Politico: Senate Averts Default, Sends Debt Bill To Biden’s Desk 
The Senate passed the bipartisan debt deal Thursday night, sending it to President Joe Biden’s desk days before the default deadline and capping off months of melodrama. The upper chamber saw some last-minute twists of its own, after defense hawks demanded a written statement from Senate leaders committing not to block supplemental defense funding and consideration of appropriations bills. Other senators demanded what became a total of 11 amendment votes — all of which failed — resulting in more than three hours of floor time before the chamber could move to final passage. (Diaz, 6/1)

Vox: The Biggest Policy Changes In The Debt Ceiling Deal, Explained
The cuts are going to land disproportionately on programs that help the poor and on administration, which also affects the people who rely on government programs. Some discretionary spending — on the military and for veterans — is actually going to increase. But the rest, including funding for child care, low-income housing, the national parks, and more, will be subject to a cut for the next two years. (Prokop, Scott, Matthews, Leber, Paz and Zhou, 6/1)

California Healthline: The Debt Ceiling Deal Takes A Bite Out Of Health Programs. It Could Have Been Much Worse.
A bipartisan deal to raise the government’s borrowing limit dashed Republican hopes for new Medicaid work requirements and other health spending cuts. Democrats secured the compromise by making relatively modest concessions, including ordering the return of unspent covid funds and limiting other health spending. (Rovner, 6/2)

San Francisco Chronicle: Mayor Weighs Charging Other Towns If Homeless People Move To Oakland
Mayor Sheng Thao is weighing a plan to charge other cities an “impact fee” if their homeless residents move to Oakland to take advantage of its services. Thao is considering the controversial policy among other steps to combat Oakland’s growing homelessness crisis. In an interview this week with the San Francisco Examiner, she floated the notion of the charge, which might deter other towns from sending homeless people to Oakland and could help compensate the financially strapped city for the cost of providing services to non-residents. (Ravani and Fagan, 6/1)

San Francisco Chronicle: S.F. Promised Millions For Homeless Family RV Parking Site. Two Years Later, They're Reallocating The Money
Dozens of homeless families living in RVs near Lake Merced have waited two years for the city to fulfill its promise to create a site where they could safely park their vehicles off the street and receive electricity, water and other basic services. The city said it’s been trying to find a site and has vetted half a dozen locations, but either the spots didn’t meet their needs or fell through. With no success, and facing a tight budget year, Mayor London Breed has now proposed putting the $6 million for the project toward keeping other homeless shelter beds open that were losing state funding. (Moench, 6/1)

San Francisco Chronicle: Who May Now Respond To SF 911 Calls About Homelessness
If a San Francisco business owner calls the city about a person experiencing homelessness in a tent blocking the sidewalk in front of a door, the call won’t first go to police.  Instead, a dispatcher may send a new team of nonprofit workers to talk to the person to try to resolve the situation, including connecting with city programs and, in limited cases, transportation to services. The new Homeless Engagement Assistance Response Team, or HEART, is responding to a half dozen kinds of 911 and 311 nonmedical, nonemergency calls for people experiencing homelessness in which crime, violence, threats or mental health crises are not involved. (Moench, 6/1)

San Francisco Chronicle: Can California Be A Refuge For Trans People? Lawmakers Hope So
When Assembly Member Lori Wilson looks back on the environment that her son faced coming out as transgender in high school, she said she’s especially grateful for one thing: that he came out eight years ago, not in today’s toxic climate. (Gardiner and Allday, 6/1)

Orange County Register: ACLU Seeks Ban On Head Strikes By Deputies In LA County Jails
The American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California is seeking a federal court order barring Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies from striking jail inmates in the head except for rare instances that require deadly force. (Saavedra, 6/1)

