Latest From California Healthline:
California Healthline Original Stories
Summer Bummer: A Young Camper’s $142,938 Snakebite
The snake struck a 9-year-old hiker at dusk on a nature trail. The outrageous bills struck her parents a few weeks later. (Carmen Heredia Rodriguez, )
Good morning! Lines are being drawn in a crowded 2020 field. The defining issue? Health care. More on that below, but first here are some of your top California health stories for the day.
Newsom Wants To Expand Medi-Cal To Undocumented Young Adults Despite High Price Tag: Right now, California children can get Medi-Cal coverage no matter what the immigration status is, but they age out of those plans when they turn 18. Gov. Gavin Newsom wants to extend that to adults younger than 26, and some lawmakers want to go even further to cover everyone in state who needs assistance. Both would cost upwards of hundreds of millions of dollars a year, but advocates say the health savings that come from preventive care would make it worth it. However, getting insurance doesn’t always mean getting needed care. A recent state audit found that roughly 2.4 million California children eligible for Medi-Cal aren’t getting the preventive care they’re entitled to by law. Read more from the Sacramento Bee.
Experts Say California Isn’t Ready For The Oncoming ‘Silver Tsunami,’ But Not All Hope Is Lost: According to state projections, by 2030 more than 9 million Californians will be over the age of 65, and more than 20% of the state’s residents will be seniors — a higher proportion than currently resides in Florida. While aging boomers are by no means a uniquely California phenomenon, people in their 50s and 60s here tend to be healthier and have longer life expectancies than in other parts of the country. However, that doesn’t mean the state won’t be left grappling with the health burdens that can come with an older population. The state is already starting to see the consequences of an aging population living outside institutionalized care. According to data from the state’s Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development, the number of visits to California emergency rooms by seniors from falling accidents increased almost 40% from 2010 to 2015. “California is not prepared,” said Nancy McPherson, head of the California chapter of the American Association of Retired Persons. “But there is hope for California becoming more prepared with the new administration.” Read more from CALmatters.
With California’s Finances Back On Track, Advocates Push To Restore Lost Medi-Cal Benefits: In 2009, state lawmakers—confronting a recession and budget shortfalls—opted to save state money by eliminating several Medi-Cal benefits, mainly for adults, that the federal government didn’t specifically require. The list of lost services included dental, optical, podiatry, chiropractic, among other things. The state restored dental benefits in 2013 and acupuncture in 2016, but advocates want California to begin paying for glasses again. The California Optometric Association used national data to estimate that about 2 million Medi-Cal recipients ages 21 to 64 need glasses or lenses. “These are critical benefits that people are going without,” said Linda Nguy, policy advocate for the Western Center on Law and Poverty. “For nearly ten years people have done without, and that’s a long time.” Read more from CALmatters.
Below, check out the full round-up of California Healthline original stories, state coverage and the best of the rest of the national news for the day.
More News From Across The State
The Associated Press:
Nearly 2/3 Quarantined By LA Universities Are Cleared
Almost two-thirds of the nearly 800 students, faculty and staff members who were quarantined following exposure to the measles virus at two Los Angeles universities have been cleared to resume normal activities. The quarantine marked one of the most sweeping efforts by authorities to contain the nation’s measles outbreak, where cases have reached a 25-year high. (4/29)
Los Angeles Times:
Where Did The Measles Outbreak In L.A. Start? Officials Are Looking Abroad
Los Angeles County officials dealing with a measles outbreak say they expect that more people will be diagnosed with the illness in the coming weeks, while the nation stares down what will likely be its worst measles year in decades. But where are these cases coming from? The U.S. declared measles eliminated in 2000, and the virus does not regularly circulate here. (Karlamangla, 4/29)
The New York Times:
Measles Cases Surpass 700 As Outbreak Continues Unabated
Measles continues to spread in the United States, federal health officials said on Monday, surpassing 700 cases this year as health officials around the country sought aggressive action to stem the worst outbreak in decades. In New York, an epicenter of the outbreak, city officials closed two more schools for Orthodox Jewish children for failing to comply with an order to exclude unvaccinated children. (McNeil, 4/29)
The Washington Post:
Measles Outbreaks: CDC Says Measles Cases Top 700, A Record-High In 25 Years. Most People Were Not Vaccinated.
