Los Angeles Times: Bill To Create 'Safe Injection Sites' For Drug Users Fails In California Senate
A controversial proposal to allow certain California counties and cities to establish sites where people could inject drugs without legal consequences stumbled in the state Senate on Tuesday night. The measure, by Assemblywoman Susan Talamantes Eggman (D-Stockton), would establish a first-in-the-nation program in which users of heroin and other intravenous drugs could inject in settings with clean needles and under the supervision of trained staff. The goal: to stave off overdoses in an era in which heroin use is on the rise. (Mason, 9/12)

Meanwhile —

The Mercury News: Stanford Study: Three-Quarters Of Opioid Prescriptions Written For 10 Percent Of Patients
Opioids aren’t widely overused by the general population, as often presumed. Rather, more than three-quarters of opioid prescriptions are written for just 10 percent of patients, according to an analysis by Dr. Eric Sun of Stanford University Medical Center, published in the latest issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine. (Krieger, 9/12)

KQED: After Rallies And A Resolution, These Patients Will Stay In San Francisco
After months of protests from families, city supervisors and public health officials, California Pacific Medical Center (CPMC) announced that it will continue to care for 28 patients with complex medical needs, instead of transferring them to other facilities outside the city. In June, the patients and their families received letters from CPMC saying that the skilled nursing unit where they lived at St. Luke’s Hospital, known as a “subacute” unit, was closing permanently. (Klivans, 9/12)

The Mercury News: Impossible Foods Explores Meat-Free Lamb, Chicken, Pork And Fish
Today, a tasty cow-free burger. Tomorrow: fewer dead chickens, lambs, pigs and fish. That’s the mission of Impossible Foods, a Silicon Valley startup that has begun conducting tests in its Redwood City laboratory to apply its patented technologies — already proven to create sizzling and tasty engineered “beef” —  to a wide array of other foods, perhaps even milk, eggs and cheese. (Krieger, 9/13)

In other public health news —

The Mercury News: Is Diet Soda Really Bad For You Or Not?
A spate of recent studies have diet soda lovers fretting over their bubbly beverages. Studies have shown that sucking down diet pop means you may be avoiding sugar and calories but overdosing on chemicals that can be dangerous to your health. (D'Souza, 9/12)

Ventura County Star: Neighbors Say Fight Will Continue Over Ventura Clinic
The more than 9-year-old battle over the height of a Ventura clinic isn't over yet. On Tuesday, Ventura County supervisors unanimously passed mitigation measures related to the size of a Ventura County Medical Center clinic in an effort to comply with a court-ordered mandate triggered by rulings over a lawsuit filed in July 2008. But the people who live in the neighborhood surrounding the clinic say the mitigation is not nearly enough. They won their 2008 lawsuit stating the building sprouted from 75 feet to 90 feet without required environmental review, resulting in intrusions on their lives and views of the ocean and Channel Islands. (Kisken 9/12)

In other news from across the state —

The Desert Sun: Pilots Sue Indio Over Plans To Build Surgical Center Near Bermuda Dunes Airport
Worried a proposed specialty surgical center would be too close to the end of the Bermuda Dunes Airport runway, the California Pilot’s Association has filed a lawsuit against the city of Indio, accusing the city of “total disregard to public safety. ”The pilot’s association, a group of 1,000 pilots across the state, filed a lawsuit in Riverside County Superior Court last week asking the court to invalidate the city’s approval of the Joint Replacement Hospitals of America facility. (Kennedy, 9/12)

Orange County Register: Ex-Felon Donor Faces Deportation To Cambodia, Minus One Kidney
Touch Hak, 40, a Cambodian refugee who lost his permanent resident status and became undocumented when he was caught dealing Ecstasy in 2005, has been told to prepare to be deported in November, despite a recommendation from UC San Diego Medical Center doctors that he needs two years of medical follow-up care after he donated his kidney in June. (Sharon, 9/12)

