Featured Commentary category, Page 108
Howard Dean: Biden must restore seniors’ access to essential medicines
On Jan. 19, Medicare officials announced a new payment model that could wreak havoc on the chronically ill. The proposed model — technically put forward by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation — affects Medicare’s Part D prescription drug benefit, which relies on private insurers to administer seniors’ drug...
Gisele Fetterman: It’s time for the Dreamers to be safe at home for good
We are at an important crossroads in this nation. We have faced immense, unprecedented challenges in this unimaginably difficult past year, but with a new administration in place and the end of covid-19 in sight, we also find ourselves with a tremendous opportunity to lay the foundation for a brighter...
David Sanko: Pa. needs another ‘shot in the arm’ with broadband access expansion
Pennsylvania, like many other states, has a digital divide that separates the haves from the have-nots. And at no other time has this divide seemed wider than in the last year when the covid-19 pandemic brought the demand for internet service into sharp focus. From students trying to do their...
Angelo McClain: Social workers critical in post-covid world
The covid-19 pandemic isn’t just a historic public health crisis. It’s an economic and mental health crisis unlike anything in recent memory. Millions of people have lost their jobs. Americans of all ages are reporting elevated levels of depression, anxiety, substance abuse, even suicidal ideation. Sadly, there is no vaccine...
Sylvia Rhor: Honoring the dead, one name at a time
I never met Peaster Richie. Or any of his descendants (that I know of). I can’t find a passing reference to him in history books, much less a biography devoted to him. Richie, the grandson of slaves, was one of the countless heroes of the Great Migration who made their...
Adam Marles: A year full of lessons on covid’s impact on older Americans
A year ago, the Wolf administration did something both unthinkable and absolutely necessary: It closed nursing homes to all visitors to combat the covid-19 virus. Long-term caregivers understood that isolating residents from their families was vital in protecting them from a deadly illness, but it was an agonizing decision because...
Gina Diorio: Gov. Wolf is hiding covid data again
Do you remember in the early days of the covid pandemic when Gov. Tom Wolf promised his decisions would be “data-driven”? “We have to follow the science,” he reminded us. So convincing was this supposed “data” that Wolf temporarily shut Right-to-Know (RTK) offices so we couldn’t ask for it. Transparency...
Lori Dira: Standardized testing should be suspended this year
The Pennsylvania Department of Education recently announced that it would allow individual school districts to decide whether to administer PSSA and Keystone Exams this spring, as would be typical, or to postpone these tests until the fall. While the Biden administration is imploring schools to stick with the usual plan...
Carol Ferguson: Vaccines work — life lessons from polio survivors
We’ve been here before. For half of the 20th century, polio was affecting tens of thousands of children annually. Transmitted by person-to-person contact, polio’s lingering paralytic effects frightened anxious parents so much that people avoided gatherings altogether. Schools were closed, activities were paused. There was no vaccine, no cure, no...
Sheldon Jacobson: NCAA covid-19 policy demands selective reseeding for March Madness
The NCAA announced policies designed to keep March Madness on track for a safe and successful tournament. These policies include holding all 68 games in the Indianapolis area and limiting the number of people in each venue to 25% of its capacity. These restrictions will serve to limit the spread...
Ashley Lynn Priore: A chess strategy may help unify Pa.
I’m a proud Pittsburgher. How could I not be? I was born and raised in the Steel City and attended the University of Pittsburgh down the street from my home. In 2014, I founded a nonprofit organization, Queen’s Gambit Chess Institute. I have taught chess in Pittsburgh’s nine districts ever...
Josh Fleitman: We must vaccinate against the gun violence epidemic, too
A sleeping infant struck and killed by a stray bullet during a gunfight in Spring Hill. An elementary school teacher slain in her Westmoreland County home when someone shot into the incorrect house in retaliation over a drug deal gone wrong. A young, Black man, cornerback on his Catholic high...
Samir Lakhani: Hygiene is a human right, not a luxury
A lot of my friends have joked: “It feels like all I did in 2020 was wash my hands!” All humor aside, it’s my hope that hand hygiene and washing has been reinvigorated and widely adopted as a primary defense against illness in this country. As I noted in my...
