- California Healthline Original Stories 1
- California’s Newly Minted Health Care Laws: Doctor Misconduct, Drug Prices, Kids' Meals And More
- Sacramento Watch 3
- Brown Knocks Down Proposal To Open Safe Injection Site In San Francisco
- New Gun Laws Tighten California's Already-Strict Regulations, But Brown Vetoes Some He Says Went Too Far
- Bill To Require Public Universities To Provide Abortion Medication 'Not Necessary,' Brown Says
- Public Health and Education 1
- 'Catastrophic' Increase In Valley Fever Cases Linked To Climate Change
- Around California 1
- Six Ventura County Hospitals' Medicare Reimbursements Reduced Due To Readmission Rates
- National Roundup 4
- American, Japanese Scientists Share Nobel Prize In Medicine For Work That Opened Door For Immunotherapy
- Trump Tells Voters Preexisting Condition Protections Are Safe Even As His Administration Works To Get Rid Of Them
- Government Shutdown Averted After Trump Signs Spending Bill
- Midnight Journeys To Move Immigrant Children To Texas Tent City Play Out Across Country
Latest From California Healthline:
California Healthline Original Stories
California’s Newly Minted Health Care Laws: Doctor Misconduct, Drug Prices, Kids' Meals And More
Gov. Jerry Brown approved numerous new health care laws addressing a broad range of issues, but he vetoed several bills, including one that would have allowed parents to administer medical marijuana to their children in school and another that would have made the abortion pill available at the student health centers of California’s public universities. (Ana B. Ibarra, )
More News From Across The State
Brown Knocks Down Proposal To Open Safe Injection Site In San Francisco
“After great reflection, I conclude that the disadvantages of this bill far outweigh the possible benefits,” Gov. Jerry Brown wrote in a veto message.
The Associated Press:
California Governor Rejects Supervised Drug Injection Plan
California Gov. Jerry Brown rejected legislation on Sunday that would have allowed San Francisco to open what could be the nation's first supervised drug injection site under a pilot program. Advocates of "safe injection" sites say the locations would save lives by preventing drug overdoses and providing access to counseling. (10/1)
San Francisco Chronicle:
California Bill To Let SF Open Safe Drug-Injection Site Is Vetoed By Brown
The bill by Assemblywoman Susan Eggman, D-Stockton, would have created a four-year pilot program in San Francisco aimed at reducing opioid overdoses and encouraging users to go into treatment by giving them supervised facilities to inject themselves and ride out the high under clinical supervision. (Gutierrez, 9/30)
Los Angeles Times:
Gov. Jerry Brown Blocks Plan To Let San Francisco Establish 'Safe Injection Sites' For Drug Users
Proponents say such sites help prevent fatal overdoses by offering access to clean needles, trained supervisors and referral to treatment programs. There are about 100 secure injection facilities around the world, according to a legislative analysis. (Mason, 9/30)
Gov. Jerry Brown signed several bills to increase gun safety, including one on age limits and a ban for people convicted of serious domestic violence charges. But he blocked a few, as well, like a measure that would have limited people to purchasing no more than one rifle or shotgun in any 30-day period.
