- California Healthline Original Stories 5
- Shoppers On California Exchange Sidestep Soaring Premiums But Pass Up Subsidies
- For Some Patients In Marketplace Plans, Access To Cancer Centers Is Elusive
- HHS Secretary: Give Medicare Authority To Negotiate Drug Prices
- In Search Of A Vaccine To Vanquish The Plague
- One In Three Women With Breast Cancer Treated Unnecessarily, Study Concludes
- Covered California & The Health Law 2
- Despite State Law, If ACA Is Repealed Many Women May Lose Free Contraception
- GOP Leaders Remain Resolute On Quick Repeal Vote Despite Unease Brewing In Ranks
Latest From California Healthline:
California Healthline Original Stories
Shoppers On California Exchange Sidestep Soaring Premiums But Pass Up Subsidies
One Health Affairs study published Monday shows many consumers with Covered California health plans limited their rate hikes by choosing lower cost plans. But a second study suggests many passed up financial help because they chose the wrong type of plan. (Ana B. Ibarra, 1/10)
For Some Patients In Marketplace Plans, Access To Cancer Centers Is Elusive
In a number of states, including big ones such as New York and Texas, leading cancer centers aren’t included in insurers’ provider networks. (Michelle Andrews, 1/10)
HHS Secretary: Give Medicare Authority To Negotiate Drug Prices
More work is needed to improve health care in U.S., but there are no “silver bullets” to get the job done, Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell tells National Press Club in a farewell speech defending Obamacare. (Rachel Bluth, 1/9)
In Search Of A Vaccine To Vanquish The Plague
The scourge of the Middle Ages could still be pretty scary as a bioterrorism weapon, so scientists are trying to find a way to immunize people against it. (Lydia Zuraw, 1/10)
One In Three Women With Breast Cancer Treated Unnecessarily, Study Concludes
Mammograms find many slow-growing cancers that aren’t life-threatening and shouldn’t be treated, a Danish study said. (Liz Szabo, 1/9)
More News From Across The State
Covered California & The Health Law
Despite State Law, If ACA Is Repealed Many Women May Lose Free Contraception
California's Comprehensive Coverage Equity Act requires private plans and Medi-Cal to cover all prescribed FDA-approved contraceptives without cost sharing, but that won't matter if the women can't get insurance, some say.
KPBS:
Key Health Benefit For Women To Vanish If Obamacare Repealed
If Congress fully repeals the Affordable Care Act, a vital preventive service for women will disappear: no-cost contraceptives. The ACA requires insurers to cover FDA-approved contraceptives, including birth control pills, diaphragms, and implanted devices such as IUDs. The mandate also includes emergency contraception, and patient education and counseling. These must be provided at no cost, even if a woman hasn’t met her health plan’s deductible. (Goldberg, 1/10)
GOP Leaders Remain Resolute On Quick Repeal Vote Despite Unease Brewing In Ranks
The lawmakers are facing dissent from their own party by members who are concerned that there is no plan on how to replace the health law after Congress votes to repeal it. Meanwhile, Senate Democrats protested Republicans' actions with nearly six hours' worth of speeches on the floor on Monday night, and HHS Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell warns that the GOP's promises on health care are too good to be true.
The Associated Press:
GOP Anxiety Mounts Over Voiding Health Law Without Own Plan
The burgeoning Republican divisions come as the GOP-led Senate pushed toward a final vote this week on a budget that would prevent Democrats from using a filibuster to block a later repealing Obama's overhaul. That's crucial because filibusters take 60 votes to halt in a chamber that Republicans control by only a 52-48 margin. (1/10)
Politico:
GOP Leaders Vow To Plow Ahead With Obamacare Repeal
House and Senate Republican leaders are forging ahead with plans to repeal Obamacare then replace it later — dismissing mounting pressure from their own party to delay the repeal vote until they have a fully formed alternative. But they’re hoping to ease internal concerns that Republicans will be attacked for acting hastily — worries that accelerated after libertarian-leaning Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) bucked party leadership on the matter last week and received a blessing from President-elect Donald Trump. Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and their top lieutenants in both chambers are now considering a strategy that includes adding some replacement provisions to the repeal bill, according to lawmakers and aides. (Bade and Everett, 1/9)
The Wall Street Journal:
Donald Trump Pressures Republicans To Repeal, Replace Health Law At Same Time
President-elect Donald Trump is increasing pressure on congressional Republicans to vote at the same time to both repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, but party leaders haven’t indicated any shift in strategy to make that happen. Mr. Trump’s push, combined with doubts from different factions of Republicans, could end up slowing down party leaders’ efforts to rapidly overturn much of the law. (Peterson and Bender, 1/9)
Politico:
Freedom Caucus Looks To Delay Budget — And Obamacare Repeal
The House Freedom Caucus wants to delay a vote on a budget that includes Obamacare repeal instructions, a potential setback for the GOP’s — and Donald Trump’s — top priority. The group of hardline conservatives wants more information about what a repeal bill and Obamacare replacement would look like before they support the fiscal 2017 budget. (Bade, 1/9)
The Hill:
Senate Dems End ObamaCare Repeal Protest After 5 Hours
Senate Democrats ceded back the Senate floor early Tuesday morning, ending a more than 5-hour protest of GOP efforts to repeal ObamaCare. Democrats painted the late-night talkathon as the first test against a unified Republican-led government as the majority party works to nix the healthcare law without a replacement plan. (Carney, 1/10)
Los Angeles Times:
Democrats And Their Allies Are Planning A Huge Fight To Save Obamacare
Energized by Republican moves to roll back the Affordable Care Act, leading patient advocates, consumer groups, labor unions and Democratic officials are mobilizing a nationwide campaign to defend the law and protect millions of Americans who depend on the law and other government health programs. The campaign, which is quickly ramping up ahead of President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration next week, aims to reshape the debate over the law after years in which the public conversation has been dominated by its critics. (Levey and Memoli, 1/10)
The Washington Post:
Obama’s Top Health Official Warns Of Dangers Of Health-Care Law Repeal
The Republicans’ strategy to repeal the Affordable Care Act risks sending health care in the United States “over a cliff,” the government’s top health official warned Monday as part of an unprecedented campaign by the Obama administration to use its final days to preserve the centerpiece of its domestic legacy. (Goldstein, 1/9)
The Washington Post:
Sylvia Mathews Burwell, Who Shepherded Obamacare, Talks About Its Uncertain Future
As secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services for the past two and a half years, Sylvia Mathews Burwell has overseen the Affordable Care Act, Medicare and Medicaid, the Food and Drug Administration and a wide range of social services from Head Start to family assistance programs. In a conversation with Tom Fox, Burwell discussed her concerns about impending changes to the Affordable Care Act, the presidential transition, her approach to leadership and playing basketball for President Obama’s national security adviser. (Fox, 1/9)
The New York Times:
Muted Response From Health Lobby As Affordable Care Act Faces Repeal
The speed of Republican efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act has stunned health industry lobbyists, leaving representatives of insurance companies, hospitals, doctors and pharmaceutical makers in disarray and struggling for a response to a legislative quick strike that would upend much of the American health care system. (Pear, 1/9)
Back In Bay Area: Biotech CEO Takes On New Challenge With Startup Targeting HIV
"I found [Vir Biotechnology] compelling because of the need and the public health issues around the world — in the developing world and the developed world. So there's a human need and a financial return," former Exelixis Inc. CEO George Scangos says.
