Sacramento Bee: Gavin Newsom’s First Hires Suggest Big Health Care Plans
Gavin Newsom might not be able to accomplish his ambitious campaign goal of bringing government-funded universal health care to California, but his first hires suggest he’s planning something big. Incoming chief of staff Ann O’Leary helped develop the Children’s Health Insurance Program when she worked in the Bill Clinton White House. (Bollag, 1/2)

In other news from Sacramento —

East Bay Times: How California’s Right-To-Die Law Survived 2018
California’s End of Life Option Act, which gives terminally ill individuals the choice to legally end their lives by using physician-prescribed lethal drugs, survived a significant scare in 2018 after a Riverside County judge in May struck down the law. The judge’s move invalidated the law for a period of time causing confusion among doctors, assisted living centers and terminally-ill patients who were left wondering if they would be able to procure new prescriptions or use the drugs they obtained from their physicians under the law. (Bharath, 1/1)

San Francisco Chronicle: S.F. Tobacco Law’s Impact On Hookah Bars Is Cloudy — Even Though They’re Legal
Pride of the Mediterranean switched to a nicotine-free smoking medium long before Tuesday, when San Francisco will begin enforcing the ban on flavored nicotine products that voters passed in June 2018.The ban, aimed at cutting off teenagers from the lure of candy-flavored e-cigarettes, has inadvertently swept up San Francisco’s hookah bars, most of which are alcohol-free spaces where adults can socialize. (Kauffman, 1/1)

Orange County Register: Born On Drugs: Babies From Addicted Moms Are Increasing At An Alarming Rate In California 
California’s entire approach to a problem that extends far beyond the hospital doors — to the fast-growing population of babies born exposed to opiates and other drugs. ... Over the course of the generation-spanning “crack babies” to “heroin babies,” California and the nation have made legal and philosophical shifts, removing fewer drug-exposed children from their parents’ care and working harder to make fractured families whole again before terminating parental rights and putting children up for adoption. But the process is complex, time-consuming and frequently frustrating, involving many moving parts and a shifting cast of characters — governmental and otherwise — whose judgments may be in direct conflict. (Sforza, 12/28)

In other public health news —

Santa Rosa Press Democrat: Sonoma County To Explore Ballot Measure To Bolster Mental Health And Homeless Services
Sonoma County officials have begun exploring the possibility of crafting a ballot measure that would generate tax revenue for mental health and homeless services. The move comes at a time when the county’s homeless population is again on the rise and as health services officials grapple with significant financial strains that federal and state funds can’t resolve. ...The county’s Health Services Department is among the largest local government agencies, with an annual budget of $232 million. The division overseeing mental health and drug abuse treatment accounts for about 40 percent of the spending. Most of the division is funded through Medi-Cal, the state agency that oversees health benefits for low-income and disabled Californians. (Espinoza, 12/29)

San Francisco Chronicle: Search And Rescue Volunteers Carry Out Difficult Task Of Finding Wildfire Victims 
The hundreds of search and rescue volunteers who responded to the Camp Fire — and many others involved each year in California’s natural disasters and mass tragedies — come from diverse backgrounds, including teachers, doctors, city employees and retired law enforcement professionals. When the Camp Fire started, they took time off from their day jobs to carry out one of the most difficult tasks in the fire zone: finding victims. (Ravani, 1/2)

KPBS: Safety Concerns Mount As Edison Awaits NCR's OK To Bury Radioactive Waste
Southern California Edison wants to resume burying nuclear waste at San Onofre in January. But, as more details emerge about the near-miss accident at the plant last summer, opposition is mounting, and it’s not just from anti-nuclear activists. (St John, 1/2)

Sacramento Bee: Poop, Urine Force Yosemite Campground Closures In Shutdown 
Mountains of garbage and human waste are challenging efforts to keep U.S. national parks open during a partial shutdown of the federal government, National Parks Traveler reported.In California, Yosemite National Park officials have closed the Wawona and Hodgson Meadows campgrounds, along with the Mariposa Grove of redwoods, after finding human feces and urine beside Wawona Road, the Los Angeles Times reported. (Sweeney, 1/1)

