Los Angeles Times: California And Other States Seek Emergency Order To Stop Trump Administration From Cutting Off Healthcare Subsidies
California Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra asked a federal court Wednesday to issue an emergency temporary restraining order to block the Trump administration from cutting off cost-sharing subsidies that help reduce the price of healthcare for millions of Americans. A week after California and 17 other states filed a lawsuit challenging the decision on its merits, the same attorneys general requested a restraining order to avoid immediate harm to millions of people who get subsidized healthcare through the Affordable Care Act, Becerra said. (McGreevy, 10/18)

The Associated Press: States Ask US Court To Keep Up Health Subsidies Cut By Trump
Top government lawyers representing 19 U.S. states on Wednesday asked a federal judge in California to force the administration of President Donald Trump to make health care subsidy payments that Trump abruptly cut off last week. The monthly payments would normally be scheduled to go out Friday. The states, led by California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, asked a judge in San Francisco for an emergency court order by 4 p.m. Thursday requiring they be paid on time. (Cooper, 10/18)

Capital Public Radio: California Asks Judge To Block Trump Health Care Order
California is asking a federal judge to immediately reinstate health care payments President Trump halted last week, while a lawsuit by 19 states goes forward challenging the president’s action. ...In anticipation of a possible cancellation, Covered California has already raised premiums to cover the loss of funding in 2018. (Bradford, 10/18)

The New York Times: Trump Pulls Back From Senate Deal To Fund Health Subsidies
President Trump on Wednesday backed away from his endorsement of a bipartisan Senate proposal to stabilize health insurance markets, throwing the legislative effort into doubt even as the chief architect of the deal predicted that it would become law before the end of the year. The latest actions by the White House confused Republicans on Capitol Hill and irked Democrats — but in the end, their effect was not clear. (Kaplan and Pear, 10/18)

The Associated Press: Republican Says He’ll Push Health Deal, Trump Keeps Distance
The authors of a bipartisan plan to calm health insurance markets said Wednesday they’ll push the proposal forward, even as President Donald Trump’s stance ricocheted from supportive to disdainful to arm’s-length and the plan’s fate teetered. “If something can happen, that’s fine,” Trump told reporters at the White House. “But I won’t do anything to enrich the insurance companies because right now the insurance companies are being enriched. They’ve been enriched by Obamacare like nothing anybody has ever seen before.” (Fram, 10/18)

The Wall Street Journal: Trump Signals Opposition To Bipartisan Health-Care Deal
Mr. Trump touched off confusion on Capitol Hill Wednesday morning, tweeting he “can never support bailing out ins co’s who have made fortune w/O’Care,” echoing criticism from conservatives that the deal is a bailout for insurers, a characterization the sponsors dispute. ... Mr. Trump’s comments on Wednesday cheered conservatives, troubled some Republicans who support the bill and left many Democratic lawmakers frustrated. Some Capitol Hill aides said they thought Mr. Trump’s remarks might be a negotiating tactic to get more concessions from Democrats, and GOP lawmakers began looking at potential changes that might ultimately get the president’s backing. (Armour and Peterson, 10/18)

The Washington Post: Trump Appears To Back Further Away From Bipartisan Health-Care Push
President Trump became the subject of an unusual public lobbying campaign over the fate of the Affordable Care Act on Wednesday as Senate Democrats and a key Republican sought to salvage a bipartisan health deal while conservatives pressured the president to disavow the agreement. ... The convoluted campaign, in which Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) insisted that a deal remained in reach even as he blasted the president’s “zigging and zagging,” underscored the unpredictable nature of dealmaking in Trump’s Washington. With constantly shifting alliances, the city’s key political players are jockeying to win the president’s support one issue at a time. (Eilperin and Sullivan, 10/18)

The Hill: Ryan Opposes ObamaCare Payments Deal 
A spokesman for Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) on Wednesday indicated Ryan won’t support a bipartisan deal to stabilize the ObamaCare insurance markets as opposition to the proposal mounts. "The speaker does not see anything that changes his view that the Senate should keep its focus on repeal and replace of Obamacare,” Doug Andres wrote in an emailed statement. (Roubein, 10/18)

The New York Times Fact Check: Calling Cost-Sharing Reduction Payments ‘A Bailout’ Is Misleading
Most people think of the term “bailout,” as a political pejorative, often involving hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars being funneled to failing companies. It’s now become one of President Trump’s oft-repeated rhetorical cudgels against the Affordable Care Act and federal payments to insurance companies. (Qiu, 10/18)

The Associated Press: Are Insurers 'Enriched' By Obama Health Law, As Trump Says?
President Donald Trump says health insurers have been "enriched" by President Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act. So why are companies pulling back from the law's insurance marketplaces? (10/18)

The Washington Post Fact Check: President Trump’s False Claim That Insurance Companies ‘Have Made A Fortune’ From Obamacare
President Trump has defended his decision to end cost-sharing reduction (CSR) subsidies — an element of the Affordable Care Act that helped lower the cost of deductibles and co-pays for people making less than 250 percent of the federal poverty level — by pointing to the gain in stock prices for health-insurance companies. (Kessler, 10/19)

