San Jose Mercury News: California Lawmakers Lay Out Proposed Universal Health Care Plan
An ambitious proposal to create a single statewide insurance plan for every Californian — including undocumented residents, seniors on Medicare and people who now get their health coverage through work — began to take shape on Thursday when two legislators released details about what services would be covered and who would run the giant program. (Murphy, 3/30)

Sacramento Bee: Single-Payer Health Care System In California Proposed
Sen. Ricardo Lara, D-Bell Gardens, released policy details about a plan to create a single-payer health care system for all California residents on Thursday. Lara’s proposal would drastically alter the insurance market in the state. Under the single-payer plan, the state would negotiate prices for services and prescriptions with providers, pharmaceutical companies and others. (Luna, 3/30)

Sacramento Bee: California Cigarette Tax Goes Up By $2
The cost of cigarettes sold in California will go up significantly, starting Saturday. That’s when the provisions of Proposition 56 – formally known as the California Healthcare, Research and Prevention Tobacco Tax Act of 2016 and approved by voters last November– go into effect. The cigarette tax rate on Saturday spikes from the current 87 cents to $2.87 per pack of 20 cigarettes. (Glover, 3/30)

Previous California Healthline coverage: California Doctors Again Press For More Money To Treat Poor Patients

The Bakersfield Californian: Bakersfield Memorial's ER For Children First In The Valley 
Bakersfield Memorial Hospital unveiled a $5 million emergency center exclusively for children Thursday, part of an aggressive vision to bolster pediatric healthcare throughout the region where there have been limited services. ... The pediatric pavilion features a separate entrance to the hospital away from the general emergency room and a colorful kid-friendly waiting room. Staffers at the facility will be able to treat everything from minor allergies and broken bones to gallbladder surgeries and burst appendices, Ken Keller, chief operating officer at Bakersfield Memorial, said. (Pierce, 3/30)

In other hospital news —

The Bakersfield Californian: Pediatric Healthcare Center Coming To Southwest Bakersfield 
A state-of-the art medical center designed for children that will also bring dozens of pediatric specialists to town over time is coming to southwest Bakersfield in the summer of 2018. The 52,000-square-foot Eagle Oaks Specialty Care Center, being developed by Valley Children’s Healthcare, will be located at Stockdale Highway and Allen Road. A huge range of outpatient services will be available to kids throughout Kern County, from cardiology and neurology to plastic surgery and pulmonology. (Bedell, 3/30)

USA Today: Baby Boxes Are All The Buzz, But Are They Bunk?
If all goes to plan, more than 300,000 infants in the United States will sleep in cardboard boxes before year’s end. That’s according to a Los Angeles-based business called Baby Box Co., which is working with health organizations nationwide to give away thousands of boxes for parents to use as baby beds. It’s part of an educational model aimed at reducing sudden infant death syndrome, or SIDS, in the United States. But that idea doesn’t rest well with prominent doctors, researchers and organizations focused on SIDS, who characterize the boxes as untested and unregulated for infants. (Hafner, 3/30)

Los Angeles Times: This Is How Much Global Trade Costs, Not In Dollars But In Premature Deaths Caused By Pollution
Rich countries like the United States import tons of stuff from China and other less-developed nations. In so doing, we not only send our dollars abroad — we’re also exporting premature deaths that would have occurred here if we had to make those goods ourselves. Indeed, one of the reasons it’s cheaper to produce things elsewhere is that other countries have fewer rules about keeping dangerous pollutants out of the air. So we save money and people in other parts of the world shave years off their lives. (Kaplan, 3/31)

Los Angeles Times: Having A Common Cold Feels Worse If You're Lonely
Sometimes, life kicks you when you’re down. According to new research, that crummy, achy, sneezy feeling you get when you have a cold is worse if you are also feeling lonely. (Netburn, 3/30)

The San Diego Union-Tribune: Broken Arm Turns Into Super Rare, 77-Day Ordeal In Hospital 
She snapped both bones in her wrist on Jan. 3 after slipping on a grassy hillside while attempting an act of minor acrobatics at Escondido’s Jesmond Dene Park. It was a nasty fracture, bad enough to break the skin of her left arm and let in a little dirt when she hit the ground hard. Although no one knew it at the time, the dirt harbored clostridium botulinum spores that, after a few days, started pumping deadly toxins into the 14-year-old’s bloodstream. (Sisson, 3/30)

