Latest From California Healthline:
California Healthline Original Stories
Going Down Fighting: Dying Activist Champions ‘Medicare For All’
Presidential hopeful Elizabeth Warren tried to tell the story of Ady Barkan in the latest Democratic debate. He’s one of the most prominent advocates for “Medicare for All” and is spending his remaining time alive doing everything he can to make the case that all Americans need affordable health coverage. (Anna Almendrala, )
Good morning! The Trump administration's so-called "public charge" rule related to immigration remains the top news in health care policy, and California is taking a leading role in that debate. So let's get right to that, and the other big stories of the day:
California Counties File First Lawsuit Against Trump Rule: A day after they were announced, San Francisco and Santa Clara counties filed legal challenges to block the Trump administration's new rules aimed at denying green cards to immigrants who use Medicaid, food stamps, housing vouchers or other forms of public assistance. In their filings, the two northern California counties argue that the policy would "worsen" the health of their residents and increase public health risks. More lawsuits from other localities are expected.
Many news organizations are covering the story, including the San Francisco Chronicle | The Associated Press | The Washington Post | Reuters | Wall Street Journal | The Hill
More Legal Action On Power Plant Emissions: California is also challenging the Trump administration on another front: its roll-back of Obama-era clean energy initiatives. The state joins a coalition of 21 others who suing. “This is about generations that we are fighting for,” Calif. Gov. Gavin Newsom said. “This is about our kids and our grandkids. This is about clean air. This is about clean water. This is about endangered species.” Read more from Phil Willon of the Los Angeles Times and Hannah Willey of The Sacramento Bee.
Judge Warns CalPERS In Long-Term Care Suit: Superior Court Judge William Highberger is urging CalPERS to settle a major lawsuit filed against its price increases for long-term care insurance policies. “There is a very serious risk that a money judgment for a rather large amount of money will be issued in due course in this case,” the judge wrote, saying he agreed with plaintiffs’ interpretation of language that reads “your premiums will not increase.” Read more from Wes Venteicher in The Sacramento Bee.
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 Sacramento Bee:
Bricks, Death Threats And Fury: A Last-Ditch Fight Against California’s Vaccine Crackdown
California’s debate over a proposed law to tighten kids’ exemptions for mandatory vaccines was never subtle. Lawmakers sponsoring the bill say they’ve been receiving death threats for months. Someone in June mailed Assembly members dozens of bricks etched with appeals to kill the measure. On Twitter, celebrities heckle vaccine proponents and each side warns of deadly consequences. Now, as lawmakers head into the final weeks of this year’s legislative session, anti-vaccine advocates are turning to an out-of-state political operative known for provocative campaigns in a last-ditch effort to undermine a bill that Gov. Gavin Newsom has already indicated he’d sign. (Wiley, 8/12)
Los Angeles Times:
Huntington Beach Homeless Shelter Plan Is On Hold And May Be Scrapped Amid Lawsuit Challenging Location
Huntington Beach’s plan to open a new homeless shelter at 15311 Pipeline Lane is on hold and could be scrapped because of a lawsuit filed by a group that claims the site can be used only for industrial purposes. ...If city staff identifies a new location for the homeless shelter, Gates said, that proposal would go before the council and restart the approval process. (Vega, 8/13)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Report: Navy Altered Hunters Point Cleanup To Cover, Not Remove, Toxic Soil
When the Navy began cleaning up its toxic shipyard in San Francisco in the 1990s, officials made a promise: The site would be scrubbed to the highest standards, essentially returned to its state before Cold War nuclear waste and industrial shops tainted the land. But more recently, the Navy has ditched that plan for a cheaper approach that would leave much more contamination in the ground, according to a report released Tuesday by the Committee to Bridge the Gap, a nonprofit watchdog group on nuclear issues that often criticizes government and industry for their handling of hazardous waste. (Fagone and Dizikes, 8/14)
San Jose Mercury News:
Second Amendment: Bay Area Man, Committed To Psych Ward As Teen, Sues To Own Guns
A Sonoma County man who says he was committed to a psychiatric ward years ago at 18 is suing the federal government and California over his prohibition from owning guns. Easton Stokes argues in his lawsuit that an “unconstitutionally broad ban” on firearms possession for anyone ever committed to a mental institution violates his Second Amendment right to bear arms. While federal law bars gun possession by people who have been committed to a mental facility, it allows anyone no longer deemed a public safety threat to have their gun rights restored, the suit said. (Baron, 8/13)
Stat:
For First Time, U.S. Panel Recommends Screening Adults For Illicit Drug Use
