California Healthline: Covered California Health Plan Rates To Jump 13.2 Percent In 2017
California’s Obamacare premiums will jump 13.2 percent on average next year, a sharp increase that is likely to reverberate nationwide in an election year. The Covered California exchange had won plaudits by negotiating 4 percent average rate increases in its first two years. But that feat couldn’t be repeated for 2017, as overall medical costs continue to climb and two federal programs that help insurers with expensive claims are set to expire this year. (Terhune and Bartolone, 7/19)

California Healthline: What Do Covered California’s Big Rate Hikes Mean For You?
The average rate hike doesn’t tell the full story for individual consumers. Health plan prices vary across the state, and within regions. How much you’ll pay depends on a variety of factors: where you live, how much money you make, what level of coverage you want and which insurer you choose. Keep in mind that these premium increases affect only a fraction of insured Californians — not the majority, who get their coverage through work or a government program such as Medicare or Medi-Cal. (Bazar, 7/19)

Los Angeles Times: California Obamacare Rates To Rise 13% In 2017, More Than 3 Times The Increase Of Last 2 Years
The big hikes come after two years in which California officials had boasted that the program helped insure hundreds of thousands people in the state while keeping costs moderately in check. ... On Tuesday, officials blamed next year’s premium hikes in the program that insures 1.4 million Californians on rising costs of medical care, including expensive specialty drugs and the end of a mechanism that held down rates for the first three years of Obamacare. (Petersen and Levey, 7/19)

KQED: Covered California Premiums Going up 13.2% Next Year. Here’s Why.
Peter Lee, the agency’s executive director, cited several factors as drivers in this year’s spike. Most notable is an expiring federal “reinsurance” program, created as part of the Affordable Care Act, to spread the risk of so many newly insured people entering the risk pool. Actuarial experts estimate that alone adds 4 to 7 percent to premiums, but it’s viewed as a one-time effect.Rising health care costs, including specialty prescription drugs, are also a factor. (Dembosky and Aliferis, 7/19)

San Jose Mercury News: Obamacare: Covered California's Health Plan Prices Soar
"We've known for a long time that 2017 would be a transition year,'' said Peter Lee, executive director of Covered California, the state's health exchange. "We are seeing that happening." (Seipel, 7/19)

Sierra Sun Times: Covered California Announces Rates And Plan Expansions For 2017
Some consumers who choose to keep their plan will see a significant increase in their premium for 2017, while others will see a more modest increase, depending on where they live and what insurance plan they have. Consumers will begin receiving notices in October, when they will have an opportunity to review their new rates and change plans for their 2017 health coverage. (7/19)

Sacramento Bee: Covered California Health Care Premiums To Jump 13.2 Percent In 2017
For a 40-year-old Sacramento resident earning up to $23,760 a year, the monthly premium under the most popular silver-level plan after a federal subsidy would rise from $119 to $138. Those who switch plans, Lee said, could actually pay less than last year or only up to 5 percent more. Lee noted that 90 percent of Covered California enrollees will still be eligible for federal subsidies to help cover their premium costs. Currently, about 1.4 million individuals have Covered California policies. (Buck, 7/19)

KCRA: Covered California Rates To Increase 13.2% For 2017
For Sacramento's Karri Grant, who's battling cancer for the second time, the increase comes as a surprise and shock. "That's a pretty big hike, and it feels a little bit to me like a bait and switch with this program," Grant said. (Heise, 7/19)

San Francisco Business Times: Covered California Rates Set To Soar 14.8 Percent In San Francisco Next Year
In San Francisco, Covered California said preliminary rates are set to jump by 14.8 percent next year. Contra Costa County enrollees who stay in the same health plan could see 13.6 percent increases, and other several other local counties will see double-digit increases. (Rauber, 7/19)

Fresno Bee: Buying Health Insurance Through California Exchange Could Cost You More Next Year
Rates in Fresno, Kings and Madera counties are increasing by 10.8 percent on average. And rates in Tulare, Merced and Mariposa counties are going up 8.4 percent on average. Rates through some health plans, though, will be rising as much as 23 percent. (Anderson, 7/18)

San Diego Union-Tribune: Covered CA: 2017 Average Rates To Jump 13.2 Percent
The average increase in San Diego County will be slightly less — 10 percent, according to a rate guide released by Covered California. But some insurance carriers have submitted rates that indicate a much higher rise year over year. (Sisson, 7/19)

The New York Times: California Staff Workers Are Sidelined By Illness
The first signs of illness, thought to be norovirus, the highly contagious intestinal illness, appeared on Thursday night, just after the staff members arrived in the Cleveland area. By early Monday, symptoms had sufficiently spread among the group to notify the Erie County Health Department. (Purdy, 7/19)