Sacramento Bee: No Longer Conjoined, Sandoval Twins Return To Their Antelope Home
After a harrowing separation surgery and a long recovery in two different hospitals, formerly conjoined twins Eva and Erika Sandoval made the journey back to their Antelope home Wednesday afternoon in separate car seats. The 2-year-old sisters, born conjoined from the chest down, were separated Dec. 6 at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford. During a 17-hour procedure, a team of 50 medical staff split their shared liver, pelvis and digestive system and removed the third leg they once shared. Each girl now has a full set of organs and one leg of her own. (Caiola, 3/29)

And in other news —

Ventura County Star: Norovirus Tally Reaches 700 Kids; New Cases Declining
A highly contagious norovirus outbreak believed to have infected ... at least 700 Oxnard-area elementary and middle school students is still wreaking havoc on stomachs and intestines, but its grip appears to be loosening. All eight schools in the Rio School District, the epicenter of an outbreak that emerged about three weeks ago, still have students with norovirus symptoms. But the number of new cases has dropped significantly, said John Puglisi, superintendent of the district that encompasses more than 5,000 students in El Rio and north (Kisken, 3/30)

The New York Times: Health Subsidies For Low Earners Will Continue Through 2017, G.O.P. Says
Senior House Republicans said Thursday that they expected the federal government to continue paying billions of dollars in subsidies to health insurance companies to keep low-income people covered under the Affordable Care Act for the rest of this year — and perhaps for 2018 as well. (Pear and Abelson, 3/30)

The Wall Street Journal: Paul Ryan Signals Support For Insurance Payments Under ACA
“While the lawsuit is being litigated then the administration funds these benefits. That’s how they’ve been doing it and I don’t see any change in that,” Mr. Ryan of Wisconsin told reporters Thursday. Mr. Ryan is the highest-ranking Republican to address the issue and his comments suggest Republicans aren't preparing to take immediate steps to undermine the ACA, the 2010 law also known as Obamacare for the president who signed it. (Peterson, 3/30)

The Hill: Ryan Won't Commit To Healthcare Vote 
One week after the GOP ObamaCare repeal and replacement plan collapsed, Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said Thursday he would not commit to holding another healthcare vote. “I’m not going to commit to when and what the vote is going to look like, because it’s my job to make sure that House Republicans can coalesce and come together and draw a consensus," Ryan told reporters at his weekly news conference. (Wong, 3/30)

The Associated Press: Is 'Obamacare' Repeal Dead -- Or A Legislative Zombie?
President Donald Trump's plan to kill Obamacare died last week. Or maybe it didn't. The repeal effort seems to have assumed zombie status — somewhere between dead and alive. This is never-say-die Washington, where big legislative proposals that are in the casket one day can show signs of a pulse and start climbing out the next. (3/31)

Bloomberg: Obamacare Stalwart Anthem Seen Likely To Retreat For 2018
Anthem Inc. is likely to pull back from Obamacare’s individual insurance markets in a big way for next year, according to a report from analysts who said they met with the company, a move that could limit coverage options for consumers at a politically crucial time for the law. Anthem “is leaning toward exiting a high percentage of the 144 rating regions in which it currently participates,” Jefferies analysts David Windley and David Styblo said Thursday in a research note. (Tracer, 3/30)

In other national health care news —

The Wall Street Journal: Trump’s Drug Policy Takes Shape, With Split Personality
As the Trump administration begins to shape its policy on drugs, tension is growing between a treatment-focused approach, embodied in a new commission on opioids headed by New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, and the aggressive prosecution of drug crimes promised by Attorney General Jeff Sessions. President Donald Trump signaled support for a less-punitive strategy toward opioids by assigning the task force to Mr. Christie, who has made drug rehabilitation a centerpiece of his governorship. ... That sympathetic tone contrasted with Mr. Trump’s vow last month to a police group to be “ruthless’’ in stopping the drug trade and Mr. Sessions’ pledge to “hammer” drug dealers. (Reinhard, 3/31)

The New York Times: E.P.A. Chief, Rejecting Agency’s Science, Chooses Not To Ban Insecticide
Scott Pruitt, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency, moved late on Wednesday to reject the scientific conclusion of the agency’s own chemical safety experts who under the Obama administration recommended that one of the nation’s most widely used insecticides be permanently banned at farms nationwide because of the harm it potentially causes children and farm workers. (Lipton, 3/29)