Los Angeles Times: California Is Closing Its Last Youth Prisons. Will What Replaces Them Be Worse?
After a two-year wind-down, California is in the final weeks of closing its notoriously grim youth prison system, a landmark moment that arrives as juvenile crime hovers at near-record lows and state leaders call for a shift in focus from punishment to rehabilitation. Juvenile justice reformers might otherwise be celebrating the June 30 shutdown of the last two youth prisons in the once-sprawling 10,000-inmate system, except for their deep anxiety about what comes next. (Rainey and Queally, 6/2)

Modesto Bee: Stanislaus County Health Clinics Offer Virtual Urgent Care
Golden Valley Health Centers has virtual urgent care visits for its patients, as some of the innovations adopted during the COVID-19 pandemic are becoming normal practice. The nonprofit health system has started by offering the urgent telemedicine appointments from noon to 5 p.m. Mondays. Starting Aug. 1, though, the video visits will be available every day but Sunday. The hours starting in August will be 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. weekdays and 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturdays. (Carlson, 6/1)

AP: FDA Warns Consumers Not To Use Off-Brand Versions Of Ozempic, Wegovy 
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is warning consumers not to use off-brand versions of the popular weight-loss drugs Ozempic and Wegovy because they might not contain the same ingredients as the prescription products and may not be safe or effective. Agency officials said this week that they have received reports of problems after patients used versions of semaglutide, the active ingredient in the brand-name medications, which have been compounded, or mixed in pharmacies. Officials didn’t say what the problems were. (Aleccia, 6/1)

Reuters: US To Require Patient Data For Payment Of Leqembi, Similar Alzheimer's Drugs 
The U.S. Medicare health plan said on Thursday it would limit reimbursement for Eisai Co Ltd and Biogen Inc's Alzheimer's drug Leqembi to patients whose doctors participate in a health agency database should the drug win full approval, a move advocates say will hinder its use. The decision marks the first time that Medicare has required data-collection through a so-called registry for the intended use of a drug that has been deemed safe and effective by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. (Steenhuysen, 6/1)

Axios: New CMS Alzheimer's Drug Coverage Plan Raises Questions Around Worth
A Medicare plan for covering new Alzheimer's drugs treatments is reviving thorny questions about whether pricey treatments with modest success slowing the disease's progression are worth the cost and safety concerns. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services on Thursday outlined conditions under which it would expand coverage for a specific class of Alzheimer's drugs, including Eisai and Biogen's experimental Leqembi. (Gonzalez, 6/2)

CNN: Drug Costs Lead Millions In The US To Not Take Medications As Prescribed, According To CDC
Millions of adults in the United States are not taking their medications as prescribed because of costs, according to a new report from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Most adults between the ages of 18 and 64 took at least one prescription medication in 2021. But more than 8% of them – about 9.2 million people – said they tried to save money by skipping doses, taking less than prescribed or delaying a prescription fill, according to the CDC data. (McPhillips, 6/2)

Bloomberg: Cheapest Humira Alternative To Be Sold By Mark Cuban’s Cost Plus Drugs
AbbVie Inc.’s blockbuster drug Humira costs the US health system $90,000 per patient each year. Now, an emerging competitor plans to sell an alternative at an 85% discount. Coherus BioSciences Inc. will launch the cheapest-ever Humira copycat, Yusimry, in July, with a list price of $995 for two autoinjectors, the company said Thursday. That’s far below the $6,922 AbbVie charges for the same supply of its drug used to treat rheumatoid arthritis, plaque psoriasis and other autoimmune conditions. (Griffin, 6/1)

CapRadio: Public Health Officials Urge Mpox Vaccinations Ahead Of LGBTQ+ Pride Celebrations
The head of California’s sexually transmitted disease control branch is sounding the alarm for health care providers to be prepared for a possible resurgence of mpox, formerly known as monkeypox, this summer. In a letter published May 30, Dr. Kathleen Jacobson noted that mpox continues to spread in California, and “other states have recently reported a resurgence of mpox cases,” including an outbreak in Chicago, where 13 people, many of whom were vaccinated, got the disease. (Wolffe, 6/1)

