Los Angeles Times: California Legislator Wants To Curb Sexual Harassment In Hollywood And Eating Disorders For Models 
A new proposal by a California assemblyman is taking aim at two of the more criticized phenomena in the entertainment industry: sexual harassment and unhealthy body standards for fashion models. The legislation, by Assemblyman Marc Levine (D-San Rafael), would require the state’s Occupational Safety and Health Standards to adopt guidelines for fashion models in an attempt to combat the prevalence of eating disorders and excessive thinness in the industry. (Mason, 12/21)

In other news —

Capital Public Radio: Law Expands Safety Requirements For New Swimming Pools In California 
California swimming pools and spas built or remodeled starting in 2018 must have a second safety feature to protect children from drowning. That’s the main requirement in a new law that takes effect on Jan. 1, 2018 and aims to boost safety. (Nichols, 12/21)

The Mercury News: A Perk That’s Keeping Silicon Valley Workers Healthy — And On The Job
For Google, Apple and Facebook employees, the doctor is always in — at work. And at LinkedIn and a growing number of companies, personalized health clinics staffed with physicians, nurses, and therapists are just off campus. The business model is thriving in Silicon Valley and elsewhere, experts say, because it focuses on preventive services that treat workers before their illnesses and pains — physical and emotional — become more expensive for their employer plans. And since it’s so convenient, employees are more inclined to not put off that annoying trip to the doctor across town for an ache or symptom that just won’t go away. (Seipel, 12/22)

In other public health news —

Capital Public Radio: Pesticide Regulators Say Little Or No Residue Found On Most California Produce 
The vast majority of California fruits and vegetables that the state tested for pesticide residue in 2016 met safety standards. That's according to the state Department of Pesticide Regulation. (Milne, 12/21)

Ventura County Star: Hospital's Fiery Closure Widens Care Gap
The closure of an 87-bed psychiatric hospital burned by the Thomas Fire turns an existing care gap into a canyon that will likely send teenagers and other people battling behavioral health issues farther from home. Two of Vista del Mar Hospital’s five buildings on the west side of Ventura were destroyed in the fire that raced from outside Santa Paula to the Ventura hillsides on the night of Dec. 4, causing 67 patients to evacuate in a last-minute convoy of vans and other vehicles. (Kisken, 12/21)

California Healthline: Near Incineration Of Psychiatric Hospital Highlights Gaping Need For More Beds
As fire raged in Ventura, Calif., earlier this month, Gracie Hartman made her way to the county fairgrounds to look for her friend, Fernando. She found him there at the evacuation center, among 69 patients from the Vista del Mar acute psychiatric hospital, one of two such facilities in the county. They had been removed with little time to spare as the hospital was overtaken by flames. (Feder Osterov, 12/21)

Sacramento Bee: Sacramento’s Sutter Fined $18,000 In Failure To Report Lobbying
The Fair Political Practices Commission voted 3-0 Thursday to impose an $18,000 fine against Sacramento-based Sutter Health because it failed to report paying $270,000 for lobbying services between April 2015 and June 2017. The commission could have imposed a penalty up to $45,000, but investigators found no evidence that the health care giant intended to conceal its violations. (Anderson, 12/21)

Los Angeles Times: Chipotle Reports Sick Workers At L.A. Restaurant; Public Health Department Is Investigating
Public health workers are looking into a Chipotle Mexican Grill restaurant in Los Angeles after the company reported that employees there were sick. The company said employees experienced nausea, vomiting and diarrhea at the restaurant at 4550 W. Pico Blvd., according to the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health. Some of the sick employees also worked at PizzaRev next door, which does not share facilities with Chipotle. The department is investigating the cause of the illness at both restaurants. (Reyes-Velarde, 12/21)

In other news from across the state —

Los Angeles Times: Glendale Hospital Surprises Every Cerritos Elementary Student With Holiday Gifts
On Wednesday, for the fourth consecutive year, the roughly 400 students attending Cerritos Elementary School were each given a holiday gift bought by employees at Dignity Health Glendale Memorial Hospital. Before the revelation of hundreds of gifts hidden behind a stage curtain, parents, teachers, hospital staff and members of the Glendale Fire Department watched as the school’s principal Perla Chavez-Fritz honored 45 Cerritos students for “demonstrating compassion.” (Landa, 12/21)

KQED: Harborside’s Cannabis Pioneer Primed For New Customers 
Proponents of legal cannabis are definitely ready to celebrate this New Year’s. Starting Jan. 1, adult lovers of the plant will be able to start buying it in licensed retail outlets. (Watt, 12/21)

The New York Times: Congress Passes Stopgap Bill To Avoid Government Shutdown Against A Friday Deadline
Congress gave final approval on Thursday to legislation to keep the government funded into January, averting a government shutdown this weekend but kicking fights over issues like immigration, surveillance and health care into the new year. The stopgap spending bill extends government funding until Jan. 19 while also providing a short-term funding fix for the Children’s Health Insurance Program, or CHIP, whose financing lapsed at the end of September. (Kaplan, 12/21)

