Los Angeles Times: Senate Health Bill Would Leave Medi-Cal With $115-Billion Shortfall Through 2027, Analysis Finds
The Senate healthcare bill released last week would leave California short $115 billion for its Medi-Cal program between 2020 and 2027, according to a state analysis released Wednesday. The Medi-Cal program, which is jointly funded by the state and federal government, grew dramatically under the Affordable Care Act to cover 13.5 million Californians, or 1 out of 3 state residents. (Karlamangla, 6/28)

California Healthline: Calif. Officials Sound Alarm, Envisioning $114B Hit To Medi-Cal Under U.S. Senate Bill
The reductions in the nation’s largest Medicaid program would start at $3 billion in 2020 and would escalate to $30.3 billion annually by 2027, according to an analysis released by the state departments of finance and health care services. (Gorman, 6/28)

KPCC: Senate Health Care Bill Would Affect 4 Million Californians, Cost State $30 Billion A Year
"This bill takes a sledgehammer to the improvements we have made in our state’s health care delivery system," DHCS Director Jennifer Kent said in a statement. Officials warn that the plan to shift health care costs to the state would mean cuts in some combination to who would get Medi-Cal coverage, what services would be covered, and how much doctors would be paid for those services. (Faust, 6/28)

The New York Times: As Affordable Care Act Repeal Teeters, Prospects For Bipartisanship Build
With his bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act in deep trouble, Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader, raised an alternate possibility on Tuesday: Either Republicans come together, or he would have to work with Democrats to shore up the deteriorating health law. That raised a tantalizing prospect: bipartisanship. (Pear and Kaplan, 6/28)

The Washington Post: McConnell Is Trying To Revise The Senate Health-Care Bill By Friday
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is aiming to send a revised version of his health-care bill to the Congressional Budget Office as soon as Friday as he continues to push for a vote before Congress’s August recess. The effort reflects the tight timeline McConnell faces in his attempt to hold a vote in July — and the pressure he is under to change the bill to garner enough support to pass it. With both conservatives and centrists pushing different policy solutions, Senate leaders were struggling to craft a rewrite of the Affordable Care Act on Wednesday that would attract votes without torpedoing the CBO’s official score of how the legislation affects coverage levels and federal spending. (Sullivan, Eilperin and Snell, 6/28)

The Associated Press: Little Progress Evident As GOP Hunts Health Bill Votes
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is exploring options for salvaging the battered Republican health care bill, even as he confronts an expanding chorus of GOP detractors. That is deepening the uncertainty over whether the party can resuscitate its promise to repeal President Barack Obama's overhaul. (6/29)

Politico: Trump Teases 'Big Surprise' On Senate Obamacare Repeal Effort
President Donald Trump on Wednesday suggested that “a big surprise” could be coming in the Republican effort to repeal and replace Obamacare, a tease that came hours after the president predicted that Senate Republicans are “going to get at least very close” to passing their stalled health care bill. “And just to do a little official business, health care is working along very well. We could have a big surprise with a great health care package. So, now they're happy,” Trump said, gesturing to a group of reporters during a meet-and-greet with the visiting World Series champion Chicago Cubs. (Nelson, 6/28)

Politico: Trump To Warring GOP Senators: I'm On Your Side
Rand Paul and Susan Collins are on opposite ends of the Republican Party when it comes to health care, yet somehow the two senators both left this week’s Obamacare repeal meetings with President Donald Trump thinking he’s on their side. Paul wants to gut as much of Obamacare as possible and recalled after his one-on-one meeting that the president “realizes that moderates have gotten everything so far” on the health care talks. The centrist Collins, on the other hand, left a larger Tuesday gathering with the president sure that he still wants to make the bill’s health care offerings more robust, explaining that “he did leave me with that impression.” (Everett and Dawsey, 6/28)

The Washington Post: How The Push For A Senate Health-Care Vote Fell Apart Amid GOP Tensions
Sen. Dean Heller was sitting two seats away from President Trump and facing his grim-faced colleagues this week when he decided to crack a pointed joke. Heller — a square-jawed, ­sandy-haired moderate Republican — said the attack ads against him, paid for by a Trump-allied super PAC, should have used his own image instead of actor Matt Damon’s. There were scattered laughs, including a chuckle from Trump. But many of the Republican lawmakers lining tables in the East Room stayed mute. (Costa, Sullivan, Eilperin and Snell, 6/28)