Los Angeles Times: Drastic Cuts To NIH Budget Could Translate To Less Innovation And Fewer Patents, Study Argue
From research on stem cells and DNA sequencing to experiments with fruit flies and surveys of human behavior, projects funded by the National Institutes of Health aim to make Americans healthier. A new analysis finds that NIH-funded research also fuels the kinds of innovations that drive the U.S. economy. Between 1990 and 2012, close to 1 in 10 projects made possible by an NIH grant resulted in a patent, usually for a university or a hospital. (Healy, 3/30)

Los Angeles Times: Pence Casts Tie-Breaking Vote To Let States Withhold Federal Funds From Planned Parenthood
The legislation, which already cleared the Republican-controlled House on a largely party-line vote, is part of a series of bills being passed by Congress under the so-called Congressional Review Act, which allows federal regulations put in place during the final days of the previous administration to be undone by simple majority passage. (Mascaro, 3/30)

Los Angeles Times: Healthcare Debacle Results From Republicans Believing Their Own Myths
Donald Trump and congressional Republicans created a political debacle for themselves by believing a set of scare stories about Obamacare that came back to haunt them. It is an object lesson in how false realities ultimately pop like soap bubbles when pricked by plain old truth. There are five fatal fibs the GOP sold to supporters and to themselves. (David Horsey, 3/27)

Los Angeles Times: Who's To Blame For Trump's Failures? Must Be Paul Ryan
Paul Ryan did it. That’s the argument many of the louder voices on the right are shouting. In the story they tell, the speaker of the House is fully responsible for the GOP’s failure to pass an Obamacare repeal-and-replace bill last week. President Trump should walk across a Havana ballroom like Michael Corleone in “The Godfather Part II,” kiss Ryan on the mouth and say, “I know it was you, Paul. You broke my heart.” (Jonah Goldberg, 3/27)

Los Angeles Times: Trump Faces A Healthcare Time Bomb Of The GOP's Own Creation
Republicans often suggest that Obamacare is “collapsing” without ever acknowledging the role they’ve played in undermining the law and the state insurance exchanges it created. They have an opportunity now to do even more damage to those exchanges — and to their constituents — by reneging on Obamacare’s commitment to help low-income Americans afford care. Congressional Republicans set up this situation by trying to evade an obligation Congress created in the 2010 law (also known as the Affordable Care Act). The law makes low-income Americans who are not covered by an employer’s group plan eligible both for tax credits to lower their premiums and for subsidies to reduce their out-of-pocket costs. Without that assistance, poor families may not be able to afford to see a doctor even if they have insurance. (3/31)

Orange County Register: GOP Faces Consequences Of Health-Law Failure 
Congressional Republicans failed to unite around a passable health care bill, and must now brace for the political consequences. The preponderance of that burden falls on the House, where the more moderate and wonky leadership has to recognize that the conservative caucus is not going away, and substantive reforms will have to involve real trade-offs. (3/28)

Los Angeles Times: Can Trump Be Stopped From Making Obamacare 'Explode'?
Supporters of the Affordable Care Act may have celebrated prematurely at the demise last week of the House Republicans’ proposal for its repeal. Yes, the most immediate threat to the future of Obamacare is dead, for now. And in the wake of the House fiasco, President Trump as well as some Senate Republicans have made noises about reaching out to Democrats to shore up the health insurance program. But the Trump White House and congressional Republicans still have it within their power to damage the prospects of health coverage for millions of Americans, whether by actively undermining the Affordable Care Act by administrative fiat or by letting it wither by neglect. (Michael Hiltzik, 3/27)

Sacramento Bee: California Dodges Health Care Bullet
California dodged a multibillion-dollar fiscal bullet last week when Congress stalled an overhaul of the Affordable Care Act — but perhaps just temporarily. State officials had estimated that California would lose billions under the proposed American Health Care Act that would cap federal spending on Medi-Cal, the state’s health care system for the poor. (Dan Walters, 3/28)

Orange County Register: An Obamacare Replacement That Will Actually Work 
Obamacare was never popular with most Americans, faces death spiral health plan premiums, is fiendishly complex, tries to do too much for too many people and has zero bipartisan support. But the Congressional Republican Obamacare replacement doubles down on precisely the part of the Affordable Care Act that is failing, the private individual health plans, while it phases out the part that seems to be working, the Medicaid expansion. It would put affordable health insurance out of reach for as many as 24 million predominately older, sicker and lower-income Americans. (Joel Hay, 3/23)

