Los Angeles Times: Bill To Shed More Light On Prescription Drug Prices Heads To Gov. Jerry Brown's Desk
Powered by increasing scrutiny of costly prescription drugs, a measure that would require sweeping new disclosure on how medicines are priced cleared its final legislative hurdle Wednesday. The state Senate approved the bill with no debate, belying the fierce behind-the-scenes jockeying that pit pharmaceutical companies against health insurers, labor unions and liberal activists. (Mason, 9/13)

The Mercury News: California Drug Price Transparency Bill Heads To Gov. Brown
SB 17 — approved by the Senate on a 31 to 8 vote on Wednesday — aims to make drug prices for both public and private health plans more transparent. It would do so by requiring pharmaceutical companies to notify health insurers and government health plans like Medi-Cal at least 60 days before scheduled prescription drug price hikes that would exceed 16 percent over a two-year period. It would also force drug companies to explain the reasons behind those increases. (Seipel, 9/13)

Modesto Bee: Stanislaus County Residents Will Pay Far More For Covered CA Than Others In State 
For a single adult, who has just turned 40 and is now more at risk of a whopping medical bill, the cost for the most popular Covered California health insurance plan next year will be $462 a month in a pricing region that includes in Stanislaus, San Joaquin and Merced counties. (Carlson, 9/13)

KPBS: Is California Doing Enough To Protect Patients From Bad Doctors? 
In 2011, Marian Hollingsworth needed to get a colonoscopy. Her primary care doctor referred her to a gastroenterologist, who performed the procedure. It went well. A few years later, Hollingsworth learned how to research doctors on the California Medical Board’s website. She decided to check the records of the doctor who did her colonoscopy. “And I about fell over, because he was about to start a 30-day suspension and seven years probation for a decades-long history of drug and alcohol abuse," she said. "But what finally got the attention of the medical board, is that he went after a patient with a hatchet.” (Goldberg, 9/13)

The Washington Post: Hepatitis Outbreak: San Diego Power-Washing Streets As Death Toll Rises
San Diego has started sanitizing its streets and sidewalks to try to combat a hepatitis A outbreak spreading among the city’s homeless population. Amid an outbreak across several cities in San Diego County that county health officials say has led to 16 deaths and nearly 300 hospitalizations, workers hosed down areas in San Diego earlier this week with chlorine and bleach, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune. Mayor Kevin Faulconer (R) recently announced that measures to try to curb the spread of the deadly disease would include giving free vaccinations, installing hand-washing stations and power-washing streets in the Southern California city. (Bever, 9/13)

KQED: San Diego Washing Streets With Bleach To Combat Hepatitis A Outbreak
The infectious disease has largely infected homeless people in the city, and part of the issue is an apparent shortage of public restrooms in areas where the population congregates. Hepatitis A was first identified in the area in early March, according to the county, and was declared a public health emergency earlier this month. (Kennedy, 9/13)

Los Angeles Times: Death Toll From San Diego Hepatitis Outbreak Rises To 16, With 292 People Hospitalized
San Diego County’s hepatitis A outbreak shows no signs of slowing, according to the latest update released Tuesday by the county Health and Human Services Agency. The outbreak’s death total rose to 16 — one more than last week’s total. The number of confirmed cases reached 421, up 23 from last week. The number of hospitalizations also pushed higher, rising to 292 from 279 the week before. (Sisson, 9/13)

KQED: Can Facial Recognition Detect Sexual Orientation? Controversial Stanford Study Now Under ‘Ethical Review’
The American Psychological Association says that a controversial research paper that applied computer facial recognition to guess people’s sexual orientation is now under “ethical review.” The paper was set to be published in the association’s peer-reviewed Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. The research, by Michal Kosinski and Yilun Wang of Stanford University, claims that a computer algorithm bested humans in distinguishing between a gay person and a straight person when analyzing images from public profiles on a dating website. ... The research has led to a firestorm of criticism from LGBTQ advocates and academics since it was first reported last week in The Economist. Two gay rights groups, Human Rights Campaign and GLAAD, called the research, in a joint press release, junk science. (Venton, 9/13)

KPCC: Anaheim Declares Homelessness Emergency
Anaheim City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to declare a public health and safety emergency because of the hundreds of homeless people living along the Santa Ana River. The declaration of emergency calls for a mix of stepped up enforcement of laws and health and safety codes and greater efforts to get homeless people into shelters and, eventually, permanent housing. (Replogle, 9/13)

Orange County Register: After Anaheim Declares State Of Emergency, Santa Ana River Homeless Wonder What’s Next 
What [Heather] Smith-Bush does know is this: If somebody is willing to help her get into housing — and out of the tent she lives in across a chain link fence from Angel Stadium — she’s all for it. ... Hours earlier, after a marathon meeting, the Anaheim City Council had declared a public health and safety state of emergency in light of the city’s growing homeless crisis, with the council’s particular concern focused on the encampments that stretch for miles along the river bank near Anaheim Stadium and the Honda Center. (Pimentel and Walker, 9/13)