San Francisco Chronicle: Garbage, Human Waste Take Toll On National Parks Amid Government Shutdown
“It’s a free-for-all,” Dakota Snider, 24, who lives and works in Yosemite Valley, said by telephone Monday, as Yosemite National Park officials announced closings of some minimally supervised campgrounds and public areas within the park that are overwhelmed. “It’s so heartbreaking. There is more trash and human waste and disregard for the rules than I’ve seen in my four years living here,” Snider said. (Knickmeyer and Gecker, 1/1)

Los Angeles Times: As Government Shutdown Continues, Human Waste On Yosemite's Roadsides Prompt Park Closures
Park officials are urging visitors to use restrooms in nearby communities before they enter the park and to pack out their trash. Yosemite Valley’s lodgings, restaurants, ski area at Badger Pass and the park shuttle remain open. Yosemite isn’t the only park experiencing the problems of waste and trash. (Forgione, 12/31)

East Bay Times: Report: Alta Bates Closure Would Critically Impact Poor, People Of Color
The planned closure of Alta Bates Summit Medical Center in South Berkeley could hurt the poor, elderly and people of color and result in longer emergency room wait times at other hospitals in the region, according to a UC Berkeley report. In 2016, some 63 percent of Alta Bates’ patients and 56 percent of its emergency patients were people of color and about 41 percent were uninsured, according to the report, conducted by UC Berkeley’s Institute of Urban and Regional Development. (Tadayon, 1/1)

In other news from across the state —

Ventura County Star: Closure Of Dignity Health Merger Pushed Back
The completion of a merger that involves two local hospitals and would create one of the largest nonprofit hospital systems in the nation has been delayed. Dignity Health officials announced Friday that the closure date of Dignity’s merger with Catholic Health Initiatives has been pushed back one month, to Jan. 31. ...Dignity operates 39 hospitals, including St. John's Regional Medical Center in Oxnard and St. John's Pleasant Valley Hospital in Camarillo. The merger with Colorado-based Catholic Health Initiatives would create a system, CommonSpirit Health, that would operate 700 care sites across 21 states including 140 hospitals. (12/21)

Ventura County Star: St. John's Pleasant Valley Hospital Addition Opens In Camarillo
In the new hospital, once expected to be finished in March, rooms are private and almost twice as big. They overlook Camarillo’s hills and farm fields. They come with a sofa and a recliner that can both be used as beds. ...The emergency department and the eight-bed intensive-care unit — both updated — remain in the old facility. The number of general-care and ICU beds decreases from 66 to 58. Officials say the change is more in line with the hospital’s typical patient census. (Kisken, 12/21)

Ventura County Star: $43 Million Cleared For Ventura County Reserves, Special Projects
Ventura County has notched the biggest year-end balance in five years in a general fund budget that pays for key services, finishing with $43 million at the end of the last fiscal year in June. ...About $10 million of the $43 million balance materialized because state payments for mental health care delivered years ago finally arrived. The county Behavioral Health Department was owed the money for counseling of schoolchildren whose learning is inhibited by attention, emotional and other disorders. (Wilson, 1/1)

The New York Times: Obamacare, Ruled Invalid By Federal Judge, Will Remain In Effect During Appeal
The federal judge in Texas who ruled this month that the entire Affordable Care Act was invalid issued a stay in the case on Sunday, meaning that the law will remain in effect while the ruling is appealed. The judge, Reed O’Connor of the Federal District Court in Fort Worth, said that the ruling should not go into immediate effect “because many everyday Americans would otherwise face great uncertainty” during an appeal. The ruling opened the door for an appeal by California and 15 other states that support the health care law. (Mervosh, 12/30)

