The Hill: Sanders Pressures Clinton To Back Drug Price Initiative
Hillary Clinton is under mounting pressure from supporters of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) to back California’s ballot measure aimed at reducing steep drug prices ahead of the state’s primary on Tuesday. The first-in-the-nation ballot measure would allow California’s health agencies to negotiate directly with drug companies to lower drug costs. (Ferris, 6/4)

The Fiscal Times: Clinton’s Plan To Extend Medicare Raises Red Flags
Hillary Clinton last month dusted off a long-standing proposal of hers to expand health care coverage by allowing uninsured people 55 and older to qualify for Medicare – the government health care program for the elderly. ... her idea is generating substantial buzz among health care experts and professionals, some of whom question whether it would be a panacea for millions of uninsured Americans or a “bad fit” for a health care system that has been revolutionized by the Affordable Care Act. (Pianin, 6/5)

The Los Angeles Times: California Physicians Are Skeptical As Aid-In-Dying Law Goes Into Effect
As a new law goes into effect in California allowing terminally ill patients to take medicines to kill themselves, physicians are contemplating whether they would ever write a prescription for death. (Karlamangla, 6/6)

The Los Angeles Daily News: Cancer Patient Looks To California’s New Aid-In-Dying Law To End Suffering
As an outspoken supporter of California’s new aid-in-dying law, which takes effect in a few days, [Matt] Fairchild knows people are curious about him. They want to know more about a man who wants the right to choose the day of his death. (Abram, 6/5)

The Modesto Bee: Starting Thursday, Stanislaus County Patients Will Have Right-To-Die Option
California’s right-to-die law goes into effect Thursday, giving terminally ill patients the option of ending their lives with a lethal drug prescribed by their doctor. Gov. Jerry Brown signed the bill last October that was inspired by the story of 29-year-old Brittany Maynard, who moved to Oregon to end her life under that state’s Death with Dignity Act. Maynard, who had an aggressive brain tumor, thought it was unjust to have to leave the state rather than have a painless death at home. (Carlson, 6/4)

The San Francisco Chronicle: California Beginning Era With New Options To End Life
Inside her Placerville home in a meticulously decorated bedroom with views of pine trees and the Sierra Nevada, Kristy Allan hopes to die. In her sleep preferably, the 63-year-old says. (Gutierrez, 6/4)

The Press Democrat: New Assisted-Suicide Law Lets Doctors Help Dying Californians End Their Lives
The controversial legislation is modeled on Oregon’s 1997 Death with Dignity law, which resulted in more than 130 doctor-assisted suicides in that state last year. After much debate in Sacramento, it gained political traction last fall after Brittany Maynard, a 29-year-old brain cancer victim from California, traveled to Portland in 2014 so she could receive lethal drugs prescribed by a doctor. (Payne 6/4)

California Healthline: A New Sort Of Consultant: Advising Doctors And Patients on California’s Aid-In-Dying Law
Few people have the unusual set of professional experiences that Dr. Lonny Shavelson does. He worked as an emergency room physician in Berkeley for years — while also working as a journalist. He has written several books and takes hauntingly beautiful photographs. Now, just as California’s law aid-in-dying law takes effect this week, Shavelson has added another specialty: A consultant to physicians and terminally ill patients who have questions about how it works. “Can I just sit back and watch?” Shavelson asked from his cottage office. “This is really an amazing opportunity to be part of establishing policy and initiating something in medicine. This is a major change … [that] very, very few people know anything about and how to do it.” (Aliferis, 6/6)

KPCC: New Medi-Cal Rules Ease Access To Hepatitis C Drugs
California’s revised eligibility rules for hepatitis C drugs appear to be easing Medi-Cal patients’ access to the highly effective medications, according to state data. Yet even with the relaxed guidelines, the vast majority of those on Medi-Cal with hepatitis C still aren't getting the costly drugs, state health officials say. (Plevin, 6/6)

