Capital Public Radio: Is A Statewide Insurance Mandate Next For California? 
Democratic state Sen. Ed Hernandez, chairperson of the Senate Health Committee, said he’s reaching out to consumer groups, health plans and the administration about the possibility of a statewide individual insurance mandate to replace the federal requirement that was eliminated by Republican lawmakers late last year. (Caiola, 2/5)

Meanwhile —

KPBS: Bill To Give California More Oversight Over Health Plan Mergers Clears State Assembly
A federal judge in 2017 rejected a proposed merger between health insurance giants Aetna and Humana, saying it would likely lessen competition. The California Assembly has passed a bill that would give state regulators the authority to reject such mergers on similar grounds. (Goldberg, 2/5)

Modesto Bee: Opioid Prescriptions Would Be Limited Under California Bill 
With California and the nation reeling from an epidemic of opioid abuse, one lawmaker believes the first step is limiting access to the highly addictive drugs. Assemblyman Freddie Rodriguez, D-Pomona, is pursuing legislation to limit prescriptions for opioids, which are often used as painkillers, to no more than three days. (Koseff, 2/5)

Sacramento Bee: California Lawmakers Take On Opiate Abuse With Technology 
On Tuesday, the chairman of the Assembly Business and Professions Committee will hold a hearing to explore ways the state can leverage its status as the cradle of technology to take on the opioid addiction crisis. Democratic Assemblyman Evan Low and his colleagues have offered a slate of proposals to address physician over-prescribing and other culprits. (Cadelago, 2/6)

And in other news on the epidemic —

San Francisco Chronicle: SF Safe Injection Sites Expected To Be First In Nation, Open Around July 1 
San Francisco is on track to open its first two safe injection sites this July, a milestone that will likely make the city the first in the country to embrace the controversial model of allowing drug users to shoot up under supervision. Other cities — including Seattle, Baltimore and Philadelphia — are talking about opening their own safe injection facilities, but San Francisco could get there first. (Knight, 2/5)

Orange County Register: Embattled Sovereign Health Closing And Consolidating Centers 
In the wake of reduced reimbursements from insurers and an FBI raid last June, Sovereign Health is closing and consolidating several treatment centers. The San Clemente-based mental health and addiction treatment provider is closing its facility in El Paso; moving its women’s facility in Chandler, Arizona, to a new and larger facility in Beaumont in Riverside County; and closing part of its treatment facility in Culver City, officials said. (Sforza, 2/5)

Politico: California Union Leverages Ballot Initiatives For Health Care On Its Own Terms
One of California's most powerful heath care unions wants the public to press hospitals and insurers over high costs, filing 10 state and local propositions for November’s elections — a tactic critics deride as an inappropriate attempt to gain negotiating leverage via the ballot box. Following victories to raise the minimum wage in Arizona, Colorado, Maine and Washington, the Service Employees International Union – United Healthcare Workers West got state approval to collect signatures for two California propositions: one to prevent health insurers with high reserves from raising premiums, and another that would tax millionaires to help fund safety-net hospitals and clinics. (Colliver, 2/5)

The Mercury News: Former Google, Facebook Employees Step Up Battle Against Tech Addiction
Former Google and Facebook employees — and early investors — are launching a campaign to warn people about the dangers of the technology they helped create. ...Now, with millions of dollars from San Francisco-based nonprofit Common Sense Media and others, the new coalition aims to inspire companies to design their devices with tech addiction in mind; apply political pressure and advise governments on how to protect their constituents; helping consumers “take control of their digital lives” by spreading awareness; and “empowering” like-minded tech employees. (Sumagaysay, 2/5)

In other public health news —

KPBS Public Media: UC San Diego Research Reveals Potential New Area Of Exploration For Female Infertility 
UC San Diego researchers have found what could be one clue to the mystery of female infertility. It involves a protein called ZPF36L2, or L2, for short. Researchers discovered that the protein plays a crucial role in egg development. (Goldberg, 2/5)

