The Mercury News: While Premiums Hold Steady, High-Deductible Health Plans Shifting Costs To Employees
Double-digit premium hikes are jolting millions of Americans who get their coverage through the Affordable Care Act, but just the opposite is happening to Ryan Lemburg. Like most Americans who get their health insurance through their employers, the Tracy school teacher has seen his annual premiums creep up at a historically low pace since the country’s controversial health care law, Obamacare, was passed six years ago. Good news, right? So why doesn’t it feel that way? (Seipel, 10/23)

In other health law news —

Santa Rosa Press Democrat: Open Enrollment Underway For Medicare And Obamacare
Open enrollment for Obamacare and Medicare-related health and prescription drug plans is underway, and this year the state has a new tool to help consumers get the best health care at the lowest cost. In some cases, medical groups that are paid the most money do not necessarily provide higher quality care, said Elizabeth Abbott, director of the state Office of the Patient Advocate, or OPA. “Some people say, ‘I’m willing to pay any price for good health care,’ but what people should want to do is get the very best health care at the lowest price,” Abbott said. (Espinoza, 10/23)

KPCC: Proposition 61 Gives California Mandate To Lower Drug Prices, Not Tools 
California buys a lot of drugs. Medi-Cal pays for low-income residents, the Department of Corrections provides them to inmates, and CalPERS gives them to state employees and their families. Proponents of Proposition 61 think those agencies can band together to force prices lower, and the measure is very specific about how low: It would prohibit the state from paying any more for a drug than the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. (Bradford, 10/24)

The Associated Press: Why It Matters: Beneath The Fury, Issues That Matter
This is a presidential campaign about trust, temperament, honesty, judgment, character, personality and, some are convinced, a personality disorder or two. It's pocked with Donald Trump's ballistic-missile tweets in the middle of the night. It's enlivened by the spectacle of Hillary Clinton's campaign innards spilling day after day into public view, quite a WikiMess. Got a minute for the issues? Beyond all of the bluster in this campaign, a clash of ideas is also at work, with consequences for nearly all Americans and plenty of people around the world. (10/23)

The Associated Press: Why It Matters: Health Care
About 9 in 10 Americans now have health insurance, more than at any time in history. But progress is incomplete, and the future far from certain. Millions remain uninsured. Quality is still uneven. Costs are high and trending up again. Medicare's insolvency is two years closer, now projected in 2028. Every family has a stake. (10/23)

The Associated Press: Why It Matters: Abortion
Persistent Republican-led efforts to restrict access to abortion and to curb government funding for Planned Parenthood have been hotly debated in Washington and in states, and will be shaped in some way by the next president. (10/22)

The Associated Press: Why It Matters: Veterans
There are an estimated 21.6 million veterans in the United States. Among them, nearly 9 million are enrolled in health care provided by the Department of Veterans Affairs. About 4.3 million veterans get disability compensation from the VA and nearly 900,000 have been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. A 2014 law signed by President Barack Obama aimed to alleviate delays many veterans faced in getting treatment at VA hospitals and clinics and end the widespread practice of fake wait lists that covered up long waits for veterans seeking health care. Two years later, many of the problems remain. (10/22)

The Associated Press: Why It Matters: Opioid Epidemic
More Americans are dying from opioids than at any time in recent history, with overdose deaths hitting a peak of 28,000 in 2014. That amounts to 78 Americans dying from an opioid overdose every day, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC uses opioid as an umbrella term for synthetic painkillers and for drugs derived naturally from opium (known more specifically as opiates), such a heroin. (10/22)

Stat: Hospitals Are Refusing To Sell Sugary Drinks, Drawing Grumbles
With obesity rising, more hospitals across the country are dropping sugary drinks from cafeterias and vending machines — and angering employees and visitors in the process.“ It’s ridiculous,” said Terry Vincent, a surgical technologist eating lunch one recent afternoon in a hospital cafeteria at the University of California, San Francisco, which stopped selling sugar-sweetened drinks on its campuses one year ago. Many visitors spend long, stressful hours at the hospital sitting vigil with loved ones, he pointed out, adding: “Give ‘em a Coke!”Officials at UCSF say the policy is popular among staff, and is helping to trim their waistlines, but many workers on their lunch break begged to differ. (Bailey, 10/24)

Fresno Bee: Hearing On Clovis Mental Health Hospital Delayed 
A hearing on a controversial Clovis behavioral health hospital scheduled for Monday night has been postponed indefinitely by the City Council. The postponement came at the request of Kenneth Price, lawyer for Universal Health Services, the firm wanting to open the hospital. The 102-bed facility is proposed on industrial property in the Dry Creek Business Park north of Highway 168 and west of Clovis Avenue. (Benjamin, 10/22)

