- California Healthline Original Stories 3
- While Washington Fiddles, California Leaders Forge Ideas For Universal Health Care
- GOP Has No Choice But To Keep Pushing Health Care Rock Up The Hill
- To Help Ward Off Alzheimer’s, Think Before You Eat
- Sacramento Watch 1
- After 'Wake Up Call' From Flint, Lawmaker Offers Mandatory School Lead Testing Bill
Latest From California Healthline:
California Healthline Original Stories
While Washington Fiddles, California Leaders Forge Ideas For Universal Health Care
But it could take years to achieve coverage for everyone – if it happens at all. (Pauline Bartolone, )
GOP Has No Choice But To Keep Pushing Health Care Rock Up The Hill
The White House continues to look for a policy “win” while members of the House are concerned about heading home for the spring recess where they could “get hammered” for not fulfilling their promise to repeal Obamacare. (Julie Rovner, )
To Help Ward Off Alzheimer’s, Think Before You Eat
Good nutrition has been linked to a boost in senior citizens’ cognitive skills. (Judith Graham, )
More News From Across The State
After 'Wake Up Call' From Flint, Lawmaker Offers Mandatory School Lead Testing Bill
Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher, the bill's author, said a lot of schools may be reluctant to request testing because dealing with lead contamination can be costly. Meanwhile, a therapy dog sniffs out chemical problem at a San Diego school.
KPCC:
Bill Would Force CA Schools To Test Drinking Water For Lead
Most schools in California are not required to test their drinking water for lead, but a bill in the State Assembly would make testing mandatory. The lead crisis in Flint, Michigan, was a "wake up call," said the bill's author, Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher (D-San Diego). (Lavender, 4/6)
KPBS:
Lead Not The Only Chemical Found In The Water At Southcrest School
San Diego public utility workers began testing water for lead at San Diego Unified schools this week. It's been widely reported a therapy dog at a school in Southcrest sniffed out the potential lead problem. But a district spokesman says the dog actually led custodians to discover another contaminant — one the city water tests won't detect. (Burks, 4/5)
In other news from Sacramento —
Capital Public Radio:
Bill Would Allow Third Gender On Birth Certificates, Driver's Licenses
Californians may soon be able to choose a third gender when filling out government documents such as driver's licenses and birth certificates. The Gender Recognition Act would allow people to identify as "non-binary." Senators Toni Atkins (D-San Diego) and Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) co-authored the bill. (Johnson, 4/5)
Medical Center Gets 'Some Breathing Room' With $1M Investment From Fla. Company
Sonoma West Medical Center was preparing for possible closure before the infusion came. On Tuesday, the hospital stopped receiving new patients and its in-patient census had dropped as low as two people. Emergency crews reported ambulances being turned away from the hospital.
Santa Rosa Press Democrat:
Sonoma West Medical Center Gets Capital ‘Infusion’ From Florida Company
Sonoma West Medical Center announced Wednesday it has obtained “a capital infusion” of $1 million from a Florida-based company that hopes to profit from the hospital’s laboratory operations. The funds, which the medical center’s CEO described as an “investment,” would enable Sonoma West Medical Center to keep the hospital running and pay back money owed to key vendors, said John Peleuses, the hospital’s CEO...Peleuses said the money was coming from Durall Capital Holdings, an operator and manager of general acute care hospitals and outpatient services. It owns two hospitals and two laboratories in the southeastern U.S. (Espinoza, 4/5)
In other news —
KPBS:
Pinwheels Displayed At Rady Children's Hospital Represent Child Abuse Victims
A display of 1,800 royal blue pinwheels were set up on Wednesday on the front lawn at Rady Children’s Hospital to represent the number of abused or neglected children treated at the hospital’s Chadwick Center over the past year. The display was set up to mark National Child Abuse Prevention Month and to raise awareness of the issue of abuse and neglect. (Murphy, 4/5)
Doctors Key Part Of Initiative To Better Represent Minorities In Clinical Trials
The California Medical Association Foundation is launching a program to make sure minorities are aware of the research opportunities that exist for them.
