The Associated Press: California To Release 2018 Insurance Rates Amid Uncertainty
California officials plan to release next year's monthly premiums Tuesday for people who buy individual insurance plans under former President Barack Obama's health care overhaul. The announcement comes at a time of extreme uncertainty about the future of the U.S. health care system. (8/1)

KPCC: California 2018 Health Insurance Rates Come Out Tuesday, And They'll Likely Be Higher
Californians will learn Tuesday how much health insurance will cost in 2018. And for the 9 percent of Californians who buy health insurance through Covered California, rates could be to be up to 17 percent higher, according to officials with the state exchange. (Faust, 7/31)

KQED: Quitting Rates Are Up, Electronic Cigarettes May Be Helping 
Electronic cigarettes may be a helpful tool for those who are looking to quit smoking, according to a recent study. This complicates the public health narrative around this new tobacco product, which have grown in popularity in the U.S. over the past decade. (Kusmer, 7/31)

In other public health news —

KPBS: California Bill Would Allow Supervised Drug Consumption Centers 
California is considering opening drug consumption centers, where drug users could get high under the supervision of health care professionals. The centers would offer clean needles, a safe environment, access to life-saving medication and referrals to substance abuse treatment. (Cabrera and Cavanaugh, 7/31)

Ventura County Star: Investigator Removed From Medical Examiner's Office In Probe Transferred Back To Duty
An investigator taken off the job more than two years ago amid a probe into the Ventura County Medical Examiner's Office can come back to work but won't have any supervisory duties. Armando Chavez is expected to return by early October to the agency that investigates sudden deaths, depending on the length of a leave of absence he has taken, county officials said. Chavez performed postmortem procedures on decedents in May 2015 under instructions that former and since ousted Medical Examiner Jon Smith emailed to him while the physician was on a two-week vacation. (Wilson, 7/31)

Santa Rosa Press Democrat: Santa Rosa’s Breastfeeding Cafe Helps Mothers Overcome Feeding Challenges 
The cafe is a free drop-in program in Santa Rosa. Twice a week, mothers of infants who are having trouble latching on or who need some advice, can relax on a comfy couch or upholstered chair in a homey, living room like setting, and join a support circle. It includes professional help from nurses and lactation specialists as well as other mothers going through the same challenges to getting their babies to feed as nature intended. ...At the cafe, which is open Mondays and Fridays from 9:30 a.m. to 11 a.m., women get both practical information and emotional support. As they settle in they are served a special tea and cookies with ingredients that are good for milk production. Any nursing mother is invited to come by at no charge. Babies are weighed before they feed and after, to see that they’re getting the requisite 1 1/2 to 2 ounces of milk.  (McConahey, 7/31)

In other news from across the state —

Los Angeles Times: Children And Mother Of Man Killed By Deputies File Federal Lawsuits Against L.A. County 
The children and mother of a man killed by Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputies on March 7 outside a West L.A. gym, have filed two federal lawsuits against the county, the department and the deputies involved. ...[Dennis] Rogers suffered from bipolar disorder, his mother said, but managed it through medication. (Marantos, 7/31)

Sacramento Bee: Lake Linked To E. Coli Still Closed As Two Children Develop Life-Threatening Condition
A Nevada County lake’s beach remains closed following an E. coli outbreak that hospitalized four children, two of whom have developed a severe condition that can lead to fatal kidney failure. As of Monday afternoon, the Nevada County Health Department had received reports of six children and one adult infected with or showing symptoms of E. coli, all of whom spent time recently at Lake Wildwood’s Main Beach, according to the Nevada County Health and Human Services Agency. (Knowles, 7/31)

KQED: Driscoll’s Tied To Central Coast Chemical Incident That Sickened Farmworkers
Santa Cruz County has identified the growers its agricultural commissioner is investigating in connection with a release of insecticides, fungicides and other chemicals believed to have sickened raspberry pickers in Watsonville in late June. A Santa Cruz County official released the names after a California Public Records Act request by KQED following several refusals by the agricultural commissioner to identify the firms. (Goldberg, 8/1)

The Mercury News: New Twist On Drunk Tank To Open In San Jose 
Cushy recliners. Free laundry service. Attentive staff. It’s not a five-star resort but Santa Clara County’s newest solution to public drunkenness, a state-of-the-art “sobering station’’ where police will drop off severely intoxicated but otherwise mellow people to dry out — at what officials hope will be a cheaper cost to taxpayers than jail or an emergency room. Sobering stations have replaced jail drunk tanks in Alameda, San Mateo, Santa Cruz and San Francisco counties. And Contra Costa County plans to open a 24-bed facility by the end of next year. (Kaplan, 7/31)