The Associated Press: Sanders, GOP Push Banner Health Care Bills
Liberal Sen. Bernie Sanders is ready to unveil his bill for creating a system where the government provides health insurance for everybody. Republican senators are ready to release details of a last-ditch effort to repeal and replace President Barack Obama's health care law. Besides focusing on health, the rival packages have something else in common. Neither is likely going anywhere soon. (Fram, 9/13)

The Wall Street Journal: Democrats Endorse Single-Payer Health Plan
Single-payer refers to a government-run health insurance system, though details can vary. Mr. Sanders’s bill would create a national Medicare-like insurance system and eliminate most out-of-pocket costs for individuals. The surge in support rests on several factors, political analysts said, including a rise in populist sentiment and a growing acceptance of the 2010 Affordable Care Act’s principle that the government should provide coverage if necessary. Backers of a single-payer plan have also been emboldened by the faltering of the Republicans’ push to repeal the 2010 law, commonly known as Obamacare, which polls suggest grew more popular as a result. (Armour and Hackman, 9/13)

The Washington Post: Sanders Will Introduce Universal Health Care, Backed By 15 Democrats
Sanders’s bill, the Medicare for All Act of 2017, has no chance of passage in a Republican-run Congress. But after months of behind-the-scenes meetings and a public pressure campaign, the bill is already backed by most of the senators seen as likely 2020 Democratic candidates — if not by most senators facing tough reelection battles in 2018. (Weigel, 9/12)

The Associated Press: Bernie Sanders' Health Care Plan Puts Democrats On The Spot
Sen. Bernie Sanders rode his impassioned liberal army of supporters through a tumultuous 2016, fighting to snatch the Democratic presidential nomination from Hillary Clinton. Now he's disrupting the party anew, forcing Democrats to take sides over his plan to provide government-financed health care for all. (Fram, 9/12)

Politico: Bernie Sanders' Single-Payer Push Splits Democrats
Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy, one of the few Democrats subject to 2020 speculation who has not signed on to the Sanders bill, warned against letting the party’s attention slip to “longer-term health care policy” while the future of the Affordable Care Act remains up for debate. “I think the risk is that we get distracted,” Murphy told reporters. “September’s not done. They can still ram through a repeal bill.” (Schor, 9/13)

The Hill: Democratic Leaders Keep Distance From Sanders Single-Payer Plan 
Democratic support for a single-payer health-care system has grown by bounds this year, attracting more lawmaker endorsements than any time in the past. But one group is conspicuously not on board: party leaders. Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Tuesday previewed the much-anticipated release of Sen. Bernie Sanders’s (I-Vt.) “Medicare for all” bill by taking the notable step of refusing to throw their weight behind it. (Lillis, 9/12)

The Washington Post: Pelosi: Single-Payer Isn’t A Litmus Test For Democrats
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said Tuesday that single-payer health insurance is not a litmus test for Democrats and that she is focused on protecting health-care coverage under the Affordable Care Act. Pelosi (D-Calif.) declined to endorse “Medicare for All” legislation backed by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and instead called on Democrats to release a wide range of proposals to fix and improve President Barack Obama’s signature health-care law. Her position on health care is the latest evidence that Democrats in the House are willing to ignore pressure from liberal factions aiming to drive the party further to the left. (Snell and Weigel, 9/12)

The New York Times: Deal Struck To Extend Financing For Children’s Health Program
The chairman of the Senate Finance Committee and the top Democrat on the panel announced on Tuesday night that they had reached agreement on a plan to prevent the imminent exhaustion of federal funds for the Children’s Health Insurance Program. The current appropriation runs out at the end of this month, and many states will exhaust their allotments of federal money later this year or early next year. (Pear, 9/12)

The Associated Press: Senate Bargainers Say Deal Reached On Children's Health
In a concession to Republicans, the agreement would phase out extra federal funds that have gone to states for the program since the additional money was mandated as part of President Barack Obama's 2010 health care law. Money for the federal-state program is due to expire at the end of September. The program provides health coverage to around 8 million low-income children and pregnant women. It was initially unclear how the agreement would fare in the Senate and the House. (Fram, 9/12)