The Associated Press: Lawyers Clash Over Impact Of Trump's Rules On Birth Control
Lawyers for California and the U.S. Department of Justice clashed in court Tuesday over whether new rules from President Donald Trump's administration would dramatically reduce women's access to free birth control. Deputy Assistant Attorney General Ethan Davis urged a federal judge not to grant the state's request to block the policy change to President Barack Obama's health care law, saying it was not clear any women would lose no-cost contraception coverage. (12/12)

Reuters: U.S. Judge Questions Trump Administration On Birth Control Rules
New rules from the Department of Health and Human Services announced in October let businesses or non-profit organizations lodge religious or moral objections to obtain an exemption from the Obamacare law's mandate that most employers provide contraceptives coverage in health insurance with no co-payment. The move from President Donald Trump's administration kept a campaign pledge that pleased the Republican's conservative Christian supporters.California and several other states with Democratic attorneys general promptly sued and asked for the policy to be blocked while its legality is decided. (Levine, 12/12)

Los Angeles Times: Families Of Patients Fear GOP Tax Plan Will Scuttle Drug Development For Rare Diseases
Of all the proposals in the GOP tax plan, none may be more important to families like Jay and Amy Granzow than an obscure provision on "orphan" drug research. The Granzows, who live in Manhattan Beach, fear that the final tax bill will end up killing or drastically cutting a three-decade-old tax credit for companies developing therapies for so-called orphan or rare diseases, such as cystic fibrosis, muscular dystrophy and Angelman syndrome. The last is a debilitating genetic disorder that afflicts the Granzows' nearly 3-year-old daughter, Cora. (Lee, 12/13)

Los Angeles Times: Pharmacies Now Can Offer Birth Control To Women Without A Prescription, But Few Do
A new law in California allows women to pick up birth control pills from pharmacies without a doctor’s prescription. But more than a year after the law took effect, women say they’re still struggling to get the medicines, in part because they can’t find pharmacies offering them. (Karlamangla, 12/13)

KQED: Frontiers Of HIV Research: The Man Who Was Nearly Cured
Now, two more patients — with the first names Luis and Clark, no less — may find themselves at least footnotes in the narrative of HIV’s trajectory from pandemic to cure, should the latter be achieved. The cases of Clark Hawley, 54, and Luis Canales, 31, have provided at least a temporary answer to a big question: Can very early treatment after exposure to HIV lead to complete eradication of the virus – an actual cure? (d'Adesky, 12/12)

In other public health news —

Los Angeles Times: Is 'Man Flu' Real? Medical Science Delivers Comfort To Helpless Male Snufflers
We've all seen him: The man who strides boldly into high-stakes negotiations, risks serious injury to win a pickup basketball game and fearlessly confronts things that go bump in the night, yet is brought low by a tiny virus. He snivels pitiably, wallows in his misery and tests the most forbearing caregiver with his abject helplessness. The diagnosis often comes with a roll of the eyes. It’s “man flu,” an infectious disease that renders healthy males utterly incapable of self-care. (Healy, 12/12)

KQED: Just Because You Have A ‘Mild’ Concussion Doesn’t Mean You’re OK
Each year, about 2.5 million people in the United States are admitted to emergency rooms with traumatic brain injuries, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The difficulties of studying concussions, with their vague symptoms and hidden physical damage, have turned brain injury into a “silent epidemic,” in the words of Pratik Mukherjee, a neuroradiologist at UCSF. (Vassey, 12/12)

San Francisco Chronicle: Life-Shortening Blood Disease Gets Rush Of Research
More than 50 years after the cause of sickle-cell disease was discovered, a dozen treatments for the painful and life-shortening inherited condition offer hope for long-overlooked patients. ...Bluebird Bio Inc. hopes to cure patients with a single injection of its gene therapy one day.  (Cortez, 12/12)

KPCC: Mobile Restrooms For Homeless To Expand In LA
The L.A. City Council approved the move Tuesday along with shifts in funding that will allow the city to continue operating some existing restrooms for homeless. The pilot will place a mobile restroom —meaning toilets, sinks, and showers — in Wilmington, Venice, downtown Los Angeles, and South Park. (Palta, 12/12)