San Francisco Business Times:
Biotech Icon George Scangos Returns To Bay Area With Big Startup
George Scangos is back in the Bay Area, targeting HIV and other infectious diseases.The former Exelixis Inc. CEO — who spent the past six-plus years leading Boston-area biotech Biogen Inc. — is CEO of Vir Biotechnology Inc. The startup is backed by $150 million from Arch Venture Partners, an equity investment from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and other unspecified investors. (Leuty, 1/6)
In other news —
Instrument Slashes Average Time It Takes To Sequence Human Genome To One Hour
llumina's new developments may help cement the practice of using genome sequencing in standard medicine.
The San Diego Union-Tribune:
New Machines Can Sequence Human Genome In One Day, Illumina Announces
DNA sequencing giant Illumina on Monday introduced a powerful new line of its instruments, bringing down the average time of sequencing a human genome to one hour — from more than one day just a couple of years ago. The San Diego company’s announcement is the latest step toward the dream of making genomic analysis a near-universal part of medicine, enabling easier and less costly detection of rare diseases and the ability to link genetic variations with health and illness. As sequencing prices fall and capacity rises, uses of the technology that were once impractical become feasible. (Fikes, 1/9)
Biden Presses Health Care Leaders To Expand The Battle Against Cancer
In speeches on the West Coast, the vice president says he will continue his campaign to find cures for the deadly disease and extolled young researchers to find new remedies through their "overwhelming skepticism for orthodoxy."
The Associated Press:
Biden Outlines Steps To Pursue Post-Obama ‘Cancer Moonshot’
Vice President Joe Biden is outlining how he intends to pursue his “cancer moonshot” agenda after the end of the Obama administration.Biden says in a San Francisco speech that he will be starting an organization that may be called the Biden Cancer Initiative to make progress in changing the way the nation conducts cancer research and development and providing care to those with the disease. (1/9)
San Francisco Chronicle:
At SF Event, Biden Vows To Make Fighting Cancer His Cause
With less than two weeks left in office, Vice President Joe Biden told health care leaders in San Francisco on Monday that he has “genuine reason for open optimism” about the state of cancer research — a special cause to him since his son’s death in 2015. Biden has led the Cancer Moonshot Initiative since it was announced by President Obama last January in his final State of the Union address. (Allday, 1/9)
The Year Tobacco Taxes Were Rejected At The Ballots -- Except For California's
In other states, the tobacco industry's war chest crushed supporters of the taxes, but in California advocates were able to get the message across to voters.
Stateline:
Tobacco Company Cash Crushes Tax Increases
Between 1980 and 2015, voters approved nearly 70 percent of the 32 tobacco tax hikes that appeared on statewide ballots, according to Ballotpedia, a nonpartisan research group that has tracked them. But in November, voters in North Dakota, Missouri and Colorado defeated measures that would have increased taxes by 23 cents to $1.76 on a pack of cigarettes. ... Tobacco taxes generally are among the least controversial taxes to raise because they affect a small number of voters and the dangers of tobacco use are widely known. State legislatures, in particular, are fond of raising so-called “sin” taxes, as opposed to approving increases in broad-based taxes such as those on income or property. But November’s electorate may have been especially tax averse. (Povich, 1/9)
Program That Trains Psychologists On How To Treat Abused Youths Expanding
The Casa Pacifica agency was awarded a $300,000 grant to continue to focus on treating abused, neglected and at-risk youth through its broad-based programs.
Ventura County Star:
Aspiring Therapists Learn On The Ground At Casa Pacifica
Aided by a presidential initiative, the Casa Pacifica agency has doubled admissions to a program that prepares psychologists to work with abused, neglected and emotionally troubled youth. Brian Bantel, 33, is a member of this year's class. The intern from Arizona plans to specialize in the treatment of children who have been traumatized by abuse and neglect, a specialty of the Casa Pacifica Centers for Children & Families. "I do best with a trauma population or a lot of conduct-related aggressive behaviors," Bantel said after a session last week with a 6-year-old boy at the agency's main campus in the Camarillo area. (Wilson, 1/9)