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The so-called superbug recently discovered for the first time in a woman in Pennsylvania hasn’t reached the Midwest, but the fact that the bacteria is resistant to antibiotics of last resort is a super-cause for concern. (6/12)

It was inevitable that we would one day seek ways to kill ourselves with society’s blessing. California recently joined four other states — Oregon, Washington, Vermont and Montana — that allow terminally ill patients to commit suicide using doctor-prescribed drugs. Criteria under the California law include that the patient has a terminal disease, would likely die within six months, is of sound mind and can self-administer the “medicine.” Thanks to medical advances that can extend life beyond what some find acceptable, resulting in unnecessary suffering, many think it’s their right to die with dignity using medications legally prescribed. (Kathleen Parker, 6/10)

The world has made so much progress in reducing the spread of AIDS and treating people with H.I.V. that the epidemic has receded from the public spotlight. Yet by any measure the disease remains a major threat — 1.1 million people died last year from AIDS-related causes, and 2.1 million people were infected with the virus. And while deaths are down over the last five years, the number of new infections has essentially reached a plateau. The United Nations announced a goal last week of ending the spread of the disease by 2030. That’s a laudable and ambitious goal, reachable only if individual nations vigorously campaign to treat everyone who has the virus and to limit new infections. (6/13)

The chief advocate for America's medical group administrators says the Obama administration's plans to overhaul Part B drug payments will devastate smaller specialty practices. Medicare now pays 6% on top of the average sales price of drugs administered by infusion or injection in outpatient settings. That incentivizes providers to choose more expensive medications. The mandatory program beginning in late 2016 would test how prescribing patterns are affected by reducing the bonus to 2.5% and substituting a flat payment of $16.80 per drug per day. (Adam Robenfire, 6/10)

Thanks to competitive tax policy, smart regulations and a well-educated workforce, Texas has become a hot spot for pharmaceutical investment. Today, the drug industry employs more than 36,000 Texas workers. However, the jobs supported by our state’s drug business are in jeopardy. Federal officials have proposed major changes to Medicare that ultimately would stifle drug innovation. If enacted, these “reforms” will drive away investment in local drug research and the jobs that go with it. (Tony Bennett, 6/12)

The specter of drug pricing can’t seem to disappear from public discourse. On the one hand, this isn’t a bad thing – wanting to tie drug prices (and healthcare prices overall) to some measure of value is a noble goal. But the devil is in the details – and Vermont’s attempt to “do something” on drug pricing moves the needle in the wrong direction. (Yevgeniy Feyman, 6/10)

The Texas Health and Human Services Commission recently negotiated with the federal government a 15-month waiver for Medicaid funding, which would produce more than $4 billion toward health care coverage for uninsured Texans. This is a crucial step to achieving health care for millions of the state’s uninsured, with 13 percent of the allocation contributing to the total income of private state hospitals. (Michele A. Rountree and Tonia Wu, 6/11)

Gov. Matt Bevin recently made a 2-percent mid-year budget cut to Kentucky’s public universities, which led to a lawsuit by Attorney General Andy Beshear. That lawsuit is now the subject of an appeal after Franklin Circuit Court Judge Thomas Wingate issued his opinion stating that Bevin had the authority to make those cuts. (Lachin Hatemi, 6/10)

A punitive measure that would fine Medicaid patients who miss doctor’s appointments is unnecessarily harsh and deserves to be vetoed by Gov. Jay Nixon, who has it under review. There are better and less mean-spirited ways to achieve the worthy goals of trying to get patients to take more control of their health care, and helping doctors avoid the time and money lost to missed appointments. (6/12)

California’s death penalty system has been broken for so long, you could forgive people for thinking that it no longer exists. The last person executed at San Quentin was Clarence Ray Allen, who arranged the murders of three people in Fresno — one who revealed details of a burglary Allen had planned, and two others who testified against him. His January 2006 execution came 23 years after his conviction. Since then, legal challenges have left California without a constitutional method of executing prisoners. The state has proposed a new lethal-injection protocol, but more lawsuits will likely stall the resumption of executions for the foreseeable future, and an initiative headed for the fall ballot would ban it outright. It’s unclear how many executions have been forestalled by the freeze. (6/11)

The task force found that what happened in Flint is the culmination of years of government failure, with the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality and state-appointed emergency managers chiefly to blame. It is cruelly ironic that the Flint crisis — which continues to deprive the community of clean, safe drinking water — happened in the state surrounded by the Great Lakes, the world’s greatest freshwater resource. But don’t think for a minute that Iowa or any other state is immune to what we’re facing in Michigan. I’ve come to the conclusion that what happened in Flint can happen anywhere policymakers take clean water for granted and neglect to make appropriate investments to preserve and support safe drinking and recreational waters. Unfortunately, that describes too many communities nationwide; the American Society of Civil Engineers in its most recent report card gave the nation’s drinking water infrastructure a D grade. (Charles Kolb, 6/10)

Aspiring physicians enter the profession with an idealism that blinds us to the fact that our field exists as a fleeting reaction to the inevitability of suffering. (Jennifer Adaeze Okwerekeu, 6/12)

The Top 25 Minority Executives in Healthcare recognition program, along with the woman leaders program we hold every other year, are the two most important recognition programs we have. We get more attention for our 100 Most Influential awards. But these awards are more important because they have a broader social purpose. They are designed to highlight the importance of maintaining and increasing the diversity of the top ranks of the healthcare industry. (Merrill Goozner, 6/11)