The New York Times: Veterans Groups Urge Trump To Keep Obama’s V.A. Secretary
The nation’s largest veterans groups are urging President-elect Donald J. Trump to keep President Obama’s secretary of veterans affairs, Robert A. McDonald, out of concern that his rumored candidates’ inexperience and ideological leanings could cripple the massive veterans health care system. (Philipps, 12/12)

Reuters: Trump Considering Dr. Scott Gottlieb To Head FDA
Dr. Scott Gottlieb, a partner at one of the world's largest venture capital funds and a former deputy commissioner at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, is being considered by President-elect Donald Trump to run the agency, according to sources close to the transition team. (Clarke, 12/12)

Los Angeles Times: To Mobilize Trump's America For Environmental Protection, Invoke The Past
The policy changes needed to regain that happy past might be the same ones the nation might embrace if it wants to prevent a future of record-high temperatures and of weather events that are more frequent, costly and extreme. But to conservative ears, says a study published Monday in the journal PNAS, policy recommendations on the environment might sound more appealing if they’re aimed at restoring a known and beloved past than if they’re required to forestall disasters in an uncertain future. (Healy, 12/12)

Reuters: McConnell Will Not Give Timeline For Obamacare Replacement
U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said on Monday the Senate will move to repeal President Barack Obama's healthcare law shortly after Jan. 1, but declined to give a timeline for a plan to replace it. (Zengerle, 12/12)

In other news on the future of the health law —

NPR: Obamacare's Death Could Be Faster Than Republicans Intend
Republicans in Congress say they'll vote to repeal much of the Affordable Care Act early next year — even though they don't yet have a plan to replace it. But they also insist that they don't want to harm any of the millions of people who got their health insurance under the law. (Kodjak, 12/12)

The Baltimore Sun: Enrollment Is Brisk As Congress Mulls Repeal Of Obamacare 
As the Republican-led Congress and the President-elect Donald J. Trump call for the repeal of the federal health care law known as Obamacare, insurance exchanges in Maryland and around the country continue to sign people up for coverage at a pace that could make it a banner year. Officials at the online marketplaces are making an extra push to enroll consumers ahead of Thursday's deadline for coverage beginning at the first of the year. (Cohn, 12/12)

The Hill: Pro-ObamaCare Groups Launch Ads Against Repeal 
A coalition of groups fighting ObamaCare repeal is launching a “seven-figure” ad-buy in selected states warning against the dangers of scrapping the law without a replacement. The coalition is called the Alliance for Healthcare Security, and includes liberal advocacy groups like Families USA and Physicians for a National Health Program. The print and digital ads are targeted to Alaska, Arizona, Maine, Nevada, Tennessee and Washington, D.C. (Sullivan, 12/12)

McClatchy: 52 Million U.S. Adults Have A Medical Condition That Was Uninsurable Before Obamacare, New Study Finds
Some 52 million working-age adults have a pre-existing medical condition that would likely have left them unable to get health coverage before the Affordable Care Act, according to a new analysis by the Kaiser Family Foundation. Millions of others with similar conditions would likely have faced higher premiums, coverage exclusions or coverage limitations because of stiff underwriting standards faced by people buying insurance outside the workplace before the health law was enacted. This individual insurance market had long been problematic for consumers. It was known for high customer dissatisfaction and turnover, high coverage denial rates, lean benefits and premiums subject to frequent increases. (Pugh, 12/12)

The Hill: Study: 52M With Pre-Existing Conditions Could Be Denied Coverage Without ObamaCare
A new study finds that 27 percent of adults under 65 have pre-existing health conditions that could lead to them being denied coverage if ObamaCare were repealed. ObamaCare banned insurance companies from rejecting people because of their pre-existing health conditions, but the study released Monday by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that if pre-ObamaCare rules returned, 52 million Americans could be denied coverage. (Sullivan, 12/12)

Kaiser Health News: Without ACA Guarantees, 52 Million Adults Could Have Trouble Buying Individual Plans
The researchers noted that a large share of those individuals likely get their insurance through their employers, which does not take into consideration prior health issues. But if the health law were repealed and those people lost their health insurance for any reason, they could face problems. (Rodriguez, 12/13)

East Bay Times: California’s Child Vaccination Law Faces Another Legal Challenge 
Opponents of a new California state law requiring nearly all schoolchildren to be fully vaccinated have mounted another legal challenge — this time, setting the science of immunization aside and focusing on constitutional rights. Under California’s child vaccine law, one of the strictest in the nation, parents are no longer allowed to skip required immunizations for their children based on personal or religious beliefs. The new rules, the plaintiffs argue, force families to choose between three constitutionally protected rights: making medical decisions for their children; bodily autonomy, and a public education. (Murphy, 12/13)

