Los Angeles Times: With Obamacare In Jeopardy, California Considers Going It Alone With 'Single-Payer' System
With President Trump now vowing to put forward a replacement for the Affordable Care Act in March, some California politicians and healthcare advocates are once again promoting the idea of a state-run “single-payer” system that operates like Medicare. Backers say the uncertainty surrounding Trump’s promise to repeal Obamacare presents California with a chance to rethink how healthcare is delivered to its 39 million residents. (Karlamangla, 2/26)

Capital Public Radio/KXJZ: CA Senator Pushes For Health Warnings On Sugary Beverages
A state senator is again pushing for health warning labels on cans and bottles of soda, sports drinks, and other sugary beverages sold in California. Senator Bill Monning (D-Carmel) has tried twice before to require warning labels on beverages like soda, sports drinks and sugary teas sold in California. (Potter, 2/24)

In other news —

Oakland Tribune: On ‘Hypertension Sunday,’ Free Blood Pressure Screenings Around The Bay Area
In an effort to raise awareness about heart health, students and healthcare professionals are heading to churches around the East Bay on Sunday to provide free blood pressure screenings. The day is known as “Hypertension Sunday,” an annual event in which students from Samuel Merritt University, along with hundreds of volunteer healthcare professionals from local hospitals and universities, will screen an estimated 1,000 people at 25 sites — mostly churches in underserved areas in Alameda and Contra Costa counties. It is a free event that has taken place for more than 20 years and is named the Frank E. Staggers, Sr., MD, Hypertension Screening and Education Sunday, after the physician who founded the Ethnic Health Institute in Oakland. (Sciacca, 2/24)

San Diego Union-Tribune: Growing Push For Patients To Get Notified About Doctors On Probation 
While still under fire from legislators and patient advocacy groups, doctors who commit serious transgressions are now also under pressure from their peers. A newly submitted bill supported by the California Medical Association seeks to strip away probation as an option for physicians whose actions harmed patients through drug or alcohol abuse, sexual exploitation or other felony-level misconduct. Instead of going through state regulators’ administrative disciplinary process, they would instead face judicial scrutiny. Meanwhile, the measure would not require doctors who are placed on probation for other reasons to inform their patients about that disciplinary action. (Sisson, 2/25)

In other health care personnel news —

KPCC: Pediatricians' Group: Talk To Youth About Pot's Dangers 
As a growing number of states legalize marijuana use, a leading pediatricians’ group is pushing for more education about pot's potential to harm young people's health. (Lavender, 2/27)

KQED: White House Spokesman Predicts More Federal Action Against Marijuana
The Justice Department may step up enforcement of federal marijuana laws in states that have voted to legalize its recreational use, according to White House press secretary Sean Spicer. (Rott, 2/24)

Orange County Register: Four Chapman Law Students Sickened In Mumps Outbreak
Four students who attended Chapman Law School’s back-to-school event in late January have been diagnosed with mumps, and more could have been exposed to the virus, county health officials said Friday. One case has been confirmed through testing and there are three probable cases, said Dr. Matthew Zahn, medical director of epidemiology and assessment at the Orange County Health Care Agency. (Bharath, 2/24)

Politico: Leaked GOP Obamacare Replacement Shrinks Subsidies, Medicaid Expansion
A draft House Republican repeal bill would dismantle the Obamacare subsidies and scrap its Medicaid expansion, according to a copy of the proposal obtained by POLITICO. The legislation would take down the foundation of Obamacare, including the unpopular individual mandate, subsidies based on people’s income, and all of the law’s taxes. It would significantly roll back Medicaid spending and give states money to create high risk pools for some people with pre-existing conditions. Some elements would be effective right away; others not until 2020. (Demko, 2/24)

