Portland Press Herald. May 5, 2024.
Editorial: On gun safety, Gov. Mills fell short
By vetoing a ban on bump stocks and opting not to support the 72-hour waiting period, the governor let Mainers down.
Gov. Janet Mills’ veto of a bill that would have banned bump stocks, the devices that make semi-automatic weapons function like machine guns, sends the wrong message at a sensitive time and leaves Mainers exposed to an unnecessary threat.
“There’s no excuse to allow everyday guns to mimic machine guns,” Nacole Palmer, the executive director of the Maine Gun Safety Coalition, told the Press Herald after the veto.
And that’s it exactly. There is no good excuse for the veto of L.D. 2086; not abstract hunting considerations, not our state’s rural nature, nothing.
In fact, a ban on the conversion mechanism known as the bump stock has tended to be the focus of politicians who shy away from supporting a ban on assault weapons; they say they’d prefer to go after the bump stock and other components instead. Politically, the proposal could be said to exist in a technical realm that’s seen as just safe enough. Ironically, that was arguably the issue here – that it was apparently so technical that it failed.
That Mills, according to her own veto letter, “strongly” agrees that bump stocks should be restricted, ought to have been enough for her to support this timely bill.
Gun safety is not a legislative arena in which it’s possible to appease all sides. Mills’ decision not to sign the bill mandating a 72-hour waiting period, which registered to this editorial board as the blowing of a valuable opportunity to really lead, was heavily criticized elsewhere. The Maine Policy Institute, the conservative think tank, found her equivocation-filled statement on the L.D. 2238 to be “disingenuous” and no more than “an attempt to give Mainers the impression that she takes gun rights seriously.”
In the end, we too found the statement disingenuous. The simple question of an hours-long waiting period between purchase and receipt, designed only with safety and people’s well-being in mind – and no skin off anybody’s nose – is simply not something to be “deeply conflicted” about. That is not a credible position. After Lewiston, it is a position that stings.
Both the ban on bump stocks and the implementation of the waiting period deserved Mills’ confident endorsement – and her signature.
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Boston Globe. May 7, 2024.
Editorial: Steward’s bankruptcy will disrupt Massachusetts health care
But the state has tools to protect patients at the hospital chain’s facilities.
After months of speculation about Steward Health Care’s dire financial straits, the struggling organization filed for bankruptcy at 3:30 a.m. Monday.
Chapter 11 bankruptcy will let Steward continue operating its hospitals — including eight in Massachusetts — while restructuring its finances.
The bankruptcy and resulting transitions will likely disrupt Massachusetts’ health care system, but bankruptcy isn’t necessarily the worst option. As Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell said, bankruptcy “does not allow Steward to immediately shut its doors and leave town. It does not allow Steward to avoid complying with basic public health and safety laws.”
It will take careful collaboration, management, and advocacy by state officials to push for Massachusetts’ interests in court and and by other health care organizations to ensure Massachusetts patients are cared for regardless of what happens to Steward. Meanwhile, lawmakers should act to ensure another case like Steward’s is prevented.
The good thing about bankruptcy is it will provide much-needed transparency and oversight into Steward’s operations. The company has long ducked Massachusetts’ financial oversight, suing state regulators rather than providing information about their corporate finances. That information will probably be made public through bankruptcy.
According to the filing in Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas, the company’s assets and liabilities are both in the $1 billion to $10 billion range. It owes money to myriad health-related organizations.
Steward blames its bankruptcy on delays in its proposed sale of its physician group to Optum, inadequate Medicaid and Medicare rates, skyrocketing labor costs, inflation, and fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic. But the company contributed to its own demise through financial choices including loading hospitals with debt and selling hospitals’ land for profit while saddling hospitals with rent payments. Going forward, a bankruptcy judge will need to approve Steward’s transactions.
Healey and Campbell said Monday that Massachusetts will make the necessary court filings to intervene in the case and protect Massachusetts consumers. Campbell said she will push for the appointment of a patient care ombudsman to represent the interests of health care patients in court.
The same state regulatory oversight that applies to health care institutions and transactions will continue to apply, including rules requiring notice before a closure and requiring approval of acquisitions.
One unanswered question is whether Steward can be held legally liable for decisions that led to bankruptcy. Campbell said her office is investigating whether Steward broke any laws, but there is no evidence yet that the company did.
Another major question is how to prevent similar problems in the future. One challenge for policy makers is that until Steward, almost all state hospitals were run by nonprofits and the laws were not designed to oversee for-profit companies or monitor private equity involvement.
The Massachusetts Health Policy Commission has already sought greater authority to scrutinize and potentially impose conditions on transactions involving for-profit health care companies and the sale of health care-related assets.
A bill the Massachusetts House plans to vote on next week would expand the oversight authority of the Health Policy Commission and the attorney general over for-profit entities, including private equity investors and real estate investment trusts, as they enter into and operate in Massachusetts health care. It would increase reporting requirements for health care entities and fines for noncompliance. It would prohibit hospitals from entering a sale-leaseback arrangement — as Steward did — by requiring that hospitals own the land they sit on. (Any hospital already in that situation would be grandfathered in to avoid preventing a buyer from purchasing Steward hospitals.) All these provisions deserve careful consideration.
The bankruptcy filing marks the start of a long process. Protecting patient access to quality care must be the top priority.
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Rutland Herald. May 9, 2024.
