Los Angeles Times: Republican Candidates Say They Would Protect Sick Americans But Fight Coverage For Poorest Patients
Even as embattled Republican candidates across the country pledge to protect Americans with preexisting medical conditions, nearly all continue to resist extending health protections to their poorest constituents. Republicans running for governor in states that have not expanded Medicaid to low-income adults through the Affordable Care Act almost universally oppose any coverage expansion through the government safety net program. (Levey, 11/1)

The Hill: Democrats Close Campaign By Hammering GOP On Health Care 
Democrats are pinning their hopes on health care as a winning message in the final days of the midterm campaign, saying they will not be distracted by President Trump's attempts to make the election about immigration. When Trump this week proposed ending birthright citizenship, House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) responded by hammering Republicans on health care. Meanwhile, the House Democrats' campaign arm recently launched another wave of ads targeting GOP lawmakers for their ObamaCare repeal votes. (Sullivan, 11/1)

Capital Public Radio: Anti-Vaccination Groups Align With Outsider Candidate Against Lawmaker Who Wrote California’s Vaccine Law 
California’s vaccination debate has cropped up again, this time in a district senate race between Independent party candidate Eric Frame and incumbent Democratic Senator Richard Pan. ...Major health and science organizations have stated that vaccines given to children have only minor side effects. And theories about vaccines causing autism have been debunked. (Caiola, 11/1)

The New York Times: It’s Not Just Pre-Existing Conditions. Voters Weigh Many Health Issues On State Ballots
It may not be single payer, but it’s a step toward regulating health care prices. California voters will have the opportunity to weigh in on a proposition limiting how much dialysis companies can charge private insurers to treat patients with serious kidney disease. State Democrats and labor unions, notably the Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West, are backing the proposition aimed at the two largest dialysis chains, DaVita and Fresenius. They claim the companies are overcharging for their care. (Goodnough and Hoffman, 11/1)

California Healthline: The Election’s Impact On Health Care: Some Bellwether Races To Watch
Voters this year have told pollsters in no uncertain terms that health care is important to them. In particular, maintaining insurance protections for preexisting conditions is the top issue to many. But the results of the midterm elections are likely to have a major impact on a broad array of other health issues that touch every single American. And how those issues are addressed will depend in large part on which party controls the U.S. House and Senate, governors’ mansions and state legislatures around the country. (Rovner, 11/2)

Reuters: From Pharma To Prisons, Election-Sensitive Stocks That Could Swing
Perhaps no sector will be in the election spotlight as much as healthcare, which has been one of the top-performing S&P 500 sectors this year. Policy efforts to lower prescription drug prices that have started under Trump could get more attention should Democrats gain control in Congress. Democratic gains in particular could lead investors to anticipate expanded coverage or other changes related to the Affordable Care Act, possibly benefiting some insurer company and hospital shares. (Krauskopf, 11/1)

California Healthline: Podcast: ‘What The Health?’ Open Enrollment And A Midterm Preview
In this episode of “What the Health?” Julie Rovner of Kaiser Health News, Margot Sanger-Katz of The New York Times, Anna Edney of Bloomberg News and Joanne Kenen of Politico discuss the start of open enrollment for individual health insurance plans for 2019 and preview what next week’s midterm elections might mean for health policy. Plus, Barbara Feder Ostrov of KHN and California Healthline talks to Julie about the latest NPR-KHN “Bill of the Month” feature. (11/1)

The California Health Report: Health Coverage Disparities Eliminated Under ACA For Most Racial Groups, Report Finds
African Americans, Asians and Pacific Islanders living in California are just as likely to have health insurance as whites, marking a significant turnaround from five years ago, new data shows. The report, based on survey data from the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, shows the uninsured rate for all racial and ethnic groups other than Latinos hovering between 4 and 7 percent in 2017, a statistically insignificant difference. That compares to 2013, when African Americans, Asians and Pacific Islanders were almost a third more likely than whites to be uninsured. Analysts attributed the change to California’s implementation of the Affordable Care Act in 2014, which has expanded health care coverage to more people, largely by widening eligibility for Medi-Cal and providing insurance subsidies for people with low to moderate incomes. (Boyd-Barrett, 11/1)

The New York Times: It’s Obamacare Sign-Up Time: How To Untangle Coverage Choices
But what you pay will still vary greatly based on your income, location and plan level. Premiums for a benchmark “silver” plan are expected to dip 1.5 percent on average after rising sharply for two years. The variation is so wide, though, that people in Tennessee could see double-digit declines while those in North Dakota may see steep increases. That’s why simply renewing an existing policy could cost you plenty, and spending time comparison-shopping and digging into plan details will most likely yield more savings. (Bernard, 11/1)

