Sacramento Bee: Want A Better Obamacare Rate? You May Have To Call The Movers.
Under preliminary Obamacare rates announced by Covered California, premiums on exchange plans will rise by an average of 5.7 percent in Sacramento, Placer, El Dorado and Yolo counties. That’s less than half of the statewide average of 12.5 percent, and consumers could virtually avoid an increase altogether if they shop around. (Miller, 8/4)

Modern Healthcare: Behind Kaiser's $1 Billion Quarterly Operating Gain, And How It Might Repeat It
Kaiser Permanente will be tested to repeat the record $1 billion in operating income it posted in the first quarter. After all, the Oakland, Calif.-based hospital and managed-care giant is swimming against the same national trends that dented the earnings of investor-owned hospital chains in the second quarter. (Barkholz, 8/3)

In other hospital news —

Los Angeles Times: After A Rocky Start, USC Verdugo Hills Hospital Reports Better Health Under New Chief Executive 
[Keith] Hobbs replaced interim chief executive Paul Craig in January 2016 with an eye on leveraging both his time as a La Crescenta resident and USC’s resources to help steer the hospital in the right direction. Armand Dorian, associate chief medical officer at USC Verdugo Hills, was a senior physician prior to the acquisition, and he said he knew several years ago that the time would come where the transformation of healthcare meant the then standalone hospital would need to affiliate with a larger system. (Landa, 8/3)

KQED: Is It OK For First-Year Doctors To Work 28 Hours In A Row? New Rule Says It’s Fine
So, in 2011, the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education made a rule, saying first-year doctors could only work a maximum of 16 hours per shift. But this year, the council reversed itself, and starting this summer, new doctors can again work up to 28 hours in a row. (Dembosky, 8/3)

In other news affecting public health —

KQED: Despite Marijuana Legalization, California’s Black Market Could Remain Huge
Legalizing marijuana, California voters were told last year, would create a “safe, legal and comprehensive system” allowing adults to consume the drug while keeping it out of the hands of children. ...But as state regulators prepare to begin offering licenses to marijuana businesses on Jan. 1, it turns out that a huge portion of the state’s weed is likely to remain on the black market. (Rosenhall, 8/4)

McClatchy: New Study Finds Potential Link Between Sugar And Anxiety And Depression
Whenever we have a bad day, it’s not uncommon to reach for the nearest sugary comfort food for a quick boost. But a study published in the journal Scientific Reports has found a concerning link between a diet high in sugar and mood disorders in men. (Magness, 8/3)

San Jose Mercury News: Health Advisory Issued On Eating Fish Caught At Two East Bay Lakes 
For the first time, state health officials are advising people to limit their consumption of rainbow trout from two popular fishing spots, Lake Chabot and Lafayette Reservoir, because of industrial chemical PCBs detected in the fish. In revising health advisories on how much fish is safe to eat from each of the two lakes, state officials this week advised adults and children to eat no more than five servings per week of rainbow trout from Lafayette Reservoir. (Cuff, 8/3)

Orange County Register: 6 Urgent Care Centers In Orange County File For Bankruptcy 
Six urgent care facilities owned by Dr. Robert C. Amster have filed for bankruptcy, according to court documents. ...The urgent cares have amassed $1 million to $10 million in liabilities, according to the filings. (Madans, 8/3)

In other news from across the state —

Ventura County Star: Role Of Pathologists To Be Discussed In Ventura
The role of a pathologist in health care will be the focus of a free seminar by Community Memorial Healthcare. Dr. MeeAe Kwon, who specializes in pathology, will lead the seminar titled “What is My Biopsy Result?” Kwon will discuss how primary-care physicians often collaborate with pathologists to interpret test results and establish the best course of action. Kwon will tell how the combined medical and scientific knowledge of pathologists ensures that patients receive the most effective care. (8/3)

Politico: Republicans Leave Town With No Clear Path On Obamacare
Republicans are leaving Washington Thursday for a month of recess with no clear direction on what they’ll do next on Obamacare. Senate leaders want to just drop the issue altogether. Conservatives say they’re still fighting for repeal. Moderates want to launch a bipartisan effort to fix the shaky Obamacare system. The reality is that, after seven years of unity on repealing Obamacare, Republicans are rudderless on how to talk about or address the defining domestic policy issue of nearly the past decade for their party, and they have no clear plans despite holding all the levers of power in Washington. Now, they face a month away from the Capitol, answering to their home-state voters about their lack of progress. (Haberkorn and Demko, 8/3)

