KQED: Covered California Extends Deadline After Anti-Obamacare Federal Court Ruling
California's health care marketplace has extended the deadline for people to sign up for insurance that will start on Jan. 1, 2019, in response to a federal court ruling handed down on Friday that invalidated the Affordable Care Act. Saturday was supposed to be the cutoff for Californians looking to enroll in health coverage through Covered California that would kick in at the beginning of the year. But that deadline has been extended nearly a week to Friday, Dec. 21 after a federal district court judge in Texas declared the Affordable Care Act (often referred to as Obamacare) unconstitutional. (Levi, 12/15)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: California To Monitor Warning Letters Sent By The FDA To Doctors
The California medical board has begun monitoring warning letters sent by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to doctors engaged in potentially harmful practices following a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel/MedPage Today investigation about the failure of states to act on allegations raised in the letters. ... The warnings involved fertility clinics that didn’t test donors of eggs and sperm for communicable diseases; researchers who didn’t follow rules designed to protect patients who volunteer for trials of drugs and devices; doctors who pushed dubious treatments and supplements to unwitting customers; and a mammography clinic faulted for inadequate quality control testing. (Fauber, 12/14)

Ventura County Star: Lawsuit: Camarillo Nursing Home Evicts Residents When Medicare Expires
A Camarillo nursing home faces a lawsuit alleging it evicts residents as soon as their Medicare coverage for short-term care expires, bypassing the notices, medical evaluations and other steps required by federal and state law. The suit accuses Brookdale Camarillo and nine other Brookdale nursing homes across California of what a seniors’ advocate called the fast-rising practice of dumping residents in an attempt to keep beds available for rehab clients whose bills will still be paid by Medicare. (Kisken, 12/14)

In other news from across the state —

Ventura County Star: Revenues Falling Shy At VCMC But Officials Still Expect To Break Even
Ventura County Medical Center posted a $5.4 million loss in the first quarter of the fiscal year, but managers of the health care system serving large numbers of low-income people still expect to break even by July. The loss presented last month to an oversight committee comes on the heels of a projected loss of around $13 million in the last fiscal year. Officials said in June they expected to rebound in the current fiscal year and clear $200,000 on a budget of more than $500 million. (Wilson, 12/15)

The Associated Press: Report Rips Expensive Decisions In California Wildfire Fight
When a wildfire burned across Big Sur two years ago and threatened hundreds of homes scattered on the scenic hills, thousands of firefighters responded with overwhelming force, attacking flames from the air and ground. In the first week, the blaze destroyed 57 homes and killed a bulldozer operator, then moved into remote wilderness in the Los Padres National Forest. Yet for nearly three more months the attack barely let up. The Soberanes Fire burned its way into the record books, costing $262 million as the most expensive wildland firefight in U.S. history in what a new report calls an “extreme example of excessive, unaccountable, budget-busting suppression spending.” (Melley, 12/15)

In other news —

The Associated Press: All Evacuation Orders Lifted In Deadly California Wildfire
The remaining residents who fled from the deadliest wildfire in California history were allowed to return to their home Saturday and assess the damage. All evacuation orders were lifted in Paradise more than a month after the fire broke out Nov. 8, killing at least 86 people and destroying 14,000 homes in the town and nearby communities in the Sierra Nevada foothills. (12/15)

KPBS: VA Struggles To Unlock The Reasons Behind High Risk Of Suicide Among Older Veterans 
Much of the focus by the Veterans Health Administration has been on the growing number of younger veterans who commit suicide. However, statistics show that elderly veterans kill themselves in larger numbers than other people the same age. (Walsh, 12/14)

In other mental health news —

Santa Rosa Press Democrat: Kaiser Patients Speak Out About Lengthy Waits For Mental Health Therapy
Union members say patients must wait four to six weeks, on average, for individual therapy appointments because Kaiser has not hired enough mental health workers to properly treat its members. Many who need individual care are funneled into group therapy, union members say. Michelle Gaskill-Hames, chief nurse executive for Kaiser Permanente Northern California, said the HMO is working aggressively to hire therapists, accelerate care for patients who need it most urgently and improve mental health services for patients across its system. (Bordas, 12/15)

Los Angeles Times: More Than 1.3 Million High School Students Started Vaping Nicotine In The Past Year, Study Says
The proportion of U.S. high school seniors who are vaping tobacco products nearly doubled in the past year, with more than 1 in 5 now saying they have vaped to get a hit of nicotine in the past 30 days, according to a new study. The prevalence of nicotine vaping nearly doubled among 10th-graders as well, with nearly 1 in 6 using the electronic devices, researchers reported Monday in the New England Journal of Medicine. (Kaplan, 12/17)