Marketplace: Are You Covered? It's Open Enrollment Time For Health Insurance Plans In Most States
Open enrollment for health care under the Affordable Care Act began today. Though long-held promises to repeal Obamacare have not happened, President Donald Trump and Republican lawmakers have taken actions many fear will weaken the exchanges where people buy health insurance. (Kim, 11/1)

The Mercury News: Bay Area Hospitals, Union Spending Millions On Local Patient-Cost Measures
In a high-stakes election campaign with statewide implications, a health care union is spending millions to sway voters in two Bay Area cities to cap how much hospitals can charge patients. The hospitals, led by Stanford Health Care, are fighting back with their own millions to deliver the message that the union is more interested in signing up new members than containing patient costs. (Ruggiero, 11/1)

And a Nevada jury decision may impact some mental health patients bused to California —

Sacramento Bee: “Greyhound Therapy” Patients Win Lawsuit Against NV Hospital
A Las Vegas jury on Thursday unanimously decided in favor of mentally ill people who were cast out of a Nevada psychiatric hospital and bused across the country without proper care or planning. The Clark County jury decided that each participant in the class-action lawsuit is entitled to $250,000, said Sacramento civil rights attorney Mark Merin, who filed the lawsuit on behalf of patients. ... Merin filed the lawsuits on behalf of James Flavy Coy Brown, whose bus trip took him to Sacramento, and potentially hundreds of others who had similar experiences. (Hubert, 11/1)

Stat: A New California Law Will Put Hundreds More Women In Biotech Boardrooms 
In the next few years, publicly traded life sciences companies headquartered in California could collectively need to add hundreds of women to their boards in order to comply with a new state gender-parity law. That’s going to mean finding women to fill 126 board seats in the sector by the end of 2019. And by the end of 2021, 456 women may need to be recruited to join these boards. All told, across every category of the life sciences sector, at least 85 percent of public California companies will need to add at least one woman to their board by the end of 2021. (Robbins, 11/1)

Bloomberg: Big Employers Will Use Online Startup To Save On Medicine Costs 
A group of large employers plans to use a new online prescription-savings tool as they confront high drug costs and try to steer patients to the most cost-effective medicines. The Health Transformation Alliance, a coalition of more than 40 big companies that includes IBM Corp., Verizon Communications Inc. and American Express Co., has agreed to use a new online tool from startup Rx Savings Solutions to help the millions of people who work for the group’s members get better deals on their medications. (Langreth, 11/1)

Bloomberg: Pfizer Is Weighing Sale Of $2 Billion-Women's Health Portfolio
Pfizer Inc. is reviewing options including a sale of its women’s health portfolio as the U.S. pharmaceutical giant seeks to focus on developing treatments with higher growth potential, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The drugmaker is working with financial advisers to gauge the interest of potential buyers, the people said, asking not to be identified because the deliberations are private. A sale of the division, which has annual sales of roughly $1.2 billion, could fetch about $2 billion and draw bids from both private equity firms and rival pharmaceutical companies, they said. (Baigorri, 11/1)

Stat: Merck Cuts Back On Vaccine Commitment To West Africa As China Shipments Ramp Up
In a controversial move, Merck is rolling back its commitment to provide a life-saving rotavirus vaccine to parts of West Africa at the same time the drug maker is ramping up supplies to China, where the product would reportedly be sold for a much higher price. The company supplies its RotaTeq vaccine through an arrangement with GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance, a public-private partnership that helps provide medicines and vaccines to low-income countries. However, Merck is reducing shipments by one-third this year and next, according to GAVI. After that, supplies are not expected. About 4.7 million doses will be delivered this year and 4 million next year. (Silverman, 11/1)

The Wall Street Journal: Longtime McKesson CEO To Step Down
McKesson Corp. said its longtime Chairman and Chief Executive John H. Hammergren will retire next year, capping a 17-year reign in which he helped build one of the country’s largest pharmaceutical wholesalers despite weathering shareholder criticism over his compensation and handling of the opioid crisis. (Walker, 11/1)

Reuters: Cigna Boosts 2018 Forecast After Third Quarter Earnings Beat
U.S. health insurer Cigna Corp, which is in the process of acquiring Express Scripts Holding Co, significantly bumped up its 2018 adjusted profit forecast, and its shares rose more than 3 percent on Thursday. ... “The guidance raise in excess of the magnitude of the earnings beat this quarter signals Cigna’s confidence in its industry-leading medical cost performance,” Leerink analyst Ana Gupte said. (Mishra and Mathias, 11/1)

