Los Angeles Times: Democrats To Run Ads Targeting California's House Republicans Who Voted For Healthcare Bill 
Democrats on Monday will begin airing a drive-time ad on Southern California radio stations targeting five Republican members of Congress who voted Thursday for the GOP healthcare plan. The ad buy, currently scheduled to run for one week on news, sports and Spanish-language stations, is rare this early in the election cycle. (Decker, 5/5)

KQED: Health Care Vote Could Threaten Republican House Majority
As soon as the House approved the GOP health care bill on Thursday, Democrats were working on using it against Republicans in next year’s midterm elections... Just to rub it in, many Democrats on the House floor began singing “Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye” to their colleagues across the aisle after the vote, a moment of schadenfreude hoping for the same fate many of their own suffered after the Affordable Care Act passed in 2010. (Taylor, 5/5)

KQED: What Your California Representative Says About The GOP Health Bill
After the House voted Thursday to narrowly approve a Republican-drafted bill that would eliminate many of the provisions of the Affordable Care Act, KQED collected statements made by California’s members of Congress explaining why they voted the way they did. We gathered comments made via social media and on the floor of the House, as well as from press releases sent out by each member’s office. (Perry, Siegel, Sepulvado and Leitsinger, 5/6)

And in other news —

San Francisco Chronicle: Across California, Worry And Anxiety Over GOP Health Care Bill 
The GOP measure would allow states to opt out of requirements for insurance companies that were put in place by the 2010 Affordable Care Act, including the prohibition on annual and lifetime caps for essential benefits like hospitalizations, and the ban on charging sick people more than healthy people. If a state were to seek such a waiver, insurance companies selling plans in that state would no longer have to comply with those rules. (Ho, 5/6)

Sacramento Bee: Bernie Sanders Wants Single-Payer Health Care In California 
Senate Bill 562, which would create a universal, publicly funded health care system in California, is generating tremendous enthusiasm among liberals and its supporters, including unionized nurses who backed Sanders’ presidential campaign with millions of dollars. But even some of the state’s leading Democrats, including Gov. Jerry Brown, have raised questions about whether this is the right time for single-payer or how the plan would be paid for. (Cadelago, 5/6)

Los Angeles Times: Will California's Surge Of Liberal Activism Pull Legislators To The Left? 
The 35-year-old technology consultant is emblematic of a surge of activism rippling through California’s political landscape. Not content to rely on the state to be a liberal bastion of resistance against President Trump and Republican-controlled Washington, D.C., Schadewald and his ilk are turning to Sacramento to pressure the ruling Democrats from the left. And lawmakers are taking notice. (Mason, 5/7)

Los Angeles Times: Trump-Bashing Begins In California's Race For State Insurance Commissioner 
President Trump may not be running for California insurance commissioner but that doesn’t mean he won’t be a political target in the campaign. State Sen. Ricardo Lara (D-Bell Gardens) devoted his first online ad in the 2018 race to depicting Trump as anti-immigrant, anti-woman, anti-healthcare and a climate change denier. Lara urged voters to support his campaign for insurance commissioner so he can protect California from Trump’s reach. (Willon, 5/8)

Los Angeles Times: Doctors Turn To The Power Of Peer Groups To Help Diabetics 
Marc Weigensberg was having trouble getting his younger diabetes patients to listen to him. He’d repeat advice, but often they’d tune him out... About a year ago, Weigensberg began leading two-hour group visits with a dozen young adults at Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center to provide them with a place to share tips for living with diabetes and talk about their experiences and problems with the disease. (Karlamangla, 5/8)

In other public health news —

Sacramento Bee: '13 Reasons Why' Has School Districts Worried About Suicide
The phrase “suicide tapes” has been slithering through school hallways in whispers and giggles around Sacramento, and counselors and principals are worried. Some fear the new slang – a reference to the hit Netflix series “13 Reasons Why” – could inspire possibly deadly behavior among suggestible children who watch the show. (Caiola, 5/5)

Ventura County Star: Opioid Abuse In Ventura County: 'We Can Do Better'
The opioids that trigger an epidemic of abuse nationally and in Ventura County come from two primary sources, said a keynote speaker at a drug summit on Friday: traffickers in Latin America and doctors. "One is called the drug cartel and one is called the purveyor of health care," said Dr. Corey Waller, senior medical director for education and policy at the National Center for Complex Health and Social Needs. At an opioid policy summit that brought nearly 200 people to the Ventura Beach Marriott, Waller said too many doctors prescribe the powerful prescription drugs to patients suffering from pain, sometimes ending up in criminal investigations. (Kisken, 5/5)