In other public health news —

San Diego Union-Tribune: New County-Led Pilot Program Helps Seniors In Crisis 
When families come together over the holidays, there is often a heightened focus on the needs of a loved one with Alzheimer’s disease or other types of dementia. A new county-led pilot program is working to assist these families in moments of crisis. The Alzheimer’s Response Team (ART), launched earlier this year in East County, links first-responders, social workers and others together to make sure those with the disease get the right type of help in an emergency. ...Leading the initiative are county Aging & Independence Services, the Sheriff’s Department and other public agencies, along with the Grossmont Healthcare District, Sharp HealthCare and Alzheimer’s San Diego. (12/14)

The Associated Press: Higher Percentage Of California Pot Passing Safety Tests
A higher percentage of California marijuana products are passing strict safety tests, but the sudden closing of a lab that state authorities found wasn’t correctly checking for pesticides has raised new questions about the system intended to protect the purity and potency of legal cannabis. California broadly legalized marijuana at the start of the year, and mandatory testing began in July 1. During the first two months the failure rate was about 20 percent, but state data collected through November showed improvement — about 14 percent of nearly 24,000 products were blocked from store shelves by tests. (Blood, 12/16)

Orange County Register: Here’s Why Southern California Oil Refineries Will Soon Be Required To Closely Monitor Air Quality
The regional air-pollution watchdog will accept public comments for the next week on a series of proposed plans to monitor emissions at four South Bay refineries — including the Torrance Refinery — which the agency wants to implement by this time next year. ...The state and the South Coast Air Quality Management District are mandating the installation of new real-time fence-line air-monitoring systems at the South Bay’s seven refineries. (Green, 12/16)

The New York Times: Texas Judge Strikes Down Obama’s Affordable Care Act As Unconstitutional
A federal judge in Texas struck down the entire Affordable Care Act on Friday on the grounds that its mandate requiring people to buy health insurance is unconstitutional and the rest of the law cannot stand without it. The ruling was over a lawsuit filed this year by a group of Republican governors and state attorneys general. A group of intervening states led by Democrats promised to appeal the decision, which will most likely not have any immediate effect. (Goodnough and Pear, 12/14)

The Associated Press: Federal Judge Rules Health Care Overhaul Unconstitutional
In a 55-page opinion, U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor ruled that last year’s tax cut bill knocked the constitutional foundation from under “Obamacare” by eliminating a penalty for not having coverage. The rest of the law cannot be separated from that provision and is therefore invalid, he wrote. Supporters of the law immediately said they would appeal. “Today’s misguided ruling will not deter us: our coalition will continue to fight in court for the health and wellbeing of all Americans,” said California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, who is leading a coalition of states defending the ACA. (Alonso-Zaldivar, 12/14)

Politico: Judge Rules Obamacare Unconstitutional, Endangering Coverage For 20 Million
“In some ways, the question before the Court involves the intent of both the 2010 and 2017 Congresses,” O’Connor wrote. “The former enacted the ACA. The latter sawed off the last leg it stood on.” (Demko and Cancryn, 12/14)

The New York Times: Health Law Could Be Hard To Knock Down Despite Judge’s Ruling
Could a federal judge in Texas be the catalyst that finally brings down the Affordable Care Act, a law that has withstood countless assaults from Republicans in Congress and two Supreme Court challenges? On the morning after Judge Reed O’Connor’s startling ruling that struck down the landmark health law, legal scholars were doubtful. Lawyers on both sides of previous A.C.A. battles said the reasoning behind this one was badly flawed, notably in its insistence that the entire 2010 law must fall because one of its provisions may have been rendered invalid by the 2017 tax overhaul legislation. Had Congress meant to take such radical action, they said, it would have said so at the time. (Hoffman, Pear and Liptak, 12/15)

The Washington Post: Legal Experts Rip Judge’s Rationale For Declaring Obamacare Law Invalid
“There’s really no American that’s not affected by this law,” said Yale law professor Abbe Gluck, who filed an amicus brief with other lawyers in the Texas case. The judge’s ruling, she said, flouts settled legal doctrine and places key acts of Congress in reverse order. By ignoring that Congress specifically declined to strike down the ACA in 2017 when it chose to alter only one portion of the bill, she said, the judge decreed that the 2010 Congress, which first passed the law, has more authority than the same legislative body in 2017. “It’s absolutely ludicrous to hold that we do not know whether the 2017 Congress would have wanted the rest of the ACA to exist without an enforceable mandate, because the 2017 Congress did exactly that when it zeroed out the mandate and left the rest of the ACA standing,” Gluck said. “He effectively repealed the entire Affordable Care Act when the 2017 Congress decided not to do so.” (Barrett, 12/15)