In other marketplace news —

Stat: Drug Companies Try To Catch The Rising Wave Of RNAi Medicines 
Less than two months after the FDA approved the first-ever drug that uses a Nobel-winning technique to mute disease-causing genes, the pharmaceutical industry is already looking for a piece of the next one. Within the last month, Eli Lilly, Alexion and Janssen have all announced licensing and collaboration deals — each potentially worth billions — with companies developing treatments with the technique known as RNAi. (Sheridan, 11/2)

Kaiser Health News: New Heart Drug Spotlights Troubling Trends In Drug Marketing
At the end of September, Amarin Corp. teased some early findings for Vascepa, its preventive medicine for people at risk of heart disease. The claim was astounding: a 25 percent relative risk reduction for deaths related to heart attacks, strokes and other conditions. Headlines proclaimed a potential game changer in treating cardiovascular disease. And company shares quickly soared, from $3 a share to about $20. Vascepa is Amarin’s only product. The company wants to turn its pill made of purified fish oil into a cash cow, allowing it to staff up both in the United States and abroad so it can sell doctors and millions of consumers on its medical benefits. ... Except there is one problem. The particulars of the scientific study on which this claim was based remain a mystery. (Luthra, 11/2)

San Francisco Chronicle: Report Rips California Prison Psychiatric Care, Cites Horrifying Case Of Inmate Who Ate Her Eyeball
California’s chief prison psychiatrist has issued a scathing report on management of mental health care in the prisons, saying officials are misrepresenting the care given to thousands of prisoners and are jeopardizing the health of inmates — including a woman who, in a horrifying 2017 incident, pulled out her own eye and swallowed it. (Egelko, 11/1)

Los Angeles Times: Scientists May Have Found The Key Ingredient For A Universal Flu Vaccine, And It Comes From Llamas
Along with soulful eyes, endearingly long necks and and warm fuzzy coats, llamas have a far less appreciated feature: They make an array of immune system antibodies so tiny they can fit into crevices on the surface of an invading virus. That feat could one day protect humans from entire families of flu viruses that bedevil scientists with their unpredictable and shape-shifting ways. All, potentially, with a once-a-year puff up the nose. (Healy, 11/2)

The Associated Press: Long Trip: Psychedelic Advocate Nears Goal Of Legal Ecstasy
The Food and Drug Administration has labeled the drug a potential “breakthrough” for post-traumatic stress disorder and cleared late-stage studies of up to 300 patients. The studies are to be conducted by [Rick] Doblin’s nonprofit group dedicated to promoting mind-altering drugs, the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, or MAPS. Researchers will begin screening patients this month. The goal is to win FDA approval by 2021. MDMA would become the first psychedelic drug — currently in the same ultra-restrictive category as heroin and cocaine — to make the leap to prescription medicine. (Perrone, 11/1)

California Healthline: New Heart Drug Spotlights Troubling Trends In Drug Marketing
At the end of September, Amarin Corp. teased some early findings for Vascepa, its preventive medicine for people at risk of heart disease. The claim was astounding: a 25 percent relative risk reduction for deaths related to heart attacks, strokes and other conditions. Headlines proclaimed a potential game changer in treating cardiovascular disease. And company shares quickly soared, from $3 a share to about $20. Vascepa is Amarin’s only product. The company wants to turn its pill made of purified fish oil into a cash cow, allowing it to staff up both in the United States and abroad so it can sell doctors and millions of consumers on its medical benefits. ... Except there is one problem. The particulars of the scientific study on which this claim was based remain a mystery. (Luthra, 11/2)

The Associated Press: Family Of Singer Chris Cornell Sues Doctor Over His Death
Family members of Chris Cornell on Thursday sued a doctor they say overprescribed drugs to the rock singer, leading to his death. Cornell’s widow, Vicky Cornell, and their children, Toni and Christopher, are plaintiffs in the lawsuit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court alleging that prescription drugs, especially the anti-anxiety drug lorazepam, led to erratic behavior from the Soundgarden frontman before his death in Detroit in 2017 at age 52. (Dalton, 11/1)

Stat: Trump Administration OKs Rule Fining Pharma For Overcharging 'Safety Net' Hospitals
After years of bickering, thousands of so-called safety-net hospitals and clinics won a significant battle over the Trump administration, which agreed to implement a rule that would penalize drug makers for overcharging for their medicines. The rule is supposed to go into effect on Jan. 1. The rule, which had been delayed several times by the Trump administration, would fine drug makers up to $5,000 for each instance in which they “knowingly and intentionally” overcharge for their medicines. The companies must also reimburse providers for medicines that were purchased. The rule would also require drug makers to post ceiling prices on a government web site. (Silverman, 11/1)

