Los Angeles Times: Fewer Californians Were Uninsured In 2016, But Medical Costs Remain A Concern For Many
Nearly three-quarters of Californians who didn’t have health coverage before the Affordable Care Act are now insured, yet many are still concerned about their medical expenses, according to a report released Thursday. A Kaiser Family Foundation survey tracking the state’s uninsured population found that 72% of those without insurance in 2013 had a health plan in 2016. That’s a small increase from the 68% who had coverage last year and 58% the year prior. (Karlamangla, 8/18)

California Healthline/Kaiser Health News: Survey: Millions More Californians Insured After Obamacare Launch, Medicaid Expansion
Some of those remaining uninsured are undocumented immigrants who don’t qualify for federally subsidized coverage. Others may be eligible but unaware of their options, and still others said they were worried about costs, according to the survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation. (Kaiser Health News is an editorially independent program of the foundation.) There is a lingering perception “that it is not affordable for them,” said Bianca DiJulio, an associate director at the foundation. Many of those still without coverage are Latino; one-third of all Latino survey respondents are still uninsured. (Gorman, 8/18)

San Francisco Chronicle: Federal Health Law Has Cut Uninsured In California By 72%
The study, the fourth in a series of surveys of Californians who did not have health insurance in 2013, found that 72 percent have since obtained coverage, either through their employer, the state exchange created by the federal health law or through Medi-Cal, the state’s Medicaid program for the poor. This number is slightly higher than the 68 percent reported last year, a gain that represents hundreds of thousands of newly insured Californians. The state had the largest number of uninsured in the country, with about 6 million residents lacking coverage in 2013. (Colliver, 8/18)

Oakland Tribune: Obamacare: 72 Percent Of Previously Uninsured Californians Now Have Health Plans
From here on, experts say, any significant enrollment gains are likely to come about as a result of changes to federal or state health care policies, including attempts by California legislators to allow undocumented residents to join Medi-Cal, which is now prohibited. (Seipel, 818)

The New York Times: Six Years Into Obama’s Health Care Law, Who Are The Uninsured?
Roughly 20 million more Americans have health insurance now than when President Obama’s health care law was passed in 2010. But as Mr. Obama prepares to leave office, there are still about 24 million adults with no coverage, according to a survey by the Commonwealth Fund, a health research group. That translates to an uninsured rate of about 13 percent, down from 20 percent in 2013. Who are the remaining uninsured? (Goodnough, 8/18)

Los Angeles Times: Obamacare Patients Filled More Prescriptions But Paid Less For Drugs, Study Finds
Patients who gained health coverage through the Affordable Care Act are filling significantly more prescriptions while paying less for their drugs, according to a new study that credits the health law and adds to evidence of its benefits for previously uninsured Americans and those with chronic conditions such as asthma, diabetes and high blood pressure.The innovative study is based on more than 1 billion pharmacy transactions from 2013 and 2014, which allowed researchers to look at how a sample of nearly 7 million patients were paying for drugs before and after the health law’s historic coverage expansion. (Levey, 8/17)

Huffington Post: Aetna CEO Threatened Obamacare Pullout If Feds Opposed Humana Merger
The big health care news this week came from Aetna, which announced on Monday it was dramatically scaling back participation in the Affordable Care Act ― thereby reducing insurer competition and forcing customers scattered across 11 states to find different sources of coverage next year. ... the move also was directly related to a Department of Justice decision to block the insurer’s potentially lucrative merger with Humana, according to a letter from Aetna’s CEO obtained by The Huffington Post. (Cohn and Young, 8/17)

The Wall Street Journal: The Unstable Economics In Obama’s Health Law
Barack Obama’s signature health-care law is struggling for one overriding reason: Selling mispriced insurance is a precarious business model. Aetna Inc. dealt the Affordable Care Act a severe setback by announcing Monday it would drastically reduce its participation in its insurance exchanges. Its reason: The company was attracting much sicker patients than expected. Indeed, all five of the largest national insurers say they are losing money on their ACA policies and three, including Aetna, are pulling back from the exchanges as a result. The problem isn’t technical or temporary; it’s intrinsic to how the law was written. (Ip, 8/17)

Los Angeles Times: Pullback From Obamacare By Aetna, Other Insurers Puts Pressure On Upcoming Enrollments
Recent decisions by giant health insurers to pull back from Obamacare exchanges across the country could make this fall’s enrollment period crucial to the program that has helped millions of people gain health coverage. “We won’t know until the next open enrollment, are we still moving forward or are we stalled or moving backward?” said Gary Claxton, director of the nonprofit research group Health Care Marketplace Project at Kaiser Family Foundation. “If the market grows, then I think many insurers will find a way to be part of it. “The next couple of months are a moment of truth,” he said. (Petersen and Sisson, 8/17)

Politico: Obamacare's CEO Talks Insurer Recruitment After Aetna's Pullback
Aetna's sudden decision to quit most of its Obamacare insurance markets was the latest mess in the health law's rockiest stretch in almost three years. It's Kevin Counihan's job to clean it up. Counihan, CEO of the federal insurance marketplace, told POLITICO's "Pulse Check" podcast that Aetna's flip-flop — the company announced Monday it will exit from 69 percent of counties it now serves through Obamacare, just three months after committing to stay and even expand — doesn't alter the administration's strategy. (Diamond, 8/18)

In other news, Hillary Clinton faces pressure from both parties in the aftermath of the Aetna decision —

The Wall Street Journal: Clinton Pushed From Left And Right On Health Care
Aetna Inc.’s decision to scale back participation in the Affordable Care Act’s exchanges is putting new pressure on Hillary Clinton over health care, a onetime signature issue that has taken a back seat in her presidential campaign. The pressure is coming from the right but also the left. Liberals say the Aetna decision shows the need for a government-run option to compete with the private insurance companies, or even for a single-payer, Medicare-for-all program, as Sen. Bernie Sanders proposed again this week. (Meckler, 8/18)