Paul Petrick: Let’s celebrate vice presidents, too
As another February fades into history, the month’s historical significance to the American presidency remains incandescent. The birth month to George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and Ronald Reagan, February exhibits the least number of days and greatest number of great presidents. This correlation of presidential preeminence and birth date makes one...
Ron Klink: Drug costs bill a bad means to a bad end
What happens in a world where medical innovations like the vaccines that are defeating the coronavirus are no longer possible? That could be the result of a ham-handed effort to make America an “also-ran” country in the global pharmaceutical business. Some lawmakers are trying to revive the Lower Drug Costs...
Cynthia Fisher: Patients should know actual, not estimated, prices
Beginning this year with the implementation of a new Health and Human Services rule, American consumers won the right, upheld by a U.S. Court of Appeals, to access real hospital prices. The new rule requires hospitals to post their actual prices, including their discounted cash and secret negotiated rates. Armed...
Sally Pipes: Biden’s health care agenda entrenches a status quo that isn’t working
Health care reform is back on the agenda in Washington. At the end of January, President Biden signed two executive orders that aim to make it easier for people to sign up for coverage. On Saturday, the House passed a $1.9 trillion covid-19 relief package that includes billions in new...
Al Frazier and Jeffrey Shook: Time to talk about UPMC wages
There is no single organization that is more intertwined with our state’s health and well-being than UPMC. It is the largest health care provider, the biggest landowner, the largest employer and the largest tax-exempt charity in Pennsylvania. UPMC loves talking about its “life-changing” medicine, but it is time to talk...
Noe Ortega: Investing in students is good for Pa.’s economy
Nellie Bly was one of the most influential American journalists. As an intrepid young reporter who wanted to make a difference in the world, Bly inspired changes to the nation’s mental health care system. In 1887, Bly went undercover to investigate the conditions at Blackwell’s Island Asylum in New York....
Michael Butler: Don’t be that surprised that Allegheny County has clean air
Did you hear the news? Allegheny County has met all federal air quality standards for the first time. The Allegheny County Health Department termed the late January achievement a historic milestone in its efforts to curb air pollution. Actually, despite the region’s heavy energy production, Western Pennsylvania and the entire...
Stephen Segal: Take it from a millionaire, a $15 minimum wage is good for Pa. businesses
Lawmakers in the House of Representatives voted to approve the American Rescue Plan, a major step toward providing Americans the relief they desperately need and deserve. As President Biden’s relief package moves to the Senate floor, tense negotiations still are taking place on key provisions included in the plan. Despite...
Chris Baxter: Why Spotlight PA is spending a year investigating Pennsylvania’s redistricting process
Spotlight PA is an independent, nonpartisan newsroom powered by The Philadelphia Inquirer in partnership with PennLive/The Patriot-News, TribLIVE/Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and WITF Public Media. In 2021, a handful of politicians will wield power over one of the most consequential and overlooked aspects of our democracy: redrawing Pennsylvania’s political districts. They can...
James Greenwood: American Rescue Plan offers helping hand to struggling Americans
Poverty in America is defined for a family of four as less than $70 per day. That’s about $2,100 a month for food, rent, utilities, transportation, clothing and everything else. The good news is that between 2015 and 2020, the poverty rate in America gradually declined to 10.5%, the lowest...
Mark Schwartz: Remembering Rabbi Abraham Twerski — recounting just one miraculous deed
I was a young Pittsburgh lawyer in the early 1980s, over my head in most things, let alone a no-win criminal case. For God knows what reason, a young man had been referred to me, facing a three-year mandatory minimum jail sentence for vehicular homicide while drunk. When I eventually...
Steven Reske: Bruce Castor needs lesson on the First Amendment
Pennsylvania’s Bruce Castor choked on the First Amendment. Unfortunately, while his performance was nearly universally panned, no critics mentioned one jarring error. His gaffe occurred in the very first moments of his opening salvo and was on an issue foundational to President Trump’s defense. While at first blush his factual...