The Associated Press: Senate GOP Sees No Path On Health Care, Despite Trump Prods
Top Senate Republicans think it's time to leave their derailed drive to scrap the Obama health care law behind them. And they're tired of the White House prodding them to keep voting until they succeed. Several GOP leaders said Monday that at least for now, they saw no clear route to the 50 votes they'd need to get something — anything — recasting President Barack Obama's health care statute through the Senate. (Fram, 8/1)

Politico: Republicans Ignore Trump's Obamacare Taunts
Senate Republicans have no plans to revive their party-line attempts to repeal Obamacare this summer, despite President Donald Trump’s increasing frustration over the chamber’s failed attempts last week to gut the law. "Until somebody shows us a way to get that elusive 50th vote, I think it's over,” said Sen. John Thune of South Dakota, the third-ranking Republican. “Maybe lightning will strike and something will come together but I'm not holding my breath." (Everett and Haberkorn, 7/31)

Los Angeles Times: Senior GOP Senators Serve Notice: No Action On Healthcare At This Point
Trump administration officials continue to push the Senate to take another run at healthcare legislation, but on Monday senior Republican senators pushed back, making clear that they're done with the topic for now. "There's just too much animosity and we're too divided on healthcare," Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah), the head of the Senate Finance Committee, said in an interview with Reuters. (Lauter, 7/31)

The Hill: Bipartisan Group Floats ObamaCare Fixes 
Dozens of House lawmakers from both parties unveiled a series of proposals on Monday designed to fix problems dogging the Affordable Care Act. “The last great hope for this country is that Republicans and Democrats prove they can work together,” Rep. Tom Reed (R-N.Y.), co-chairman of the Problem Solvers Caucus, said in a statement. (Lillis, 7/31)

Politico: Schumer: Republicans Have Been In Touch About Health Care
Sen. Chuck Schumer said Monday he has heard from 10 of his Republican colleagues in response to his call for a bipartisan approach to health care legislation. “No one thought Obamacare was perfect — it needs a lot of improvements,” Schumer (D-N.Y.) said after an unrelated news conference at Albany Medical Center. “We’re willing to work in a bipartisan way to do it. What we objected to was just pulling the rug out from it and taking away the good things that it did: Medicaid coverage for people with parents in nursing homes, for opioid treatment, for kids with disabilities, pre-existing conditions.” (Vielkind, 7/31)

The Wall Street Journal: Trump Threatens Insurer Payments To Push Congress On Health-Law Repeal
President Donald Trump warned Monday that he could end federal payments to insurers, allowing them to be “hurt” by the Affordable Care Act, as a way to press members of Congress to revive efforts to repeal the Obama-era health law. “If ObamaCare is hurting people, & it is, why shouldn’t it hurt the insurance companies,” Mr. Trump wrote on Twitter. The president was alluding to the ACA’s “cost-sharing reduction” payments, which the government pays to insurers to help them cut deductibles and other costs for low-income consumers. (Hackman, Hughes and Wilde Mathews, 7/31)

Los Angeles Times: Can Trump Really Cut Health Insurance Payments For Members Of Congress And Their Staff? It Would Be Easy
Reeling from the failure to repeal the Affordable Care Act, President Trump now threatens to block federal funding that lawmakers and their staff rely on to help buy health insurance. Trump's threats are not empty. The administration could simply stop the payments -- which are provided to Capitol Hill lawmakers and staff much the way many employers help pay employees' monthly insurance premiums -- by dashing off new federal regulation. (Mascaro, 7/31)

The Associated Press: Trump Drug Commission Calls For Emergency Declaration
President Donald Trump's drug commission has called on him to declare a national emergency to deal with the country's opioid drug epidemic. The commission sent an initial report to the Republican president on Monday saying the approximately 142 deaths each day from drug overdoses mean the death toll is "equal to September 11th every three weeks." (7/31)

USA Today: Commission Urges President Trump To Declare Emergency Over Opioid Crisis
"It would also awaken every American to this simple fact: If this scourge has not found you or your family yet, without bold action by everyone, it soon will," the report reads. "You, Mr. president, are the only person who can bring this type of intensity to the emergency and we believe you have the will to do so and to do so immediately." (Estepa, 7/31)

The Washington Post: White House Opioid Commission To Trump: “Declare A National Emergency” On Drug Overdoses
The commission, led by New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, states that the goals of such a declaration would be to “force Congress to focus on funding” and to “awaken every American to this simple fact: if this scourge has not found you or your family yet, without bold action by everyone, it soon will.” (Ingraham, 7/31)

The New York Times: White House Panel Recommends Declaring National Emergency On Opioids
In addition to seeking an emergency declaration, the commission proposed waiving a federal rule that sharply limits the number of Medicaid recipients who can receive residential addiction treatment. It also called for expanding access to medications that help treat opioid addiction, requiring “prescriber education initiatives” and providing model legislation for states to allow a standing order for anyone to receive naloxone, a drug used to reverse opioid overdoses. (Goodnough, 7/31)