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Closing medical coverage gap

After months of doing nothing, Democrats in Congress appear poised to achieve something at last — or rather, multiple somethings, from protections for same-sex marriage to tens of billions of dollars toward computer chips to, finally, an economic package passed through reconciliation. There’s still room for the majority to make this last something the best it can be. The deal Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) seems to have struck with swing-voting Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) primarily involves a popular bill to let Medicare negotiate the prices of a select set ...

A right to contraception

This week the U.S. House of Representatives is expected to take up the Right to Contraception Act. The bill, introduced by Rep. Kathy E. Manning, a Democrat from North Carolina, establishes a federal right to contraception—meaning women would have the right to use birth control and medical providers and pharmacies the right to provide it. This bill would put into law a right that the Supreme Court addressed three times over the past half-century, when it granted married couples the freedom to use birth control in Griswold vs. Connecticut in 1965, then in two other cases when the ...

Out of alignment

Last weekend’s giant south swell washed away any doubts about prioritizing the realignment of Honoapiilani Highway in Ukumehame and Olowalu. The question is where. Based on our conversation with Hawaii Department of Transportation Deputy Director for Highways Ed Sniffen earlier this month, the realignment is expected to be completed in 2024 and shift the highway a half-mile inland. He said the new alignment is designed to accommodate development makai of the road. “We want development,” Sniffen said during a break in leading U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz and Maui County Mayor ...

Birth control after Roe

The French company that has asked for permission to sell birth control pills over the counter in the United States says the timing of its request to the Food and Drug Administration, coming soon after the Supreme Court’s decision overturning Roe v. Wade, is coincidental. That might be, but the court’s decision eliminating the constitutional right to abortion makes more urgent than ever the imperative of easily accessible birth control. As with any drug, the FDA must follow the science. But if over-the-counter birth control makes sense — and for years it has worked safely in other ...

Global hunger is looming

Hunger is stalking the world. Seven years ago, the United Nations vowed to eradicate it by 2030. Yet the number of people affected globally reached 828 million last year, and an unprecedented number — 345 million — are currently experiencing acute food insecurity, the U.N. has warned. COVID-19 and the climate emergency had seen that tally rise from 135 million people before the pandemic to 276 million by early this year, reflecting a 55 percent increase in the Food and Agriculture Organization’s food price index since May 2020. “We thought it couldn’t get any worse,” said ...

Price hikes here to stay?

Sorting through the offerings in the meat department's bargain bin last week in Kihei, we spotted an average-sized rib-eye steak that had originally been priced $56. Looking a little gray and nearing the expiration of its "sell by" date, it was marked down 30 percent. That still made it a $39 steak, more than double what we would have expected to pay. We put the precious cut back and continued searching for something affordable to toss on the grill. With U.S. inflation topping 9 percent, we hear sticker shock like this is happening across the country. In Maui County, where residents ...