The Bakersfield Californian: Covered California Bus Tour Coming Through Bakersfield Saturday 
Vowing to “set the record straight” amid mixed messages from Washington about the future of the Affordable Care Act, healthcare leaders from Covered California, the state’s insurance marketplace, are stopping Saturday in Bakersfield as part of a statewide tour encouraging people sign up as enrollment season begins. The ACA, commonly referred to as Obamacare, has been under threat this year from President Donald J. Trump, who has vowed to “repeal and replace” the act. Republican leaders have failed to make good on that campaign promise thus far, but the Trump administration has slashed funding to advertise enrollment periods, which began Wednesday and end Jan. 31. (Pierce, 11/1)

The Washington Post: ACA Enrollment Opens After GOP Fails To Kill Off Obamacare
From coast to coast, the fifth annual season for Americans to buy insurance under the Affordable Care Act opened on Wednesday with scattered reports of crowds, some technical difficulties and a public confused as never before by the political turmoil surrounding the law. The federal website HealthCare.gov said “2018 Open Enrollment is here,” as both it and state insurance marketplaces attracted the year’s first customers. They came despite a 90-percent reduction in federal advertising about the sign-up window and a decision by the Trump administration to send advance emails about enrollment to millions fewer Americans than in past years. (Goldstein, Eilperin and Itkowitz, 11/1)

Politico: First Day Of Obamacare Enrollment Stays Drama-Free
Former President Barack Obama sought to boost his namesake health law Wednesday by appearing in a video urging people to sign up for coverage on the first day of the 2018 enrollment season. Obama’s call comes as the Trump administration has taken numerous actions to undermine the law while doing almost nothing to publicize the start of the six-week enrollment season that wraps up on Dec. 15. (Cancryn and Pradhan, 11/1)

The Washington Post: Federal Notices About ACA Enrollment Season Get Cut In Number And Messaging
In preparation for the Affordable Care Act’s latest enrollment season, the Trump administration sent notices about the sign-up options to millions fewer Americans than in past years and deleted themes known to be most effective in motivating consumers to sign up. Emails went in advance only to people with current health-care plans through marketplaces created under the law, leaving out most of the names in a database of about 20 million consumers who once had such coverage or at some point explored the federal website HealthCare.gov. (Goldstein, 11/1)

The Hill: Trump Health Chief Wants 'Consumer Friendly' ObamaCare Signups 
President Trump's acting health chief said Wednesday that the administration wants to make the ObamaCare sign-up season "as consumer friendly as possible." Eric Hargan, the acting secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), said in a speech that Trump is committed to repealing and replacing the law, but the administration still wants this enrollment period, which began Wednesday, to go smoothly. (Sullivan, 11/1)

The New York Times: How To Be A Smart Obamacare Shopper
The Trump administration’s actions to scale back Obamacare have made it harder and more complicated to find the best health plan. But the pricing chaos has also created great deals for some consumers, who can sign up during open enrollment beginning today. Here’s our advice on how to shop — the best strategy depends on how much you earn. (Sanger-Katz and Park, 11/1)

The Wall Street Journal: Repeal Of ACA’s Individual Mandate Could Be Part Of Tax Overhaul
Republicans may seek to repeal the Affordable Care Act requirement that most Americans must have insurance coverage or pay a fine as part of their tax overhaul package, part of a push to undo or delay parts of the health law in the aftermath of the failure of a broader repeal effort. President Donald Trump, in posts on his Twitter account Wednesday, threw his support behind the proposal. (Armour and Peterson, 11/1)

The Hill: Trump Suggests Repealing ObamaCare Mandate In Tax Bill 
President Trump on Wednesday suggested using the GOP tax bill to repeal ObamaCare’s individual mandate. “Wouldn't it be great to Repeal the very unfair and unpopular Individual Mandate in ObamaCare and use those savings for further Tax Cuts,” Trump tweeted. (Weixel, 11/1)

KPCC: CA Victims Of Las Vegas Shootings Could Receive Funds From 2 States 
More than 1,400 Californians have applied for financial help from state victim's compensation programs following last month's mass shooting in Las Vegas. Thousands of Californians who survived the attack, and the families of those killed, are eligible for financial help from their state fund, as well as the one in Nevada, where the attack took place. (Huang, 11/1)

Capital Public Radio: Violence Policy Center's Joshua Sugarmann On Preventing Gun Violence 
It's been a month since the deadliest mass shooting in American history when a gunman opened fire on a crowd of people at a festival in Las Vegas. In the wake of that violence, federal legislation to ban "bump stocks" — used by the shooter to modify his weapons to make them more deadly — has languished. (Ruyak, 11/1)