The Associated Press: Theranos Says Only 1% Of Results Affected
Less than 1 percent of the blood test results Theranos has provided have either been voided or corrected, according to the company, which last month said it was canceling or altering tens of thousands of results, including two years of results on some of the company's proprietary machines. (6/3)

The Desert Sun: Should Hospital CEOs Make More Than The US President?
A labor union representing health care workers hopes California voters will agree that hospital executives should never earn more than the president of the United States. SEIU-United Healthcare Workers West wants to get the question on the statewide ballot this November. Separately, the union backed an unsuccessful effort to require California hospitals to publicly disclose the compensation of their best paid employees. (Newkirk 6/6)

The Press Democrat: Decline In Psychiatric Hospital Beds Concerns Sonoma County Jail Officials
The number of state psychiatric hospital beds continues to decline across the country, a disturbing trend that is being felt at the local level, especially by mentally ill patients in jail, Sonoma County officials said last week. ... The decline in such beds has resulted in local jail inmates with severe mental illness having to wait many months to be transferred to a state facility for intensive mental health treatment. State hospitals are the equivalent of intensive care units in general hospitals. “It takes anywhere from six to eight months to get them into a state hospital bed,” said Michael Kennedy, director of Sonoma County’s mental health department. (Espinoza 6/5)

The Orange County Register: O.C. Residents Latest To Plead Guilty In $580 Million Hospital Kickback Scheme
Two men and a woman have admitted to being involved in a $580 million healthcare scheme, joining six other defendants in cooperating with authorities investigating illegal kickbacks, according to filings unsealed this week in federal court. ... [They] are the latest healthcare workers and administrators to plead guilty to conspiracy and illegal kickback charges as part of a massive scheme centered around Pacific Hospital in Long Beach. (Emery, 6/3)

The Orange County Register: Proposed St. Joseph, Providence Merger Raises Concerns Over Health Services
A proposed merger between Irvine-based St. Joseph Health System and another major Catholic hospital chain, Providence Health & Services, is raising concerns about long-term access to women’s reproductive services. The American Civil Liberties Union and women’s health advocates say a change in leadership could usher in a more stringent application of church doctrine that dictates the type of medical treatments Catholic-sponsored hospitals may provide. That doctrine forbids contraceptives, abortions and sterilizations as methods of birth control. It leaves room for interpretation, however, when a woman’s health is considered at serious risk. (Chandler, 6/4)

In other women's health news —

The Modesto Bee: Vigil Of Support Held At Modesto Planned Parenthood Center
About 50 people gathered at the Planned Parenthood Modesto Health Center on Sunday to show support for the clinic’s patients, staff and mission. The prayer vigil was organized in the wake of an arson fire at the McHenry Avenue facility May 25. (Farrow, 6/5)

The Los Angeles Daily News: 35 Years Ago, The AIDS Riddle Unraveled In Los Angeles
The disease didn’t yet have a name, but it was spreading. So were fear and uncertainty. By the end of 1982, it had claimed 500 lives. Experts now say that 71 million people have been infected with the HIV virus and about 34 million people have died of AIDS and its complications. But back then, health professionals and researchers didn’t know the scope the epidemic would attain. They only knew it was bad. “At the very beginning, there was no guidance, no playbook,” Gottlieb said. “There was a lot of fear. It became a political circus.” (Lucas and Abram, 6/4)

In other public health news —

Capital Public Radio: Health Officials Prepare For Zika In The Sacramento Region
California health experts are warning pregnant women to avoid traveling to places where there is a high risk of contracting Zika virus. Since 2015, 52 Californians have contracted the virus while traveling to other countries, according to the California Department of Public Health. Of those cases, 13 have been pregnant women. (Johnson, 6/3)

Los Angeles Times: Medical Technician Suspected Of Contaminating Instruments At Hospitals Tests Positive For HIV
Rocky Elbert Allen, the medical technician suspected of stealing drugs and contaminating surgical instruments at six Western hospitals, has tested positive for HIV, the Denver U.S. attorney’s office said. Confirmation that Allen has the virus that causes AIDS poses an added concern for 6,400 surgical patients in California, Washington, Colorado and Arizona who may have been exposed to infection by Allen’s alleged needle swapping, said an attorney who has filed lawsuits against five of the hospitals. (Anderson, 6/3)