The Hill: GOP Includes $2.8B For Children's Health-Care Funding In Stopgap Bill 
House Republicans have included $2.85 billion to extend funding for the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) in a stopgap spending measure intended to prevent a government shutdown on Saturday. The funding provides money for CHIP through the end of March as the GOP faces criticism from Democrats, who argued Republicans were prepared to leave town without extending a program that provides support for 9 million children across the country. (Roubein, 12/21)

Politico: Children's Health Funding Hangs In The Balance As Congress Leaves Town
Congress is likely to depart Washington this week approving just enough money for children’s health insurance through March and leaving families and governors wondering what's next. Only days after clearing a massive tax reform bill along party lines, Republicans are still trying to figure out how to keep the government open past Friday, with hopes of including funding for the Children’s Health Insurance Program, which covers roughly 9 million low- and middle-income kids. So far, Republican and Democratic sources say they don’t expect to be able to attach more than six months of CHIP funding, with three of those months retroactive to when Congress let funding lapse, on Sept. 30. (Haberkorn and Pradhan, 12/21)

The Associated Press: How States Coping With Uncertainty Over Kids' Health Money
Examples of how states have been reacting to the threat of running out of federal money for the Children's Health Insurance Program. It was unclear how their plans might change with the short-term federal funds Congress approved Thursday. (12/22)

The Hill: States Say Short-Term Funding Not Enough For Children’s Health 
State governments are warning that the short-term funding for a critical children’s health program approved by Congress on Thursday may be too little and too late. Warning letters in at least three states have already been sent to families saying they could soon lose coverage for their children come Jan. 31 without new funding from Congress. Even if the new funding keeps their programs afloat, it sends a negative message to enrollees and that could cause long-term implications, experts say. (Roubein and Sullivan, 12/22)

The New York Times: Obamacare Sign-Ups At High Levels Despite Trump Saying It’s ‘Imploding’
The Trump administration said Thursday that 8.8 million people had signed up for health insurance through the Affordable Care Act’s federal marketplace, a surprisingly large number only slightly lower than the total in the last open enrollment period, which was twice as long and heavily advertised. The numbers essentially defied President Trump’s assertion that “Obamacare is imploding.” (Pear, 12/21)

The Associated Press: 'Obamacare' Surprise: Strong Showing As Nearly 9M Sign Up
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said more than 8.8 million people have signed up in the 39 states served by the federal HealthCare.gov website. That compares to 9.2 million last year in the same states — or 96 percent of the previous total. The level exceeds what experts thought was possible after another year of political battles over the Affordable Care Act, not to mention market problems like rising premiums and insurer exits. On top of that, the Trump administration cut enrollment season in half, slashed the ad budget, terminated major payments to insurers, and scaled back grants for consumer counselors. (12/21)

The Washington Post: ACA Enrollment For 2018 Nearly Matches Last Year's, Despite Trump Administration Efforts To Undermine It
For the seventh and final sign-up week ending on Dec. 15, the report said, 4.1 million people had signed up for coverage or been automatically renewed by the government because they had ACA health plans this year and had not selected ones for 2018. However, federal health officials had previously said the automatic renewals would not take place until after the federal marketplace's enrollment deadline. Asked for a breakdown between the active sign-ups and the auto-enrollments, officials refused to provide it. (Goldstein, 12/21)

The Wall Street Journal: Health-Law Insurance Sign-Ups Decline
Several major ACA insurers, including Centene Corp., Health Care Service Corp. and Medica, said their own sign-ups appeared on track to meet internal projections. “We’re almost exactly on our expectations,” said Steve Ringel, president of the Ohio market for CareSource, which sells ACA plans in four states. “It’s playing out exactly as we had hoped.” Of the 8.8 million consumers who were signed up for plans on HealthCare.gov during the federal exchange’s enrollment period, which started Nov. 1, about 2.4 million were new consumers, while 6.4 million were returning enrollees, including people automatically re-enrolled in plans. (Wilde Mathews, 12/21)

Los Angeles Times: Obamacare Sign-Ups Surge, Despite Trump's Calls For Repeal
"It's incredible how many people signed up for coverage this year with record-setting demand for affordable health coverage," said Lori Lodes, a spokeswoman for Protect Our Care, a non-governmental advocacy group that stepped in to publicize the marketplaces when the Trump administration slashed outreach efforts. "The demand for affordable coverage speaks volumes — proving, yet again, the staying power of the marketplaces," Lodes said. (Levey, 12/21)

The Mercury News: Congressional GOP Holding Kid's Health Care Hostage
We in Congress have a moral responsibility — as citizens and lawmakers — to ensure all among us have access to health care. When we achieve this, we will not only live longer and healthier lives, but it will cost us all less. Sadly, congressional Republicans are reducing access to care for those who need it most: the poor and children. (Rep. Eric Swalwell, 12/19)