Sacramento Bee: Abortion Providers Launch Bay Area Ad Campaign
A national network of abortion providers launched a billboard campaign Monday in the San Francisco Bay Area that targets what it calls the deceptive tactics of “crisis pregnancy centers” and the decision by the state nursing board to allow training on an abortion reversal procedure. The Abortion Care Network’s campaign, which comes as state lawmakers consider expanding access to pill-induced abortion on college campuses, will last for one month and feature six billboards posted near crisis pregnancy centers in San Francisco, Oakland, San Jose, Redwood City and San Lorenzo. (Kobin, 2/5)

In other news from across the state —

KPCC: Judge To Hear Arguments In Clearing Of OC Homeless Encampments 
The fate of Orange County’s largest homeless encampment is still murky two weeks into the county’s effort to clear it out. A federal judge over the weekend declined to immediately grant a temporary restraining order that sought to delay the eviction but called for a hearing to discuss the matter next week. (Replogle, 2/5)

The Bakersfield Californian: Globetrotter Spins Tales And Basketballs At Hospital's Pediatric Center 
It all seemed effortless and fun, and it should for El Gato Melendez, the first and only Puerto Rican-born baller to play for the Harlem Globetrotters. El Gato (The Cat) was in Bakersfield on Monday at Dignity Health Memorial Hospital's pediatric center visiting kids in their hospital beds. It didn't seem to matter that some of the young patients had never heard of the Trotters. Having a tall, talented athlete at their bedside seemed to perk them up, even if they weren't feeling on top of their game. (Mayer, 2/5)

The New York Times: House Pushes Another Stopgap Bill As Government Shutdown Looms
House Republicans emerged from a closed-door meeting on Monday night with a plan to pass a temporary spending measure that would fund the government through March 23. The measure would also include full-year funding for the Defense Department — boosting military spending, as President Trump and Republicans are determined to do — and it would include two years of funding for community health centers. But the House’s approach, to combine short-term funding to keep the government open with long-term funding for the military, was long ago rejected by most Senate Democrats, who want to pair an increase in military spending with a similar increase in domestic spending. (Kaplan, 2/5)

CQ: House Republicans Unveil Six-Week Stopgap, Health Care Bill
The House GOP plan would pair short-term funding for domestic and foreign aid programs with a full year of Pentagon appropriations (HR 695). The package also contains a slew of health care provisions, including a two-year extension for community health centers, which have warned in recent months about likely closures that could impact services for millions of low-income beneficiaries. The measure would also provide five-year extensions of rural home health and ground ambulance add-ons under Medicare. The measure also would extend other Medicare reimbursement policies for two years, including the work Geographic Practice Cost Index which would boost reimbursements for the work portion of physicians' fees where labor costs are lower than the national average, according to a GOP summary. (Mejdrich and Krawzak, 2/5)

The Hill: Over 100 House Republicans Call For Health Center Funding
More than 100 House Republicans are calling on Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) to quickly reauthorize a pot of money crucial to community health centers, which service millions of the nation’s most vulnerable. In a letter sent Friday, 105 Republicans, led by Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), expressed their concern over the fact that long-term funding for community health centers lapsed Sept. 30 — and urged its reauthorization in the “next moving piece of legislation to be signed into law.” (Roubein, 2/5)

The Associated Press: House Republicans Working To Plan To Avert Another Shutdown
The negotiations are bipartisan since it takes votes from Democrats to lift the budget caps and advance a follow-up omnibus spending bill, whose overall cost is likely to exceed $1.2 trillion. That means domestic programs get their due, despite the opposition of conservatives. (Taylor, 2/5)

The Washington Post: House Republicans Eye Defense Spending Boost, Complicating Plan To Avoid Second Shutdown
Government funding is set to run out Thursday at midnight, and though there were few fears of another shutdown as lawmakers scrambled Monday, the House maneuver stands to inject new uncertainty into the process. (Werner and DeBonis, 2/5)