“We are very concerned about the recent troubling rise in cases of measles,” Azar said in a briefing with reporters. Measles is not a harmless illness but one with deadly consequences that most people, even doctors, have never seen because it was eliminated in 2000. “Vaccine-preventable diseases belong in the history books, not in our emergency rooms. The suffering we are seeing today is completely avoidable. Vaccines are safe because they are among the most-studied medical products we have,” Azar said. (Sun, 4/29)
The Associated Press:
Officials Declare Measles Outbreak In Pacific Northwest Over
A measles outbreak that sickened more than 70 people, mostly children, in the Pacific Northwest is finally over even as the total number of cases nationwide continues to spike to near-record levels , officials said Monday. Six weeks have passed without a new infection in southwest Washington state, where the outbreak began on Jan. 3, said Dr. Alan Melnick, head of the Clark County public health department. (4/29)
KQED:
Former Techies Find New Work As Technology Detox Activists
Phone addiction has become a full-on crisis, with detox camps and phone apps designed to disconnect us from around-the-clock technology. Former techies are jumping into the mix, too, crafting encore careers as technology activists urging Silicon Valley companies to make their products less addictive. (Schiffer, 4/29)
San Jose Mercury News:
Bay Area Families Cope With 'Epidemic' In Food Allergies
With food allergies on the rise, parents and doctors are struggling to understand what causes them and how to prevent them. Research from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that food allergies in children increased 18 percent between 1997 and 2007. (D'Souza, 4/29)
East Bay Times:
Stanford Study: New Discovery A Biological Marker For Chronic Fatigue?
With no test for the mysterious and debilitating disease called chronic fatigue syndrome, patients struggle for recognition. But preliminary research from a new Stanford study offers further evidence that it is a physical ailment with biological causes and not a psychological condition – and suggests an approach that may help detect it. The tool, devised by biochemist Ron Davis and his team, accurately flagged the disorder in 20 sick patients. Their small blood-testing device detected changes in immune cells and blood plasma when measured for electrical conductivity. It is not what these changes are, or what they might mean. (Krieger, 4/29)
San Jose Mercury News:
Santa Clara County Makes Mobile Mental-Health Teams Public
The county’s Behavioral Health Services Department announced Monday that its squad of on-call clinicians will now also staff a hotline where they can triage psychiatric emergencies and “provide services in the community including crisis screening, intervention, de-escalation services, and connect or refer people to community resources,” according to a county news release. ...County residents in need of mental-health crisis help and intervention can call 800-704-0900 and dial option “2” on weekdays from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Outside those hours, emergencies reported to the hotline will be answered by a clinician but not necessarily a mobile-crisis team. (Salonga, 4/29)
Sacramento Bee:
70 Homeless People Ordered To Leave Stockton Boulevard Site
The Sacramento Sheriff’s Department has ordered about 70 homeless people living at a vacant lot off Stockton Boulevard in south Sacramento to vacate the property by 8 a.m. Wednesday. Homeless activists are asking officials to allow the homeless people to stay, to leave the port-a-potties and dumpster, and to install laundry and shower facilities. (Clift, 4/30)
Ventura County Star:
Terminal Cancer Patient Watches Her Daughter Graduate In Oxnard ICU
Imelda Landin took it all in from her hospital bed — the streamer that read "Congrats Graduates," the nurses smiling and crying at the same time and her daughter decked out in a mortarboard. Aimee Moreno, her only child, was graduating from Pacifica High School in a ceremony held in the waiting room of the intensive care unit at St. John's Regional Medical Center in Oxnard on an April Monday. Landin, a 58-year-old Oxnard woman facing ovarian cancer considered terminal, was still around to see it. (Kisken, 4/29)
Modesto Bee:
Modesto CA Considers Prosecuting Minor Drug Crimes
Modesto might prosecute low-level drug offenses no longer being pursued by the Stanislaus County District Attorney’s Office and expand its prosecution of such city code violations as camping in parks, blighted property and illegal dumping. City Attorney Adam Lindgren and City Manager Joe Lopez discussed this proposal during Monday’s City Council workshop for Modesto’s proposed 2019-20 budget year, which starts July 1. (Valine, 4/29)
The Wall Street Journal:
Democrats Pepper Voters With Competing Health-Care Ideas
On expanding health coverage, Democrats’ 2020 hopefuls have agreed to disagree. Joe Biden says he would let people buy into Medicare and will build upon the Affordable Care Act, signed into law while he was vice president. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont backs a government-run system called Medicare for All that would replace private insurance. Sen. Kamala Harris of California wants Medicare for All too, but would keep some pieces of the current setup including employer-based coverage. (Armour and Hughes, 4/30)
The Washington Post:
Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders' Teams Kick Off Feud Over Medicare For All