The Hill: Five Takeaways From The Court Decision Striking Down ObamaCare
But where legal experts particularly criticize O’Connor is his next step, where he ruled that because the mandate is unconstitutional, the rest of the Affordable Care Act is also invalid. Experts say that violates the established legal standard that Congress’s intent should be the guide, and in this case it is obvious that Congress intended for the rest of the Affordable Care Act to remain when it repealed only the mandate penalty last year. (Sullivan, 12/15)

Reuters: Trump Hails Judge's Ruling Against Obamacare As 'Great'
President Donald Trump on Saturday hailed a court decision against Obamacare as "a great ruling for our country," while a U.S. government official said the decision by a Texas judge would have no immediate impact on health coverage. (12/15)

The New York Times: What The Obamacare Court Ruling Means For Open Enrollment
Open enrollment was scheduled to end on Saturday in most states, and every year, a surge of people sign up at the last minute. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services sent out an email to millions of Americans on Saturday trying to allay concerns, and HealthCare.gov displayed a red banner alerting people that the court’s decision would not affect open enrollment. “Are you covered yet?” HealthCare.gov tweeted on Saturday. “Hurry!” (Mervosh, 12/16)

The Washington Post: ACA Ruling Creates New Anxieties For Consumers And The Health-Care Industry
The ruling by a federal judge in Texas striking down the Affordable Care Act has injected a powerful wave of uncertainty about recent changes woven into the U.S. health-care system that touch nearly all Americans and the industry that makes up one-sixth of the economy. The opinion, if upheld on appeal, would upend the health insurance industry, the way doctors and hospitals function, and the ability of millions of Americans to access treatments they need to combat serious diseases. (Goldstein, 12/16)

The Wall Street Journal: What ACA Ruling May Mean For Millions Of Americans’ Health Coverage
Practically speaking, nothing will happen right away. The judge didn’t immediately block enforcement of the ACA, so it remains in effect for now. The White House on Friday night said the law would stay in place during the appeals stage of the case, a process that could take many months. ... It is an open question whether some states may attempt to back away from administering the health law starting next month, once the elimination of the tax penalty goes into effect. If they do, it could spark additional litigation. (Kendall, 12/15)

The Hill: ObamaCare Signup Period Ends Amid New Uncertainty
ObamaCare's latest open enrollment period ended Saturday with the future of the law facing uncertainty after a federal judge in Texas struck it down. Sign-ups for ObamaCare plans at healthcare.gov, the federal platform used by 39 states, had already lagged behind previous years, putting enrollment on track to drop for the second year in a row under the Trump administration. (Hellmann, 12/17)

The New York Times: Ruling Striking Down Obamacare Moves Health Debate To Center Stage
The decision by a federal judge in Texas to strike down all of the Affordable Care Act has thrust the volatile debate over health care onto center stage in a newly divided capital, imperiling the insurance coverage of millions of Americans while delivering a possible policy opening to Democrats. After campaigning vigorously on a pledge to protect patients with pre-existing medical conditions — a promise that helped return them to the House majority they had lost in 2010 — Democrats vowed to move swiftly to defend the law and to safeguard its protections. (Stolberg, Pear and Goodnough, 12/15)

The Associated Press: Judge's Ruling On 'Obamacare' Poses New Problems For GOP
Republicans, still stinging from their loss of the House in the midterm elections, are facing a fresh political quandary after U.S. District Judge Reed O'Connor said the entire 2010 health law was invalid. Warnings about the Texas lawsuit were part of the political narrative behind Democrats' electoral gains. Health care was the top issue for about one-fourth of voters in the November election, ahead of immigration and jobs and the economy, according to VoteCast, a nationwide survey for The Associated Press. Those most concerned with health care supported Democrats overwhelmingly. (12/14)

The Washington Post: Health-Care Law Ruling Puts Republicans On The Defensive After Campaign Promises
Republicans are under greater pressure to produce an alternative to the law they have ardently opposed since its passage and a means to ensuring affordable health care coverage to some 52 million people with conditions such as diabetes, asthma and cancer. But they are still riven by the divisions that thwarted previous efforts to overhaul the law. (Sullivan, 12/15)