Editorial: Reducing harm
New Department of Health data released this week shows opioid-related overdose deaths in Vermont have decreased for the first time since 2019.
According to the annual Fatal Overdose Report, 231 Vermonters died of opioid-related overdoses in 2023, a 5% drop from 244 in 2022. The report includes a caveat that the data is preliminary and there are 15 pending death certificates, so the final figure could still change.
Ninety percent of all drug overdose fatalities in Vermont involved opioids, the report states, noting fentanyl accounted for 95% of opioid fatalities last year. Xylazine, a non-opioid drug linked to an increasing number of overdose deaths nationwide, was involved in 32% of fatal overdoses in Vermont in 2023, up from 28% in 2022. Cocaine, which remains the second most common drug in fatal overdoses, also showed a significant jump in 2023, from 48% to 61%.
New Department of Health data released this week shows opioid-related overdose deaths in Vermont have decreased for the first time since 2019.
According to the annual Fatal Overdose Report, 231 Vermonters died of opioid-related overdoses in 2023, a 5% drop from 244 in 2022. The report includes a caveat that the data is preliminary and there are 15 pending death certificates, so the final figure could still change.
Ninety percent of all drug overdose fatalities in Vermont involved opioids, the report states, noting fentanyl accounted for 95% of opioid fatalities last year. Xylazine, a non-opioid drug linked to an increasing number of overdose deaths nationwide, was involved in 32% of fatal overdoses in Vermont in 2023, up from 28% in 2022. Cocaine, which remains the second most common drug in fatal overdoses, also showed a significant jump in 2023, from 48% to 61%.
But while prevention, recovery and treatment are essential, enforcement must be part of the conversation. Police have said they need more tools to disrupt drug trafficking. A bill currently in the Senate — S.58 — would do just that, increasing penalties for selling fentanyl and Xylazine and charging 16-year-olds as adults in drug trafficking cases. Critics, however, have raised concerns that increased criminalization is an effective method for dealing with what is essentially a public health crisis.
We agree we’re never going to arrest our way out of this problem, but we need to do more to hold bad actors accountable, like those who knowingly sell drugs that lead to fatal overdoses or landlords who turn a blind eye to dealers operating in their properties.
At the same time, we cannot lose our compassion for those struggling with addiction. We have all been affected in some way by the opioid crisis. So many of us have loved ones — a friend, relative or neighbor — who are struggling with addition or, sadly, like the more than 200 Vermonters last year, have lost their battle.
These losses are heartbreaking. How we grieve and process them can be complicated. But in our heartbreak we must not succumb to anger and become hardened to others who still need — and want — our help.
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Bangor Daily News. May 9, 2024.
Editorial: Julia Gagnon will keep doing big things
Sometimes they really do save the best for last.
At least that is what they did with the auditions for this year’s season of “American Idol,” with Mainer Julia Gagnon being the final contestant to go before the judges and sing for a ticket to Hollywood in an episode that aired in March. The University of Southern Maine student from Cumberland mesmerized the panel of music superstars, and everyone watching, to secure a rare platinum ticket that let her skip through to the second round of the competition.
That ticket, and more importantly, Gagnon’s jaw-dropping talent, started her on an amazing run that took her all the way to the top seven performers. That journey, unprecedented on the show for someone from Maine, ended earlier this week. But we expect that Gagnon and her incredible voice and wonderful demeanor won’t be fading from the limelight anytime soon.
Maine and the entire country have been able to watch her become a star on one of the highest stages. She took us over the rainbow. She set fire to the rain. She somehow made singing an Aretha Franklin song seem effortless. And she has amassed a legion of fans far and wide, not just with her vocal prowess, but for positivity and how she has shined through the bullying she experienced growing up and some of the hostility she has continued to encounter online.
“Growing up in Maine when I was younger was a dream come true. It was picture perfect, there was snow at Christmas, and warm summers, and it was all amazing,” Gagnon explained in her first episode of the show, while discussing how she was born in Guatemala and adopted by her Maine family at the age of 2. “When I entered the school systems, it became different. I got bullied a lot. In Maine, not a lot of people look like me, and it was really hard to deal with — it still is hard to talk about, sorry. I don’t think I have ever found a place where I feel like I fit it, but I have found my support in life, and that is my family.”
By sharing her story, and by rising up above the pettiness of those who see difference as something to mock rather than celebrate, she has sent a powerful message to all those other kids who have been bullied or excluded simply for being themselves. Her message of positivity has struck a chord with fellow Mainers and fans across America.
She pushed back against negative comments online, discussing how some people would try to elevate their favorite contestants on the show by directing hate toward other contestants.
“Just spread love, it’s easy to spread love, and if somebody isn’t connecting for you, if you don’t love their performances, you don’t need to say it, just support the people that you love,” she said in an April 30 Instagram post. “Thank you guys so much for spreading love and positivity. There’s just way too much darkness and hatred in the world, so we don’t need to add to that,”
Gagnon has emphasized the love and support of her family — both the family here in Maine, and her birth mother in Guatemala. In that first show on “Idol,” Gagnon described reconnecting with her birth mother, how proud she was of her voice and how she had told Gagnon that she wanted to see her “do something big.”
Well, she certainly has done something big. Her inspiring run on American Idol has been a huge success, something big that no Mainer has ever achieved before. And surely, this is just the beginning. With her amazing talent and her captivating personality, there must be many big things yet to come for Julia Gagnon.
END