KPCC: California Senator Moves To Rewrite State's HIV Transmission Laws 
A bill introduced in California this week aims to cut back on laws that criminalize the transmission of the human immunodeficiency virus, HIV. Authors and supporters of the bill — titled SB 239 — argue the current laws around transmission of the virus are outdated, unfairly target HIV positive people and need to be "modernized." If enacted, the bill would put the transmission of HIV on par with the transmission of other serious communicable diseases, according to the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California. (Bloom, 2/7)

In other news —

The Desert Sun: With HIV In Its Grips, Desert AIDS Project Attacks New Foes
When a group of people in the early 1980s felt compelled to respond to the lack of help available to those dying of AIDS in Palm Springs, they retreated into the mountains near Idyllwild to devise a plan. They decided a dedicated charitable organization was the answer and returned to the valley floor to make it happen. Over the intervening three decades, that charity helped desert cities weather the AIDS epidemic while growing to become a national leader among HIV and AIDS groups with a budget of more than $20 million. (Newkirk, 2/7)

East Bay Times: El Cerrito Clinic Offers Urgent Care Services In Wake Of Hospital Closure
A former emergency room physician at Doctors Medical Center in San Pablo has a new business idea that aims to fill some of the void in urgent medical care left by the hospital’s 2015 closing. New MD & Urgent Care’s El Cerrito location opened at the Moeser Lane Shopping Center in December. Under founder Dr. Ian Ahwah, who was with Doctors for about 20 years, New MD provides treatment for the most common complaints for which patients seek treatment at emergency rooms, including sprains, strains, flu, asthma and bronchitis, as well as providing vaccinations, sports physicals and occupational medicine. (Radin, 2/7)

In other news —

The San Diego Union-Tribune: UC San Diego Health Officially Named Padres' Provider
The Padres on Tuesday announced a multi-year partnership with their new healthcare provider, UC San Diego Health. The team’s contract with longtime provider Scripps Clinic had expired at the end of last year. New head team physician Catherine M. Robertson, a board-certified orthopedic surgeon, will “coordinate a multidisciplinary team of UC San Diego Health clinicians and staff members caring for the Padres at UC San Diego Health hospitals and clinics, as well as throughout spring training and during the season at Petco Park,” according to a release. Robertson previously was a team physician for the Chargers and a lead physician in a partnership between UC San Diego Health and the U.S. Olympic Committee. (Lin, 2/7)

San Jose Mercury News: Stanford Team Is Growing Healthy Skin For Diseased Patients
Small sheets of healthy skin are being grown from scratch at a Stanford University lab, proof that gene therapy can help heal a rare disease that causes great human suffering. The precious skin represents growing hope for patients who suffer from the incurable blistering disease epidermolysis bullosa — and acceleration of the once-beleaguered field of gene therapy, which strives to cure disease by inserting missing genes into sick cells. (Krieger, 2/7)

In other research news —

Sacramento Bee: UC Davis Researchers Find Mold, Fungi In Medical Marijuana And Warn Of Health Risks 
In uneasy news for medical marijuana users, UC Davis researchers have identified potentially lethal bacteria and mold on samples from 20 Northern California pot dispensaries, leading them to warn patients with weakened immune systems to avoid smoking, vaping or inhaling aerosolized cannabis. (Buck, 2/7)

Capital Public Radio/KXJZ: Drought Increases Severity Of West Nile Epidemics
Drought increases the severity of West Nile epidemics, according to a new study by researchers at UC Santa Cruz. Researchers analyzed 15 years of data on human West Nile virus infections across the U.S. They found that in drought years, outbreaks of the mosquito-borne disease were much more severe, particularly in regions where large epidemics have not occurred in the past. (Quinton, 2/7)

KPCC: How To Survive Cancer While Homeless 
While recuperative care—bringing in homeless who are sick but have nowhere to recover—has been around for a while, this program has an expanded reach because the center is conveniently situated at the hospital, said Dr. Mark Ghaly, deputy director of community health for L.A. County's health services department. "It changes the type of client you can accept at the facility," he said. "We're able to take a client with more immediate clinical needs." The county has been slowly expanding its use of recuperative care since Dr. Mitch Katz, who directs the county's health agency, came to L.A. in 2011. Now, there are about 200 such beds in L.A., adding an important piece to the continuum of care for a homeless population that's getting older and sicker each year, Ghaly said. But as recuperative care expands, it is still difficult to find permanent homes for patients once they're healthy. (Palta, 2/8)

The Mercury News: Obamacare: Documents Offer Insights Into Replacement Plan
An early peek at the Trump administration’s plans to replace the Affordable Care Act shows the president’s team is proposing incentives to health insurers to stay put in the marketplaces, giving time for Republicans hammer out a new healthcare plan. Those inducements, according to two draft documents obtained by POLITICO, include limiting who can sign up for health insurance outside the annual enrollment period, shifting more costs onto consumers and hiking insurance costs for older Americans. (Seipel, 2/7)