The Associated Press: Trump's Health Subsidy Shutdown Could Lead To Free Insurance
If President Donald Trump prevails in shutting down a major "Obamacare" health insurance subsidy, it would have the unintended consequence of making free basic coverage available to more people, and making upper-tier plans more affordable. The unexpected assessment comes from consultants, policy experts, and state officials trying to discern the potential fallout from a Washington health care debate that's becoming harder to follow. (Alonso-Zaldivar, 10/19)

Stat: California Wants To Pull Cardinal Health License Over 'Red Flags'
The state of California wants to revoke the wholesale license for a facility run by Cardinal Health, one of the nation’s largest pharmaceutical distributors, for failing to note a series of unusual sales of an opioid painkiller and three other tightly regulated medicines to a pharmacy. Between 2013 and 2015, the Cardinal Health outpost in Valencia, Calif., sold increasingly large quantities of the controlled substances — including Norco, which is a mixture of acetaminophen and hydrocodone — to the pharmacy, which state officials called “red flags.” Another medicine was the Xanax anxiety pill. (Silverman, 10/18)

CNN: City Of Los Angeles Opens Investigation Into Drugmaker Following CNN Report
Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer has launched an investigation into California-based drugmaker Avanir Pharmaceuticals, the subject of a CNN report into its aggressive targeting of nursing home residents with a drug called Nuedexta that may be unnecessary or unsafe for this population. Feuer confirmed the investigation to CNN, saying that his office is seeking information and tips from the public to help determine whether state or federal laws have been broken in the sale, marketing or prescribing of Nuedexta. (Ellis and Hicken, 10/19)

Oakland Tribune: San Leandro Bans Flavored Tobacco
The San Leandro City Council voted 6-1 Monday to ban flavored tobacco products and create a tobacco retailers licensing program. The decision capped off more than a year of public meetings, community discussions and outcries from retail businesses. (Moriki, 10/18)

In other news from across the state —

Modesto Bee: The Homeless, Low-Income Folks And Kaiser Members Line Up For Flu Shots In Stanislaus County 
To combat the flu, Stanislaus County health services offers vaccinations at community clinics. Kaiser Permanente provides flu shots to members at no charge. (Carlson, 10/18)

East Bay Times: Piedmont: Orion Fund Pays Ailing College Students' Expenses
The Orion Fund, named after Piedmont High School graduate Orion Trott who died from brain cancer at the age of 22, provides money to ill college students so they can graduate. The grants range from $500 to $10,000, depending on resources and need. The fund’s annual fundraising golf tournament is being held this weekend, Napa fires permitting. ...The Orion Fund was created in his memory by his mother and her friends to help college students facing such difficult health problems. Because the fund is run by volunteers only, 97 cents of every dollar goes to the medical bills of grantees. (Casey, 10/18)

Los Angeles Times: 300-Gallon Sewage Spill Closes Water Around Balboa Pier
A portion of the ocean around the Balboa Pier in Newport Beach is closed to swimmers after 300 gallons of raw sewage leaked from a pumping tank below the pier into the water Wednesday. The Orange County Health Care Agency said the water 1,000 feet upcoast and 1,000 feet downcoast of the pier will be closed until at least Saturday or until water-quality tests meet acceptable levels of bacteria under state standards. (Fry, 10/18)

The Associated Press: Judge Orders Government To Allow Abortion For Immigrant Teen
A federal judge on Wednesday ordered the government to allow a pregnant 17-year-old immigrant, who was detained after entering the country illegally, to undergo an abortion. After a brief hearing that included a testy exchange with government lawyers, Judge Tanya Chutkan ordered the government to move "promptly and without delay" to transport the teenager or allow her to be transported by others to the nearest abortion provider. (10/18)

The Washington Post: Federal Judge Bars Govenrment From Blocking Abortion For Jane Doe, Undocumented Teen Immigrant
Lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union, which represents the pregnant teen, cheered the judge’s ruling as a major victory for abortion and immigrant rights. “We never should have had to fight this in the first place,” said Brigitte Amiri, a senior ACLU staff attorney who argued the case on Wednesday. “It should never have been something that we needed to go to court over.” (Sacchetti, 10/18)

Los Angeles Times: Judge Rules Detained Teenage Immigrant Must Be Allowed To Have An Abortion
At a hearing Wednesday, a lawyer for Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions had suggested that because the woman was not legally a U.S. resident, she was not covered by the constitutional right to end her pregnancy. U.S. District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan rebuked the government lawyers at the hearing. Her order directs officials to transport Jane Doe to the clinic of her choice and allow her to obtain an abortion by Saturday. (Lauter, 10/18)

San Francisco Chronicle: Court Overrules U.S. Abortion Ban For Undocumented Teen In Custody 
Trump administration officials must allow a pregnant 17-year-old to leave an immigration shelter in Texas to have an abortion, a federal judge ruled Wednesday in the first legal rebuff for the administration’s ban on abortions for undocumented minors in federal custody. The girl, now about 15 weeks pregnant and identified only as Jane Doe, is entitled to decide whether to give birth and will suffer, “at a minimum, increased risk to her health” if she remains confined in the shelter, said U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan of Washington, D.C. (Egelko, 10/18)