The Associated Press: California Aid-In-Dying Law Concerns Some Latinos, Blacks
California on Thursday becomes the latest state to allow the terminally ill to legally choose to end their lives, raising worries among some people in the state's large Latino and African-American communities that poor people with serious illnesses could be pressured to take lethal drugs as a cheaper option to long-term care. California is far more diverse than the other states where the option is available — Washington, Vermont, Montana and Oregon, the first to adopt the law in 1997. (Watson, 6/8)

Los Angeles Times: What We Know About Physician-Assisted Death From Oregon, By The Numbers
Oregon was the first state to allow patients with terminal illnesses to request medications that would end their lives. Though other states have since adopted similar laws, Oregon remains the best guide for what to expect in California when physician-assisted death becomes legal in the state Thursday. Here are some statistics about who has taken advantage of Oregon’s aid-in-dying law since it took effect in 1998. (Karlamangla, 6/9)

Bay Area News Group: California's Right-To-Die Law: Four With Terminal Illnesses Consider End-Of-Life Options
Eight months after it was signed into law by Gov. Jerry Brown, California's controversial End of Life Option Act goes into effect Thursday. The law allows mentally capable adults, diagnosed with six months or less to live, to ask doctors for prescriptions to end their lives when they choose. (Seipel, 6/8)

The Associated Press: New Smoking Age To Take Effect In California
Andrew Rodriguez was 15 years old when he smoked his first cigarette. He knows how addictive smoking can be and hopes a new California law raising the smoking age will discourage young people from taking up the habit. “I think it’s better,” said the 21-year-old chef-in-training from Los Angeles. “I just hope they don’t raise the drinking age.” Beginning Thursday, smokers have to be at least 21 to buy tobacco products in California. (Chang, 6/8)

Bloomberg: Pharma Group, Under Pressure, Punches Back On Prices
A top pharmaceutical lobbying group will begin a counteroffensive against scrutiny of industry pricing practices, responding to criticism from both major U.S. political parties in a contentious presidential election season. “Our industry has become an easy scapegoat for the real and growing problem of patient access to affordable new medications,” Jim Greenwood, chief executive officer of the Biotechnology Innovation Organization, will say Wednesday at the group’s convention in San Francisco, according to a copy of remarks obtained by Bloomberg News. (Chen and Bloomfield, 6/8)

California Healthline: State Legislators Push Bill To Inform Patients Of Drug Company Discount Programs
California lawmakers are lining up in support of a bill that would require health plans to provide information about patient-assistance programs for expensive prescription drugs to enrollees who drop or lose their coverage. The programs are funded by pharmaceutical companies and offer people financial aid for brand-name drugs. They provide the aid to both the uninsured and to people with health coverage, particularly those who are struggling to afford their share of expensive specialty medications. (Feder Ostrov and Terhune, 6/9)

The Los Angeles Times: New Combined SAG-AFTRA Health Plan To Cover More than 65,000 members
SAG-AFTRA, Hollywood’s largest labor union, announced that its two health plans will combine at the start of 2017, a long-sought goal of leaders who pushed to merge the two formerly separate unions five years ago. (Hersko, 6/8)

Associated Press: Health Officials Find Plague In Lake Tahoe-Area Flea
California officials say a flea found on a yellow chipmunk in the South Lake Tahoe area has tested positive for plague. The California Department of Public Health says the flea was found on a rodent in Fallen Leaf Campground. Warning signs have been posted in the area. (6/8)

Sacramento Business Journal: Manufacturers Welcome Overhaul Of Toxic Chemical Regulations
Manufacturers welcomed passage of a new law that overhauls regulations on the use of toxic chemicals, even though it will subject thousands of existing products to reviews by the Environmental Protection Agency. (Hoover, 6/8)

San Diego Union-Tribune: High-Vegetable Fat Mediterranean Diet Slightly Bests Low-Fat Diet
Those eating a Mediterranean diet rich in vegetable fats from olive oil or nuts manage weight as well as those on a low-fat diet, according to a new study published Monday. Moreover, those on the modified Mediterranean diet don't have to count their calories, according to the study, named PREDIMED. (Fikes, 6/8)

Desert Sun: Seven In Riverside County Charged With $98M Medical Fraud
Prosecutors in Riverside County have indicted seven people with 107 felonies in a medical insurance scheme they say resulted in more than $98 million in fraudulent claims. Peyman Heidary, 45, of Riverside is described in court records as a chiropractor and suspected architect of a "massive, fully integrated criminal enterprise" designed to commit workers' compensation insurance fraud. (Newkirk, 6/7)

