Viewpoints: A Shoestring Budget And A Revived ‘Just Say No’ Campaign Isn’t Enough To Fight Opioid Crisis

Sacramento Bee: California Needs More Than Trump Is Offering On Opioids
Try as the Trump administration might, there really is no good way to spin the president’s plan to fight the nation’s out-of-control opioid epidemic with a shoestring budget for treatment, a multibillion-dollar border wall and a redux of the “Just Say No” campaign. What public health officials in California and across the country wanted Donald Trump to do was declare a “national state of emergency.” That designation would’ve treated the epidemic with the urgency of a hurricane – well, a hurricane in Texas, not Puerto Rico – giving states immediate access to dollars from the federal Disaster Relief Fund. (10/26)

Sacramento Bee: CA Medical Injury Compensation Reform Act Needs To See Major Reform
It was midnight and I paced around my bedroom holding ice packs on my head. I realized, this is not normal. I went to Sutter Medical Center emergency room in Sacramento. With tears running down my face, I told the doctor I had the worst headache of my life. I was given pain medication and sent home, diagnosed with a migraine. But I was actually in the early stages of an impending stroke. (Shawnda Westly, 10/27)

Orange County Register: California’s New Prescription Drug Law Won't Lower Prices
California’s regulatory efforts don’t change the underlying factors driving up pharmaceutical costs. Part of the path toward more effective medicines and cheaper prescription drugs requires less government, not more. (Ronald Bailey, 10/24)

Stat: Why A California Law To Rein In Drug Prices May Not Make Much Difference
For one, the law does not actually allow the state to control pricing. Instead, the effort is really designed to “shame and blame” companies by publicly calling out those that boost list prices for their drugs more than 16 percent cumulatively over two years. To an extent, this approach makes sense, because drug makers want to avoid scrutiny. As a result, companies “will try, at least initially, to minimize being an outlier,” Leerink analyst Geoffrey Porges wrote investors. But over time, he suggested it might backfire, as some drug makers could raise prices significantly higher than the 16 percent mark, “since if they go above the threshold, they might as well go well above it.” (Ed Silverman, 10/24)

Los Angeles Times: Three Weeks And Counting: As Congress Dithers On Children's Health Program, More States Face Crisis
Congress has hardly slathered itself with glory in its current session, but among its most shameful failures surely is its failure to renew funding for the Children’s Health Insurance Program, which provides coverage for about 9 million low-income children and pregnant women. As we’ve reported before, Congress failed to renew CHIP before its previous two-year reauthorization expired on Sept. 30. The clock has now ticked off more than three weeks without a vote, with nothing further scheduled for at least another week. (Michael Hiltzik, 10/25)

Los Angeles Times: CBO: Congress Waited Too Long To Avoid Obamacare Premium Increases For 2018
There’s good news and bad news in the Congressional Budget Office’s analysis of the bipartisan Senate deal to save some Obamacare provisions from President Trump and his wrecking crew. The good news is that the so-called Alexander-Murray compromise, named after its godparents, Sens. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and Patty Murray (D-Wash.), would accomplish its goal of reducing premiums and would even cut the federal deficit, without raising the number of Americans without health coverage. (Michael Hiltzik, 10/25)

Los Angeles Times: Why Did Trump Make The Obamacare Reimbursement Payments He Claims Are Illegal And Unconstitutional?
The ACA requires insurers to reduce deductibles and co-pays for low-income buyers on the individual insurance market, and it requires the government to reimburse the insurers for those reductions; but because the ACA didn’t specifically provide an appropriation for the payments, congressional Republicans have maintained that they can’t be made. In other words, the payments are mandated by law, and also illegal (and unconstitutional). President Trump cited this argument on Oct. 12, when he said through his press office that “the government cannot lawfully make the cost-sharing reduction payments.”... But that raises an important question: If the payments are illegal, why did the Trump administration make them every month after it took office, from February through September? (Michael Hiltzik, 10/20)

Orange County Register: Proposition 65 Warnings In Need Of Reform
Proposition 65, the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986, was intended to protect Californians from potentially dangerous chemicals, but over time, the law has developed its own toxic side-effects. Prop. 65 requires businesses to warn consumers if their products or premises contain chemicals “known to the state of California to cause cancer, reproductive or developmental harm.” A business that fails to post a warning may be liable for penalties of $2,500 per day, per exposure. That can add up to millions of dollars if a company’s products are widely distributed. (10/25)

Los Angeles Times: New-Age Medicine Star Andrew Weil Defends UC Irvine Against Charge That It's Partnering With Quacks
Dr. Andrew Weil, perhaps the nation’s best-known purveyor of “New Age” medicine, has written The Times to “take umbrage” at my recent column warning that UC Irvine risks becoming a haven for quacks if it’s not careful about deploying a $200-million gift from the Samueli family. (Michael Hiltzik, 10/24)

Los Angeles Times: Latest Apple Watch Shows Potential As Very Sweet Medical Device
I went into a test drive of the Apple Watch Series 3 thinking it could be a real game changer for diabetes management. Now I’m thinking it should be considered by anyone with a chronic illness. I’ll tell you why in a sec. First, the most important Series 3 feature for people with diabetes isn’t available yet, but it will be soon, maybe within the next few months, after the Food and Drug Administration gives its blessing. (David Lazarus, 10/26)

Sacramento Bee: California Now Has Fairer Laws On HIV
Gov. Jerry Brown signed Senate Bill 239 into law, putting California at the forefront of states modernizing HIV laws. These laws – which criminalize otherwise legal conduct of people living with HIV and increase criminal penalties based on a person’s HIV-positive status – were passed at the height of the AIDS crisis, when the public perceived HIV as a death sentence, and there was no effective treatment. (Ayako Miyashita, 10/20)

Sacramento Bee: Instead Of Health Care For All, Assembly Has Do-Nothing Committee
On Monday, an Assembly select committee will hold its first hearing “to determine the best and quickest path forward toward universal health care,” in the words of Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon. However, the committee has no authority to act on legislation. (Deborah Burger, 10/20)