As new ways to identify and treat people who use opioids and other drugs emerge, an independent panel of experts is recommending that health care providers screen their adult patients for illicit drug use. The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force has determined, for the first time, that there is enough evidence to state with “moderate certainty” that screening adults for illicit substance use is overall beneficial. (Flaherty, 8/13)
The Washington Post:
U.S. Health Panel Recommends Doctors Screen All Adults For Illicit Drug Use
The recommendation is the first time the panel has concluded there is enough evidence to support screening all adults. In 2008, it declined to do so. The guidance is important because the Affordable Care Act requires that services recommended by the task force be covered free or with very small co-payments. The proposed recommendations are open for public comment until Sept. 9, after which the task force will consider them for final approval. (Bernstein, 8/13)
The Washington Post:
Abortion Support Remains Steady Despite Growing Partisan Divide, Survey Finds
At a time when antiabortion measures are sweeping the United States, one of the largest-ever surveys on abortion attitudes finds support for legal abortion has held steady. No more than a quarter of residents in any state supports a total ban despite the increasing political divide on the issue. The Public Religion Research Institute survey released Tuesday involves an extraordinarily large sample of 40,292 interviews measuring abortion attitudes throughout 2018, allowing it to produce nuanced results for individual states and for very small demographic groups. It found that Americans remain generally supportive of abortion rights, with 54 percent saying it should be legal in all or most cases and 40 percent saying it should be illegal. These numbers are nearly the same as a similar 2014 survey when 55 percent of Americans said abortion should be legal. (Cha and Clement, 8/13)
California Healthline:
Trump Administration Hits Brakes On Law To Curb Unneeded Medicare CT Scans, MRIs
Five years after Congress passed a law to reduce unnecessary MRIs, CT scans and other expensive diagnostic imaging tests that could harm patients and waste money, federal officials have yet to implement it. The law requires that doctors consult clinical guidelines set by the medical industry before Medicare will pay for many common exams for enrollees. Health care providers who go way beyond clinical guidelines in ordering these scans (the 5% who order the most tests that are inappropriate) will, under the law, be required after that to get prior approval from Medicare for their diagnostic imaging. But after physicians argued the provision would interfere with their practices, the Trump administration delayed putting the 2014 law in place until January 2020, two years later than originally planned. (Galewitz, 8/14)
Racial Disparities In Health Care
The New York Times:
Why Doesn’t America Have Universal Health Care? One Word: Race
One hundred and fifty years after the freed people of the South first petitioned the government for basic medical care, the United States remains the only high-income country in the world where such care is not guaranteed to every citizen. In the United States, racial health disparities have proved as foundational as democracy itself. “There has never been any period in American history where the health of blacks was equal to that of whites,” Evelynn Hammonds, a historian of science at Harvard University, says. “Disparity is built into the system.” Medicare, Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act have helped shrink those disparities. But no federal health policy yet has eradicated them. (Interlandi, 8/14)
The New York Times:
How False Beliefs In Physical Racial Difference Still Live In Medicine Today
Today Cartwright’s 1851 paper reads like satire, Hamilton’s supposedly scientific experiments appear simply sadistic and, last year, a statue commemorating Sims in New York’s Central Park was removed after prolonged protest that included women wearing blood-splattered gowns in memory of Anarcha, Betsey, Lucy and the other enslaved women he brutalized. And yet, more than 150 years after the end of slavery, fallacies of black immunity to pain and weakened lung function continue to show up in modern-day medical education and philosophy. ... Recent data also shows that present-day doctors fail to sufficiently treat the pain of black adults and children for many medical issues. A 2013 review of studies examining racial disparities in pain management published in The American Medical Association Journal of Ethics found that black and Hispanic people — from children with appendicitis to elders in hospice care — received inadequate pain management compared with white counterparts. (Villarosa, 8/14)
WBUR:
Moving Away From 'White People Only' DNA Tests: African Project Seeks Thousands For Mental Health Genetics
Much research has found that such family resemblance is influenced by genes more than by any other risk factor, and genes are emerging as important clues for new treatments. But research on the genetic basis of mental illness has so far largely excluded anyone who is not of European heritage. That means that this Kenyan family, and other people of African descent, might not benefit from the new biological insights into mental illness. (Anne Stevenson and Lukoye Atwoli, 8/13)
Modern Healthcare:
1 In 7 Internal Medicine Residents Are Bullied
Approximately 1 in 7 internal medicine physicians reported being bullied during their residency training, according to a new study. The study, published Tuesday in JAMA, analyzed survey results from more than 21,000 internal medical trainees who took the 2016 Internal Medicine In-Training Examination and found 14% of respondents reported experiencing bullying during their residency. (Johnson, 8/13)