Reuters:
California Governor Signs Gun Control Bills Into Law
California Governor Jerry Brown signed several gun control bills into law on Friday, including one measure that raises the minimum age for buying rifles and shotguns from 18 to 21. The new laws come seven months after a gunman opened fire with a semiautomatic assault-style rifle at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, killing 14 students and three adults, the second-deadliest mass shooting at a public school in U.S. history. (O'Brien, 9/29)
Capital Public Radio:
Gov. Jerry Brown Continues Mixed Track Record On California Gun Control Bills
Brown signed SB 1100 by Sen. Anthony Portantino (D-La Cañada-Flintridge), raising the required age for rifle and shotgun purchases from 18 to 21. Handgun purchases are already subject to the higher minimum age. But the governor rejected Portantino’s SB 1177, which would have prohibited a person from purchasing more than one long gun per month. In his veto message, he wrote that his views have not changed since he vetoed a similar bill two years ago. (Adler, 9/28)
Los Angeles Times:
Gov. Brown Just Signed A Stack Of New Gun Control Laws. Here's What They Do
Brown also signed into law Friday measures that impose lifetime firearm bans on people convicted of serious domestic violence charges, as well as those who have been hospitalized more than once in a year for mental health problems. He also enacted laws that will make it easier for police officers and family members to have guns taken away from people deemed a danger to themselves or others, and to require applicants for concealed gun permits to complete at least eight hours of gun safety training and demonstrate competency with a live-fire exam. (McGreevy, 9/28)
Sacramento Bee:
CA Bill Raising Age To Buy Guns Signed By Jerry Brown
Brown has also rejected a handful of gun control proposals that he believes went go too far. Earlier this week, he vetoed a measure by Assemblyman Phil Ting, D-San Francisco, that would have expanded the list of people who can seek a gun violence restraining order. Assembly Bill 2888, which was prompted by the Parkland shooting, would have allowed employers, co-workers, high school and college staff, and mental health workers to petition a judge to to order the temporary removal of firearms from someone they believe poses a danger to themselves or others. (Koseff, 9/28)
Bill To Require Public Universities To Provide Abortion Medication 'Not Necessary,' Brown Says
"The average distance to abortion providers in campus communities varies from five to seven miles, not an unreasonable distance,” Gov. Jerry Brown wrote in his veto of Senate Bill 320. The governor also addressed health care legislation dealing with smoking and mental illness.
Los Angeles Times:
A Mandate For Abortion Medication On UC, CSU Campuses Is Rejected By Gov. Jerry Brown
Gov. Jerry Brown broke ranks with Democrats and abortion rights advocates Sunday by refusing to require student health centers at California’s public universities to provide abortion medication by 2022. Brown, who vetoed a bill requiring the health centers to provide abortion pills during the first 10 weeks of a pregnancy, said those services are already available to University of California and California State University students. (Myers, 9/30)
Sacramento Bee:
Abortion Pill Mandate For California Universities Vetoed By Brown
“Because the services required by this bill are widely available off-campus, this bill is not necessary,” he wrote. To pay for the cost of implementation, the bill would have required $9.6 million in private funding to provide a $200,000 grant to all public universities. It also would have provided a $200,000 grant to both the University of California and California State University systems to provide 24-hour telephone patient support for abortion medication recipients. (Sheeler and Koseff ,9/30)
The Los Angeles Times:
Smoking Bans At Beaches And Parks Again Fall To Gov. Jerry Brown's Veto Pen
CFor the third year in a row, Gov. Jerry Brown rejected bills that would have restricted smoking at state beaches and parks, writing in his veto message Saturday that the “third time is not always a charm.” Citing the danger of sparking wildfires, the risk to public health and the problem of litter, Sen. Steve Glazer (D-Orinda) introduced twin bills that would have banned smoking tobacco and marijuana and the use of electronic cigarettes at parks and beaches, but allowed parks officials to designate smoking areas. (McGreevy, 9/29)
San Francisco Chronicle:
SF Pushing To Draft Policy On Extended Holds For Mentally Ill Homeless
On Thursday, Gov. Jerry Brown signed SB1045, a law giving San Francisco, San Diego and Los Angeles counties permission to create five-year pilot programs intended to reach people who can’t care for themselves. Now, lawmakers have to craft local legislation to create and implement those programs. (Fracassa, 9/28)
California Healthline:
California’s Newly Minted Health Care Laws: Doctor Misconduct, Drug Prices, Kids’ Meals And More
California Gov. Jerry Brown, who faced the final bill-signing deadline of his gubernatorial career on Sunday, approved a variety of health care measures that will directly affect consumers — right down to the drinks in their children’s kiddie meals. Some of these laws broke ground nationally, such as one that will require doctors to notify patients if they’ve been placed on probation for serious misconduct. Others exemplify California’s ongoing resistance to Trump administration policies. (Ibarra, 10/1)
'Catastrophic' Increase In Valley Fever Cases Linked To Climate Change
The Valley fever fungus typically infects the lungs after spores are inhaled, producing a persistent cough and chest pain or other flu-like symptoms that can require months of treatment. In recent years, a growing number of dust storms in California have spread the fungal spores far beyond the Central Valley, where the infections traditionally have been concentrated. Meanwhile, San Diego public health officials are busy pushing people to get flu shots following last year's particularly deadly season.