The Hill: Finance Committee Announces Healthcare Hearing In September
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) announced Thursday that the panel will hold a healthcare hearing in September, in the wake of a failed vote on repeal of ObamaCare. The hearing will be a chance for members of both parties to discuss the healthcare law, and it comes amid calls for a return to regular order and the committee process. (Sullivan, 8/3)

The Associated Press: Employer-Based Health Coverage Likely To Stay Awhile
If you are like roughly half of Americans who get their health insurance through an employer, relax. The turmoil around "Obamacare" all but guarantees you'll still be able to do that. The reasons? Unemployment is low, skilled workers are hard to find — and people expect employers to provide health care. (Kellman and Rosenberg, 8/4)

In other news —

The Wall Street Journal: Aetna Profit Rises On Better Pricing; Company Raises Outlook
Aetna Inc. reported a stronger profit for its second quarter, boosted by limited medical spending and better-than-expected results from Affordable Care Act programs intended to reduce insurers’ risk on health-law insurance plans. The insurer, which joins others in the industry that have previously reported positive results, highlighted the growth and future prospects in its government business, particularly its continuing expansion in Medicare Advantage, the plans sold by private insurers under the federal program, as it continued detailing its strategy after the failure of its effort to buy Humana Inc. That deal was terminated in February after a federal judge ruled it would violate antitrust law. (Wilde Mathews and Vasquez, 8/3)

The New York Times: Senate Passes F.D.A. Funding And ‘Right To Try’ Drug Bills
The Senate on Thursday gave final approval to legislation to finance the Food and Drug Administration, clearing the measure for President Trump and tapping drug manufacturers once again to help pay for the federal review of prescription drugs and medical devices. The 94-to-1 vote came just hours after the Senate passed a separate bill expanding access to experimental treatments for people with terminal illnesses. This bill, the Right to Try Act, will now go to the House, where more than three dozen lawmakers have endorsed similar legislation. (Pear and Kaplan, 8/3)

The Washington Post: Senate Passes ‘Right To Try’ Bill To Help Terminally Ill Patients Get Experimental Drugs 
The “right-to-try” legislation has been championed by the libertarian Goldwater Institute, which has worked to pass similar legislation in 37 states. The federal version, now headed to the House, would bar the government from blocking patients from getting access to medications that have undergone only preliminary testing in humans. Patients first would have to try all other available treatments and be ineligible for clinical trials. The bill would provide drug companies some legal protection if a treatment results in harm. (McGinley, 8/3)

The Associated Press: Senate Passes Legislation To Ensure No Halt In FDA Reviews
Drug and medical device makers would pay higher user fees under legislation the Senate approved and sent to the president on Thursday. ... The legislation rejects the Trump administration's recommendation to fund FDA reviews entirely through user fees. Doing so would have upended several months' worth of negotiations over the fees, which will generate between $8 billion and $9 billion over five years. The administration had argued that "in an era of renewed fiscal restraint, industries that benefit directly from FDA's work should pay for it." (Freking, 8/3)

Politico: Libertarians Score Big Victory In 'Right-To-Try' Drug Bill
The bill, S. 204 (115), passed swiftly and easily in a Senate bitterly divided over health care. The powerful pharmaceutical lobby, which had quietly opposed an earlier version, kept an unusually low profile. The industry has been focused on fighting off any efforts to go after drug pricing, which President Donald Trump has said he would tackle. (Karlin-Smith, 8/3)

The Associated Press: FDA OKs New Drug To Treat All Forms Of Hepatitis C
U.S. regulators have approved the first drug to treat all forms of hepatitis C in as little as eight weeks. The pill combination from AbbVie Inc. was approved Thursday by the Food and Drug Administration for adults without significant cirrhosis, a type of liver disease, and many patients who were not cured by prior treatment. (8/3)

The New York Times: Opioid Users Are Filling Jails. Why Don’t Jails Treat Them?
When Dave Mason left jail in October 2015 after his 14th criminal conviction, the odds were good that he would end up dead. A man with a longtime heroin addiction, Mr. Mason was entering one of the deadliest windows for jailed users returning to the streets: the first two weeks after release, when they often make the mistake of returning to a dose their body can no longer handle. (Williams, 8/4)

