KPBS Public Media: Medi-Cal Recipients Statewide Would Feel The Pain Of Obamacare Repeal
Republicans in Congress have promised to repeal Obamacare. And if they do so, Medi-Cal, California's health program for the poor, will suffer a massive body blow. The California Budget & Policy Center said it won't only be people in Democratic strongholds who will feel the pain. A report from the non-partisan group, which lists Medi-Cal enrollment by county and as a percentage of each county's population, shows the effects will be felt statewide. (Goldberg, 1/6)

KQED: Obamacare Repeal Could Punch $15 Billion Hole In State Budget 
GOP lawmakers, along with President-elect Donald Trump, have vowed to repeal the landmark health care law and replace it with something. But what that something will be is still unknown — and since California wholeheartedly embraced the Affordable Care Act and insured millions of poor residents through its Medicaid program, Medi-Cal, any rollback is likely to punch a huge hole in the state budget. (Lagos, 1/9)

The Associated Press: GOP Lawmakers Vow Quick Action To Enact New Health Care Law
Top Republicans said Sunday they’ll move quickly to enact a new health care law, but they won’t say how long that might take or what might replace President Barack Obama’s version. Questions surrounding the future GOP plan have unnerved key parts of the health care industry, including hospitals and insurers that have warned Congress against uncertainty. (1/8)

The Wall Street Journal: Republican Skepticism Grows Over Strategy On Health-Law Repeal
Republicans in both the House and Senate are expressing growing skepticism of their party’s approach to repealing the Affordable Care Act, signaling potential peril ahead for a strategy that relies on nearly complete GOP unity. In the House, some conservatives are balking at a budget document meant to serve as the vehicle to repeal the 2010 health law. Meanwhile, in the Senate, a growing number of Republicans are questioning the wisdom of repealing the law without knowing how they will replace it. (Peterson and Armour, 1/6)

The Wall Street Journal: Health-Law Taxes Complicate GOP’s Repeal Strategy
Republicans eager to scrap the 2010 health-care law are wrestling with whether to immediately cut off the tax revenue it brings in. Among the thorniest issues GOP lawmakers face as they hash out how to try to dismantle the Affordable Care Act is that getting rid of the health law’s taxes now would eliminate a source of revenue they would need to fund the two- or three-year transition period until any replacement plan is in place. Repealing the taxes would throw into question how to fund the subsidies that help many people get health coverage by offsetting their premium costs, health analysts say. (Peterson and Rubin, 1/7)

The Wall Street Journal: Obama Urges GOP Plan To Delay Its Repeal Of Health Law
Mr. Obama, in a live interview on the news website Vox, said Republicans repeatedly promised they could do better but have failed to put out a stronger plan. He said it would be hard for the GOP to craft a better, cheaper proposal that leaves everyone satisfied, but that he would publicly support it if they do. “You don’t want a situation where they make a promise they can’t keep,” Mr. Obama said. “I’ve worked on this a long time. If we have a better way to do this, we would have done it. It would have been in my interest to do it, because I knew I would be judged by how it worked.” (Armour, 1/6)

Los Angeles Times: Repeal Obamacare? Count Me In If You Can Do Better, Obama Challenges GOP 
Republicans now face the high hurdle of matching their rhetoric about providing a better system than the one Democrats were able to implement, Obama said. He called plans to simply repeal the plan without a clear replacement ready “irresponsible.” (Memoli, 1/6)

Politico: Obamacare Repeal's Doomsday Scenario
Hospital and health plan leaders talk in almost apocalyptic terms about what might lie ahead if Republicans abolish Obamacare without a blueprint for its replacement. Their doomsday scenario: Millions of people could lose their health care coverage, hospitals could hemorrhage cash and shocks to the $3 trillion-a-year health system could send ripples through the entire economy. (Demko and Cancryn, 1/9)