Capital Public Radio:
Initiative Aims To Get More Minorities In Clinical Trials
Last year, 76 percent of clinical trial participants were white, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Latinos, African Americans and Asians have long been underrepresented in these trials. The California Medical Association Foundation and its Network of Ethnic Physicians Organizations (NEPO) hope to change that through an initiative to educate them on the benefits of drug trials. (Johnson, 4/5)
In other research news —
The Mercury News:
UCSF Study: Special Video Game May Help Reduce ADHD
After playing a special video game for four weeks, a group of children with sensory processing dysfunction who also suffered from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder showed such noticeable improvements in attention span that a third of them no longer fit the criteria for ADHD, according to a new study. In the UC San Francisco report, which appeared Wednesday in the scientific journal PLOS ONE, researchers measured the impact of cognitive training on attention spans among 38 children with the dysfunction, and compared them with 25 typically developing children of the same age and gender. (Seipel, 4/5)
Ventura County To Get Much-Needed Drug Treatment Center For Youths
The facility, which could be serving the county in a year's time, will focus first on foster kids and at-risk children in public-sector programs, but care also will likely be available to the general public.
Ventura County Star:
Drug Treatment Site For Kids Could Be Open In Year
A long-sought residential substance abuse treatment center should be completed outside Camarillo by this winter and in less than a year could be treating youths with addictions to substances ranging from alcohol to opioids, project leaders said Wednesday. Site work on the two-cottage center with 16 bedrooms began in January as part of an expansion of Casa Pacifica Centers for Children & Families and was celebrated in a groundbreaking ceremony. Treatment will focus first on foster youths and other at-risk children in public-sector programs, but care also will likely be available to the general public, said Casa Pacifica CEO Steve Elson. (Kisken, 4/5)
In other news —
The Associated Press:
Police Object To California Marijuana Regulation Revamp
California law enforcement officials objected Wednesday to Gov. Jerry Brown’s proposed streamlining of the state’s marijuana regulations, saying his plan could endanger public safety. Brown’s administration released documents late Tuesday outlining proposed changes to square the state’s new recreational pot law with its longstanding law on medical marijuana. (Blood and Elias, 4/5)
House To Make Last-Minute Tweaks To Health Plan As White House Pushes For Progress
Language to create a risk-sharing fund will be added to the Republicans' health bill at a Rules Committee on Thursday, news outlets report. However, the non-controversial measure is unlikely to move any lawmakers' stances on the issue.
The Washington Post:
At Trump’s Request, House May Tweak Health-Care Bill Before Recess
House Republican leaders are making last-minute plans to modify their stalled health-care bill Thursday in response to pressure from the Trump administration to show progress toward passing the bill before lawmakers leave for a two-week recess. Four people familiar with the plans, including a House member who has been involved in the health-care discussions, said an amendment providing for “high-risk pools” — a mechanism to subsidize insurance coverage for the seriously ill — will be added to the health-care bill at a Rules Committee meeting Thursday. (By Winfield Cunningham, Eilperin and DeBonis, 4/6)
The Hill:
House GOP Moves To Add Change To Health Bill Before Recess
House Republicans will move Thursday to add an amendment to their ObamaCare replacement bill as a way to show progress before recess, despite the lack of a major breakthrough. The House Rules Committee will meet Thursday to add language creating a “risk-sharing fund” to subsidize care for people with high medical costs, a senior House GOP aide said. The idea functions like a high-risk pool that Republicans have long supported. (Sullivan, 4/6)
Politico:
House GOP Mulls Emergency Meeting To Push Obamacare Repeal
House Republicans are considering an emergency committee meeting Thursday to keep their Obamacare replacement plan afloat, sources told POLITICO — a last-minute decision that comes just as the GOP repeal effort was seen as all but dead for the foreseeable future. (Bade, 4/5)
Intraparty Blame Game Heats Up As 'Zombie Trumpcare' Falters Again Right Before Recess
Though talks continue, lawmakers are likely headed back to their districts for a two-week recess after failing to revive a health care plan.