Los Angeles Times: Eliminating Essential Health Insurance Benefits Is A Stupid Idea That Won't Save Money. Here's Why. 
You can add this to the list of proposed conservative “reforms” to the healthcare system that won’t work to lower costs and is a terrible idea in general: paring back the list of essential health benefits required to be covered by every Obamacare plan. David Anderson of Duke points us to a recent paper by Milliman, the preeminent cost-analysis firm in healthcare, about how much these essential benefits actually add to the cost of health insurance and the consequences of removing the mandates. (Michael Hiltzik, 3/22)

Los Angeles Times: I Lost My Seat In Congress Because I Voted For Obamacare. I Don't Regret That Decision At All
President Trump last week pressured Republicans to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. If they didn’t, he warned, they would lose their seats in the next election. Speaker Paul D. Ryan ultimately withdrew the bill, where seven years prior, on the same House floor, I voted to pass the Affordable Care Act into law. (Tom Perriello, 3/29)

Los Angeles Times: The Original Mistake That Distorted The Health Insurance System In America
A World War II-era mistake distorted the U.S. health insurance system. Reformers tried to fix the problem with patchwork solutions until Obamacare dumped yet another layer of misguided policy onto what was already a mess. Now the tangle is so perplexing that a Republican Congress, under a Republican president, could not even bring a health-insurance reform bill to a vote last week. But legislators will no doubt try to tackle the issue again, and when they do, they should consider erasing the original error instead of merely papering it over. (Myron Magnet, 3/28)

San Francisco Chronicle: We Need To Think About The Ethics Of Health Care For Everyone
I had the great fortune to chat with my daughter’s preschool class last week about what I do as a health care ethicist — not the easiest thing to explain to 5-year-olds. I decided to talk with them about fairness and then play a game about resource allocation that seemed apropos of discussions we are having in the United States about health care. (Ryan F. Holmes, 3/29)

Los Angeles Times: Felony Charges Are A Disturbing Overreach For The Duo Behind The Planned Parenthood Sting Videos
There’s no question that anti-abortion activist David Daleiden surreptitiously recorded healthcare and biomedical services employees across the state of California with the intent of discrediting the healthcare provider, Planned Parenthood — something his heavily edited videos failed to do. There’s also no question that it’s against state law to record confidential conversations without the consent of all the parties involved. But that doesn’t mean that California Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra should have charged Daleiden and his co-conspirator, Susan Merritt, with 15 felony counts. (3/30)

The Mercury News: Reproductive Rights, Even Pregnancy, Threatened
A leaked draft of a Trump administration executive order proposed a sweeping interpretation of “religious freedom” that would allow organizations and businesses to circumvent legal protections against discrimination. This proposal echoes a controversial plan in Indiana signed by now-Vice President Pence. Discrimination for any reason is antithetical to true religious liberty, and it’s time for people of faith to raise their voices in opposition. (Sheila Briggs, 3/29)

San Francisco Chronicle: Trump’s Dangerous Support For Vaccine Skeptic
Vaccination is by far the most successful public-health program ever conducted in the United States. This program may be endangered, however, by President Trump and some members of Congress under the influence of critics who push pseudo-scientific skepticism about the effectiveness and safety of vaccination. The new president has met with vaccine doubter Robert F. Kennedy Jr. about establishing a panel to investigate the already scientifically disproved claims that vaccines cause neurological disorders, including autism. (Judith Grether and Wendy Bloom, 3/22)

Santa Rosa Press Democrat: Finding Doctors For Rural Area
California is one of a small handful of states with laws prohibiting hospitals from directly employing physicians. The state also has a chronic shortage of physicians, especially in rural areas like the North Coast. And many experts see a nexus between the employment restrictions and the unfilled need for more general practitioners, obstetricians, internists and pediatricians in smaller communities. But after a long battle in Sacramento, a change in state law is offering help for some rural areas — at least temporarily. The law, sponsored by Healdsburg Assemblyman Jim Wood, allows federally certified critical access hospitals in rural areas to employ physicians rather than simply granting privileges or, as some large health care organizations do, setting up separate foundations to operate affiliated medical practices. (3/21)

Los Angeles Times: Are We Subsidizing A Public Health Crisis By Allowing The Poor To Buy Soda With Food Stamps?
A major study of the grocery-buying habits of millions of Americans released late last year found that people using food stamps generally make the same unhealthy food choices as everyone else in America. Too many sweets, salty snacks and prepared desserts. Junk food, in other words. But when it came to soda and its sugary ilk, the results were more surprising, and not in a good way. (3/29)