USA Today: Opioid Crisis: Proportion Of Drivers Killed While Under Influence Spikes
In one of the latest examples of the growing opioid epidemic, researchers found a seven-fold increase in the proportion of drivers killed while under the influence of prescription opioids since 1995. Researchers at Columbia University examined drug testing results for 36,729 drivers in California, Hawaii, Illinois, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and West Virginia who died within an hour of being in a car crash. (Toy, 8/3)

The New York Times: Short Answers To Hard Questions About The Opioid Crisis
This week, President Trump’s commission on combating the opioid crisis, led by Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, recommended that the president declare a national emergency. The problem has become significantly worse recently, so you might feel that you could use a little catching up. Here are 11 things you need to know. (Katz, 8/3)

The Baltimore Sun: ACA Repeal At Odds With Trump Response To Opioid Crisis, Former Drug Czar Says 
The former White House drug czar questions the Trump administration’s commitment to dealing with the nation’s deadly opioid crisis while President Donald J. Trump continues to call for repeal of the Affordable Care Act. The 2010 law defined addictions treatment as an “essential benefit” that must be covered through insurance policies sold in ACA marketplaces and through the expansion of Medicaid. (Rodricks, 8/3)

The Associated Press: Homeless And On Heroin, But Turned Away From Treatment
Nearly two decades of using heroin and a year of living on the streets of Philadelphia had led Steven Kemp to a simple conclusion: It was time to get sober. But when he staggered into a detox facility on a recent Friday night, his head brimming with the thought that suicide would end the pain, he was told he couldn't be admitted because he didn't have a photo ID. (Izaguirre, 8/4)

The Wall Street Journal: U.S. Heroin Trade Rooted In Mexico’s ‘Corridor Of Death’
A lethal combination of corruption and criminal gangs fighting for control of a booming heroin trade has turned one two-lane road in Mexico’s Guerrero state into what many call “the corridor of death. ”The road links Chilpancingo, the Pacific Coast state’s capital, to heroin-producing mountains nearby, where rival gangs are vying for a bigger share of the lucrative heroin market in the U.S. Nearly 1,200 people were killed in the state this year through June after 2,200 died last year. Officials say nearly all were linked to organized crime. (Althaus, 8/4)

NPR: Longtime Heroin Addict Fights For Recovery
Two summers ago, we met a woman who went by the name Teacup. "I'm an active heroin user," she told us. "Thirty-three years as a matter of fact." We were in West Baltimore, reporting on a citywide effort to stop a growing opioid crisis. On a street corner known for its open-air drug market, health workers trained anyone passing by on how to use naloxone, a medication that can reverse an opioid overdose. They were trying to get naloxone kits into as many hands as possible. (Cornish and Hsu, 8/3)

The Washington Post: Whoops: Trump Made A Few Mistakes By Calling New Hampshire A ‘Drug-Infested Den’
It sounds obvious, but apparently not obvious enough to President Trump: Don't insult an entire state. Especially one that's critical to you and your party's future election hopes. But just six days after getting inaugurated, Trump went there. “I won New Hampshire because New Hampshire is a drug-infested den,” Trump told Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto in a phone call between the two world leaders. The call was private, but The Post's Greg Miller obtained the transcript — plus an equally eyebrow-raising one of a call with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull. (Phillips, 8/3)

Sacramento Bee: The Real Barrier To Single Payer Health Care
Under SB 562, a Medicare-for-all bill, not only would every Californian be guaranteed health coverage, but all premiums, as well as deductibles and copays, would be eliminated. ... Revenue to achieve a truly universal system could be raised with two fair taxes with exemptions for low-income residents and small businesses. (Deborah Burger, 8/3)

San Jose Mercury News: Covered California's Obamacare Reforms Still Work
Despite the resolve of Republicans in Congress and President Trump to destroy the Affordable Care Act, California — with 11 insurers in its state exchange — continues to have a stable health care market that is far superior to what the state would have today without Obamacare in place. The bipartisan work by moderates in Congress to repair the ACA makes far more sense than Republicans’ flailing attempts to repeal and replace it with an alternative system that covers fewer people at higher cost. (8/2)

Los Angeles Times: Bailout Talk Poisons The Efforts To Fix Obamacare Problems
President Trump and other top Republicans are trotting out a new phrase in their rhetorical war on the Affordable Care Act: “insurer bailout.” That’s how they want you to think about a number of the steps Congress may need to take to stabilize the Obamacare insurance markets that are struggling in some states. ... But contrary to some critics’ rhetoric, reimbursing insurers is no more a “bailout” than it is when the Department of Transportation pays for the road and bridge repairs it orders. Insurers provide the subsidies because Congress ordered them to, with the promise that they would be repaid. (Jon Healey, 8/2)

