KPCC: No Obamacare Mandate Could Mean Higher Health Costs In CA
As Senate Republicans move to repeal the Affordable Care Act's individual mandate as part of their tax bill, state officials worry that dropping this key element of Obamacare would lead to hundreds of thousands fewer insured Californians and ultimately to higher insurance costs. (Faust, 11/15)

The Associated Press: 'Obamacare' Mandate Repeal Would Remake Market For Consumers
Millions are expected to forgo coverage if Congress repeals the unpopular requirement that Americans get health insurance, gambling that they won't get sick and boosting premiums for others. The drive by Senate Republicans to undo the coverage requirement under former President Barack Obama's health care law is a sharp break from the idea that everyone should contribute to health care. (11/15)

The New York Times: Obamacare, Reliant On Insurance Requirement, Would Crumble Under Senate Tax Bill
Senate Republicans want to eliminate the Affordable Care Act’s requirement that most people buy health insurance as part of their overhaul of the tax code. Repealing the rule, known as the individual mandate, is a longstanding Republican goal and would allow lawmakers to save hundreds of billions of dollars to help pay for broad tax cuts. (Park, 11/15)

The Washington Post: The GOP Plan To Kill Obamacare’s Least Popular Provision Could Backfire On Some In The Middle Class
The Republican proposal to strike the Affordable Care Act's least popular provision, the requirement that people maintain health coverage or pay a fine, could bring an immediate political victory — but would backfire on upper-middle-class people who buy individual insurance and pay full price for their plans, health policy specialists said. “The market is stable, but you need to define 'stable.' 'Stable' is the insurance companies ramming the rates to holy hell,” said Robert Laszewski, president of Health Policy and Strategy Associates. “That's a catastrophically terrible market. This is a screwed-up market, to the 16th power. But it can continue this way, indefinitely. So, therefore, it's stable." (Johnson, 11/15)

Politico: How Cotton Brought Obamacare Repeal Back From The Dead
Sen. Tom Cotton was about to enter the White House early this month to discuss immigration policy when he got an unexpected call from President Donald Trump to talk about a different topic. For days, the Arkansas senator had been working behind the scenes to convince Republicans that reigniting a battle over repealing Obamacare in the tax fight wasn’t as crazy as it seemed. But Trump, still smarting from GOP’s failures to dismantle the law whom Cotton had first pitched on the idea four days prior, needed little persuading. (Kim and Haberkorn, 11/15)

The Washington Post Fact Checker: Schumer’s Claim That The GOP Is ‘Kicking 13 Million People Off Health Insurance’
In a last-minute switch to the Senate version of the GOP tax plan, lawmakers added a repeal of the individual mandate embedded in the Affordable Care Act. Schumer’s comment equates the health-care move with accusations that the tax bill is tilted toward the wealthy. The requirement that Americans maintain health coverage or pay a fine is one of the least popular provisions of Obamacare. But it is a key element of the law — one of three legs of the “stool” holding up the law. The two other legs are tax subsidies that make insurance affordable and a prohibition on insurance companies from denying coverage or raising premiums based on a preexisting condition. (Kessler, 11/16)

The Hill: Mandate Repeal Sparks Fears Of Premium Hikes
The move by Senate Republicans to repeal ObamaCare’s individual mandate could plunge insurance markets into uncertainty, leading to premium hikes or insurers dropping out of the market, experts say. The mandate requires most people to either have health insurance or pay a fine. It was designed to ensure that people don’t wait until they are sick to buy health insurance, since ObamaCare also bars insurers from denying coverage based on pre-existing conditions. (Sullivan, 11/16)

The Hill: GOP Senator: ObamaCare Mandate A 'Tax On The Poor And Working Class'
Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) called the ObamaCare individual mandate a "tax on the poor and working class" during an interview on Wednesday, one day after Senate Republicans announced they would include a repeal of the mandate in their tax-reform legislation. "The fact of the matter is that the individual mandate is a tax on the poor and working class," Scott said on "The Hugh Hewitt Show." (Manchester, 11/15)

The New York Times: Tax Bill Thrown Into Uncertainty As First G.O.P. Senator Comes Out Against It
Uncertainty gripped the Senate on Wednesday over efforts to pass a sweeping $1.5 trillion tax cut after a Wisconsin Republican became the first senator in his party to declare that he could not vote for the tax bill as written, and other senators expressed serious misgivings over the cost and effect on the middle class. The House is set on Thursday to pass its own version of the tax bill, which would cut taxes by more than $1.4 trillion over 10 years and broadly rewrite the business tax code. But as with the health care debate earlier this year, the Senate emerged as the inconstant ally in President Trump’s pursuit of a major legislative accomplishment in his first year. (Rappeport and Kaplan, 11/15)

The Associated Press: 'Obamacare' Sign-Ups 45 Percent Ahead Of Last Year's Pace
Sign-ups for Affordable Care Act health plans are running more than 45 percent ahead of last year's pace, according to government data released Wednesday. The numbers from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services come as Republican senators are pushing to pay for tax cuts by repealing the "Obamacare" requirement to carry coverage. (11/15)

Reuters: Nearly 1.5 Million People Signed Up For Obamacare Plans So Far: Officials
More than 800,000 people signed up for Obamacare individual health insurance plans in the second week of open enrollment, U.S. government health officials said on Wednesday, bringing the total number of sign-ups to nearly 1.5 million so far. (Abutaleb, 11/15)

The Washington Post: ACA Federal Enrollment Surges By At Least 47 Percent This Year, CMS Says
The portion of new consumers enrolling in ACA plans is slightly down this year, according to the latest federal report. Those Americans accounted for 23 percent of enrollees between Nov. 1 and Nov. 11, as opposed to 24 percent in the early days of 2016.

