Our Health Policy Matters

Here is one of the more intriguing headlines of Super Bowl week:  “Is the National Football League dying”? Probably not, but too many of its former players are dying young, and for reasons that may be preventable.  Many people are concerned about growing evidence of brain injury from the violence of the game. But that’s just part of the story. Linemen are too heavy. Their excessive weight is a danger to running backs now and to their own health after they hang up the cleats. Baltimore Ravens safety Bernard Pollard raised the issue when he was quoted as predicting the demise of pro football, in part because of its violence, but mostly because of the way the rule makers are responding to that violence.  “I hope I’m wrong,” he added, “but I just believe one day there’s going to be a death that takes place on the field because of the direction we’re going.”  President Obama weighed in on football safety, too, but in a less dire way.  “ I think th...

Here is one of the more intriguing headlines of Super Bowl week:  “Is the National Football League dying”? Probably not, but too many of its former players are dying young, and for reasons that may be preventable.  Many people are concerned about growing evidence of brain injury from the violence of the game. But that’s just part of the story. Linemen are too heavy. Their excessive weight is a danger to running backs now and to their own health after they hang up the cleats. Baltimore Ravens safety Bernard Pollard raised the issue when he was quoted as predicting the demise of pro football, in part because of its violence, but mostly because of the way the rule makers are responding to that violence.  “I hope I’m wrong,” he added, “but I just believe one day there’s going to be a death that takes place on the field because of the direction we’re going.”  President Obama weighed in on football safety, too, but in a less dire way.  “ I think th...

As President Obama begins his second term, he does so with an expansive vision for America. “America's possibilities are limitless,” he said in his inaugural address , “for we possess all the qualities that this world without boundaries demands:  youth and drive; diversity and openness; an endless capacity for risk and a gift for reinvention.   My fellow Americans, we are made for this moment, and we will seize it - so long as we seize it together.” There are many potential roadblocks toward achieving that bold vision.  One is the myth that entitlement reform must be a part of it. The reason that entitlement reform is at the top of some political agendas has nothing to do with the growth in entitlement programs today. Some people with these agendas don’t like any government-run programs and won’t listen to the facts about them.  Those who do look at the facts see the rapid growth in Medicare and Medicaid spending through 2009.  Accor...

As President Obama begins his second term, he does so with an expansive vision for America. “America's possibilities are limitless,” he said in his inaugural address , “for we possess all the qualities that this world without boundaries demands:  youth and drive; diversity and openness; an endless capacity for risk and a gift for reinvention.   My fellow Americans, we are made for this moment, and we will seize it - so long as we seize it together.” There are many potential roadblocks toward achieving that bold vision.  One is the myth that entitlement reform must be a part of it. The reason that entitlement reform is at the top of some political agendas has nothing to do with the growth in entitlement programs today. Some people with these agendas don’t like any government-run programs and won’t listen to the facts about them.  Those who do look at the facts see the rapid growth in Medicare and Medicaid spending through 2009.  Accor...

The shock of sudden violence is so severe it takes your breath away. When it happens in a time and place where it is unexpected, it does more than just remind us that no one is immune to it.  It also reminds us how pervasive it is, how much it affects us all, and how important it is that we do something about it.  In the summer of 1989, I imagined that sudden, random violence was something far removed from my hometown.  But I was about to learn differently. An  article in The Atlantic has just detailed the event, dredging up some quarter century old memories of a day that changed my community’s life. I was running for Mayor of Middletown, Connecticut, at the time, and had reserved a booth at the city’s annual Sidewalk Sale in late July.  I was handing out yardsticks, asking for a vote “for government that measures up to your expectations.” Suddenly, there was a commotion about a block north of where I was standing.  I noticed people...

The shock of sudden violence is so severe it takes your breath away. When it happens in a time and place where it is unexpected, it does more than just remind us that no one is immune to it.  It also reminds us how pervasive it is, how much it affects us all, and how important it is that we do something about it.  In the summer of 1989, I imagined that sudden, random violence was something far removed from my hometown.  But I was about to learn differently. An  article in The Atlantic has just detailed the event, dredging up some quarter century old memories of a day that changed my community’s life. I was running for Mayor of Middletown, Connecticut, at the time, and had reserved a booth at the city’s annual Sidewalk Sale in late July.  I was handing out yardsticks, asking for a vote “for government that measures up to your expectations.” Suddenly, there was a commotion about a block north of where I was standing.  I noticed people...

More than 11 million American adults with mental illnesses – 4.5 million of them with serious mental illnesses – are not receiving care today.  So it may not be unreasonable to conclude that the history of public mental health services over the last century can be summed up in a single brief sentence.  We replaced the chains of institutions with a chain of neglect. I have argued that this chain of neglect typically begins when children with mental health needs are still young, and continues throughout their lives.  And that it often has tragic consequences. Why is it so important that we talk about breaking it now, the month after Sandy Hook and almost exactly two years since the mass shooting in Tucson? It is because tragedies like those in Sandy Hook and Tucson remind us that it is wrong to balance budgets on the backs of children and young adults with mental illness and expect that there will be no consequences. This is a sensitive, and even com...