Los Angeles Times: E-Cigarette Use Falls Among Teens For The First Time, Study Finds
For the first time, researchers are seeing signs that American teens may be turning away from electronic cigarettes. An annual survey involving thousands of middle and high school students from across the nation found that use of e-cigarettes — both experimentally and on a regular basis — declined in 2016 after reaching an all-time high in 2015. (Kaplan, 12/12)

The New York Times: Rise In Infant Drug Dependence Is Felt Most In Rural Areas
As the opioid epidemic sweeps through rural America, an ever-greater number of drug-dependent newborns are straining hospital neonatal units and draining precious medical resources. The problem has grown more quickly than realized and shows no signs of abating, researchers reported on Monday. (Saint Louis, 12/12)

KPBS: San Diego Considers Sale Of Recreational Marijuana 
A city proposal would allow San Diego's licensed medical marijuana dispensaries to sell recreational marijuana starting Jan. 1, 2018. That's when recreational marijuana sales are allowed to begin in California under Proposition 64. The proposed regulation, which goes before the planning commission Thursday, would make some tweaks to the city's 2014 medical marijuana dispensary ordinance. (Cabrera and St. John, 12/12)

Bloomberg: Is Kratom A Deadly Drug Or A Life-Saving Medicine?
Kratom gained popularity in the U.S. over the past decade or so, as its availability spread online and in head shops. Two or 3 grams of powdered extract steeped in hot water or whipped into a smoothie offers a mild, coffee-like buzz; doses double or triple that size can induce a euphoria that eases pain without some of the hazardous side effects of prescription analgesics. Preliminary survey data gathered recently by Oliver Grundmann, a pharmaceutical sciences professor at the University of Florida, found that American users are mostly male (57 percent), white (89 percent), educated (82 percent with some college), and employed (72 percent). More than 54 percent are 31 to 50 years old, and 47 percent earn at least $75,000 a year. (Gruley, 12/12)

Sacramento Bee: Ebola Crisis Eases In Liberia With Help Of Roseville Group
As the Ebola virus spread through Liberia with frightful speed in the fall of 2014, Roseville resident Shelley Spurlock was up at 4 a.m. daily, hoping she wouldn’t find news about another dead student or health worker in the war-torn country where she’s focused her work for the last decade. Spurlock has been helping the coastal African nation rebuild since its destructive civil wars in the 1990s and 2000s, mostly through her scholarship distribution nonprofit Raise Your Hand Foundation, which launched in 2007. With her help, Mercy General Hospital in Sacramento and other groups sent tons of syringes, lab coats, stethoscopes and latex gloves in 2014 to aid in the fight against Ebola. (Caiola, 12/12)

Read other public health news stories covering breast cancer and psychiatric drugs  —

The New York Times: One In 6 American Adults Say They Have Taken Psychiatric Drugs, Report Says
About one in six American adults reported taking at least one psychiatric drug, usually an antidepressant or an anti-anxiety medication, and most had been doing so for a year or more, according to a new analysis. The report is based on 2013 government survey data on some 242 million adults and provides the most fine-grained snapshot of prescription drug use for psychological and sleep problems to date. (Carey, 12/12)

Modern Healthcare: Patient Safety Efforts Saved $28 Billion Over Five Years 
Efforts to make hospitals safer for patients are paying off, preventing 3.1 million harmful hospital-acquired conditions and the deaths of some 125,000 people, according to an HHS report released Monday. Those improvements saved close to $28 billion in healthcare costs from 2010 through 2015. Healthcare leaders touted this progress as a direct result of policies laid out in the Affordable Care Act, public-private partnerships such as the Partnership for Patients, which launched in 2011, and other quality improvement initiatives to target hospital-acquired conditions. These conditions include infections, falls, pressure ulcers and other adverse outcomes. (Whitman, 12/12)

Sacramento Bee: Sutter Medical Opens New Urgent Care Clinic In Folsom 
People needing quick medical attention now have the option of skipping the emergency room and instead visiting a new Sutter Medical Foundation urgent care clinic in Folsom. The new 3,700-square-foot facility in Folsom Medical Plaza on Bidwell Street offers general medicine now but plans to expand into family medicine, pediatrics, cardiology, obstetrics and gynecology. The outpatient clinic, which is open weeknights, weekends and holidays, has eight exam rooms and a laboratory. The clinic does not take appointments and accepts most major health plans including Medi-Cal. Patients can also pay out of pocket. (Caiola, 12/12)

Seattle Times: Study: Early Support For Children Reaps Big Benefits 
The study, released Monday, shows that the services offered by the two North Carolina programs led to an increase in lifetime earnings for the children and their parents. All the children, who were African American and lived in low-income families, received an array of services from birth to age 5, aimed at improving their education, nutrition and health. The study’s authors also linked such programs to a reduction in criminal behavior and improved health outcomes, and noted those benefits were particularly pronounced for males. (Morton, 12/12)