In other news —

East Bay Times: San Pablo: West County Healthcare District Files Bankruptcy
The special district that owns the shuttered Doctors Medical Center filed for Chapter 9 bankruptcy protection this week after a hotel operator pulled out of a deal to buy what remains of the hospital’s campus. The board of the West Contra Costa Healthcare District, which owns the hospital, had accepted an offer in January from Davis-based Royal Guest Hotels to buy the remaining 8.3 acres containing the hospital for $13.5 million. (Lochner, 10/22)

Los Angeles Times: Her Toddler Suddenly Paralyzed, Mother Tries To Solve A Vexing Medical Mystery
Erin Olivera waited weeks for doctors to tell her why her youngest son was paralyzed. Ten-month-old Lucian had started crawling oddly — his left leg dragging behind his right — and soon was unable to lift his head, following Erin only with his eyes. She took him to a hospital in Los Angeles, but doctors there didn’t know how to treat what they saw. (Karlamangla, 10/21)

In other public health news —

The Mercury News: Sexually Transmitted Diseases Surge In California 
Cases of sexually transmitted diseases in the United States have reached new highs, including an increase in syphilis not seen since the mid-1990s, federal health officials said in a report last week...California topped the list in number of cases, although the rate of infection for some sexually transmitted diseases, such as chlamydia, was highest in Alaska where there is a smaller population. But the Golden State saw rises in all three diseases. Gonorrhea cases nearly doubled in five years, from 27,500 infections in 2011, to 54,000 in 2015. At the same time, funding for STD prevention stagnated in the state. (Abram, 10/24)

The Wall Street Journal: Rising Insurance Premiums Boost Talk Of Changes To Affordable Care Act
Insurer defections and rising premiums in the individual insurance market are spurring Democrats and Republicans alike to talk about changes to the 2010 Affordable Care Act. For now, the conversations are largely aimed at their party’s base. President Barack Obama led his party’s cry on Thursday with suggestions that would further entrench the law, including the addition of a government-run health plan in parts of the country with limited competition. GOP lawmakers have continued to call for gutting the law, including proposals to waive its penalties for people who forgo coverage in areas with limited insurance options. In each of these proposals, both sides have been largely talking past one another. Come January, they will have to talk to each other instead. (Radnofsky, 10/21)

In other national health care news —

The Washington Post: Investigation: The DEA Slowed Enforcement While The Opioid Epidemic Grew Out Of Control
A decade ago, the Drug ­Enforcement Administration launched an aggressive campaign to curb a rising opioid epidemic that was claiming thousands of American lives each year. The DEA began to target wholesale companies that distributed hundreds of millions of highly addictive pills to the corrupt pharmacies and pill mills that illegally sold the drugs for street use. Leading the campaign was the agency’s Office of Diversion Control, whose investigators around the country began filing civil cases against the distributors, issuing orders to immediately suspend the flow of drugs and generating large fines. But the industry fought back. (Bernstein and Higham, 10/22)

The Washington Post: How Drugs Intended For Patients Ended Up In The Hands Of Illegal Users: ‘No One Was Doing Their Job’
For 10 years, the government waged a behind-the-scenes war against pharmaceutical companies that hardly anyone knows: wholesale distributors of prescription narcotics that ship drugs from manufacturers to consumers. The Drug Enforcement Administration targeted these middlemen for a simple reason. If the agency could force the companies to police their own drug shipments, it could keep millions of pills out of the hands of abusers and dealers. That would be much more effective than fighting “diversion” of legal painkillers at each drugstore and pain clinic. (Bernstein, Fallis and Higham, 10/22)

The New York Times: The VSED Exit: A Way To Speed Up Dying, Without Asking Permission
At 91, Ms. Greenfield told her family she was ready to die. ... Then her son-in-law, a family physician who had written such prescriptions for other patients, explained the somewhat involved process: oral and written requests, a waiting period, two physicians’ assent. “I don’t have time for that,” Ms. Greenfield objected. “I’m just going to stop eating and drinking.” In end-of-life circles, this option is called VSED, for voluntarily stopping eating and drinking. It causes death by dehydration, usually within seven to 14 days. (Span, 10/21)

The New York Times: What 130 Of The Worst Shootings Say About Guns In America
After nearly two decades of expanding legal access to firearms, a succession of horrific shootings like Mr. Houser’s have refocused attention on gun control. Since the 2012 massacre of 26 elementary school children and teachers in Newtown, Conn., gun control advocates have scored some significant victories in state legislatures. Nationwide, several polls suggest that public opinion has shifted markedly in favor of stricter gun laws. And for the first time since Al Gore called for tighter firearm restrictions in his losing 2000 campaign, gun control is a top-level issue in the presidential contest, as well as in two close Senate races and four state ballot initiatives. (LaFraniere and Palmer, 10/21)