CALmatters:
With Climate Change, Valley Fever Spreads In California—And This Year Could Be The Worst Yet
The number of reported Valley fever cases set a record in California in 2016, with more than 6,000 infections. That number jumped to 8,103 in 2017, an increase of more than a third—growth many experts link to climate change. This year could be the worst yet. (Gorn, 9/25)
KPBS:
Following Deadly Flu Season, San Diego Health Officials Urge Vaccination
Following one of San Diego County’s deadliest flu seasons on record, health officials are urging everyone six months and older to get vaccinated now as a new season gets underway. Last winter and spring, 342 people in the county died from flu-related complications, including two children, according to the County Health and Human Services Agency. (Murphy, 9/28)
And in other public health news —
WBUR:
Working While Homeless: A Tough Job For Thousands Of Californians
A 2017 survey of the homeless population in San Francisco found 13 percent of respondents reporting part or full-time employment. That's in a city with an estimated 7,499 people experiencing homelessness. This year, an estimated 10 percent of the 4,990 people living unsheltered in San Diego said they were currently working. (Wagner, 9/30)
Modesto Bee:
Homeless Camp At Beard Brook Park Is Working, But The City Is Looking To Move It
Modesto officials say allowing homeless people to camp in Beard Brook Park on a temporary basis has worked well but acknowledge it is not the ideal location and are working on finding an alternative. The city opened the park to homeless campers Sept. 18 after the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals — whose jurisdiction includes California — ruled Sept. 4 that prosecuting people for sleeping on public property because there are not enough shelter beds or other alternatives amounts to cruel and unusual punishment. (Valine and Ahumada, 9/29)
Six Ventura County Hospitals' Medicare Reimbursements Reduced Due To Readmission Rates
The penalties range from the 1.84 percent hit faced by Los Robles and the 1.26 percent facing St. John’s Pleasant Valley to the 0.07 percent fine on Community Memorial Hospital in Ventura.
Ventura County Star:
Six Ventura County Hospitals Penalized For Medicare Readmissions
The occasional revolving door through which older patients are readmitted within days and weeks of being discharged means six Ventura County hospitals face federal financial penalties that begin Monday. The penalties come in the form of reductions in Medicare reimbursements in a seven-year-old program run by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and designed to push hospitals to provide better followup care and reduce readmission rates. In the 2019 fiscal year that begins Oct. 1, 215 of 292 hospitals evaluated across California will be hit by penalties that can involve as much as 3 percent of Medicare fee-for-service reimbursements, according to an analysis by Kaiser Health News. (Kisken, 9/30)
In other news from across the state —
East Bay Times:
Valley Med Chief Psychiatrist Awarded $1.5 Million In Damages For Wrongful Termination
A chief psychiatrist who was fired from his job at Valley Medical Center four years ago was awarded $1.5 million in damages this week for wrongful termination, according to a firm representing his attorneys. Dr. Jan Weber, who headed the hospital’s child and adolescent psychiatry division for five-and-a-half years, was let go by the county in late 2014 upon complaining about unsafe work conditions and young patients at the facility receiving substandard care over a five-year span. At the time, the 49-year-old Weber was tasked with supervising roughly eight psychiatrists in the mental health department. (Sarwari, 9/28)
The Swedish Academy said that the work done by Drs. James P. Allison and Tasuku Honjo constitutes “a landmark in our fight against cancer." The revolutionary treatment harnesses the body's own immune system to find and fight cancer.