And in more news from across the state —

San Jose Mercury News: As Bay Area Rent Skyrockets, More Families Go Hungry
The cost of living across Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties is so high that more than a quarter of people in the region struggle to pay for food each month, according to a new food insecurity study by Second Harvest Food Bank. Nearly 27 percent of those living in Santa Clara and San Mateo counties — an estimated 720,000 residents — are food insecure, which means they’re at risk for hunger, the study released Tuesday said. (Sanchez, 12/12)

Reuters: Republicans Propose To Delay, Pause Obamacare Taxes
U.S. House Republicans proposed on Tuesday to delay or suspend several taxes under former President Barack Obama's healthcare law, including a tax on medical devices and the so-called "Cadillac" tax on generous health insurance plans. The move represents a new Republican attempt to roll back provisions of the 2010 Affordable Care Act widely known as Obamacare, after repeated failures by Congress' majority party this year to repeal the law. (Cornwell, 12/12)

Modern Healthcare: House GOP Lawmakers Look To Delay Cadillac Tax, Other ACA Taxes
Afordable Care Act taxes are all on the U.S. House of Representatives' chopping block. Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee introduced a bundle of bills on Tuesday to delay the Cadillac tax, employer mandate and other taxes that healthcare industry groups have opposed. The employer mandate gets a retroactive repeal from 2015 and a delay through 2018; this measure is paired with a one-year delay of the Cadillac tax. (Luthi, 12/12)

In other national health care news —

The Hill: Bipartisan Group Of Governors Calls For Swift CHIP Reauthorization
A bipartisan group of governors is urging Congress to act quickly to reauthorize funding for the Children’s Health Insurance Program. In a letter led by Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R) and Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper (D), the governors said their states are running out of money, and urged lawmakers to find a bipartisan solution. (Weixel, 12/12)

Stat: What Pharma's Watching As Congress Tries To Hammer Out A Tax Bill
As congressional leaders prepare to lock themselves away and hammer out a final tax bill, one thing is clear: Big Pharma, like the rest of corporate America, is going to get a big break. But there are devilish details the drug industry will be tracking, including the fates of an oft-used tax credit and a long-promised provision that would make it cheaper for multinational companies to bring overseas cash back to the U.S. (Garde, 12/13)

The Washington Post: DEA Official Says 2016 Law That Undermined Enforcement Should Be Changed
The head of the Drug Enforcement Administration office that regulates pharmaceutical opioids told senators Tuesday that a 2016 law has made enforcement more difficult in urgent circumstances and should be revised. Demetra Ashley, who leads the agency’s Diversion Control Division, said Congress should choose between repealing and amending the law. But she said the DEA agrees with the Justice Department that it should be altered to help curb the ongoing opioid epidemic. (Bernstein and Higham, 12/12)

Stat: FDA To Study Deputizing Consumers To Find Bad Ads, As Warnings To Pharma Plunge
Concerned about the veracity of some pharmaceutical marketing, the Food and Drug Administration plans to study the extent to which doctors and consumers can detect deceptive ads. In explaining its rationale, the agency reiterated ongoing worries that misleading advertising can generate unnecessary prescribing, but also indicated interest in finding new ways to identify troubling ads, since resources are tight, according to this notice. (Silverman, 12/12)

The Washington Post: 'Phenomenal' Trial Results May Lead To A Treatment For Huntington's Disease, Experts Say
The discovery of a drug that may treat the fatal disease known as Huntington's is being hailed as “historic” by Louise Vetter, president and CEO of the Huntington's Disease Society of America, and “phenomenal” and “fantastically promising” by Huntington's researchers, including the woman who discovered the genetic mutation that causes the disease. “I'm ecstatic,” said Nancy Wexler, who in 1993 identified the mutation. “Huntington's is horrible, one of the worst diseases known to mankind, and certain death. . . . We know it’s a bad gene, making a bad protein, that makes people sick, that kills your brain cells. Anything that could impact that, we knew that that could be a cure.” (Nutt, 12/12)