In other news on preventive efforts —

WBUR: Health Innovator: Patients Who Are Asked About Food, Heat See Medical Benefits
New research out Monday shows that when primary care patients get help attaining basic resources — like food, housing, heat and access to affordable medicines — it leads to improvements in their blood pressure and cholesterol levels. The findings, published in JAMA Internal Medicine, may be intuitive. But they provide further evidence that a Boston-based nonprofit founded 20 years ago by a Harvard undergraduate is on the right track by focusing on patients' "unmet social needs" as a critical pathway toward true health. (Zimmerman, 12/12)

The New York Times: One Weight-Loss Approach Fits All? No, Not Even Close
Dr. Frank Sacks, a professor of nutrition at Harvard, likes to challenge his audience when he gives lectures on obesity. “If you want to make a great discovery,” he tells them, figure out this: Why do some people lose 50 pounds on a diet while others on the same diet gain a few pounds? Then he shows them data from a study he did that found exactly that effect. (Kolata, 12/12)

San Jose Mercury News: Original Fake News Of Medicine: Drinking Eight Glasses Of Water A Day
Drinking eight glasses of water a day is a health myth and it is one of the hardest to undo. It is the original fake news of medicine. How it began isn’t really known, however some medical sleuthing published in the American Journal of Physiology in 2002 and in the British Medical Journal in 2007 suggested that it came from a 1945 Food and Nutrition Board recommendation that the body uses about 85 ounces of water a day. (Gunter, 12/12)

The Mercury News: San Jose Drinking Water To Receive Fluoride, Years Behind Other Bay Area Cities
San Francisco has had it since 1951, Oakland since 1976. Los Angeles and San Diego, along with Contra Costa, Marin and San Mateo counties, have it too. And starting Monday, large sections of San Jose — the nation’s biggest city without fluoride in its drinking water — finally will begin to receive the additive. The move comes several years after a push by dentists, the Santa Clara County Public Health Department, the Silicon Valley Leadership Group and Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital, who contend that fluoride can help reduce high rates of cavities, particularly in low-income children with limited access to dental care. In 2011, they persuaded directors of the Santa Clara Valley Water District, the area’s wholesale water provider, to vote 7-0 for the $6.2 million project to retrofit the district’s three drinking-water treatment plants. (Rogers, 12/10)

East Bay Times: It Takes A Village For Science? UCSC Researcher Turn To Crowdfunding To Fund Projects
Stymied by futile attempts to fund research into the lead poisoning of eagles, a UC Santa Cruz scientist has resorted to asking for contributions online. “It’s a little frustrating to not get traction because I feel like we’ve done so many good conservation things with the science we’ve done,” said Myra Finkelstein, a wildlife toxicologist. “I do science that can directly be used to help animals.” Finkelstein is hardly alone. Researchers facing a severe shortage of government and foundation funding are increasingly using “crowdfunding” as a way to get their projects off the ground. (Derouin, 12/12)  

McClatchy: Some Lawmakers Want More Money For Medical Research But President-Elect Trump May Not Agree 
With a stroke of his pen on Tuesday, President Barack Obama will commit billions of dollars in federal funds to boost medical research, including money for Vice President Joe Biden’s “moonshot” to cure cancer. But the budget increase for the National Institutes of Health authorized in the 21st Century Cures Act is smaller than hoped for by some conservative lawmakers, including Rep. Kevin Yoder and Sen. Jerry Moran of Kansas and Missouri Sen. Roy Blunt. The three Republicans say the bill doesn’t go far enough, and they’ll keep working to build up the NIH’s budget. (Wise, 12/12)

The Wall Street Journal: Aetna Executives Defend Pulling Out Of Some ACA Exchanges
Aetna Inc. executives on Monday jousted with Justice Department lawyers over the health insurer’s reasons for sharply cutting its participation in Affordable Care Act exchanges, a potentially important issue in the antitrust trial over Aetna’s proposed merger with Humana Inc. (Kendall and Viswanatha, 12/12)

Reuters: U.S. Seeks To Undercut Aetna CEO's Defence In Merger Fight
The U.S. Justice Department sought on Monday to knock down arguments by Aetna Inc's chief executive that Medicare Advantage competes with government insurance programs, making Aetna's proposed merger with Humana legal under antitrust law. Aetna CEO Mark Bertolini testified on Friday and returned to the witness stand Monday morning. The Justice Department sued to stop the merger in July. (Bartz, 12/12)

The Washington Post: Planned Parenthood Fears It May Be First Casualty Of Rekindled Abortion War
Planned Parenthood officials are scrambling to prepare for the likelihood that Congress next year will cut off more than a half-billion dollars in federal funding to the group, fulfilling the wishes of abortion foes who are planning an aggressive push to roll back abortion rights under President-elect Donald Trump. (Somashekhar and Zezima, 12/12)