The Washington Post: Trump Uses Britain's Protests To Jump Back Into Health-Care Fray At Home
Though congressional Republicans agreed last week to back off the contentious politics of the Affordable Care Act this year, President Trump began Monday morning by stirring the health-care policy pot anew. In a tweet shortly after 7 a.m., the president lashed out at Democrats, saying they “are pushing for Universal HealthCare while thousands of people are marching in the UK because their U system is going broke and not working.” (Goldstein, 2/5)

Los Angeles Times: Trump Stirs A Hornet's Nest In Britain By Blasting Its National Health Service
Virtually no one in Britain considers the NHS perfect: The need for urgent reforms, such as reducing waiting times and adding doctors and hospital beds, was the declared point of the weekend demonstrations. But Trump's critique touched a raw nerve in a country that considers universal access to medical services to be something akin to a national treasure, under a system created just after World War II and now relied on by millions of people. (King, 2/5)

In other national health care news —

The Associated Press: $300M Health Care System Cost To Protect Religious Rights
President Donald Trump's new effort to protect the rights of health workers who object to participating in abortions and other procedures will cost the health care system more than $300 million to set up, according to a government estimate. More than 40 complaints have been filed since Trump's election, alleging violations of conscience and religious rights. An estimated 18 million people work in the nation's health care system. (2/5)

Politico: Kellyanne Conway’s 'Opioid Cabinet' Sidelines Drug Czar’s Experts
President Donald Trump’s war on opioids is beginning to look more like a war on his drug policy office. White House counselor Kellyanne Conway has taken control of the opioids agenda, quietly freezing out drug policy professionals and relying instead on political staff to address a lethal crisis claiming about 175 lives a day. The main response so far has been to call for a border wall and to promise a "just say no” campaign. (Ehley and Karlin-Smith, 2/6)

McClatchy: Trump Administration Ponders Lifetime Benefit Limits For Medicaid
After allowing states to impose work requirements for Medicaid enrollees, the Trump administration is now pondering lifetime limits on adults’ access to coverage. Capping health care benefits — like federal welfare benefits — would be a first for Medicaid, the joint state-and-federal health plan for low-income and disabled Americans.If approved, the dramatic policy change would recast government-subsidized health coverage as temporary assistance by placing a limit on the number of months adults have access to Medicaid benefits. (Pugh, 2/5)

Stateline: Trump Administration: Let States Decide If Health Plans Have Enough Doctors
The Affordable Care Act required that health insurance plans sold on the marketplaces in every state maintain a sufficient number of in-network hospitals and physicians, including specialists, in their service area — essentially, that they have an adequate network of providers. Policyholders spend less to see doctors in their network. But the Trump administration last month weakened that federal oversight, potentially forcing patients to turn to more expensive providers, travel long distances for cheaper care, endure long waits for medical appointments or, critics worry, forgo care altogether. (Ollove, 2/6)

Stat: A Compromise 'Right-To-Try' Bill Proceeds With Help From FDA, But Could Be A Hard Sell
A bipartisan bill aimed at helping terminally ill patients gain access to experimental medicines would leave intact the controversial role of the Food and Drug Administration, a notion that will likely upset backers of the so-called right-to-try movement. The draft legislation, which is being developed with help from the FDA, also includes a provision that seeks to reassure anxious drug makers about making their treatments available, but to what extent this move makes the effort easier to forge a compromise is uncertain. (Silverman, 2/5)

The Wall Street Journal: The Chase For A Permanent Flu Vaccine
As doctors struggle with the worst flu season in nearly a decade, some are racing to answer a question: Can they find a more permanent solution than variably successful annual vaccines? Researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles have developed a new approach for a vaccine that tested successfully in animals. GlaxoSmithKline is in the early stages of testing another promising approach in people. (Reddy, 2/5)