The Wall Street Journal: Politicians Grapple With Response To Health Law Ruling
Republicans on Sunday said they wanted to maintain the 2010 law’s guarantee of insurance coverage for people with pre-existing conditions. But they also said they continued to oppose most or all of the law, such as its requirement that most people obtain health insurance, the so-called individual mandate. How they might accomplish both goals remained unclear. “There is widespread support for protecting people with pre-existing conditions. There’s also widespread opposition to the individual mandate,’’ said Sen. Susan Collins (R., Maine), speaking on CNN. She said the insurance-purchasing requirement, which is intended to ensure enough healthy people buy policies to make the plans economically viable, was particularly burdensome for low- and middle-income families. (Armour and Peterson, 12/16)

Politico: GOP Feels Heat In Wake Of Obamacare Ruling: 'It's All The Downsides'
The result is likely to be a split GOP caucus that draws flak from both the right and the left. Republicans who survived the midterm elections by vowing to protect people with pre-existing conditions will find themselves in a particularly tough spot, feeling intense pressure to make good on that pledge. “It’s all the downsides,” a House GOP aide said. “Politically, I don’t think that it helps us at all.” (Demoko and Cancryn, 12/15)

The Washington Post: Obama Hits Out At Republicans After Judge Rules Affordable Care Act Unconstitutional
Obama responded on Saturday by saying in a Facebook post that “Republicans will never stop trying to undo” the health-care law and urging people to continue to get covered under the ACA as the decision makes its way through the courts in what could be a prolonged appeals process. As of early Monday, his Facebook post has received more than 28,000 reactions, and has been liked more than 72,000 times since he also shared it on Twitter. The former president tried to quell any dread that the ruling could ultimately strike down the entirety of his signature health-care law, which is commonly referred to as Obamacare. (Bella, 12/17)

The Washington Post: Federal Judge In Texas Rules Entire Obama Health-Care Law Is Unconstitutional
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who is expected to become speaker next month, issued a statement that said: “When House Democrats take the gavel, the House of Representatives will move swiftly to formally intervene in the appeals process to uphold the life-saving protections for people with pre-existing conditions and reject Republicans’ effort to destroy the Affordable Care Act.” (Goldstein, 12/14)

The Wall Street Journal: Federal Judge Rules Affordable Care Act Is Unconstitutional Without Insurance-Coverage Penalty
Friday’s decision rattled top Democratic politicians, medical groups and health-industry leaders. Some advocacy groups called on Congress to immediately pass legislation protecting coverage for people with pre-existing conditions, and the American Medical Association vowed to work with other organizations in seeking an appeal. “This is a five alarm fire—Republicans just blew up our health care system,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D., Conn.) said in a statement. “The anti-health care zealots in the Republican Party are intentionally ripping health care away from the working poor, increasing costs on seniors, and making insurance harder to afford for people with preexisting conditions.” (Armour and Kendall, 12/15)

Politico: Schumer Pushes For Senate Vote On Obamacare Case
The Senate’s top Democrat on Sunday said he plans to push for a vote to intervene in a federal court case over Obamacare after a judge in Texas last week ruled that the landmark health care law is unconstitutional. “We’re going to fight this tooth and nail,” Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York said in an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “And the first thing we’re going to do when we get back there in the Senate is urge, put a vote on the floor, urging an intervention in the case.” (O'Brien and Ollstein, 12/16)

The Hill: Klobuchar Calls ObamaCare Ruling 'Absurd'
Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) on Sunday called it "absurd" that a Texas judge ruled that the Affordable Care Act is unconstitutional and called on Republicans to work with Democrats to improve the health-care law. “The ruling was absurd. [Supreme Court] Justice [John] Roberts in a conservative court has already ruled that the Affordable Care Act is constitutional," she said on CBS's "Face the Nation." (Burke, 12/16)

The New York Times: In Weaponized Courts, Judge Who Halted Affordable Care Act Is A Conservative Favorite
The state’s Republican attorney general appears to strategically file key lawsuits in Judge O’Connor’s jurisdiction, the Northern District of Texas, so that he will hear them. And on Friday, the judge handed Republicans another victory by striking down the Affordable Care Act, the signature health law of the Obama era. Judge O’Connor, who was appointed by former President George W. Bush, has been at the center of some of the most contentious and partisan cases involving federal power and states’ rights, and has sided with conservative leaders in previous challenges to the health law and against efforts to expand transgender rights. (Fernandez, 12/15)

The Associated Press: Judge In Health Care Case Had Blocked Other Obama Policies
U.S. District Judge Reed O'Connor, who ruled the Affordable Care Act "invalid" Friday, is no stranger to the conservative resistance to Obama administration policies. O'Connor, 53, is a former state and federal prosecutor who was nominated to the federal bench in 2007 by President George W. Bush. He has been active in the Federalist Society, which describes itself as "a group of conservatives and libertarians interested in the current state of the legal order." (12/14)

