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Republicans in Washington are so far proving they can’t be taken seriously to improve the nation’s health or health care system. After first submitting a budget that aims to force austerity on Medicaid and Medicare recipients to pay for last year’s tax cuts that are going largely to corporations and the wealthy, the Trump administration has now followed up with a new plan to allow insurance companies to sell junk health insurance. (Andy Slavitt, 3/5)

The mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., has drawn attention to the nation’s mental-health system. In a televised speech, President Trump said his administration wants to “tackle the difficult issue of mental health.” At a town hall hosted by CNN, Dana Loesch, a spokeswoman for the National Rifle Association, announced, “None of us support people who are crazy, who are a danger to themselves, who are a danger to others getting their hands on a firearm.” (Nathaniel Morris, 3/2)

When I was twelve years old, My dad bought me a rifle from a pawnshop. It was a .22-caliber Mossberg bolt-action rifle. It was his way of reaching out to a sullen and withdrawn kid on the verge of adolescence. He believed that it would give us an interest in common. He also thought that being able to shoot, like knowing how to box, were skills any well-rounded man should master.  ...One day when I was home alone I took out my rifle and, without a moment of reflection on what the consequences might be, fired it out the window of our house in the general direction of the house across the street. Whether it was just dumb luck or divine providence, the bullet embedded itself the bough of a big sycamore tree. A few inches higher and it would gone through the window of the master bedroom of my neighbor. (Ross K. Baker, 3/5)

Prominent liberal think tank Center for American Progress (CAP)’s Medicare Extra for All proposal lays out a blueprint for achieving universal health care coverage. It blended the branding of Medicare for All plans and the blueprint proudly asserts “health care is a right.” As an architect of several state and federal Medicare for All plans, I’m thrilled to see CAP join this fight. The problem? CAP’s proposal doesn’t fix the big, underlying issues. (Gerald Friedman, 3/4)

I am mentally ill. I won’t bore you with the details, but I’m one of hundreds of thousands of Americans with a tough-to-treat, life-affecting neurosis known as obsessive compulsive disorder. Since I happen to live near a leading psychiatric hospital, I’m one of the lucky ones. I was diagnosed as a young man. I visit my psychiatrist regularly and take a medication at the beginning of every day. I’m in the “functional” category. I have a family and work for a living, though I don’t earn much. I even own a home. ...As it happens, I have no interest in owning a gun. But what if I did? Should society stop me? (Peter Mandell, 3/4)

Bay Area Rep. Mark DeSaulnier should have been present for Wednesday’s televised meeting on gun violence at the White House. (3/3)

Kids in Detroit are exposed to lead at higher rates than children in other parts of the state. Detroit babies are more likely to be born prematurely — and to die before their first birthdays — than infants in most of the developed world. And the simple act of breathing can lead to disastrous health outcomes for Detroit kids, who are hospitalized for asthma at three times the rate of their peers throughout Michigan. There's no shortage of programs intended to repair or prevent the serious damage posed by all of the risks Detroit's kids face. What is there a shortage of? Money. (Nancy Kaffer, 3/4)

Not unlike both the 111th Congress that passed the Affordable Care Act and the 115th Congress that recently amended it with the new federal tax bill, we are often in the dark about our own health care and health insurance systems. Whether you think this is a matter of being in good company or a national embarrassment, I can think of no problem greater among our citizenry than health insurance illiteracy in general, and about Medicare and Medicaid, in particular. (Ann Marie Marciarille, 3/4)

When I was accepted to UC Berkeley, I was excited about what it meant for my future. (Adiba Khan, 3/2)

Tiffany Carlton gouged out her left eye. The Cedar Rapids woman said a voice told her to do it while she was detained in Linn County jail 21 months ago. Using her fingers, she dug the eye out of its socket and flushed it down the toilet. Her next memory is being taken on a gurney to the hospital. As Iowa’s elected officials consider ways to strengthen mental health services in this state, they should know Carlton’s story. It underscores just how severe and complex mental illness can be and how it intersects with the criminal justice system. The Legislature should pass bills to expand mental health services. Iowa needs short-term crisis intervention and psychiatric beds. And law enforcement agencies need adequate resources and training to keep mentally ill people safe. (3/2)