Mercury News: Troubled Theranos To Lay Off 41 Percent Of Employees
Beleaguered blood-testing startup Theranos is laying off nearly half of its remaining workforce, the company said Friday, as it reels from federal sanctions and lawsuits brought on by its underperforming product. The Palo Alto startup will lay off 155 employees — about 41 percent of its workforce — as part of an ongoing restructuring effort. Theranos has shuffled its management, closed its labs and voided two years of test results as it tries to backpedal from the failure of its signature Edison machine, which promised to perform a variety of blood tests using a pin prick’s worth of blood. (Kendall, 1/6)

The San Diego Union-Tribune: Two San Diego County Hospitals Fined For Severe Errors
Regulators have fined two San Diego County hospitals nearly $150,000 for avoidable incidents that resulted in a patient’s suicide and left another patient permanently unable to bear children. Both penalties are among 15 handed down this week by the California Department of Public Health, as required by laws designed to hold hospitals accountable for preventable medical errors that cause death or serious injury to patients. (Sisson, 1/6)

The Associated Press: California Is First To Pay For Prisoner’s Sex-Reassignment Surgery
A 57-year-old convicted killer serving a life sentence in California is the first inmate in the United States to receive state-financed sex-reassignment surgery, the prisoner’s lawyers said. California prison officials agreed in August 2015 to pay for the surgery for the inmate, Shiloh Heavenly Quine, who was convicted of first-degree murder, kidnapping and robbery for ransom and has no possibility of parole. (1/7)

Mercury News: Flu Activity Now Widespread In Bay Area, Public Health Officials Say 
After a relatively mild start, Bay Area public health department officials are now alerting residents that flu activity has increased to “widespread” levels here, and are recommending everyone 6 months and older — including pregnant women — get their annual flu shot as soon as possible. Their urgent message is compounded by five flu-related deaths reported this season in adults younger than 65, including ones in Monterey, Solano and Napa counties, according to county health officials there. (Seipel, 1/6)

Sacramento Bee: Community Nursing Corps Launches In Sacramento Promise Zone 
Nurses are working with local health leaders to bring free health education directly to a city-designated “promise zone” of Sacramento’s most impoverished neighborhoods, officials announced Friday during a kickoff of the community nursing program. The corridor of struggling neighborhoods stretching from Del Paso Heights down to Florin Road will receive federal funding over the next 10 years to improve health, schooling and employment opportunities. Starting this month, they’ll also receive education on diabetes, prenatal care and healthy life choices from a new community nursing corps. (Caiola, 1/6)

In other news from across the state —

KQED: Air District Says Chevron Refinery In Richmond Probably Caused Mysterious S.F. Odors 
The Chevron oil company will most likely face a series of fines in connection with malfunctions at its Richmond refinery and high levels of a toxic gas that were measured near the facility last week, according to a top local air district official. Air regulators believe that the abnormally high amounts of hydrogen sulfide detected by one of the company’s air monitors moments after flaring incidents at the refinery most likely caused two days of a sulfurlike smell in San Francisco, said John Gioia, the Contra Costa County supervisor who represents the area where the refinery is located and is a member of the Bay Area Air Quality Management District (BAAQMD) Board of Directors. (Goldberg, 1/6)

The Orange County Register: Pot Dispensaries Are Already – Illegally – Selling Recreational Marijuana 
Green Light District in Anaheim. Mr Nice Guy in Downtown Los Angeles. Smoking Loud Society in Highland. They’re among the dozens of pot shops throughout California advertising that, since voters legalized recreational marijuana under Proposition 64 two months ago, they’ll now sell cannabis without the doctor’s recommendations that have been required under the state’s medical marijuana law for 20 years. Many of these shops are billing themselves as being “compliant” or “friendly” with Prop. 64, which made it legal as of Nov. 9 for Californians 21 and older to consume marijuana in private, carry an ounce of weed and grow six pot plants per home. However, Prop. 64 also makes it clear that businesses can’t start selling recreational cannabis until the state establishes a licensing system, which is expected to take until Jan. 1, 2018. (Edwards Staggs, 1/6)