�Թϲ�����

One in 10 Americans who died last week were killed by flu — more than from opioid addiction or breast cancer. The 2018 flu outbreak is on track to rival the swine flu epidemic of 2009, which made 60 million Americans sick, hospitalized more than a quarter of a million and killed more than 12,000. Of course, this epidemic is not the fault of the Trump administration, any more than 2009’s H1N1 outbreak was the fault of President Barack Obama’s White House. (Ronald A. Klain, 2/13)

The American opioid epidemic has defied all efforts to contain it, and the number of overdose deaths continues to grow. President Trump directed the Department of Health and Human Services to declare the opioid crisis a public health emergency in October and said “we have to do something about it” in his State of the Union address, but his administration has yet to pursue a specific strategy. (Josh Katz, 2/14)

A president’s budget proposal is more a statement of his priorities than a spending plan, as Congress typically tosses it aside quickly in favor of its own work. And for most of the Trump administration’s budget, a cruel and irresponsible proposal released Monday, the bottom of a trash can would be too good of an end. But before the proposal is thrown promptly into the proverbial circular file cabinet, Congress should rip out the section on the opioid epidemic. For the first time, the Trump administration has provided a hint on how it wants to fight the deadly crisis – and there is a lot to like. As long as you ignore the bad stuff. (2/14)

Buried in the 650-page Bipartisan Budget Act passed on Friday were the most significant reforms recognizing the role of telehealth in care delivery since the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2001, when Medicare was first required to begin reimbursement for telehealth services under a narrow set of circumstances. Among the provisions in the bill passed last week are landmark changes to facilitate telehealth in Medicare Advantage plans where 19 million seniors, or 33 percent of beneficiaries, get their care. In addition, the bill provides nationwide access to stroke telemedicine (also known as “telestroke”) and improve access to telehealth-enabled home dialysis therapy among Medicare beneficiaries, among other reforms. (Catherine Pugh, 2/13)

The new health care company being formed by Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan Chase intends to provide health care directly to their more than 1 million employees and will likely cut out parasitic middlemen like pharmacy chains and health insurers. This is a terrific idea and can only help cut down on bureaucratic red tape, while improving efficiency and saving money. (Marc Siegel, 2/13)

State lawmakers who care about the health of Washington youth need to vote to make it illegal to sell tobacco, either for smoking or vaping, to anyone under 21.Smoking is still the most common preventable cause of death, from cancer, heart disease and stroke. The saddest part of smoking-related statistics is the fact that this slow-motion death sentence usually begins in the teen years. That’s when 95 percent of adult smokers told a national survey they started, and when the brain is most susceptible to nicotine addiction. (2/13)

Each year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC, estimates nearly 80 million people are infected with the human papillomavirus (HPV), which has been linked to cancers of the mouth, throat, rectum, and cervix. ... Missouri ranked 46th out of 50 states with only 28.3 percent of girls completing the vaccination series, according to immunization rate data from 2014. The news is worse for boys as Missouri ranked last in the nation with only 11.3 percent receiving the vaccination doses. (Tammy Landrum, 2/13)

Indianapolis — In Indiana, a 17-year-old can deliver a baby and then give a doctor permission to circumcise him. But during her delivery, she can’t give the doctors permission to give her an epidural. She needs her parents to consent to that, and they can refuse. The 17-year-old can consent to her infant’s hearing testing, vaccines and anything else the baby might need. But she cannot consent to a long-acting, reversible contraceptive — such as an IUD or an arm implant — to prevent her from getting pregnant again. Once again, she needs her parents’ permission, and if her parents aren’t around, she’s out of luck. (Tracey A. Wilkinson, Brownsyne Tucker Edmonds and Aaron E. Carroll, 2/13)

If a new study is correct, more than 91 percent of us have a bucket list — things we wish to do before we die. This revelation is interesting on several levels, including a question of what that minority of nearly 9 percent is thinking. Surely those people are aware that the chance of their kicking the bucket is 100 percent. Are we to believe that nothing in their basket of wishes is unrealized? The research, published last week in The Journal of Palliative Medicine, was based on a survey of 3,056 people across the United States. ...The study said that doctors might be better able to figure out the best courses of action for seriously ill patients. (Clyde Haberman, 2/13)