The Mercury News: San Jose: Signs Of Stroke The Key Message At Stroke Awareness Foundation Walk 
Before Chuck Toeniskoetter helped launch stroke centers at every hospital in Santa Clara County and beyond, before he helped create a free stroke App to aid frantic victims, and long before Sunday’s spirited fundraising walk around the Municipal Rose Garden, the prominent San Jose developer thought he was going to die...Ever since, Toeniskoetter has made it his life’s mission to expand the number of certified stroke centers, train paramedics to recognize stroke and where to take patients, and raise awareness of the medical emergency. With the late Chuck Hoffman and former San Jose Vice Mayor Pat Dando — who both recovered from strokes — the trio founded the Stroke Awareness Foundation in 2002. (Sulek, 5/7)

Los Angeles Times: President Of Dignity Health Glendale Memorial Hospital To Retire In June
Jack Ivie, president of Dignity Health Glendale Memorial Hospital, will retire at the end of next month after more than four decades at the hospital, according to a statement released on Friday. Ivie served as the assistant executive director and vice president of hospital operations from 1980 to 1992 before taking the role as the hospital’s president in 2012. All four of his children were born at Glendale Memorial, according to the statement. (Landa, 5/5)

The San Diego Union-Tribune: Oceanside Students Get A Jump On Health Careers 
Oceanside High School student Nixia Rodriguez tightened a rubber tourniquet around the arm of classmate Leonor Gonzalez on Wednesday, took a deep breath, and slid a needle into her classmate’s vein, preparing to draw blood. The exercise was part of the school’s Health Academy, a program that trains students in hands-on medical procedures to prepare them for potential careers in healthcare...The academy started with a state grant in 2000, said instructor and coordinator Debbie Foley. That funding allowed the school to develop a curriculum, and purchase costly equipment such as patient simulators that allow trainees to monitor heart rate, blood pressure and other vital signs on a high-tech mannequin. (Brennan, 5/6)

In other news from across the state —

The San Diego Union-Tribune: After SDSU Health Fee Went Up, Services Went Down 
Before San Diego State University students voted to pay more for campus health care each semester, the health center employed 30 full-time managers and a support staff of almost 120 positions. Today, seven years after the election, Calpulli Center has 34 full-time management positions and a support staff of just over 84 full-time employees. The increasing number of managers amid a diminishing workforce comes as some students complain about services provided by San Diego State. Students say it can be hard to get an appointment and mistakes or misdiagnoses are too common. (Jimenez and McDonald, 5/8)

The Mercury News: School District Want Parents To Talk ‘Birds And Bees’ 
Saratoga Union School District hosted a workshop Tuesday at the Redwood Middle School Library to assist parents in preparing for their conversations with their elementary and middle school students about sexual health. The meeting was the second of a two-part series of workshops to educate parents on new government-mandated sexual education and HIV-prevention education law, called the California Healthy Youth Act.The workshop was for parents to learn more about the program called Comprehensive Sexual Education and to establish themselves as their children’s main resource for information. The hope is that the parents can create an ongoing, age-appropriate dialogue with kids at any stage, and be able to initiate conversations and answer tough questions. (Miceli, 5/5)

Bloomberg: Senate Republicans Plan Health Bill That Keeps Some Of Obamacare 
Republican senators plan to write a health-care bill that could be radically different from the one passed last week by the House, including keeping some of the benefits and safeguards currently enshrined within Obamacare. The Senate’s different approach means there’s no clear timetable for producing a bill, and it likely ensures that President Donald Trump and House Republicans will eventually have to face legislation that doesn’t fully repeal the Affordable Care Act despite their repeated campaign promises to do it. (Strohm and Brody, 5/7)

The Wall Street Journal: Senate Tackles Rewrite On GOP Health-Care Bill
Republican senators planned Friday to begin a formal full rewrite of the House GOP health-care bill, driven in part by a sense that the House version made insurance cheaper for young people but costlier for older Americans—an influential, mostly GOP voting bloc. Among the provisions senators are tackling is one that allows insurers to charge older Americans five times as much as younger people and lets states obtain waivers that could make that disparity even larger. (Armour and Peterson, 5/5)