Sacramento Bee: This Is What Should Happen Next On Health Care
Now that the Obamacare repeal has crashed and burned in the U.S. Senate, this is what would happen if we had a president who knew how to govern and a Congress that could work together:There would be a bipartisan summit to come up with ways to fix and strengthen the Affordable Care Act to slow rising premiums and create more competition in California and across the country. (7/28)

Los Angeles Times: Democrats Decide That There's Room In The Tent For 'Pro-Life' Candidates
Encouraged by President Trump’s abysmal approval ratings and dysfunction in the Republican-controlled Congress, Democrats are entertaining scenarios of recapturing control of Capitol Hill in 2018 — and key to that scenario is coaxing back voters who supported Trump in 2016. Part of that strategy is a message heavy on economics and light on identity politics, but it also involves recruiting candidates in swing districts who might depart from liberal orthodoxy on social issues. (Michael McGough, 8/1)

Los Angeles Times: Don't Delay Regulations For Electronic Cigarettes
Public health advocates should be jumping for joy at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s announcement that it would explore ways to reduce nicotine levels in conventional cigarettes to non-addictive levels. Such a policy could save millions of lives if it caused the estimated 36.5 million Americans who smoke regularly to lose interest in lighting up. Smoking may be on the wane, but it is still the leading cause of preventable death in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (8/1)

The Mercury News: Richard Lara Dialysis Bill Puts Lives At Risk
An insidious bill in the California Legislature that purports to improve medical care will actually endanger the most vulnerable of lives: Low income and elderly residents who need regular dialysis for their very survival. SB 349 by Sen. Ricardo Lara would establish the strictest-in-the-nation staffing minimums for nurses and technicians in dialysis clinics, where patients in kidney failure have their blood cleansed several times a week. It may sound humanitarian, but it’s a craven play for union support in the senator’s run for Insurance Commissioner next year. (8/1)

Sacramento Bee: The Next Step For Healthy School Food
Schools aim to protect students by fingerprinting adults and holding fire drills. So it makes sense that schools now are required by federal law to teach students about wellness.These policies need full engagement from school boards, administrators, teachers and parents to model the healthy behaviors we’re asking kids to follow. (Amber K. Stott and Debra Oto-Kent, 8/2)

Los Angeles Times: I Watched My Childhood Home Go From Idyllic To Drug-Ravaged. Trump's Opioid Commission Isn't Going To Fix It
Growing up, my town in West Virginia was the kind of place where kids played flashlight tag in the streets after dark and neighbors didn’t lock their doors. Coming home to visit 10 years later, I find a ghost town. My mom’s face peeks out of the blinds first when I knock on the door. Houses where we trick-or-treated as children are now flop dens. Friends we played soccer with are in jail. At the hospital, my dad tells me, 20% of the babies are born screaming, experiencing their first withdrawal as they draw their first breath. My Facebook feed is a dull stream of funeral announcements and disbelief. West Virginia has the highest drug overdose rate in the country. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, opioid overdoses — both prescription and not — make up the majority of those deaths. How did we get here? (Cassady Rosenblum, 8/2)

Fresno Bee: Proud Autistics Belong ‘In The Room Where It Happens’ When Mental Health Policy Is Topic
Recently, at the state capitol in Sacramento, in honor of Bebe Moore Campbell Minority Mental Health Month, I spoke to legislators as an autistic born into white culture. I spoke as an autistic person about my peers, my people, our community and autistic culture; and communicated about needs of our no-served/underserved community, lack of resources for all autistics and the utter devastation that our kids are facing upon adulthood. (Eve Hinson, 7/28)

Los Angeles Times: Does Carrying A Gun Make You Safer? No. In Fact, Right-To-Carry Laws Increase Violent Crime
John J. Donohue, a Stanford law professor and economist, is a lead author of the analysis, which used more than 30 years of crime statistics and a novel algorithm: Researchers identified states whose crime rates paralleled those of states like Texas before it passed a “right to carry” law, and came up with models -- called synthetic states -- to look at before-and-after violent crime in right-to-carry states and non-right-to-carry “synthetic” states. It’s comparing apples and virtual apples, and Donohue – who’s also an expert witness in a right-to-carry lawsuit against the state of California -- concluded that gun-toting indeed makes a difference in violent crime: it can increase it, by as much as 15%. (Pat Morrison, 8/2)