Stat: Dan Best, HHS Drug Pricing Adviser, Dies
Dan Best, the government’s top drug pricing adviser, has died, the Department of Health and Human Services announced Thursday afternoon. “It is with tremendous sadness that I learned of the passing of our friend and colleague,” HHS Secretary Alex Azar said in a statement. “I had the great privilege to know Dan Best for the past decade. He joined me here at HHS out of a desire to serve the American people by making healthcare more affordable.” (Swetlitz, 11/1)

Stat: A New Bipartisan Plan To Bring Down Insulin Prices Centers On Drug Makers
A bipartisan group of more than 290 lawmakers is throwing its support behind some of the drug industry’s least favorite proposals for bringing down the cost of insulin. Parts of the report — released Thursday by the Congressional Diabetes Caucus — read like a laundry list of the drug industry’s worst fears: It pitches everything from legislation requiring drug companies to disclose how they set their prices to legislation that dings drug makers who can’t prove that a new version of insulin is more effective than an older one. (Florko, 11/1)

The Hill: Congressional Report Says Insulin Market Benefits Drugmakers And Insurers, Not Patients 
“Perverse” incentives in the insulin supply chain lead to artificially high prices, as well as limited competition in the markets, according to a bipartisan report released Thursday by two lawmakers. The report from Reps. Diana DeGette (D-Colo.) and Tom Reed (R-N.Y.), co-chairs of the Congressional Diabetes Caucus, took more than a year to complete and concluded that several factors drive insulin prices up, while forces that would typically drive prices down are “blunted.” (Hellmann, 11/1)

CQ: Congress To Renew HIV/AIDS Effort As Is Despite Call For Change
Congress is on the verge of renewing one of the most successful and popular federal efforts on HIV/AIDS ever launched, but some say lawmakers are missing an opportunity to improve a program whose funding has been flat in the face of an evolving epidemic. While funding for global HIV/AIDS programs could see an increase for the first time since 2014, some advocates question whether the U.S. is approaching the fight against the disease in the right way. (Siddons, 11/2)

And from the Food and Drug Administration —

The Associated Press: Cross Talk: Federal Agencies Clash On Cellphone Cancer Risk
Two U.S. government agencies are giving conflicting interpretations of a safety study on cellphone radiation: One says it causes cancer in rats. The other says there’s no reason for people to worry. No new research was issued Thursday. Instead, the National Toxicology Program dialed up its concerns about a link to heart and brain cancer from a study of male rats that was made public last winter. The Food and Drug Administration, which oversees cellphone safety, disagreed with the upgraded warning. And “these findings should not be applied to human cellphone usage,” said Dr. Jeffrey Shuren, FDA’s chief of radiological health. (Neergaard and Borenstein, 11/1)

The Hill: First FDA Approved Cannabis-Based Drug Now Available By Prescription 
The first cannabis-derived medication approved by the Food and Drug Administration is now available by prescription in every state, according to its manufacturer. Epidiolex, manufactured by GW Pharmaceuticals, is intended to treat seizures associated with two rare and severe forms of epilepsy that begin in childhood. The drug is made of cannabidiol (CBD), a component of marijuana that doesn’t give users a high. (Weixel, 11/1)

The New York Times: Changes In A V.A. Hospital’s Star Rating May Say Little About Care Quality
When the Department of Veterans Affairs released the annual ratings of its hospitals this fall, the facility in Atlanta dropped to the bottom, while the one in West Haven, Conn., shot to the top. It was something of a mystery as to why. The Atlanta hospital was downgraded to one star from three on the agency’s five-star scale, even though there had been only a “trivial change” in its quality data from the year before, according to the department. The Connecticut hospital climbed to five stars from three, even though numerous operations had to be performed elsewhere or canceled at the last minute because of problems with sterilization of surgical tools, according to an internal assessment and other accounts cited by Senator Richard Blumenthal in a letter to the agency. (Philipps, 11/1)

ProPublica: The VA Shadow Rulers’ Signature Program Is “Trending Towards Red”
When senators asked Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert Wilkie in September about the three Trump supporters who’ve been quietly shaping the agency’s agenda from the president’s Mar-a-Lago resort, he minimized his interactions with the trio, saying they’d had a single meeting on a seemingly dry subject: electronic medical records. As unexciting as that might seem, it is a subject that will shape the agency for decades to come. The VA gave a software company a $10 billion no-bid contract to replace the agency’s records system. The new system is supposed to synchronize with data from other providers, as the VA increasingly sends veterans to private doctors instead of treating them in-house. While Wilkie’s comments to the Senate made it sound like the so-called Mar-a-Lago Crowd — a doctor, a lawyer and an entertainment executive with no U.S. military or government backgrounds — opposed the records transition, they actually championed it, highlighting the issue to the incoming Trump White House and making it their top focus, four former officials said. (Arnsdorf, 11/1)