The Associated Press: Judge Clears The Way For Appeal Of Ruling Against Health Law
In a ruling issued Sunday, Judge Reed O'Connor in Fort Worth wrote that he stands by his earlier conclusion that the entire law is invalidated by congressional repeal of its fines on people who remain uninsured, like a house of cards collapsing. However, because "many everyday Americans would ... face great uncertainty" if that ruling were immediately put into effect, O'Connor issued a stay to allow for appeals. (12/30)

Politico: Texas Judge Lets Obamacare Stand While Court Challenge Continues
Public health groups, Democrats and even some Republicans had warned of catastrophic cuts in health coverage if O'Connor’s Dec. 14 ruling to strike down the entire ACA had been allowed to take immediate effect. Many health policies proposed by the Trump administration, including efforts to lower drug prices and reshape hospital payment, also depend on provisions of the law. Seventeen states defending the ACA — led by California Attorney General Xavier Becerra — had asked O’Connor to clarify the ramifications of his ruling so they would be able to file an immediate appeal to the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. (Diamond, 12/30)

Modern Healthcare: Obamacare To Remain In Place Pending Appeal
In the order he issued on Sunday, O'Connor expressed confidence that the appellate bench will concur with his decision that the individual mandate can't be separated from the rest of the law. "If the judicial power encompasses ignoring unambiguous enacted text—the text citizens read to know what their representatives have done—to approximate what a judge believes Congress meant to do, but did not, then policymaking lies in the hands of unelected judges and Congress may transfer politically unwinnable issues to the bench," O'Connor said. "This the Constitution does not allow. This the Supreme Court does not allow." (Luthi, 12/30)

The Hill: Judge Who Struck Down ObamaCare Says It Will Remain In Place During Appeal Process
U.S. District Court Judge Reed O'Connor ruled several weeks ago that the Affordable Care Act's (ACA) individual mandate is unconstitutional. Because the mandate cannot be separated from the rest of the law, the rest of the law is also invalid, he ruled. O'Connor's ruling states that the Supreme Court in 2012 upheld the mandate to have coverage because of Congress's power to tax, but the fine for failing to comply with the mandate was removed by Congress last year. He argues that means the mandate is no longer a tax and therefore is unconstitutional. (Birnbaum, 12/30)

USA Today: Obamacare: Judge Leaves Law In Effect Pending Appeal
Many experts expect that appellate court to disagree with O'Connor's ruling that the individual mandate can't be separated from the rest of the law. If O'Connor's ruling is upheld it is expected that the case would head to the Supreme Court. (Cummings, 12/31)

Bloomberg: Judge Who Ruled Against Obamacare Halts Order Pending Appeal 
“Because many everyday Americans would otherwise face great uncertainty during the pendency of appeal, the court finds that the Dec. 14, 2018, order declaring the individual mandate unconstitutional and inseverable should be stayed,” U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor said in a filing Sunday in federal court in Fort Worth. (Wollman and Korosec, 12/30)

The New York Times: Trump Blames Democrats Over Deaths Of Migrant Children In U.S. Custody
President Trump blamed Democrats on Saturday for the deaths of two migrant children in detention at the southwest border this month, wielding the episodes as justification to fund a border wall. The comments came in twin posts on Twitter, where the president spent much of the day denouncing Democrats as the partial government shutdown approached its eighth day over his demand for funding for the wall. (Haberman, 12/29)

The Associated Press: Trump Tries To Deflect Blame For Migrant Children's Deaths
Trump, whose administration has faced widespread criticism over the deaths, pointed on Twitter at Democrats "and their pathetic immigration policies that allow people to make the long trek thinking they can enter our country illegally." He also said that both children "were very sick before they were given over to Border Patrol." (Merchant, Miller and Long, 12/29)

The Associated Press Fact Check: Trump's Political Spin On Migrant Deaths
President Donald Trump twisted circumstances behind the deaths of two migrant Guatemalan children to insulate his administration from any blame, contending without justification that they were in dire health before they reached the border. The children cleared initial U.S. health screenings and one of them was in the U.S. for five days before suddenly showing signs of illness. (Woodward, 12/31)