The Associated Press: Analysis: For GOP Congress, An Imperative On Health Care
Congressional Republicans are stymied over health care. But after seven years of promising to repeal and replace former President Barack Obama's law, they risk political disaster if they don't deliver. Republicans anticipate a major backlash from GOP voters if they don't make good on the promises that swept them to control of the House and Senate and helped propel Donald Trump to the White House in last year's elections. (6/29)

The Associated Press Fact Check: Warped Reality In Health Debate
The superheated argument over the Republican drive to overhaul health care has not been the finest moment for accuracy. Here's a sampling of claims from both sides as Senate Republicans struggle to revive their stalled legislation. (Woodward and Drinkard, 6/29)

The Washington Post: What You Need To Know About Preexisting Conditions In The Senate GOP Health Plan
This week, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) delayed the vote on the Senate health-care plan until after the Fourth of July holiday to give lawmakers a chance to study the bill and work out a new compromise to overhaul the 2010 Affordable Care Act. As with the House version that passed in May, Democrats have criticized the impact that the Senate bill, the Better Care Reconciliation Act (BCRA), would have on people with preexisting medical conditions. They argue that the BCRA would no longer protect Americans with preexisting conditions, despite the bill’s explicit ban on states waiving coverage based on preexisting conditions. Yet a Republican opponent of the bill criticized it for not repealing the protection enough. What is going on? (Lee, 6/28)

Politico: Both Sides Push For Edge In Health Care Fight
The Senate GOP’s Obamacare repeal effort may have stumbled, but activists on the right and left hustled into action on Wednesday to try to shape the rewrite on one side — or kill the bill outright, on the other. Liberals capped their third straight day of massive demonstrations against repeal by drawing a thousand-plus demonstrators to the Capitol, while gearing up to pressure moderate GOP lawmakers in their home states during next week’s recess. (Schor and Cancryn, 6/28)

The Washington Post: How Trump Is A Little Bit Right And A Lot Bit Wrong About Medicaid
President Trump on Wednesday said that the Republican plan to change Medicaid would lead to an increase in spending, not a cut, accusing Democrats of having “purposely misstated” the facts. In a literal sense, he's right. The total amount of money spent on Medicaid under the Senate Republican plan would grow, albeit slowly, from 2017 to 2026. (Paletta and Johnson, 6/28)

NPR: Veterans Who Rely On Medicaid Fear GOP's Planned Cuts
Air Force veteran Billy Ramos, from Simi Valley, Calif., is 53 and gets health insurance for himself and for his family from Medicaid — the government insurance program for lower-income people. He says he counts on the coverage, especially because of his physically demanding work as a self-employed contractor in the heating and air conditioning business. (O'Neill, 6/28)

Politico: Polls Show GOP Health Bill Bleeding Out
Republican efforts to craft a new health care bill just hit another roadblock: An avalanche of public polling data dropped Wednesday, showing support for the legislation is under 20 percent. That’s bad enough, but it’s not just the topline numbers that are near rock-bottom. Few voters think the bill will make the health care system or their own care better. And many of the policy changes in the various versions of GOP health legislation — like decreasing federal funding for Medicaid — are profoundly unpopular. (Shepard, 6/28)

Sacramento Bee: CA Lawmaker Death Threats For Blocking Universal Health Care
Anger over Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon’s decision to shelve universal health care legislation in California has boiled into aggressive protests and even violent rhetoric against the Democratic leader. Rendon said Wednesday that he and his family have experienced “distressing” death threats since announcing late last Friday that the “woefully incomplete” Senate Bill 562 would not move forward this year. (Koseff, 6/28)

The Mercury News: Over 100 Californians Ended Their Lives Under State’s Right-To-Die Law 
One hundred and eleven. That’s the number of California residents who died with the help of doctor-prescribed drugs under the state’s new aid-in-dying law, according to a first-of-its-kind report released Tuesday. Nearly 200 received the drugs under the law, the report said. The law allowing assisted suicide in the Golden State, called the End of Life Option Act, went into effect on June 9, 2016, ending years of passionate debate over whether the state should allow any mentally competent California adult, diagnosed with less than six months to live, to end their life with a lethal drug prescription from their doctor. (May and Seipel, 6/28)