The San Diego Union-Tribune: Do Anti-Soda Rules Help Kids Lose Weight?
Amid the fight against childhood obesity, Chula Vista has become the latest city to consider embracing rules aimed at curbing soda consumption — even as some health experts question the wisdom of such strategies and research remains inconclusive...Chula Vista’s proposal follows the lead of the Northern California city of Davis, which requires packaged kids’ meals — most commonly found at fast-food restaurants — to include water or milk by default. Juice and soda are still available but only if parents request them. (Smith, 6/4)

Los Angeles Times: On California's Death Row, Too Insane To Execute
On an August afternoon in 1984, Linda Marie Baltazar Pasnick, a 27-year-old aspiring model, was running errands before a fashion competition when she pulled into the drive-through at a Der Wienerschnitzel. (St. John, 6/5)

In other mental health news —

The San Francisco Chronicle: Mentors Reduce Return Trips For Mental Health Patients
Bay Area mental health experts are pioneering a deceptively simple yet seemingly effective way to reduce the chances of psychiatric patients getting sent back to the hospital after they’ve been discharged. (Colliver, 6/3)

The Associated Press: Obama Opposes Privatization Of The Department Of Veterans Affairs
President Obama is opposing suggestions to privatize the Department of Veterans Affairs to improve the health care that veterans receive. In an interview with The Colorado Springs Gazette, he said that his administration had made progress modernizing the department and providing veterans with more timely care. Privatizing the agency would delay that progress, Mr. Obama said. (6/5)

In other national health care news —

The New York Times: Why The Economic Payoff From Technology Is So Elusive
For several years, economists have asked why ... technical wizardry seems to be having so little impact on the economy. The issue surfaced again recently, when the government reported disappointingly slow growth and continuing stagnation in productivity. The rate of productivity growth from 2011 to 2015 was the slowest since the five-year period ending in 1982. One place to look at this disconnect is in the doctor’s office. Dr. Peter Sutherland, a family physician in Tennessee, made the shift to computerized patient records from paper in the last few years. There are benefits to using electronic health records, Dr. Sutherland says, but grappling with the software and new reporting requirements has slowed him down. He sees fewer patients, and his income has slipped. (Lohr, 6/5)

The New York Times: ‘Liquid’ Cancer Test Offers Hope For Alternative To Painful Biopsies
A blood test to detect cancer mutations produced results that generally agree with those of an invasive tumor biopsy, researchers reported, heralding a time when diagnosing cancer and monitoring its progression may become less painful and risky. The blood tests, known as liquid biopsies, represent one of the hottest trends in oncology. They take advantage of the fact that DNA fragments from tumors can be found in tiny amounts in the blood of patients with cancer. (Pollack, 6/4)

The Wall Street Journal: Combination Drug Therapies For Cancer Show Promise At Higher Potential Cost
Cancer researchers see promise in giving patients combinations of multiple drugs that are proving more effective than one or two. But the strategy poses a dilemma for health insurers and patients: even higher prices. Researchers said at a medical meeting here Sunday that adding a third drug, Johnson & Johnson’s Darzalex, to an older two-drug combination for patients with multiple myeloma significantly slowed the blood cancer’s growth compared with the older two-drug combination alone in a clinical trial. But the combined cost of the drugs—based on current list prices and the dosing schedule used in the study—would be at least $180,000 for the first full year of treatment for the average patient. (Loftus, 6/5)

The New York Times: Parkinson’s: A Progressive, Incurable Disease
Muhammad Ali, who died on Friday after a long struggle with Parkinson’s disease, was given the diagnosis in 1984 when he was 42. The world witnessed his gradual decline over the decades as tremors and stiffness set in, replacing his athletic stride with a shuffle, silencing his exuberant voice and freezing his face into an expressionless mask. (Grady, 6/4)