The Associated Press: House Democrats Want Evidence Preserved In Border Deaths
Top House Democrats, preparing to take control of key committees early next year, have called for the preservation of all evidence related to the two child deaths in Customs and Border Protection custody. An 8-year-old Guatemalan boy died Monday at a New Mexico hospital after suffering coughing, vomiting and fever, authorities said. It was the second such death this month. (12/28)

The Wall Street Journal: Homeland Security Steps Up Medical Services For Migrants After Two Children Die
Homeland Security officials said Wednesday the agency has stepped up health checks for migrant children and tapped Coast Guard medical personnel to help improve care for sick migrants after an 8-year-old Guatemalan boy died in Border Patrol custody on Christmas Eve. Since the boy’s death, which occurred nine hours after he initially was released from a New Mexico hospital, almost all children in Border Patrol custody have received a secondary medical screening, officials said. (Frosch, 12/26)

The New York Times: ‘Medicare For All’ Gains Favor With Democrats Looking Ahead To 2020
More and more Democrats, fed up with private health insurance companies, are endorsing the goal of a government-run, single-payer system like Medicare for all Americans. But they have discovered a problem. More than one-third of Medicare beneficiaries are in Medicare Advantage plans, run not by the government but by private insurers. (Pear, 12/29)

Bloomberg: Democratic Left Playing A Long Game To Get `Medicare For All' 
A clamor to create “Medicare for All” has exploded on the left. Democratic presidential hopefuls are racing to co-sponsor legislation, rising stars in the party are embracing it, and national polls show Americans warming to the concept. But even the idea’s most fervent backers acknowledge that the goal is far off in the distance, beyond the next year or even the 2020 election. Their aim for now is to shift the health care debate. By making single-payer health care -- a model under which all Americans would get their insurance from a single government plan -- the progressive position, advocates argue that gives Democrats representing conservative areas of the country political cover to support more modest proposals to expand the government’s role in health insurance. (Kapur, 12/26)

The Wall Street Journal: House Democrats Weigh Risks Of Medicare-For-All Push In 2019
A Medicare for All plan—of which there are currently eight proposals, with the boldest requiring the government to operate taxpayer-funded health care for all—is unlikely to become law, given Republicans’ enlarged majority in the Senate. But promoting such an idea, or declining to, would send a strong signal about the party’s direction heading toward the 2020 elections. Both paths carry political risks, but with voters deeply concerned about health care, it’s a discussion Democrats may not be able to avoid. “It would almost be negligent of us to not have an expanded debate now,” said Rep. John Yarmuth (D., Ky.), who’s in line to chair the Budget Committee, citing a Texas judge’s recent ruling that the Affordable Care Act is unconstitutional. (Armour and Peterson, 12/27)

The Hill: ‘Medicare For All’ Advocates Emboldened By ObamaCare Lawsuit 
“In light of the Republican Party’s assault, a version of Medicare for all is necessary for the future," said Topher Spiro, vice president for health policy at the Center for American Progress. "There are just too many points of vulnerability in the current system.” The court decision in Texas that invalidates ObamaCare in its entirety came on the heels of sweeping Democratic victories in the midterm elections, a combination that has energized advocates of Medicare for all. (Weixel, 12/30)

California Healthline: En Route To Congress, California Democrats Hit Wall On ‘Medicare-For-All’
Each of the seven California Democrats who flipped Republican congressional seats in the midterm election campaigned for more government-funded health care — with most of them calling for a complete government takeover. So when they join the Golden State’s delegation this week, they will make it the largest state bloc to support “Medicare-for-all” in the U.S. House of Representatives. And Democrats, of course, will control the House. (Young, 1/2)