In other news from across the state —

Los Angeles Times: Smoking Pot Or Tobacco At California Beaches Could Soon Be Illegal Under Bills Headed To Gov. Brown 
California parks and beaches would be off-limits to those smoking tobacco or marijuana, or using electronic cigarettes, under legislation sent to Gov. Jerry Brown by state lawmakers Wednesday. The Legislature approved similar bills by Assemblyman Marc Levine (D-San Rafael) and Sen. Steve Glazer (D-Orinda) that would apply the ban to 300 miles of state beaches and areas of 280 state parks that have not been designated by park officials for smoking. (McGreevy, 9/13)

The New York Times: Medicare For All Or State Control: Health Care Plans Go To Extremes
In one Senate office building, some of the leading lights of the Democratic Party gathered Wednesday to embrace what was once a proposal only of the far left: a huge expansion of Medicare, large enough to open the popular, government-run health program to all Americans. In another Senate office building, a smaller but equally adamant group of Republican senators stood together to take one last stab at dismantling the Affordable Care Act. They proposed instead to send each state a lump sum of federal money, along with sweeping new discretion over how to use it. (Pear, 9/13)

The Wall Street Journal: Senate Backpedals On Bipartisan Approach To Health Law
A week after Republicans and Democrats held the first bipartisan hearing on ways to fix the 2010 health-care law, the Senate was once more divided on Wednesday, with one side continuing efforts to undo the ACA and the other pushing to expand government-sponsored health coverage. Neither plan holds any appeal to the opposite party, and they lack even full support from their respective caucuses. That leaves the question of how Congress can move ahead on health care amid a widespread perception that the ACA is flawed but that Republicans don’t have a politically viable replacement. (Hackman, 9/13)

Los Angeles Times: Bipartisan Effort To Stabilize Health Insurance Markets Is Coming Down To The Wire
Despite broad support from consumer advocates, state officials and healthcare leaders across the country, a bipartisan effort in Congress to stabilize health insurance markets and control rising premiums is being threatened by resurgent political fighting over the Affordable Care Act. With time running out before millions of Americans could be subject to major rate hikes, it is increasingly unclear if Congress will be able to come together to offer relief. (Levey, 9/13)

The Washington Post: GOP Tries One More Time To Undo ACA With Bill Offering Huge Block Grants To States
With just 17 days left for Republicans to repeal the Affordable Care Act on a party-line vote, a quartet of GOP senators on Wednesday rolled out a plan to devolve federal health care spending into state-by-state block grants — legislation that South Carolina Sen. Lindsey O. Graham described as conservatives’ last shot at reform. “It should have been our first bill to repeal and replace Obamacare, but it is now our last,” Graham said at a morning news conference. “To those in the Republican Party who feel like we have not fought as hard as we could, you’re right.” (Weigel and Goldstein, 9/13)

Politico: Graham, Cassidy Unveil Last-Ditch Obamacare Repeal Bill
Sens. Lindsey Graham, Bill Cassidy, Dean Heller and Ron Johnson on Wednesday released an Obamacare repeal bill, framing it as the last, best hope to fulfill the GOP's promise to undo the health law. "There's a lot of fight left in the Republican Party" on repeal, Graham said. The bill faces long odds: Even some of its GOP backers say it would be almost impossible to get a massive rewrite of the health care system through the Senate within 17 days, or before the expiration of fast-track procedural powers Republicans hope to use to bypass the threat of a Democratic filibuster. (Haberkorn, 9/13)

The Hill: GOP Senators Make Last ObamaCare Repeal Pitch
Sens. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) and Dean Heller (R-Nev.) argued at a press conference that their party should not give up on repealing the health law. But they face extremely long odds in trying to win 51 votes before a fast-approaching procedural deadline on Sept. 30. “This is our last shot,” Johnson said. (Sullivan, 9/13)

Bloomberg: Trump Says He Applauds Last-Ditch Obamacare Repeal Proposal
President Donald Trump let Republican senators working on an eleventh-hour effort to repeal Obamacare know he is rooting for them, without explicitly supporting the legislation.GOP senators Lindsey Graham, of South Carolina, and Bill Cassidy, of Louisiana, introduced a bill Wednesday to repeal the Affordable Care Act and replace it with block grants to states, who would determine how to help people pay for health care. Their effort comes as Tennessee Republican Senator Lamar Alexander is working with Washington Democratic Senator Patty Murray to craft a bipartisan, short-term Obamacare fix. (Edney and Litvan, 9/13)

