremony Wednesday, Bryan Owens talked about how he evolved from a 12-year-old criminal to a serious drug abuser to a sober citizen, who is working on a Master’s Degree in social work at the University of Memphis, has a house in Arlington and became engaged over Christmas to his girlfriend of five years.
Owens’ moving presentation came during a celebration by the staff, graduates and supporters of Shelby County Drug Court, which was marking its 20th anniversary.
It is not hyperbole to say the court, founded by General Sessions Criminal Court Judge Tim Dwyer, has been a resuscitator of lives severely damaged by drug use, a crime reducer and a key weapon in criminal justice reform.
Dwyer, a General Sessions judge since 1984, founded the Drug Court in 1997.
The program, like others nationwide, gives those accepted a chance to have criminal charges expunged in exchange for carefully supervised detoxing and rehab, usually followed by time living in a halfway house and attending meetings for recovering addicts.
Completing the program is not easy. Drug addiction is a tough enemy to battle. But, the program boasts a 25 percent recidivism rate compared with 80 percent for nondrug court participants.
The program’s fiscal year summary for 2014-2016 shows about twice as many participants completed the program as opposed to dropping out in 2014-2015. In 2016, the ratio dropped with 132 graduates and 96 terminated.
The surging opioid and heroin epidemic locally and nationally, has caused the courts, law enforcement and criminal justice officials, and medical professionals to look at more humane ways to deal with nonviolent drug abusers.
Drug Courts and more creative ways to punish offenders, while helping them get clean without putting them behind bars, are becoming more prevalent.
That saves tax dollars. It also reduces crime because those who successfully complete the programs no longer are committing crimes to get money to feed their drug use.
The website for nonprofit National Association of Drug Court Professionals, founded in 1994 by “pioneers from the first 12 Drug Courts in the nation,” said there are 3,057 Drug Courts in operation in all 50 states and U.S. territories.
Among the association’s findings are:
Nationwide, 75 percent of Drug Court graduates remain arrest-free at least two years after leaving the program.
Rigorous studies examining long-term outcomes of individual Drug Courts have found that reductions in crime last at least 3 years and can endure for over 14 years.
The most rigorous and conservative scientific “meta-analyses” have all concluded that Drug Courts significantly reduce crime as much as 45 percent more than other sentencing options.
Those are the kinds of stats Dwyer, along with a lot of supporters, hoped to achieve when the judge founded Drug Court.
But the most important stat all is the number of lives turned around was a result of the Drug Court. Owens is a testament to that, punctuated by the fact that he also was able to get temporary custody of his 13-year-old son.
Online:
https://www.commercialappeal.com
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