The New York Times:
As Latest Health Plan Dies, Republicans Can’t Agree On A Culprit
The new bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act is dead, killed off by House Republicans who never actually read the legislation — because in fact, it never actually existed. Conservative groups moved quickly on Wednesday to shift the blame for the failure of a seven-year promise to repeal the law onto some not-as-conservative Republicans, after a small but powerful group of hard-line House conservatives failed again to come to a meeting of the minds with the Trump administration over how best to repeal and replace President Barack Obama’s signature achievement. (Steinhauer and Pear, 4/5)
The Wall Street Journal:
GOP Talks To Relaunch Health Law Sputter
President Donald Trump has said on Twitter he still wants to pursue passage of the GOP health-care bill, but lawmakers are unlikely to reach an agreement before they leave Washington Thursday for a two-week recess. “I think it’s difficult to finish one by the end of the week,” said House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R., Calif.) (Peterson and Andrews, 4/5)
Bloomberg:
GOP Points Fingers At Each Other As Health Deal Prospects Fade
Let the blame game begin -- again -- with House Republicans saying Wednesday they still can’t reach a deal on reviving their health-care bill, likely delaying any chance of action until at least May...The White House made another run at delivering on GOP promises to repeal and replace Obamacare, with Vice President Mike Pence spending Monday and Tuesday nights meeting with House lawmakers. But Republicans concede they still aren’t ready to vote, meaning that action is very unlikely this month. (House, Edgerton and John, 5/5)
In other health law news —
Politico:
White House Divided On Obamacare Payments
The disintegration of the latest Obamacare repeal bid in the House has thrown the health law’s fate back to a divided circle of White House advisers wrestling with whether to pay out key subsidies — or cut them off and blow up the health law. The aides have limited time to figure things out; health plans must decide in June whether to stay in Obamacare insurance markets next year or pull out. (Dawsey, Kenen and Haberkorn, 4/5)
Gottlieb: FDA Doesn't Have To Choose Between Speed And Safety
Dr. Scott Gottlieb, President Donald Trump's pick to head the FDA, answered questions about drug safety, the opioid epidemic, his potential conflicts of interests and more at his Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee confirmation hearing.
The New York Times:
F.D.A. Nominee Deflects Criticism About Ties To Drugmakers At Hearing
Dr. Scott Gottlieb, President Trump’s nominee to lead the Food and Drug Administration, told Congress on Wednesday that he could speed the approval of new drugs without compromising safety or increasing risks, deflecting questions about his past writings, drug-company investments and Mr. Trump’s controversial positions. “We should reject a false dichotomy that it all boils down to a choice between speed and safety,” Dr. Gottlieb said at his confirmation hearing before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. (Pear, 4/5)
In other news —
The Washington Post:
Conservatives Fall Short Of Another Goal: Defunding Planned Parenthood
Antiabortion groups thought they had a sure way to slash funding for the country’s largest abortion provider as part of the health-care overhaul proposed by the House Republican leadership. But the overhaul failed — a nascent effort to revive it has also stalled — dampening conservatives’ once-high hopes to achieve one of their dearest goals: defunding Planned Parenthood. (Cunningham, 4/5)
Stat:
Democrats Urge Trump To Issue Rules On Overriding Patents
More than 50 Democratic lawmakers have told President Trump that he can take one step himself to lower drug prices: Instruct the National Institutes of Health to override patents for medicines that were discovered with federal funds, but carry price tags that are out of reach for many Americans. In a letter sent on Tuesday, they argued the NIH should be encouraged to pursue so-called march-in rights. Under a 1980 federal law, this allows an agency that funds private research to require a drug maker to license its patent to another party in order to “alleviate health and safety needs which are not being reasonably satisfied” or when the benefits of a drug are not available on “reasonable terms.” (Silverman, 4/5)
Politico:
Ivanka's Secret Planned Parenthood Outreach
In the weeks following her father’s inauguration, Ivanka Trump quietly reached out to the president of Planned Parenthood seeking common ground on the contentious issue of abortion. ... Their under-the-radar meeting — a rarity between a well-known Democratic activist and a close adviser to a Republican president — has not been previously reported. (Karni, 4/6)
Stat:
She's Hellbent On Solving The Organ Shortage With 'Designer Pigs'
Where other people see bacon, biologist Luhan Yang sees lifesaving organs — hundreds and thousands of them, pig livers and pig kidneys and diabetes-curing pancreases, and possibly hearts and lungs, all growing inside droves of pampered swine. More established scientists than Yang have dreamed of creating animal organs that are suitable for transplantation into people waiting for a human donor. But until recently, experts said it would take decades to genetically alter pig organs to make them work safely in people. (Begley, 4/6)
The Washington Post:
More Than 1 In 5 U.S. Adults Were Infected By A Type Of High-Risk HPV, CDC Report Shows
During a recent two-year period, almost 23 percent of U.S. adults ages 18 to 59 had a type of genital human papillomavirus (HPV) that put them at high risk of certain cancers, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report published Thursday. That percentage jumped to more than 42 percent during 2013 to 2014 if any type of genital HPV was included, the CDC found. In both groups, prevalence was higher in men than in women, and it was sharply higher among blacks compared to other racial and ethnic groups. (Naqvi, 4/6)