The Associated Press: Sanders Would Make Government Health Care Role Even Bigger
In an animated, campaign-style rally, Sen. Bernie Sanders unwrapped his plan to remake the nation's convoluted health care system into federally run health insurance Wednesday — a costly proposal embraced by liberal activists hoping to steer the Democratic Party in upcoming elections. The Vermont independent's plan would hand government a dominant role in insuring Americans, a crucial step, he said, in guaranteeing health care for all. Census Bureau data this week showed the proportion of people lacking policies falling to 8.8 percent last year under "Obamacare," the lowest level ever recorded, but he called it an "international disgrace" that not all Americans have coverage. (Fram, 9/13)

The Washington Post: Sanders Introduces Universal Health Care
“This is where the country has got to go,” Sanders said in an interview at his Senate office. “Right now, if we want to move away from a dysfunctional, wasteful, bureaucratic system into a rational health-care system that guarantees coverage to everyone in a cost-effective way, the only way to do it is Medicare for All.” 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, 9/13)

Politico: Sanders Lays Down Marker With Ambitious Single-Payer Bid
The plan wouldn't completely wipe out private health insurance, but it would drastically shrink a system that currently covers more than 170 million Americans through their employers or on the individual market. Under Sanders' vision, health insurers would likely be relegated to covering elective procedures not covered by the government. "The average American family will be much better off financially than under the current system because you will no longer be writing checks to private insurance companies," Sanders said. (Cancryn, 9/13)

Los Angeles Times: Turning Aside Risk, Democrats Rally To Bernie Sanders' Single-Payer Health Plan
In the days before Sanders’ announcement, Democrats as ideologically diverse as liberal Sen. Kamala Harris of California and conservative Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia expressed support for his effort. Their statements reflect a significant shift within the Democratic party, driven by multiple developments: a belief that the window has closed on Republican efforts to repeal Obamacare; a surge in support for government-run insurance among younger, more activist Democrats; and looming 2018 and 2020 contests that demand clarity on what Democrats support — not just whom they oppose. (Decker, 9/13)

San Francisco Chronicle: Bernie Sanders Kicks Off Medicare For All Proposal; Harris, More On Board
With California Sen. Kamala Harris and a handful of other liberal senators often viewed as the Democratic Party’s next generation of leaders lined up in support, Sen. Bernie Sanders introduced a plan Wednesday for a government-run health care system he called Medicare for All. The proposal, which Sanders, independent-Vt., introduced to a packed audience in the Senate’s largest hearing room, comes as several Senate Republicans are attempting to revive their party’s floundering effort to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act with a new plan that would provide states with lump sums of federal money to provide health care. (Lochhead, 9/13)

Sacramento Bee: Bernie Sanders Announces Medicare-For-All Health Care Bill 
California’s junior Sen. Kamala Harris on Wednesday backed Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders in making an impassioned call for a national, taxpayer-funded health care system that would extend Medicare to all Americans and eliminate the need for private insurance companies, a move seen as symbolic for Democrats positioning themselves as the leaders of a party that is moving further left. (Hart, 9/13)

Bloomberg: Sanders Offers Medicare-For-All Plan Backed By 16 Senate Democrats
Several Democrats, including some of Sanders’s co-sponsors, made it clear that they see the bill as one of many options toward improving the Affordable Care Act, President Barack Obama’s signature domestic accomplishment. “The principle that I support is universal, accessible, affordable quality health care for all, and I think the single-payer system is a strong articulation of the principle,” said Senator Mazie Hirono of Hawaii, a co-sponsor of the bill. (John, 9/13)

The Associated Press Fact Check: Single-Payer Sounds Best When It Sounds Free
Americans are not clamoring for single-payer health care, as Sen. Bernie Sanders suggests they are, in proposing a plan that would have the government foot most medical bills. He's right that support for the idea has grown and in some polls tops 50 percent. But polls suggest that the prevailing sentiment is ambivalence. Saving money on health insurance holds lots of appeal. Seeing taxes rise to cover those costs may dull the appetite. (Woodward and Swanson, 9/14)

The Hill: White House Rips Sanders's 'Horrible' Single-Payer Plan 
The White House on Wednesday slammed the push by Senate Democrats for a single-payer health-care plan at the same time Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) announced his proposal, calling the plan "horrible." "The president as well as the majority of the country know the single-payer system the Democrats are proposing is a horrible idea," White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said during the daily briefing. (Kamisar, 9/13)

The Wall Street Journal: Bernie Sanders’s Single-Payer Health Proposal: A Primer
Sen. Bernie Sanders on Wednesday unveiled his long-anticipated legislation to create a national single-payer health system, which has become a rallying cry for some in the Democratic Party just as Republicans struggle to coalesce around a health plan of their own. (Armour, 9/13)