San Francisco Chronicle: Human Metapneumovirus Cases Surged This Year. What To Know About HMPV
Following wave upon wave of COVID-19 outbreaks during the pandemic, this winter brought a triple whammy of the highly transmissible SARS-CoV-2 variant, along with influenza and respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV. But more recently there’s been an uptick in a lesser known respiratory virus, causing symptoms very similar to RSV. There’s a very good chance you’ve had it at some point but were unaware unless you were specifically tested for it at a hospital. (Hwang, 6/2)

CBS News: The FDA Just Set Arsenic Levels For Apple Juice. The Level Could Hurt Kids, Consumer Reports Says
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has set limits for inorganic arsenic in apple juice, but Consumer Reports argues that the level is still too high and could harm children who consume the popular drink. The FDA on Thursday announced it is setting the limit of 10 parts per billion as an allowable amount of inorganic arsenic in apple juice, noting that it has identified some apple juice products with levels about that amount. (Picchi, 6/1)

NBC News: Al Pacino Expecting A Baby At 83: Health Risks For Children Of Older Fathers
Doctors and medical ethicists alike are warning about the risks of fathering children in old age, following news that actor Al Pacino is expecting a child at age 83. Pacino’s girlfriend, Noor Alfallah, is eight months pregnant. The "Scarface" star already has three other children: daughter Julie Marie, 33, and 22-year-old twins Anton and Olivia. (Bendix, 6/1)

California Healthline: How To Negotiate With Resistant Aging Parents? Borrow These Tips From The Business World
Negotiation techniques can help health care providers and family caregivers find common ground with older adults who resist advice or support. (Graham, 6/2)

California Healthline: The Gun Violence Epidemic Is ‘Locking Us Back In Our Room’
As the leading cause of death for teens, firearm injuries are detrimental to more than just physical health. It takes a major toll on young people’s mental health. (Racer, 6/2)

East Bay Times: We Must Do More To Support Victims Of Gun Violence
It could never happen here — until it did. The mass shooting Jan. 23 of seven people in Half Moon Bay by a sole gunman seemed almost surreal. Many of us were frozen in disbelief, stunned by the carnage that took place and pained by the loss of so many innocent lives. (Jackie Speier, 6/2)

Los Angeles Daily News: The Insanity Of How We Do Mental Health Care In Los Angeles County
On May 16, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted to create a unit at the Twin Towers Correctional Facility to treat inmates with severe mental illness. The new Jail Inpatient Unit, also called the Acute Intervention Module, will have beds for inmates who are a danger to themselves or others. (Susan Shelley, 5/31)

The Los Angeles Times: Justice For ER Patients Ambushed By Bills
Some businesses deserve sympathy when they land in bankruptcy. Then there’s Envision. The Tennessee company prospered as a provider of medical staff to hospitals around the country. It concentrated on emergency physicians, anesthesiologists and radiologists for a simple reason: Their patients typically had no ability to pick and choose among these doctors when they need care. (Michael Hiltzik, 5/31)

Los Angeles Daily News: It’s Getting Harder To See A Dentist. Here’s How State Lawmakers Can Help. 
The COVID-19 pandemic caused a dental employment shortage in California, and one of us, a California dentist, experienced this problem in real time.  When pandemic lockdowns began, I had four part-time hygienists.  Only one returned to work.   Of the remaining three, one found other dental employment, another now works at the post office, and the other took early retirement. (Jeffrey A. Singer and Joel Strom, 6/1)

Los Angeles Times: If Hospitals Want To Fight Climate Change, They'll Divest From Fossil Fuels
I chose a career in medicine because I wanted to work somewhere with a strong ethical foundation. It was the same reason I spent years involved in the antiwar movement and taking action on climate change — which is now a concern across the profession. Hospitals have pledged to lower operational carbon emissions. Several leading public physicians, including National Academy of Medicine president Victor Dzau, wrote in the New England Journal of Medicine: “Although many people consider climate change a looming threat, health problems stemming from it already kill millions of people per year.” And a survey in the Lancet found that 91% of health professionals are worried about climate change. (Don Lieber, 6/1)