In other news from across the state —

The Associated Press: State Regains Control Of Central Valley Prison's Health Care
California is regaining responsibility for providing medical care at a fourth state prison as it works to end a decade of federal control. A federal court-appointed receiver this week gave the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation control of inmate health care at California Correctional Institution. (6/8)

Palo Alto Daily News: Jury: County Lacking In Mental Health Services To Teens
The county needs to refine its process for dealing with teens during psychiatric emergencies, according to a report released Tuesday. The San Mateo County Civil Grand Jury issued the report titled, "Teens in Mental Health Crisis: From 911 to the Emergency Room Door," which found that the county's "lights and sirens" response leads individuals, schools and other public agencies to be "often reluctant to use the 911 dispatch system because of the detrimental effects on adolescents when first-responders arrive on the scene with lights and sirens activated." Kelly, 6/8)

The Wall Street Journal: Government Seeks Limits On Short-Term Health Policies
The Obama administration is seeking to limit short-term health policies that include features largely banned under the Affordable Care Act, a proposal that could crimp a profitable and growing business for some insurers. Under a proposed rule released Wednesday, insurers would only be able to offer short-term health policies that last less than three months, and the coverage couldn’t be renewed at the end of that period. The proposal seeks to close a gap that has let healthier consumers purchase short-term plans that could last for nearly a year, sometimes using them as a cheaper substitute for ACA plans. (Wilde Mathews, Radnofsky and Armour, 6/8)

The Hill: Administration Moves To Strengthen ObamaCare Marketplaces
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on Wednesday announced a range of steps aimed at improving the health of the ObamaCare marketplaces. The moves are aimed at improving the mix of healthy and sick enrollees, known as the “risk pool.” (Sullivan, 6/8)

Morning Consult: Hoping To Improve ACA Risk Pools, HHS Proposes Way To Curb Use Of Short-Term Plans
The department also announced it will propose a separate rule later this year that would include an adjustment factor for partial-year enrollees as part of the risk adjustment model beginning next January. A third proposed rule the department says is coming this year would include prescription drug utilization data into the risk adjustment model starting during the 2018 benefit year. Such proposed rules would ensure consumers are using temporary insurance plans for when they are intended, typically when someone is in the middle of a transition in their life that would affect their existing coverage, HHS said in a release explaining the rules. (McIntire, 6/8)

The New York Times: Congress Will Work On $1.1 Billion Measure To Fight Zika, McConnell Says
With public health officials warning of a fast-spreading emergency, House and Senate negotiators will work to reconcile legislation aimed at providing up to $1.1 billion to combat the Zika virus and the mosquitoes that carry it, Senator Mitch McConnell said on Wednesday. The Senate last month approved $1.1 billion — far less than the $1.9 billion sought by the Obama administration — in a regular appropriations measure, after four months of sparring with the White House. The House, in turn, approved $622 million in a stand-alone measure that requires all of the money to be reallocated from existing programs, including efforts to fight Ebola. (Herszenhorn, 6/8)

In other national health care news —

The Wall Street Journal: Bill Would Require Doctors To Report Medical-Device Hazards
Doctors would be required to report potentially serious problems with medical devices they use to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, under a new bill that a pair of lawmakers is expected to introduce in Congress Wednesday. The proposed legislation, known as the “Medical Device Guardian’s Act," is intended to help raise awareness of the possible risks of medical devices that could cause harm to patients. Sponsors of the bill said they were motivated to change the law after the long delay in public awareness of the risks of a women’s surgical tool called the laparoscopic power morcellator. (Levitz, 6/8)

The Hill: Biotech Lobby Plunges Into Drug Pricing Debate
The head of the nation’s largest biotech lobby declared Wednesday he is fighting back against the raging debate over drug prices that he said has turned his industry into “an easy scapegoat” in 2016. Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO) President Jim Greenwood announced a sweeping plan to reclaim the pharmaceutical industry’s reputation. ... The plan includes more paid advertisements and a campaign-style “rapid-response” team – which includes a former Jeb Bush campaign aide. BIO is also going "door-to-door" in Congress, where lawmakers have been quick to scrutinize the industry. (Ferris, 6/9)

The Associated Press: Study: Most Antidepressants Don't Work For Young Patients
Scientists say most antidepressants don't work for children or teenagers with major depression, some may be unsafe, and the quality of evidence about these drugs is so bad the researchers cannot be sure if any are truly effective or safe. In the biggest analysis yet conducted of previously published studies, researchers studied 14 antidepressants and found only one drug that seemed to be useful. (Cheng, 6/9)