Politico: Defying Gloomy Predictions, Obamacare Enrollment Surges
In other words, there might be no such thing as bad news for Obamacare. “As P.T. Barnum would say, as long as my name is in the papers and it’s spelled correctly, it’s all good,” said Michael Marchand, chief marketing officer for Washington state’s Obamacare marketplace, which saw its website traffic increase by 24 percent during the first week of enrollment. “I think there’s some truth to that.” The conventional wisdom was that enrollment would dip significantly as a hostile administration gutted outreach and marketing. (Demko, 11/15)

KPCC: California Fines Anthem Blue Cross $5 Million For Ignoring Customer Complaints
California's Department of Managed Health Care fined Anthem Blue Cross $5 million Wednesday for "systemic" violations of its grievance policies. ... By state law, insurers are required to respond to consumer grievances within 30 days in most cases. (Faust, 11/15)

California Healthline: California Fines Anthem $5 Million For Failing to Address Consumer Grievances
“Anthem Blue Cross’ failures to comply with the law surrounding grievance and appeals rights are long-standing, ongoing and unacceptable,” said Shelley Rouillard, director of the Department of Managed Health Care. “The plan must correct the deficiencies in their grievance and appeals system and comply with the law.” Before this latest action, California had already fined Anthem more than $6 million collectively for grievance-system violations since 2002. (Terhune, 11/15)

Los Angeles Times: Anaheim Legionnaires' Outbreak Grows; 11 Cases Linked To Disneyland Visits
The number of people diagnosed with Legionnaires’ disease after spending time in Anaheim or Disneyland increased to 15, Orange County health officials said Wednesday. The victims were infected between late August and October, officials said. Two patients have died, though neither of them visited Disneyland. (Karlamangla, 11/15)

Orange County Register: 3 More Cases Of Legionnaires’ Disease Confirmed In Outbreak Linked To Anaheim And Disneyland
The county’s Health Officer, Dr. Eric Handler, issued an order Nov. 8 requiring Disney to take the towers out of service until the park can ensure that they are free of contamination. Jessica Good, a spokeswoman for the Health Care Agency confirmed, Wednesday, that Disney provided updated test results to the agency showing that there was no bacteria in the cooling towers after the water in them was sanitized Nov. 4. “Negative results mean that the towers do not pose a current ongoing risk for transmission of Legionella,” Good said, adding that the agency is working with Disney on procedures to bring the towers back into operation. (Bharath, 11/15)

Orange County Register: Southern California Soon Will Have A Lot More Old People, And That Will Change Everything
In a state known for youth, a recently released report unmasks the face of California and reveals we’re getting more wrinkled by the minute. The number of people age 60 and older will jump 40 percent by 2030, says the federally mandated California State Plan on Aging. (Whiting, 11/15)

In other public health news —

Capital Public Radio: Partial Win For Cities And Counties Suing Over Lead Paint
A California appeals court has ordered three major paint companies to pay for removing lead paint hazards, but only in older homes. The Sixth Appellate District Court in San Jose ruled Tuesday Sherwin Williams, NL Industries and ConAgra Company must pay for lead paint cleanup in homes built before 1951. (Schilling, 11/15)

The San Diego Union-Tribune: CDC Names Sharp Rees-Stealy Among Top In Nation At Controlling Blood Pressure
Sharp Rees-Stealy Medical Group is among 24 organizations nationwide recently honored for its work to control chronic high blood pressure among its patients. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention named the group one of its “Million Hearts Hypertension Control Challenge” winners for 2017, an award which requires proof that doctors have been able to control high blood pressure in at least 70 percent of their patients. (Sisson, 11/15)

In other news around the state —

Modesto Bee: In Case Unthinkable Happens, Modesto Students Train In How To Stop Uncontrolled Bleeding
When Stop the Bleed training — teaching students simple ways to stanch uncontrolled bleeding — was scheduled for Wednesday afternoon at Johansen High School, there was no way to know it would come just one day after yet another mass shooting. (Farrow, 11/15)

Orange County Register: 8 Southern California Doctors, Health Providers Suspended From Workers’ Comp Program
A convicted child molester, a physician possessing child pornography, a doctor with dementia, and a healthcare marketer who participated in a $600 million kickback scheme are among those suspended from California’s Workers’ Compensation program in the latest enforcement round. (Roosevelt, 11/15)