The Mercury News: Protect Poor Kids’ Health Care, GOP Lawmaker Tells Congress
Together, we have ensured more patients are able to see a doctor, have expanded dental care for low-income children and have improved the efficiency of our health care system. Unfortunately, that progress is in danger due to federal gridlock, and the consequences will hit California’s lower-income children and pregnant women especially hard. (Assemblywoman Catharine Baker, 12/20)

Los Angeles Times: GOP Tax Bill Also Manages To Needlessly Screw Up The Healthcare System
It would be easy to devote an entire column to the vicious provisions of the bill, such as making corporate tax cuts permanent but relief for individuals only temporary, or running up well over a trillion dollars in debt to make the rich richer. But the part that strikes me as most galling, and which has become almost an afterthought amid all the other damage the bill will do, is its incongruous and completely unnecessary repeal of the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate. (David Lazarus, 12/19)

Sacramento Bee: GOP Tax Bill Will Kill The Affordable Care Act
Congress is quietly handing the American people a huge lump of coal in their holiday stockings: the repeal of the centerpiece of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. ... This will mean that millions of Americans will lose their health insurance coverage and many of us will face much more expensive, but less desirable health insurance options. (Erwin Chemerinsky, 12/18)

Sacramento Bee: Single Payer Is Still Best Health Care Fix For California
With growing alarm in Sacramento over attacks on health care in Washington – threats to the Children’s Health Insurance Program and the Medicare cuts sure to come under the GOP tax plan – there’s no shortage of irony in the frantic search by Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon to find alternatives to a solution readily at hand, the guaranteed health care bill. (Malinda Markowitz, 12/19)

East Bay Times: Universal Health Care In California Is Doable For Less Cost 
When the Legislature reconvenes and the campaigns for governor heat up next year, Californians will be hearing a lot – and a lot of hot air – about universal health care. Making California the first state to guarantee health care for every resident has become a touchstone issue – and a divisive one – for the state’s dominant Democrats. The state Assembly will take up – or possibly ignore – a universal health care bill that the Senate passed this year. (Dan Walters, 12/17)

Sacramento Bee: My Condition Was Untreatable. Then Came A Miracle Drug, And A Miraculous Community
At first glance, I may not appear to have much reason to be thankful for my health, but the truth is I have been extremely fortunate throughout my life. Not only has my family provided me with excellent care, but I have also benefited tremendously from the Sacramento medical community. This year in particular has embodied the very best of our region’s health care system, and as a lifelong Northern Californian, it feels like the right time to say thank you. (David Bekhour, 12/20)

Los Angeles Times: With Apologies To George Carlin, Here Are Seven Words They Can't Say At The CDC
Comedian George Carlin famously crafted a routine around “Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television,” a piece so far over the line for a newspaper that you’re just going to have to look it up yourselves. But the Trump administration has gone one better and has listed seven words and phrases the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is now banned from using in budget documents. (Scott Martelle, 12/16)

Los Angeles Times: Marijuana Businesses Are Awash With Cash. California Wants To Help Get That Money Into Banks
One of the biggest problems facing California cannabis businesses, regulators and law enforcement officials once recreational marijuana sales become legal on Jan. 1 is what to do about all the cash that is expected to change hands. With marijuana still illegal under federal law, most marijuana businesses can’t open bank accounts or accept credit card transactions — financial services companies refuse to serve them for fear being penalized by federal regulators for handling money from drug sales. That means marijuana transactions are typically done in cash. (12/22)

Los Angeles Times: Can Pot Blunt The Opioid Epidemic? We Don't Know Because The Federal Government Blocks Research.
An epidemic of opioid abuse is ravaging the United States and, as we look for ways to respond to it, some see cannabis as part of the solution, while others see it as part of the problem. This is just one area in which unbiased scientific research is necessary, but outdated federal legislation, having concluded almost 50 years ago that there is no medical value to cannabis, is blocking all meaningful efforts to understand the real benefits and risks of the plant. (Daniele Piomelli and Bob Solomon, 12/21)

Los Angeles Times: Hey, Congress — Don't Mess With California's Eggs
Nearly a decade ago, California became the first state in the nation to pass a law requiring that hens, veal calves and pregnant pigs be raised in cages that gave them space to move. ... the state Legislature passed a companion law (AB 1437) mandating that any farmer in the country who wanted to sell eggs in California had to comply with the welfare standards set for hens in the state. ... One of the law’s most vocal Congressional opponents is Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa), who represents the largest egg-producing district of the largest egg-producing state in the country. He’s pushing the Protect Interstate Commerce Act (H.R. 3599), which would prohibit any state from setting more restrictive standards for out-of-state agricultural products than the federal government imposes nationally or the producer’s own state mandates. (12/21)