Modern Healthcare: Leaked HHS Draft Order To Fix Insurance Market Draws Mixed Reviews
The provisions in the leaked rule are consistent with some of the changes sought by insurers to get a better balance of healthier and sicker people in the risk pool, bring down costs and premiums, and make the individual market a more profitable business. ... But the proposed changes don't address what insurance industry leaders say are their most important needs if they are going to remain in the individual market in 2018. Those include congressional funding for the ACA's cost-sharing reductions, preservation of generous premium subsidies to keep coverage affordable, and restoration of risk payments to protect insurers that sign up disproportionately sick members. (Meyer, 2/7)

Politico Pro: Trump Administration Weighs Obamacare Changes Sought By Insurers
The Trump administration is considering major changes to Obamacare that may help convince insurers to remain in the law's marketplaces while Congress drafts a replacement plan — but the proposals may also limit enrollment and increase costs for older Americans, according to documents obtained by POLITICO. The administration is looking to alter rules around insurers charging older customers more, how much cost they can shift onto customers, and who's allowed to sign up outside the standard enrollment window. ... POLITICO obtained two draft documents that were not identical but shared similar concepts. The administration is expected to soon release a proposed regulation — which may differ from these drafts — that it says will be an effort to stabilize Obamacare's insurance marketplaces. (Diamond, Haberkorn and Demko, 2/6)

Politico: GOP Boxed In Replacing Unpopular Obamacare Coverage Mandate
The most hated piece of Obamacare is the mandate requiring most Americans to get health insurance. The Republican alternatives on the table may not prove any more popular. As the GOP weighs elements of a repeal-replace plan, one of lawmakers' biggest headaches is finding another way to persuade insurers to cover people with pre-existing health care problems. And all of the options under discussion would either raise the uninsured population or run afoul of GOP principles. (Demko, 2/8)

The New York Times: Issues Facing Republicans In Replacing Affordable Care Act
Ever since Democrats began pushing the Affordable Care Act through Congress more than seven years ago, Republicans have been trying to come up with an alternative. Candid conversations leaked from a conclave of Republican lawmakers in Philadelphia last month, and public comments since, show they are nowhere near agreement. (Pear, 2/7)

Reuters: U.S. House Speaker Says Obamacare Replacement Will Pass This Year
The U.S. House of Representatives' Republican leader said on Tuesday that legislation to replace former President Barack Obama's signature healthcare law would be completed this year, trying to dispel the idea that the party is retreating from its campaign promise to dismantle Obamacare quickly. (Cornwell, 2/7)

CNN: Cruz, Sanders Face Off On Obamacare
Sen. Ted Cruz urged fellow Republicans Tuesday to quickly "honor the promises" the party made over the years to repeal Obamacare. "2010, 2014, 2016, I believe were a mandate from the voters. We're tired of the premiums going up. We're tired of deductibles going up," Cruz said at a CNN town hall debate with Sen. Bernie Sanders over the future of Obamacare. "Should Congress move swiftly to repeal Obamacare? Absolutely." Cruz and Sanders -- two senators with diametrically opposed views of government's role in health care -- faced off at the debate moderated by CNN's Jake Tapper and Dana Bash and featuring questions from an audience consisting of both defenders and critics of the Affordable Care Act. (Lee and Watkins, 2/8)

In other national health care news —

Bloomberg: GOP Shrugs At Price’s Stock Trades In Bid To Confirm Trump Picks 
Tom Price is on a glide path to win Senate confirmation later this week as Health and Human Services secretary, where he would lead President Donald Trump’s effort to undo Obamacare, even as Democrats insist he still needs to answer questions about his stock trades. Senate Republicans have brushed off concerns raised by Democrats that Price, a Republican representative from Georgia, purchased stock in a few health-care companies and may have been financially motivated to develop or vote in favor of legislation that would benefit those businesses. (Edney, 2/8)

The Wall Street Journal: White House Backs ‘Right To Try’ Law For Terminally Ill Patients
The White House is giving a big boost to proponents of a federal Right to Try law that they contend would give terminally ill patients easier access to medicines that haven’t won approval from the Food and Drug Administration. Some supporters of the bill met Tuesday with Vice President Mike Pence, and last week they won a supportive statement from President Donald Trump, who has been contending that too many FDA rules in general pose unnecessary hurdles to drug approval. (Burton, 2/7)

The Wall Street Journal: Biotech Executives Sign Letter Against Immigration Order
More than 150 biotechnology executives and venture capitalists have voiced opposition to President Donald Trump’s immigration order, which they say threatens the U.S.’s thriving medical research industry. “If this misguided policy is not reversed, America is at risk of losing its leadership position in one of its most important sectors, one that will shape the world in the twenty-first century,” the executives wrote in a letter to the editor of Nature Biotechnology, a scientific journal, and published online on Tuesday. (Walker, 2/7)

McClatchy: Americans More Worried About Health Care Cost Than Other Concerns 
American families aren’t as worried about terrorism or crime as they are about paying their health care bills, a new poll suggests. Health care costs have emerged as the No. 1 concern for American families, according to a new national Monmouth University poll. Health care costs outranked a variety of other concerns that registered in the single digits, including college tuition and taxes. (Clark, 2/7)