The Mercury News: San Jose: A Youth Psych Center At Valley Medical Center?
There’s been a severe shortage of inpatient psychiatric care facilities for troubled teens and youth for decades in Santa Clara County, and on Tuesday supervisors will hear a pitch to build a new specialty center on the Valley Medical Center campus to address that need. For years, kids who need short-term psychiatric hospitalization — usually because they’ve been deemed a hazard to themselves or others — have been shuttled to facilities in Alameda, Contra Costa, Solano and even Sacramento counties. (Kurhi, 11/1)

In other news from across the state —

Ventura County Star: Arbitration Ruling Months Off In Rozanski Case As Criminal Probe Continues
The dispute between retired health administrator Jane Rozanski and her former employer is still in a preliminary stage of the binding arbitration process and a decision may not come down until next summer. The Camarillo Health Care District sued Rozanski for $425,000 and punitive damages a year ago, alleging fraud tied to billings she approved for an attorney with whom she had an affair. Rozanski has acknowledged a past relationship with the district's former legal counsel, Ralph Ferguson, but both have denied over-billing the agency that provides health programs in Camarillo. (Wilson, 11/1)

San Diego Union-Times: San Diego-Area Surfers And Beachgoers Sickened After Tijuana Sewage Spill, Officials Say
Officials in Imperial Beach said Wednesday that sewage flowing up the coast from Tijuana fouled miles of shoreline over the weekend, severely sickening surfers and other beachgoers. Mayor Serge Dedina, who also fell ill, said he received no advance notice from officials in Mexico about the pollution. (Smith, 11/1)

Ventura County Star: Ventura County's Opioid Crisis: 'I Crave It All The Time"
As it has across the country, the epidemic spurs the call for more treatment, public health alerts about heroin laced with a potent opioid that dramatically increases the risk of overdose and horror stories told by middle-class parents who lost children to addiction. Ventura County Star journalists Tom Kisken and Anthony Plascencia spent a week documenting the impact of opioids in an attempt to measure the pulse of the epidemic. They camped in a treatment center, an ambulance station, a high school library, an emergency room, a courtroom and a waiting room outside a Ventura County jail. (Kisken, 11/1)

In other public health news —

Sacramento Bee: Premature Birth Rates On The Rise In California, Study Shows
Premature birth is the leading cause of infant death, and preterm birth rates are on the rise in California, reflecting a nationwide trend, according to the 2017 Premature Birth Report Card released Wednesday by March of Dimes, a foundation focused on preventing birth defects and infant mortality. In 2016, California’s preterm birth rate was 8.6 percent, an increase from 2015 and a six-year high. (Sullivan, 11/1)

KPCC: Why LA County Wants To Expand Involuntary Psych Holds For Some Homeless 
Los Angeles County is preparing to ask the state legislature to expand the legal definition of "grave disability" to give officials more power to put certain homeless individuals on involuntary psychiatric holds. The move, which takes the county into uncertain ethical territory, is motivated by a desire to provide crucial medical help to those with mental health issues who refuse to get the care they need. (Garrova, 11/1)

Capital Public Radio: Dentists Want Your Halloween Candy 
About a dozen dental offices in the greater Sacramento area are collecting Halloween candy for the next two weeks. ...It’s a two-fold project: the dentists are steering kids away from tooth-ruining taffies and chocolates, but they’re also teaching them a lesson in giving. All of the candy gets sent to military service members and first responders. (Caiola, 11/1)

The New York Times: Panel Recommends Opioid Solutions But Puts No Price Tag On Them
President Trump’s bipartisan commission on the opioid crisis made dozens of final recommendations on Wednesday to combat a deadly addiction epidemic, ranging from creating more drug courts to vastly expanding access to medications that treat addiction, including in jails. The commissioners did not specify how much money should be spent to carry out their suggestions, but they pressed Congress to “appropriate sufficient funds” in response to Mr. Trump’s declaration last week of a public health emergency. (Goodnough and Hoffman, 11/1)

The Associated Press: Trump Opioid Panel Wants Drug Courts, Training For Doctors
The panel's final report stopped short, however, of calling for new dollars to address the worst drug crisis in U.S. history. Instead, the commission asked Congress for "sufficient funds" and suggested giving the White House drug czar's office the ability to review federal spending on the problem. "If we are to invest in combating this epidemic, we must invest in only those programs that achieve quantifiable goals and metrics," the report said. The drug czar's office "must establish a system of tracking and accountability." (Johnson, 11/1)