The Wall Street Journal: GOP’s New Plan To Repeal Obamacare: Dare Fellow Republicans To Block Effort
Republican leaders are betting that the only way for Congress to repeal the Affordable Care Act is to set a bill in motion and gamble that fellow GOP lawmakers won’t dare to block it. Party leaders are poised to act on the strategy as early as this week, after it has become obvious they can’t craft a proposal that will carry an easy majority in either chamber. Lawmakers return to Washington Monday after a week of raucous town halls in their districts that amplified pressure on Republicans to forge ahead with their health-care plans. (Radnofsky, Peterson and Armour, 2/27)

In other national health care news —

The Wall Street Journal: Talks Between Republican Governors Don’t Yield Agreement On Key Health-Law Issue
Governors gathered Saturday to discuss health-care policy said they didn’t reach a consensus on the future of the Medicaid program, an issue hamstringing Republicans’ bid to alter the Affordable Care Act. The governors’ meeting came at a key moment in the debate over the future of the health law, which Republicans have pledged to overturn. The party controls the White House, the Senate, the House of Representatives and 33 state governorships. (Radnofsky and Hackman, 2/26)

The Associated Press: Report Warns Of Gaps If Federal Health Care Dollars Are Cut
A sobering report to governors about the potential consequences of repealing the Obama-era health care law warns that federal spending cuts probably would create funding gaps for states and threaten many people with the loss of insurance coverage. (2/27)

Reuters: Trump To Lay Out Healthcare Revamp Details In Speech To Congress
President Donald Trump said on Sunday he will offer details on how he would like to overhaul President Barack Obama's signature healthcare law in a speech to the U.S. Congress on Tuesday. Since they now control the White House and Congress, Republicans are under pressure to fulfill their pledge to repeal and replace the Obamacare law although they have found no easy way to do it. (Holland, 2/26)

The Wall Street Journal: Trump To Meet With Insurance Executives On Repeal Of Affordable Care Act
President Donald Trump is planning to hold a round-table meeting with health-insurance executives at the White House on Monday, according to people close to the planning, as the administration looks to encourage insurers to sign onto Republicans’ health-care overhaul efforts. The gathering is expected to focus on getting the industry leaders’ support for the GOP initiative, which would dismantle much of the Affordable Care Act and introduce several measures supported by many Republicans, including age-adjusted tax credits and expanded access to health-savings accounts. (Armour, Wilde Mathews and Hackman, 2/24)

The New York Times: The Adults A Medicaid Work Requirement Would Leave Behind
On a frigid morning here, Nancy Godinez was piling bread and other staples into her car outside a food pantry. She had lost her job as a custodian, her unemployment checks had run out, and her job search had proved fruitless. One thing she still had was health insurance, acquired three years ago after Arkansas’ Republican-controlled legislature agreed to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. The coverage, she said, has allowed her to get regular checkups and treatment for tendinitis in her foot. But unless she finds a new job, Ms. Godinez, 55, could be at risk of losing her insurance, too. (Goodnough, 2/25)

The New York Times: Gorsuch Staunchly Opposes ‘Aid In Dying.’ Does It Matter?
Ever since President Trump nominated Judge Neil M. Gorsuch to fill the empty seat on the Supreme Court, interested parties have been combing through his writings and appellate court rulings looking for signs and portents. If he’s confirmed, how might Judge Gorsuch vote on affirmative action questions? Or challenges to Roe v. Wade? But nobody has to do much head-scratching over his position on medical aid in dying. (Span, 2/24)

The Associated Press: VA Data Show Low Rate Of Discipline For Drug Loss, Theft
Doctors, nurses or pharmacy staff at the Department of Veterans Affairs’ hospitals were fired or reprimanded in only a small fraction of thousands of reported cases of opioid theft and missing prescriptions since 2010, according to government data obtained by The Associated Press. About 372 VA employees were disciplined for a drug or alcohol-related issue across a network of 160 medical centers and 1,000 clinics over the last six years, according to internal figures kept by the facilities that were reported to VA’s headquarters. During that time, there were more than 11,000 reported incidents of drug loss or theft at federal hospitals — the vast majority within the VA, according to law enforcement data. Roughly translated, VA employees were disciplined in 3 percent of cases. (Yen, 2/27)