The Hill: 2020 Dems Go On Offense Over Drug Prices 
Potential 2020 Democratic presidential contenders are rolling out a slew of plans to lower prescription drug prices, highlighting the importance the issue will hold in the coming campaigns. Just in the past two weeks, Sens. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) have unveiled new drug pricing plans. Democrats see lowering drug prices as a way to harness populist anger at pharmaceutical companies and reclaim an issue that President Trump has put in the spotlight. (Sullivan, 12/25)

In other national health care news —

The Wall Street Journal: Drugmakers Raise Prices On Hundreds Of Medicines
Pharmaceutical companies are ringing in the new year by raising the price of hundreds of drugs, with Allergan PLC setting the pace with increases of nearly 10% on more than two dozen products, according to a new analysis.Many companies’ increases are relatively modest this year, amid growing public and political pressure on the industry over prices. Yet a few are particularly high, including on some generics, the cheaper alternative to branded accounting for nine out of 10 prescriptions filled in the U.S. Overall, price increases, including recently restored price increases from Pfizer Inc., continue to exceed inflation. (Hopkins, 1/1)

The New York Times: Memorial Sloan Kettering’s Season Of Turmoil
Hundreds of doctors packed an auditorium at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center on Oct. 1, deeply angered by revelations that the hospital’s top medical officer and other leaders had cultivated lucrative relationships with for-profit companies. One by one, they stood up to challenge the stewardship of their beloved institution, often to emotional applause. Some speakers accused their leaders of letting the quest to make more money undermine the hospital’s mission. Others bemoaned a rigid, hierarchical management that had left them feeling they had no real voice in the hospital’s direction. (Thomas and Ornstein, 12/31)

Stat: Judge Blocks Trump Administration Cuts To 340B Hospital Payments 
A federal judge has blocked a Trump administration policy that reduces payments to hospitals under a drug discount program, ruling Thursday that the government overstepped its authority in an attempt to address the high cost of prescription medications. The decision is a win for the 2,000-plus hospitals participating in the program, known as 340B, most of which serve large numbers of low-income patients. (Swetlitz, 12/28)

Stat: The Inside Story Of PhRMA's Biggest Lobbying Loss In Years
The drug industry’s storied lobbying group isn’t accustomed to bad news — and with its small army of well connected advocates, it’s even less familiar with surprises. For PhRMA, the news last winter was both. On Feb. 7, the group’s board — made up of dozens of the CEOs of major pharmaceutical companies including Amgen, Johnson & Johnson and Sanofi — was gathered for a meeting to welcome its new chairman. Suddenly, the gathered crew had something far more threatening to discuss: Congress had just laid out a plan to force drugmakers to pay far more into Medicare — a policy change none of pharma’s lobbyists had seen coming. (Florko, 1/2)

The New York Times: In Screening For Suicide Risk, Facebook Takes On Tricky Public Health Role
A police officer on the late shift in an Ohio town recently received an unusual call from Facebook. Earlier that day, a local woman wrote a Facebook post saying she was walking home and intended to kill herself when she got there, according to a police report on the case. Facebook called to warn the Police Department about the suicide threat. (Singer, 12/31)

Modern Healthcare: 2018 Year In Review: Healthcare Sees Unconventional Partnerships Rise 
Healthcare's 2018 began with a resounding sentiment that set the tone for the rest of the year: “We're tired of the current healthcare system, so rather than wait for someone to change it, we'll do it ourselves.” Intermountain Healthcare, Ascension, SSM Health and Trinity Health kicked off 2018 by pledging to create a generic-drug company. The providers spoke on behalf of nearly every health system that faces daily shortages of critical drugs and the challenge of working around an unexpected price hike. (Kacik, 12/26)

Bloomberg: What We Learned From A Year Of Americans ‘Risking It’ Without Insurance 
We started off following a dozen families: people who were trying to work, raise children and pay for a house or college. When we invited others to share their stories about going uninsured, an overwhelming number did — more than 5,000. Many sent us messages that could break your heart or raise your blood pressure. In Virginia, the Jordan family shared their tale of sinking into bankruptcy because of unexpected medical expenses, even though they had insurance. (Tozzi, 12/28)