Senators Potentially Undecided On Kavanaugh Weather Barrage Of Ads, Letters And Calls From Abortion Advocates

The New York Times: Interest Groups Turn Up Pressure On Senators Before Kavanaugh Vote
Pressure is intensifying on undecided senators before a vote to confirm President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, with one senator — Susan Collins, Republican of Maine — reporting that she and her staff have been targeted with a barrage of calls, including some using vulgar language and threats to push her to vote against Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh. With last week’s confirmation hearings behind them, interest groups and advocates are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on advertising to target both Ms. Collins and another undecided Republican who supports abortion rights: Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska. Also in the cross hairs are three vulnerable Democrats running for re-election in states won by President Trump. (Stolberg, Fandos and Edmondson, 9/11)

In other national health care news —

The Associated Press: Government To Expand, Extend Texas Tent Shelter For Children
The U.S. government will expand its tent shelter for immigrant minors crossing the southwest border to 3,800 beds and keep it open through the end of this year, an agency spokesman said Tuesday. The facility at Tornillo, Texas, which originally opened with a 360-bed capacity for 30 days, is being expanded based on how many children are in the care of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, agency spokesman Kenneth Wolfe said in a statement. (9/11)

Politico: What We Don’t Know About Bernie’s Favorite Healthcare Idea
Since Bernie Sanders made “Medicare-for-all” a central plank of his wildfire presidential campaign, support for a once-fringe idea has exploded. Democratic senators with eyes on the 2020 presidential contest – including Cory Booker, Kirsten Gillibrand and Kamala Harris – have conspicuously lined up as co-sponsors of the “Medicare-for-all” legislation that Sanders introduced last year; a similar proposal in the House has 123 co-sponsors. All of those politicians are Democrats, but among voters, support appears to cross the aisle: A recent Reuters/Ipsos poll showed that “Medicare-for-all” was supported by 70 percent of American adults, including a slight majority of Republicans. (Demko, 9/12)

The New York Times: It’s Not Just You: 2017 Was Rough For Humanity, Study Finds
Violence, bitter partisanship, an uncertain future. These are dark times. In fact, humanity just had its gloomiest year in more than a decade, according to a new survey of the emotional lives of more than 154,000 people around the world. More people reported negative experiences, defined as worry, stress, physical pain, anger or sadness, than at any point since 2005, when Gallup, the analytics and consulting company, introduced the survey. (Chokshi, 9/12)

The Hill: Drug Company CEO Calls 400 Percent Price Hike 'Moral Requirement' 
The CEO of a pharmaceutical company is facing criticism for describing a 400 percent price increase of an antibiotic as a "moral requirement." Nostrum Laboratories, based in Missouri, raised the price of nitrofurantoin last month from $474.74 a bottle to $2,393, according to the Financial Times newspaper. The drug treats urinary tract and bladder infections. (Hellmann, 9/11)

Stat: What’s In The Senate’s Opioid Package — And What's Not 
The Senate will vote this week on a bill to prevent illicit fentanyl trafficking, account for drug diversion in opioid manufacturing quotas, and improve access to addiction treatments via telemedicine. Many senators, soon to campaign for re-election in states hard-hit by the epidemic, say the bill is enough. Many advocates for better addiction treatment beg to differ. (Facher, 9/12)