The Washington Post: As Some Republicans Rush To Defend House Health Bill, Senate GOP Warily Pauses
The Republican split screen on health care revealed the frothing debate within the party about how to gut aspects of the Affordable Care Act, which became law in 2010 and whose demise has been promised by the Republican Party to its conservative base. (Costa and Wagner, 5/7)

Los Angeles Times: Bernie Sanders Says GOP Health Care Bill Is 'Never Going To Pass' Senate
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders on Sunday called the GOP-backed Obamacare repeal bill "one of the most disgusting pieces of legislation ever passed," and called it a "death sentence for thousands" of Americans who may not seek medical care when they get sick. (Mai-Duc, 5/7)

The Associated Press: Trump Pushes Senate Republicans To Act On Health Care Bill
President Donald Trump urged Senate Republicans on Sunday to "not let the American people down," as the contentious debate over overhauling the U.S. health care systems shifts to Congress' upper chamber, where a vote is potentially weeks, if not months, away. (Superville, 5/7)

The New York Times: House Health Care Bill Is ‘Us Keeping Our Promises,’ Paul Ryan Says
Speaker Paul D. Ryan said on Sunday that criticism of the way the House passed its health care bill — no hearings were held on the final version, and it has yet to receive an evaluation from the Congressional Budget Office — was “kind of a bogus attack from the left.” “This is a rescue mission” as “Obamacare is collapsing,” Mr. Ryan said on ABC’s “This Week.” “This is a crisis. We are trying to prevent this crisis.” (Weiland, 5/7)

The New York Times: Measure On Pre-Existing Conditions Energizes Opposition To Health Bill
From the moment the Republican-controlled House of Representatives approved a plan to overhaul the health care system, an onslaught of opposition to the bill has been focused on a single, compact term: pre-existing conditions. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee began running digital ads warning that the legislation would leave “no more protections” for people with a history of illness or injury. Pointing to the power that states could have to set the terms for insurers under the G.O.P. bill, Democratic leaders announced they would make pre-existing conditions an issue in every gubernatorial and state legislative race in the country. (Burns and Goodnough, 5/5)

The New York Times: ‘No District Is Off The Table’: Health Vote Could Put House In Play
In a suburban Chicago district, Kelly Mazeski, a breast cancer survivor, used the day of the vote to repeal the Affordable Care Act to announce her House candidacy, vowing to make Representative Peter Roskam pay for his vote “to make Americans pay more and get less for their health care.” In western New York, Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul has stirred talk of a congressional race with her slashing criticism of Representative Chris Collins, who rallied fellow Republicans to vote for the health measure, then conceded in a national television interview that he had not read the bill. (Martin and Burns, 5/6)

The Washington Post: ‘Mail My Body To Paul Ryan’: An Extremely Morbid Way To Protest The GOP Health-Care Bill
Mailing human ash is not nearly as complicated as you might think. You basically just need some bubble wrap, a sturdy box and a special label, according the U.S. Postal Service’s handy guide. But why? ... Maybe you want a loved one’s ashes sealed inside blown glass. Or maybe (not in pamphlet) you want your own mortal remains shipped to one of the Republican House members who just passed a health-care bill widely expected to strip insurance from millions of people and hike medical costs — just in case that leads to your death. (Selk, 5/6)

The New York Times: Fact Check: Rumors, Claims And Context On G.O.P. Health Bill
Rumors that the Republican health care bill counts rape, domestic violence and ulcers as uninsurable pre-existing conditions are circulating among opponents of the bill. But these claims are overly simplistic. (Qiu, 5/5)

The Associated Press Fact Check: Are Pregnancy, Rape Pre-Existing Conditions?
Pregnancy, sexual assault and domestic violence could be considered "pre-existing conditions" that make it hard to keep insurance coverage under the Republican health care bill, according to a number of news articles and social media posts. The bill doesn't specifically refer to any of these things, and headlines suggesting that it does are misleading. (5/5)

The Associated Press: Obama Urges Congress To Show 'Courage' On Health Care
Former President Barack Obama, in his first public comments about the ongoing debate over his signature health care plan, implored members of Congress on Sunday to demonstrate political courage even if it goes against their party's positions. Obama briefly returned to the spotlight as he accepted the annual John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award at JFK's presidential library in Boston. (5/7)