The Wall Street Journal:
Nobel Medicine Prize Awarded To American, Japanese Scientists For Cancer Work
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded to James P. Allison and Tasuku Honjo “for their discovery of cancer therapy by inhibition of negative immune regulation.” Dr. Allison is chairman of the department of immunology at the University of Texas and has spent his career developing strategies for cancer immunotherapy. Mr. Honjo is a professor at the department of immunology and genomic medicine at Kyoto University. (Sugden and Chopping, 10/1)
The Guardian:
James P Allison And Tasuku Honjo Win Nobel Prize For Medicine
The discovery is transforming cancer treatments and has led to a new class of drugs that work by switching off the braking mechanism, prompting the immune cells to attack cancer cells. The drugs have significant side-effects, but have been shown to be effective – including, in some cases, against late-stage cancers that were previously untreatable. The Nobel assembly’s summary said Allison, who is professor and chair of immunology at the University of Texas’s MD Anderson Cancer Center, “studied a known protein that functions as a brake on the immune system. He realised the potential of releasing the brake and thereby unleashing our immune cells to attack tumours. He then developed this concept into a new approach for treating patients. (Devlin, 10/1)
The New York Times:
2018 Nobel Prize In Medicine Awarded To 2 Cancer Immunotherapy Researchers
Dr. Allison and Dr. Honjo, working separately, showed how certain proteins act as “brakes” on the immune system’s T-cells, limiting their ability to attack cancer cells, and that suppressing those proteins could transform the body’s ability to fight cancer. (10/1)
The Associated Press:
Nobel Prize: James P. Allison, Tasuku Honjo Awarded Medicine Accolade
Last year’s prize went to three Americans for work in identifying genes and proteins that work in the body’s biological clock, which affects functions such as sleep patterns, blood pressure and eating habits. (10/1)
The Associated Press fact checks statements from President Donald Trump about what's going on with those popular provisions, the threat to which has voters worried just weeks before midterms.
The Associated Press Fact Check:
Trump's Falsehoods On Health Plan Protections
President Donald Trump isn't playing it straight when it comes to his campaign pledge not to undercut health coverage for people with pre-existing medical conditions. Five weeks before midterm elections, he is telling voters that those provisions "are safe," even as his Justice Department is arguing in court that those protections in the Affordable Care Act should fall. The short-term health plans Trump often promotes as a bargain alternative to "Obamacare" offer no guarantee of covering pre-existing conditions. (10/1)
In other national health care news —
The New York Times/ProPublica:
Sloan Kettering Executive Turns Over Windfall Stake In Biotech Start-Up
A vice president of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center has to turn over to the hospital nearly $1.4 million of a windfall stake in a biotech company, in light of a series of for-profit deals and industry conflicts at the cancer center that has forced it to re-examine its corporate relationships.
The vice president, Dr. Gregory Raskin, oversees hospital ventures with for-profit companies. As compensation for representing the hospital on the biotech company’s board, Dr. Raskin received stock options whose value soared when the start-up went public a little over a week ago. (9/29)
Politico:
Fight Over Fetal Tissue Splits HHS, Anti-Abortion Allies
Anti-abortion groups — normally staunch allies of the Trump administration — have turned their fire on the health department, accusing the agency of being complicit in abortions by refusing to end research projects using fetal tissue. The simmering fight spilled into public view on Monday night, as HHS abruptly terminated one longstanding contract with a fetal tissue provider while opening an audit of all federally funded research and practices related to fetal tissue, which is mostly obtained from abortions. (Diamond, 9/28)
The Wall Street Journal:
The Complex Reasons Sexual Assaults Go Unreported
The heated national debate about sexual misconduct has cast a spotlight on victims’ reluctance to report assault. The issue has been at the center of some of the most high-profile cases in the #MeToo era. The National Sexual Violence Resource Center, a Harrisburg, Pa., nonprofit, reviewed studies by the U.S. Department of Justice and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as well as academic legal research, and found only 5% to 20% of sexual-assault victims report attacks to law enforcement. (Bernstein, 9/29)
The Washington Post:
Sexual Assault Victims Are Reliving Their Trauma, Triggered By Kavanaugh Hearing