USA Today: VA Moves Ahead With Deadly Dog Experiments, Research Despite Criticism
The Department of Veterans Affairs is pushing forward with invasive and ultimately fatal experiments on dogs as part of the VA's medical research program, according to documents obtained by USA TODAY. The controversial procedures previously sparked outrage and opposition from some veterans’ advocates and prompted strict restrictions from Congress. The VA says the studies could produce discoveries that may help veterans suffering from spinal cord or breathing problems. (Slack, 11/1)

Los Angeles Times: Can How You Vote In The Midterms Bring Down The Cost Of Health Care?
If you’re equally perplexed by whether your vote can influence healthcare prices, here are some things to consider. ... There’s no magic pill to fix these systemic problems or flatten healthcare’s rate of inflation. Political candidates nevertheless vow to cure our healthcare woes (painlessly). The truth is, campaign promises are like babies: easy to make, hard to deliver. Democrats promising “Medicare for all” can’t deliver “free” healthcare because it’ll be too expensive and overtax the middle class. Republicans are promising affordable “short-term” insurance plans that sidestep the Affordable Care Act requirements, but these plans are thin on coverage and big on risk. (Robert Pearl, 11/2)

San Francisco Chronicle: S.F. Mayor Backs Props. 1, 2 To Create Affordable Housing 
This November, voters have the opportunity to do exactly that. We can support California Proposition 1, the Veterans and Affordable Housing Bond Act, and Proposition 2, the No Place Like Home initiative. Both create the affordable housing that children, families, veterans, people with disabilities and those experiencing homelessness need. (London Breed, 11/1)

Fresno Bee: Proposition 4 Would Help Valley Children’s Hospital 
Proposition 4 is an investment in the collective heath of kids across California and here in our Valley. Please join me in voting yes on Proposition 4 this November. (Todd Suntrapak, 10/26)

San Jose Mercury News: Prop. 4 Will Boost State's 13 Children's Hospitals
Protecting the most vulnerable children in our community begins with ensuring that every child receives the care they need, including those with the most complex conditions. To ensure that happens, we, the voters, must make a stand this November by voting “yes”  on Proposition 4, the children’s hospital bond. (Alexandria Felton, 10/26)

Los Angeles Times: Dialysis Companies' Anti-Proposition 8 Fight Has Gone Over The Top — In Self-Interested Campaign Spending
As we have learned from bitter experience over the years, in California’s ballot initiative process, money talks. On Proposition 8, which aims to rein in profits of the kidney dialysis industry, it’s been screaming at top volume. The for-profit dialysis industry just set an all-time record in spending, bringing its total war chest to defeat the measure to more than $111 million. That spending has bested the record set in 2016 by the pharmaceutical industry, which spent $109 million to kill a California ballot measure aimed at capping drug prices. (Michael Hiltzik, 10/29)

Los Angeles Times: Anti-Vaccine Stupidity Returns, As Measles Cases Rise And California Parents Evade The Law
California struck a blow for intelligent public health policy in 2015, when the state abolished all “personal belief exemptions” from child vaccine mandates. The new rules were designed to put a stop to the stupid and irresponsible behavior of parents whose casual approach to getting their children vaccinated against a host of communicable diseases — chiefly measles, mumps and rubella — places their neighbors’ children and their entire communities at risk. (Michael Hiltzik, 10/30)

Los Angeles Times: Gun Suicides Far Outpace Gun Homicides. Here's Why That Statistic Matters
About two-thirds of gun deaths in the U.S. each year are suicides, traumatic and desperate acts that often lie at the nexus of mental illness and ready access to a firearm. Yet a new study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine finds that only 13% of people know that gun suicides far outpace homicides, a likely function of regular news coverage of violent crimes and a tendency to not cover suicides. (Scott Martelle, 11/1)

San Francisco Chronicle: A California Prison Whistle Blower Exposes The State’s Weakness On Mental Health Care
The top psychiatrist in the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has accused his prison bosses of misleading the federal court — and opposing lawyers — in a long-running inmate lawsuit about appropriate levels of psychiatric treatment. The judge is weighing whether she should make the psychiatrist’s whistle-blower report public. Meanwhile, the stakes for this surprising court fight include inmate health and safety, taxpayer dollars, and the public’s trust in prison reforms that are already years in the making. (10/26)