Joe Biden on Monday endorsed a public option that would allow all Americans to buy into a Medicare-like health insurance plan, as allies of both the former vice president and 2020 presidential rival Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) begin to debate the Democratic Party’s health-care agenda. “Whether you’re covered through your employer or on your own or not, you should have the choice to buy into a public option plan for Medicare — your choice,” Biden said during a campaign event in Pittsburgh. “If the insurance company isn’t doing right by you, you should have another choice.” (Stein, 4/29)
The Hill:
Biden Calls For Everyone Having The Choice To Buy Into Medicare
That Biden is stopping short of Sanders’s plan is not surprising given that the former vice president is expected to run in a more moderate lane than Sanders’s progressive approach. The move, though, could still open Biden up to disappointment from some Medicare for All supporters in the primary. Biden’s position is similar to that of fellow candidates such as former Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-Texas) and South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg (D), who has called for "Medicare for all who want it." (Sullivan, 4/29)
The Washington Post:
Why Vermont’s Single-Payer Effort Failed And What Democrats Can Learn From It
Three and a half years after then-Gov. Peter Shumlin of Vermont signed into law a vision for the nation’s first single-payer health system, his small team was still struggling to find a way to pay for it. With a deadline bearing down, they worked through a frozen, mid-December weekend, trying one computer model Friday night, another Saturday night, yet another Sunday morning. If they kept going, the governor asked his exhausted team on Monday, could they arrive at a tax plan that would be politically palatable? No, they told him. They could not. (Goldstein, 4/29)
Stat:
At A Rally, Activists Accuse Pharma Of Blocking 'Medicare For All'
A crowd of roughly 200 progressive protestors planted themselves on the ground in the middle of a normally bumper-to-bumper four-lane corridor here Monday with a firm message for the drug industry: get out of our way. The crowd wasn’t there — in front of the trade association PhRMA’s headquarters — to protest a specific drug’s price spike or an unsafe drug. Instead, they were seated in solidarity with the speaker at the front of the crowd: Ady Barkan, a 34-year old activist with ALS confined to a wheelchair. (Florko, 4/29)
The Washington Post:
House Democrats Move To Block Trump Administration’s Abortion ‘Gag’ Rule
House Democrats moved Monday to block a new Trump administration rule aimed at restricting health-care providers from promoting abortions. Democrats included language in a newly released spending bill that would prevent the rule — termed a “gag rule” by critics — from taking effect, although it was already stayed by a federal judge. Democrats also included $50 million for gun violence research in the legislation released Monday, a massive spending bill for the departments of Labor, Education, and Health and Human Services. The two parties have been fighting over this issue for years, with Republicans using spending bills when they controlled the House to effectively block gun violence research by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Werner, 4/29)
The Hill:
House Dems Propose $50 Million To Study Gun Violence Prevention
House Democrats on Monday proposed $50 million in funding for federal agencies to study gun violence prevention. A draft measure released by House Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.) calls for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Institutes of Health to study firearm injury and mortality prevention. (Hellmann, 4/29)
The Wall Street Journal:
Drug-Injection Sites Are Battleground In Fight Against Opioid Overdoses
Supervised drug-injection sites are gaining traction in half a dozen U.S. cities, setting off a legal battle and intensifying public debate over the controversial concept. Supervised sites—also known as safe-consumption sites—are places where individuals can use drugs they’ve already purchased, with sterile supplies, under the supervision of trained personnel. In the event of an overdose, staff can administer the antidote naloxone. (Miller Rubin, 4/29)
The New York Times:
They Want It To Be Secret: How A Common Blood Test Can Cost $11 Or Almost $1,000
It’s one of the most common tests in medicine, and it is performed millions of times a year around the country. Should a metabolic blood panel test cost $11 or $952? Both of these are real, negotiated prices, paid by health insurance companies to laboratories in Jackson, Miss., and El Paso in 2016. New data, analyzing the health insurance claims of 34 million Americans covered by large commercial insurance companies, shows that enormous swings in price for identical services are common in health care. In just one market — Tampa, Fla. — the most expensive blood test costs 40 times as much as the least expensive one. (Sanger-Katz, 4/30)
The Associated Press:
Study: Kids' Suicides Spiked After Netflix's '13 Reasons'
Suicides among U.S. kids aged 10 to 17 jumped to a 19-year high in the month following the release of a popular TV series that depicted a girl ending her life, researchers said. The study published Monday can't prove that the Netflix show "13 Reasons Why" was the cause, but there were 195 more youth suicides than would have been expected in the nine months following the show's March 2017 release, given historical and seasonal suicide trends, the study estimated. (4/29)