The Bakersfield Californian: Valley Children's Hospital Makes Best Hospital Lists 
Valley Children’s Hospital in Madera made U.S. News & World Report’s new 2017-2018 Best Children’s Hospitals list in the categories of Pediatric Orthopedics (36th), Pediatric Diabetes & Endocrinology (46th) and Pediatric Gastroenterology & Gastrointestinal Surgery (50th). The rankings highlight the top 50 U.S. pediatric facilities and are designed to help parents find the best care for their kids.  “U.S. News & World Report has recognized what we’ve known for a long time — that our pediatric specialists, nurses and everyone here at Valley Children’s stack up with the best,” Valley Children’s President and CEO Todd Suntrapak said in a news release. “It is a great recognition and so richly deserved by our team." (6/28)

Los Angeles Times: Air Pollution Exposure May Hasten Death, Even At Levels Deemed 'Safe,' Study Says
The nationwide study of more than 60 million senior citizens linked long-term exposure to two main smog pollutants — ozone and fine particulate matter — to an increased risk of premature death. The analysis found no sign of a “safe” level of pollution, below which the risk of dying early tapered off. (Barboza, 6/28)

Los Angeles Times: This Cutting-Edge Bandage Could Make Flu Shots A Thing Of The Past
Here’s an idea whose time has come: A flu shot that doesn’t require an actual shot. For the first time, researchers have tested a flu vaccine patch in a human clinical trial and found that it delivered as much protection as a traditional jab with a needle. (Kaplan, 6/28)

In other public health news —

Sacramento Bee: California Bill Blocks Weed Companies From Advertising On Clothes 
A California Senate bill would ban state-licensed businesses from offering T-shirts, hats and other merchandise that advertise marijuana products. The legislation, introduced by Sen. Ben Allen, builds on provisions under Proposition 64 aimed at cracking down on weed marketing that appeals to kids. (Luna, 6/29)

KPBS: Number Of Hepatitis A Cases In San Diego County Continue To Rise 
According to a new report by the San Diego County Health and Human Services Agency, there are now 196 confirmed cases of the viral disease, 142 hospitalizations and four deaths, making this the largest hepatitis A outbreak in California in more than two decades and the third largest in the nation since the hepatitis A vaccine was introduced in the late 1990s. (Cabrera and Cavanaugh, 6/28)

Orange County Register: Orange County Sheriff: ACLU Report Alleging Poor Jail Conditions Is Distorted, Inaccurate 
Orange County Sheriff Sandra Hutchens lashed back at a report alleging unhealthy and violent conditions in the county jail system, saying the critique relied on questionable accounts by former inmates and painted an inaccurate picture of jail operations. Hutchens, who said Tuesday that she won’t seek re-election next year, said she wanted to personally rebut the ACLU report. (Graham and Wisckol, 6/28)

In other news from across the state —

Los Angeles Times: A Woman Got 'Lamb Fat' Injected Into Her Buttocks; Now She Needs Major Reconstructive Surgery 
The woman, who was identified only as I.T. in a federal affidavit filed Friday, told authorities her troubles began when she employed the services of Ana Bertha Diaz Hernandez — a Monterey Park beautician who promised to make the woman’s callipygian dreams come true with a series of lamb’s fat injections... Last week, authorities arrested Diaz Hernandez on federal felony charges alleging receipt of an adulterated and misbranded medical device, smuggling of merchandise and misbranding of prescription drugs, according to the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles. (Rocha, 6/28)

The Desert Sun: Desert Healthcare District Gives $2 Million For Homeless Services
The Desert Healthcare District is now invested in fighting homelessness. On Tuesday, the district board voted 5-0 to give $2 million to a new collective fund to support homeless services, and to start seeking other donations. And for any cities that give $103,000 to the new West Valley Housing Navigation Program, the district has promised matching funds. (Murphy, 6/28)

San Francisco Chronicle: Homeless Camps Becoming Entrenched In Oakland
San Francisco has a mature infrastructure to help the homeless — from cutting-edge Navigation Centers that help people find shelter to a recent $100 million charitable donation to support the chronically destitute. Oakland is still experimenting with how to respond to the crisis. (Garofoli and Veklerov, 6/28)