Reuters: U.S. Government Watchdog To Probe Child's Death After Border Arrest
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security's internal watchdog will investigate the death of a 7-year-old Guatemalan migrant which occurred after she was detained by U.S. border agents, officials said on Friday. The Trump administration defended the treatment of the child, identified as Jakelin Caal by a Guatemalan official, and said there was no indication that she had any medical problems until several hours after she and her father were taken into U.S. custody on Dec. 6. The Guatemalan government had earlier identified the girl as Jackeline Caal. (12/14)

The New York Times: Migrant Girl’s ‘Horrific, Tragic’ Death Is Not Its Responsibility, White House Says
Officials said the girl, Jakelin Caal Maquin, and her father were among 163 migrants who turned themselves in to the Border Patrol in a remote area of desert in New Mexico, shortly after the group crossed into the United States. Her death, which is under investigation, has been widely condemned as a consequence of the Trump administration’s hard-line immigration enforcement efforts on the southwest border against caravans of migrants traveling from Central America. (Nixon, 12/14)

The New York Times: Father Of Migrant Girl Who Died In U.S. Custody Disputes Border Patrol Account
The father of Jakelin Caal Maquin, the 7-year-old Guatemalan girl who died in United States custody this month, disputed on Saturday the assertion by authorities that his daughter had not eaten or consumed water for several days before being detained by the Border Patrol. Jakelin’s father, Nery Gilberto Caal Cruz, “made sure she was fed and had sufficient water,” Mr. Caal Cruz’s lawyers said in a statement read by Ruben Garcia, the director of a shelter in El Paso that serves recent border crossers. The shelter, Annunciation House, is caring for Mr. Caal Cruz. (Romero, 12/15)

The Wall Street Journal: Family Of Guatemalan Girl Who Died In U.S. Custody Calls For Fair Probe
Customs and Border Protection reported earlier this week that Jakelin hadn’t had any food or water for days before crossing the border. Mr. Caal said in the statement through his lawyers that wasn’t true. Mr. Caal, via his statement, also thanked emergency responders, including Border Patrol agents, who tried to save his daughter. Ruben Garcia, executive director of the El Paso aid group and migrant shelter operator Annunciation House, read the statement to reporters Saturday. Mr. Garcia said Mr. Caal was staying at one of the group’s shelters and wouldn’t be speaking publicly. (Caldwell, 12/15)

The Associated Press Fact Check: Trump Floats Fictions About The Border
President Donald Trump's relationship with the truth tends to be borderline, at best, when it comes to the border. So it was this past week when he made a flurry of false or unsupported statements about immigration. He said, with no evidence, that migrants are plagued with disease. He asserted that Mexico has in effect agreed to pay for his border wall, even as he threatens a partial government shutdown if Congress doesn't approve billions of dollars to build it. He twisted federal statistics to claim the recent arrest of 10 terrorists who don't exist. (12/15)

The Associated Press: Child's Death Highlights Communication Barriers On Border
Shortly before a 7-year-old Guatemalan girl died in U.S. custody, her father signed a form stating that his daughter was in good health. But it's unclear how much the man understood on the form, which was written in English and read to him in Spanish by Border Patrol agents. (12/16)

Reuters: J&J Knew For Decades That Asbestos Lurked In Its Baby Powder
Facing thousands of lawsuits alleging that its talc caused cancer, J&J insists on the safety and purity of its iconic product. But internal documents examined by Reuters show that the company's powder was sometimes tainted with carcinogenic asbestos and that J&J kept that information from regulators and the public. (Girion, 12/14)

The New York Times: Asbestos Opens New Legal Front In Battle Over Johnson’s Baby Powder
The memos were concise and direct. An executive at Johnson & Johnson said the main ingredient in its best-selling baby powder could potentially be contaminated by asbestos, the dangerous mineral that can cause cancer. He recommended to senior staff in 1971 that the company “upgrade” its quality control of talc. Two years later, another executive raised a red flag, saying the company should no longer assume that its talc mines were asbestos-free. The powder, he said, sometimes contained materials that “might be classified as asbestos fiber.” (Rabin and Hsu, 12/14)

The New York Times: What Is Talc, Where Is It Used And Why Is Asbestos A Concern?
Nearly 12,000 women have sued Johnson & Johnson, with most claiming the talc in its well-known product Johnson’s Baby Powder caused their ovarian cancer. They now have a new potential legal front.In a recent case, a group of plaintiffs argued that the talc was contaminated with asbestos, a carcinogen considered unsafe at any level of exposure. A jury agreed with them, and awarded them $4.69 billion in damages in July. (Rabin, 12/14)