Sacramento Bee: Gavin Newsom’s Health Plan Could Help Lower Your Insurance Costs – Or Make You Pay A Fine
California’s new governor wants to reinstate the individual mandate at the state level. It’s part of a sweeping health care plan Gov. Gavin Newsom unveiled just hours after being sworn into office Monday. Here’s a breakdown of what the individual mandate is, what Newsom’s proposal means and how it might affect Californians. (Bollag, 1/9)

Capital Public Radio: Universal Health Care Push Expected To Regain Momentum In Newsom's First Budget 
The fight to expand coverage under the Affordable Care Act never petered out in California, even as the federal government moved repeatedly to dismantle the Obama-era policy. Now, the Golden State seems to have a new health care champion in Gavin Newsom. In his first budget this week, the governor is expected to revive ideas to improve access that fell flat under predecessor Jerry Brown. (Caiola, 1/8)

Capital Public Radio: Newsom Moves To Bring Down Drug Costs, Expand Affordable Coverage
Following his inauguration speech Monday, California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced a number of health care proposals, including plans to improve premium subsidies in Covered California, expand health coverage for some undocumented adults and pave the way for a single-payer system. Consumer groups and universal health care advocates have applauded the new governor’s plans, but experts warn most of these steps require budget allocations, legislative backing and in some cases federal approval that’s unlikely to take shape. (Caiola, 1/8)

San Francisco Chronicle: Nurse Accuses Zuckerberg SF General Hospital Of Retaliation After Push For Name Removal
A nurse at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital who has urged hospital administrators to drop Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg’s name from the institution said he filed complaints with state and federal labor boards Tuesday, accusing the hospital of retaliating against him for opposing the Zuckerberg name. The nurse, Sasha Cuttler, retained Washington, D.C., attorney Debra Katz to file the complaints with the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the California Department of Industrial Relations. (Ho, 1/8)

In other hospital news —

Los Angeles Times: Vote On Keeping USC Hospital Union Could Come Within Weeks, Employee Says
A vote on whether or not to keep a healthcare workers’ union at USC Verdugo Hills Hospital in Glendale could come as early as the end of the month, according to an employee who filed for the action. Since October, surgical buyer Andrew Brown has been fighting to dissolve the union formed three years ago, when he filed a petition that was rejected by the National Labor Relations Board, or NLRB, because it arrived two days too late. (Seidman, 1/8)

Ventura County Star: Auditors Cite 42 Internal Controls Issues But No Fraud At VCMC
Auditors have pointed to dozens of concerns about fiscal safeguards at Ventura County Medical Center, tying the issues to the tone set by top leadership. The four-month, $100,000 audit was conducted to examine whether the Ventura County Health Care Agency had adequate internal controls in force for the medical center in the last fiscal year. Internal controls are checks and balances that ensure accurate financial reporting, prevent and detect fraud, and substantiate that rules and laws are being followed. (Wilson, 1/8)

Los Angeles Times: Santa Ana Development Will House And Support Low-Income Veterans
On Monday, Torres joined a group of about 150 community members, business leaders and public officials who attended a groundbreaking ceremony for Santa Ana Veterans Village, a development that will supply permanent housing and support services exclusively to low-income military veterans and their families. Situated on what is now a vacant lot on West First Street, the completed village will house 75 homeless veterans who earn 30% of the area’s median income. (Ponsi, 1/8)

San Francisco Chronicle: CardioDx, Maker Of Heart Disease Test, Shutting Down As Medicare Rescinds Coverage 
A 16-year-old Bay Area medical diagnostics company is shutting down after the federal government’s Medicare health insurance program — one of the largest purchasers of the company’s flagship product, a blood test for heart disease — rescinded coverage of the test in many states after the test was found to be unnecessary and of little use to patients. But that was not before the company, CardioDx in Redwood City, sold millions of dollars worth of the test over the course of six years until Medicare in November stopped paying for it. (Kunthara and Ho, 1/9)

In other news from across the state —

Sacramento Bee: Who Are New CalPERS Board Members?
The board that oversees the nation’s largest public pension fund will get at least three new faces in 2019, marking unusual turnover at the California Public Employees’ Retirement System. Two of the newcomers were decided in recent elections. Gov. Jerry Brown this week created a third vacancy when he removed CalPERS board member Richard Costigan from the pension fund. (Ashton, 1/7)

Modesto Bee: California Transgender Prisoner Lawsuit Alleges Rape, Abuse 
A transgender California prisoner alleges in a new legal complaint that she spent nine months in solitary confinement after reporting that a cellmate had raped her, exacerbating her distress after the attack. The new filing expands on a claim Candice Crowder initially filed in August 2017, when she complained that correctional officers allowed her to be attacked and then did not give her immediate medical attention while she bled from her face, head and neck. (Ashton, 1/8)

KQED: State Launches Probe Into 100,000-Gallon Marin County Sewage Spill
California water quality regulators are investigating an incident in San Anselmo on Sunday that caused at least 100,000 gallons of raw sewage to spill out of manholes in the city. The spill took place during a rainstorm that overwhelmed a Ross Valley Sanitary District sewer improvement project, sending sewage onto portions of Sir Francis Drake Boulevard, Broadmoor Avenue and Morningside Drive. (Goldberg, 1/8)