Painful. Gut-wrenching. Heartbreaking. Unbearable. That’s how women described listening to Thursday’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, where Christine Blasey Ford testified that Supreme Court nominee Brett M. Kavanaugh had sexually assaulted her when they were both in high school. (Bloom, 9/28)
NPR:
Traumatic Moments Are Burned Into Memory, Scientists Say
In Thursday's testimony at Judge Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearings, Christine Blasey Ford alleged Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her at a party in 1982, when she was 15 years old and he was 17. Kavanaugh staunchly denied these allegations.But memory is fallible. A question on many people's minds is, how well can anyone recall something that happened over 35 years ago? (Chatterjee, 9/28)
Los Angeles Times:
In Need Of Life-Saving Surgery, He Was Promised Refuge In America. Just 15 Months Later, He Died — Still Waiting
Seid Moradi was elated when he found out his family had been approved to resettle in America. As non-Muslims who’d fled death threats in Iran, the family barely scraped by in Turkey. His sons had trouble finding work because of discrimination toward refugees. His wife picked through trash bins for food. And the family of six crammed into a friend’s apartment. Moradi’s case had a special urgency, however. He needed life-saving surgery for a bulging blood vessel by his heart. An American doctor, he was told, could perform the operation once he arrived in the U.S. (Kaleem and Etehad, 9/30)
Government Shutdown Averted After Trump Signs Spending Bill
The legislation includes a big bump for the National Institutes of Health, as well as an overall increase in funding for HHS.
The Associated Press:
Trump Signs Spending Plan, Avoiding Government Shutdown
President Donald Trump signed an $854 billion spending bill on Friday to keep the federal government open through Dec. 7, averting a government shutdown in the weeks leading up to November's pivotal midterm elections. Trump signed the legislation to fund the military and several civilian agencies without journalists present as the fate of his Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, continued to hang in the balance. The House and Senate approved the spending plan earlier this week. (9/28)
The Washington Post:
Trump Signs Bill That Averts Government Shutdown, Sets Up Fight Over Border Wall
Funding for the Department of Health and Human Services, as well as the labor and education departments, would grow to $178 billion, a $1 billion increase and $11 billion more than the White House originally requested. This was a major priority for Democrats. Because Republicans only narrowly control the Senate, they need support from Democrats to pass spending bills. (Paletta, 9/28)
Midnight Journeys To Move Immigrant Children To Texas Tent City Play Out Across Country
To deal with the surging shelter populations, which have hovered near 90 percent of capacity since May, a mass reshuffling of detained immigrant children is underway and shows no signs of slowing. Hundreds of children are being shipped from shelters to a West Texas tent city each week, totaling more than 1,600 so far. Meanwhile, the Trump administration is seeking authority to block abortions sought by undocumented immigrants under 18.
The New York Times:
Migrant Children Moved Under Cover Of Darkness To A Texas Tent City
In shelters from Kansas to New York, hundreds of migrant children have been roused in the middle of the night in recent weeks and loaded onto buses with backpacks and snacks for a cross-country journey to their new home: a barren tent city on a sprawling patch of desert in West Texas. Until now, most undocumented children being held by federal immigration authorities had been housed in private foster homes or shelters, sleeping two or three to a room. They received formal schooling and regular visits with legal representatives assigned to their immigration cases. (Dickerson, 9/30)
The New York Times:
Do Migrant Teenagers Have Abortion Rights? Two Volatile Issues Collide In Court
The Trump administration is claiming broad new authority to block access to abortions sought by undocumented immigrants under age 18 who are in its custody. In a case that brings together two of the most volatile issues in American society, immigration and abortion, the Justice Department argued this past week before a federal appeals court that the government “has a strong, legitimate and profound interest in the life of the child in the womb.” (Pear, 9/29)
In other news —
Los Angeles Times:
L.A. County Could Join Fight Against Trump Immigration Rule
The ink isn’t yet dry on a controversial Trump administration proposal that could deny permanent residency or citizenship to immigrants who use public assistance programs, but some Los Angeles County officials are readying their opposition. The Board of Supervisors is expected this week to consider sending a letter to federal leaders asserting that the proposed rule would cause “significant harm” to the county and its residents. (Stiles, 10/1)