Modern Healthcare:
Fewer Employers Offering High-Deductible Plans As Only Option
Fewer large, self-insured employers will offer a high-deductible health plan as the only employee insurance option next year, opting instead to give employees more choice when it comes to health coverage. For the second straight year, the percentage of large companies offering only a high-deductible health plan with an attached savings account is projected to decrease to a quarter of employers in 2020, down from 30% in 2019 and 39% in 2018, according to the National Business Group on Health's annual survey of employers' healthcare strategies and plan designs. (Livingston, 8/13)
The Washington Post:
Agency Did Not Conduct Required Oversight Of Program For Those With Disabilities
Health and Human Services officials have failed to conduct required visits of independent living programs for thousands of people with intellectual and physical disabilities, the agency’s Office of the Inspector General found. The Administration for Community Living, created within HHS in 2012, administers two independent living programs, which aim to help people with disabilities find housing services, job opportunities and other resources. By law, ACL must carry out compliance reviews of at least 15 percent of the programs that receive federal funding and in at least one-third of the states that receive the funding. The inspector general found ACL has not conducted such visits since it assumed oversight of the programs five years ago. (Abutaleb, 8/14)
Politico Pro:
Lawmakers Reopen Generic Pricing Probe After States' Lawsuit Reveals Coordinated Efforts
Lawmakers are reopening an investigation into generic drugmakers' pricing strategies after a multistate lawsuit exposed three companies' discussions on coordinating responses to an earlier congressional effort.House Oversight Chair Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) and presidential contender Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) late Tuesday night demanded that generic drugmakers Teva, Mylan and Heritage explain messages suggesting they coordinated to blunt a 2014 probe by the lawmakers into lockstep pricing. (Owermohle, 8/14)
Politico Pro:
FDA To Take Stock Of Menu Labeling Implementation
The FDA is planning to assess how well industry has been complying with menu labeling requirements that kicked in more than a year ago after many years of delay. In an update released today, the agency reiterated that it's committed to "working flexibly with establishments to help them achieve compliance" — which has been a goal since the regulation took effect in May 2018 — and outlined new steps it's planning in the coming months. (Bottemiller Evich, 8/13)
USA Today:
NYPD Officer Kills Himself Amid Rash Of Police Suicides
A New York Police Department officer killed himself Tuesday in Yonkers, the eighth NYPD officer to die by suicide this year. ... "The NYPD suffered another tragedy today with the loss of another officer to suicide," the department said in a Tweet. "To those who may be facing struggles – Help is always available, you are not alone." (Spillane, 8/13)
NPR:
Air Pollution May Be As Harmful To Your Lungs As Smoking Cigarettes, Study Finds
Emphysema is considered a smoker's disease. But it turns out, exposure to air pollution may lead to the same changes in the lung that give rise to emphysema. A new study published Tuesday in JAMA finds that long-term exposure to slightly elevated levels of air pollution can be linked to accelerated development of lung damage, even among people who have never smoked. (Janney, 8/13)
The New York Times:
‘Juul-Alikes’ Are Filling Shelves With Sweet, Teen-Friendly Nicotine Flavors
After Juul Labs, under pressure from the Food and Drug Administration, stopped selling most of its hugely popular flavored nicotine pods in stores last fall, upstart competitors swooped in to grab the shelf space. Trumpeting their own fruity and candy-flavored pods as compatible with Juul devices, they have seen their sales soar. The proliferation of “Juul-alikes” is not only complicating Juul’s efforts to clean up its tarnished image, but also shows just how entrenched the youth vaping problem has become and that voluntary measures are unlikely to solve it. (Kaplan, 8/13)
USA Today:
How Doctors Really Feel About Data From Your Apple Watch, Fitbit
It's clear that consumers love wearables and the information they provide – but do physicians? Doctors have mixed views on how patients gather and present information from gadgets with quasi-medical aspirations. Most say its a plus that patients can collect and curate more health-related data than ever before. However, bringing printed out pages of calories burned or counted steps to your next check-up isn't exactly advised. (Brown, 8/14)
The New York Times:
Drinking Bleach Won’t Cure Cancer Or Anything Else, F.D.A. Says
The Food and Drug Administration was dragged into the online world of medical misinformation this week, telling consumers not to drink bleach solutions that are being marketed as cures for autism, cancer, H.I.V./AIDS and other medical conditions. It was the latest example of how health authorities must sometimes pit science against the viral power of the internet, which regularly serves as a platform for inaccurate medical advice and unproven claims of breakthroughs. (Hoffman, 8/13)