The Hill: GOP Seeks Health Care Reboot After 2018 Losses 
Republicans are looking for a new message and platform to replace their longtime call to repeal and replace ObamaCare, after efforts failed in the last Congress and left them empty-handed in the 2018 midterm elections. Republican strategists concede that Democrats dominated the health care debate heading into Election Day, helping them pick up 40 seats in the House. (Bolton, 1/9)

The Washington Post: The White House Says The Border Wall Would Keep Opioids Out Of The U.S. It Wouldn’t.
When President Trump makes his case tonight that there really is a border crisis, he’ll probably mention the opioid epidemic ravaging the United States, which killed thousands of Americans last year. Trump and his surrogates often cite the drug crisis as a reason the border wall with Mexico is needed. There is a “massive influx of drugs that come across the southern border,” White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said Sunday during an interview on Fox News. “Ninety percent of the heroin that comes into this country comes across through the southern border and 300 Americans are killed from that every single month,” she told Fox’s Chris Wallace. (Itkowitz, 1/8)

The Associated Press: Trump Officials Seek Dismissal Of Separated Families' Suit
The federal government is urging a judge to throw out a lawsuit seeking monetary damages on behalf of children who were separated from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border. U.S. Department of Justice attorneys said in a brief filed Tuesday that Supreme Court precedent bars such a lawsuit for damages on challenges to government policy. They also argue Trump administration officials named in the case are shielded by qualified immunity, among other things. (1/8)

The Hill: Democrats Seek Early Victories On Drug Prices
Newly empowered House Democrats plan to move first on smaller, bipartisan legislation to lower drug prices, hoping to notch some early victories before moving on to more sweeping measures. Democrats have targeted a number of measures that are smaller in scope but have support from some Senate Republicans, according to Democratic sources. They hope taking a strategic approach and passing those measures will build momentum as they prepare to tackle more controversial proposals further down the road, like allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices. (Sullivan, 1/9)

The Hill: Dem Chairman Requests CBO Report On Design Of Single-Payer Bill
House Budget Committee Chairman John Yarmuth (D-Ky.) on Tuesday requested information from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) about single-payer health care proposals, a step forward in consideration of the idea. In a letter to the CBO, Yarmuth requested a report on the “design and policy considerations lawmakers would face in developing single-payer health system proposals.” (Sullivan, 1/8)

The Hill: Democrats Demand Answers On Trump Short-Term Insurance Plans
House and Senate Democrats want answers about the Trump administration’s decision to expand the availability of short-term insurance plans that are not required to meet ObamaCare requirements. The letter sent Tuesday is the third time Democratic health care leaders have written to the administration about the short-term plan proposal, but the first time since Democrats took control of the House. (Weixel, 1/8)

The New York Times: Background Check Bill Marks Gun Control As A Priority For House Democrats
Emboldened House Democrats, seeking a politically charged debate on gun control, unveiled legislation on Tuesday to expand background checks to nearly all firearms purchases, a move timed to mark the eighth anniversary of the mass shooting in Arizona that nearly killed former Representative Gabrielle Giffords. By introducing the measure less than one week after taking control of the House, Democrats are signaling that it is a top priority. A vote could come within the first 100 days of the new Congress. (Stolberg, 1/8)

The New York Times: Police Collect DNA From Nursing Home Workers After Sexual Assault Of Patient
The police collected the DNA of male employees of a private nursing home in Arizona on Tuesday as they continued to investigate allegations that a woman in a vegetative state there who gave birth to a child last month had been sexually assaulted, the nursing home’s parent company said. The move represented an escalation in the case, just one day after the longtime chief executive of the company resigned. The police in Phoenix announced Friday that they had opened the investigation into the alleged assault. (Stevens, Rueb and Kramer, 1/9)

Reuters: Factbox: Impact On U.S. Government Widens On 18th Day Of Shutdown
A shutdown of about a quarter of the U.S. government reached its 18th day on Tuesday, with lawmakers and the White House divided over Republican President Donald Trump's demand for money for a border wall ahead of his prime-time address to push the project. The shutdown, which began on Dec. 22, is the 19th since the mid-1970s, although most have been brief. This one now ranks as the second-longest, with Trump saying it could continue for months or years, even as he said he hoped it was resolved within days. (1/8)

The New York Times: De Blasio Unveils Health Care Plan For Undocumented And Low-Income New Yorkers
New York City will spend at least $100 million to ensure that undocumented immigrants and others who cannot qualify for insurance can receive medical treatment, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced on Tuesday, seeking to insert a city policy into two contentious national debates. The mayor has styled himself, in his 2017 re-election campaign and during his second term, as a progressive leader on issues like education and health care, and as a bulwark against the policies of President Trump, particularly on immigration. (Goodman, 1/8)

The Associated Press: Washington Governor, NY Mayor Push Expanded Health Coverage
Washington's governor and New York City's mayor unveiled major initiatives to expand health insurance coverage Tuesday, the latest moves by key Democratic leaders to address Trump administration health policies they say are keeping people from getting the care they need. Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, a likely presidential candidate, proposed a publicly run health insurance option for state residents who are not covered by private employers and buying insurance off the marketplace created under former President Barack Obama's health care law. "We need to write another chapter of health care reform," said Inslee, who provided no details on how the program would be funded. (1/8)