Modern Healthcare: Kaiser Permanente ‘Absolutely’ Committed To Obamacare Marketplaces 
Aetna said this week it is drastically curtailing its participation on the Affordable Care Act's insurance exchanges. But one of the largest not-for-profit health insurers does not plan on abandoning them anytime soon. Kaiser Permanente, the $61 billion system that includes health plans, hospitals and medical groups, is “absolutely” sticking with the exchanges over the long term, Kaiser CEO Bernard Tyson told Modern Healthcare on Wednesday. (Herman, 8/17)

Los Angeles Times: As A Drug Pricing Transparency Bill Stumbles In Sacramento, The Battle Turns To November's Ballot
An effort to shed more light on prescription drug prices sputtered in the Legislature on Wednesday, dealing a setback to a burgeoning national movement to rein in healthcare expenses by curbing the cost of medication. The decision by state Sen. Ed Hernandez (D-West Covina) to yank his bill from consideration after it was watered down in an Assembly panel marks an abrupt end to what promised to be the marquee lobbying battle of the legislative session, pitting Capitol heavyweights such as labor groups and health insurers against drug manufacturers. The measure’s demise is a significant victory for pharmaceutical companies, but not a full reprieve. (Mason and Bollag, 8/17)

Sacramento Bee: Drug Companies Win Round Over Pricing In California Legislature
Legislation meant to discourage sharp increases in drug prices is dead for the year after the author pulled the measure Wednesday, blaming recent amendments that “have made it more difficult for us to accomplish our fundamental goal.” The action caps weeks of intense lobbying over Senate Bill 1010. The legislation had emerged as a major end-of-session fight pitting politically influential labor unions, health plans and other groups against the powerful pharmaceutical industry. More than 100 drug companies, unions, health plans and others had reported lobbying on the bill during the first half of 2016. (Miller, 8/17)

California Healthline: Sen. Hernandez Pulls Bill On Drug Price Transparency
After being approved by a key committee last week, a bill that would have required drug companies to justify treatment costs and price hikes was pulled by its author on Wednesday. Sen. Ed Hernandez (D-West Covina) said that he introduced the bill “with the intention of shedding light on the reasons precipitating skyrocketing drug prices.” But amendments by an Assembly committee last week make it difficult to accomplish this goal, he said in a statement. “The goal was transparency, making sure drug companies played by the same rules as everyone else in the health care industry,” he said. (Ibarra, 8/17)

San Diego Union-Times: Avelas Biosciences Raises $20 Million For Cancer Detecting Agent
Avelas Biosciences has raised $20 million to advance clinical trials of an imaging agent to assist in breast cancer surgery, the privately held San Diego biotech said Wednesday. Proceeds will also help develop cancer drugs based on the technology, from Nobel laureate and UC San Diego professor Roger Y. Tsien. The technology causes cancer cells to betray their location under fluorescence, said Carmine Stengone, Avelas president and CEO. The drug, called AVB-620, consists of protein fragments called peptides linked to a fluorescent molecule. The compound is inactive until it is cleaved by enzymes mainly present in metastatic cancer cells. AVB-620 is now in a Phase 1b trial at UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center, UC San Francisco and Stanford University. More information can be found by searching clinicaltrials.gov for "Avelas." (Filkes, 8/17)

The Desert Sun: Michael Solomon Won't Seek New Term With Health Care District
Two Desert Healthcare District board members aren't running for re-election this year. Michael Solomon, a doctor who's served on the board since 2008, said Wednesday he would not seek a third four-year term...Solomon has been a contentious voice on public district's board. In 2015, he sued the district, fellow board member Kay Hazen and district CEO Kathy Greco claiming Hazen and Greco had plotted to use taxpayer money for their personal benefit and that Greco violated Solomon's privacy by revealing his personal medical information to other people. (Newkirk, 8/17)

In other news from across the state —

San Diego Union-Tribune: Community Health Centers Need More Doctors
About 95 percent of all health centers currently experience at least one clinical vacancy, and California in particular will need an estimated 8,243 additional primary care physicians by 2030. A consistent doctor shortage means community health centers are less equipped to support and care for their patients — typically low-income and uninsured or underinsured residents, many of whom represent ethnic and cultural minorities. (Mattson and Carriedo-Ceniceros, 8/17)

Santa Rosa Press Democrat: In Face Of New Law, Sonoma County Parents Choose To Vaccinate
When Becky Kelso’s 13-year-old daughter shows up for her first day of school at Sebastopol Independent Charter School on Tuesday, she will, for the first time, be going to school fully vaccinated. It was a decision Kelso, 53, and her husband were forced to make following the passage last year of Senate Bill 277, which denied parents the use religious or personal beliefs to opt out of vaccinating their children.  (Warren, 8/17)

Los Angeles Times: Exide Cleanup: Parts Of Three L.A.-Area Schools Fenced Off Due To Lead Contamination
Children at three elementary schools near the closed Exide Technologies battery recycling plant returned to classes this week to find parts of their campuses fenced off to protect them from lead-contaminated soil. Crews installed temporary fencing at Fishburn Avenue Elementary in Maywood, Lorena Street Elementary in Boyle Heights and Rowan Avenue Elementary in East Los Angeles after testing found elevated levels of the brain-damaging metal in several areas, Los Angeles Unified School District officials said. The district began putting up fencing last week under the instructions of toxic waste regulators, who are overseeing the massive effort to find and remove contaminated soil from homes, schools, day care centers and parks near the former recycling facility in Vernon. (Barboza, 8/17)