The Washington Post: Norovirus Strikes The Republican National Convention
A terrifying word circulated Tuesday at the Republican National Convention: norovirus. A dozen staffers in the California delegation who had arrived in Cleveland early have fallen ill with the extremely contagious virus, California GOP chairman Jim Brulte said. (Achenbach, Izadi and O'Keefe, 7/19)

The Desert Sun: California GOP Delegation Sick With Norovirus
California delegates to the Republican National Convention who are staying at the safari-themed Kalihari Resort indoor water park were given a bit of bad news to chew on as they finished breakfast Tuesday. Cynthia Bryant, executive director of the California Republican Party, told the delegation that at least six party staffers are incapacitated with norovirus, a highly contagious digestive illness. (Sullivan, 7/19)

Sacramento Bee: Norovirus Strikes California Republicans At National Convention
A dozen California Republican staff members and volunteers staying at the delegation’s hotel an hour outside Cleveland for the national convention have come down with norovirus, the highly contagious bug that inflames the stomach and intestines and causes diarrhea and vomiting. Cynthia Bryant, executive director of the state GOP, wrote in an email early Tuesday that officials are taking the necessary steps to care for the health of their staff and the more than 550 members of the delegation and their guests. Party support staff arrived last week ahead of the guests, so there’s concern about the virus spreading quickly in the closed environment. (Cadelago, 7/19)

PolitiFact: Donald Trump Jr. Wrong That Hillary Clinton Is Proposing To Destroy Medicare
Speaking at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Donald Trump Jr. touted his father, the newly anointed GOP presidential nominee, as someone who would be able to do a better job on health care than his rival, Hillary Clinton. He said his father would be "a president who will repeal and replace Obamacare without leaving our most vulnerable citizens without health care, and who will do it without destroying Medicare for seniors, as Hillary Clinton has proposed." ... Clinton is certainly not proposing that in a literal sense, and experts we contacted agreed that her actual policy proposals -- especially making Medicare an option for those between 55 and 65 -- were ambitious but were hardly a dagger at the heart of the program. We rate the claim False. (Jacobson, 7/19)

The Hill: GOP Chair Won't Back Trump On Negotiating Medicare Drug Prices
A top GOP chairman on Tuesday shot down one of Donald Trump’s most high-profile healthcare pitches: allowing Medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices. When asked at a healthcare panel at the Republican National Convention if he would back Trump's proposal, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady (R-Texas) flatly said, "No," prompting laugher in the room. (Ferris, 7/19)

Modern Healthcare: GOP Platform Holds Back On Health Policies Except In Social Issues
The Republican Party platform released Monday at the 2016 convention is strongly conservative on social issues related to healthcare and contains little in the way of new ideas. The platform calls for a halt to the Affordable Care Act, shifting Medicare to a premium support model and turning Medicaid into a capped state block grant program. (Muchmore, 7/19)

Stat: A Biotech Startup Is Expanding The DNA Alphabet In Hopes Of Making Novel Drugs
San Diego synthetic biology company Synthorx is entering the drug discovery game with a couple extra base pairs up its sleeve: It’s developing new biologic drugs with an expanded DNA alphabet, adding synthetic nucleotides X and Y to the standard lineup of A, C, G, and T. The company just raised $10 million, on top of $6 million in investment it collected back in 2014. CEO Court Turner spoke with STAT about the company’s technology — and its plans for developing drugs for diabetes and other conditions with that loaded-up DNA. (Keshavan, 7/20)

KQED: Lawsuit: Faulty Theranos Test Results Contributed To Heart Attack
A lawsuit filed in Arizona federal court Friday claims that faulty Theranos blood test results contributed to a patient’s heart attack. The suit, which seeks class-action status, accuses the blood-testing company and/or its partner, Walgreens Boots Alliance, of consumer fraud, negligence, breach of contract and civil conspiracy, among other causes of action. According to the suit, the plaintiff, identified only by the initials R.C., had blood drawn at a “Theranos Wellness Center” in a Walgreens pharmacy in Sun City West, Arizona, in February 2015. The patient had been sent there for a routine test of cholesterol and blood sugar, to “monitor R.C.’s annual heart health.” (Brooks, 7/19)

Bay Area News Group: Kaiser Permanente Nurses Protesting Staffing Levels
Nurses at Kaiser Permanente will stage pickets at seven regional hospitals Wednesday to draw attention to staffing levels they say are affecting the quality of care and putting patients at risk. The pickets will include Kaiser hospitals in Oakland, Vallejo, Santa Clara and San Francisco, and will not result in work stoppages, said Katy Roemer, a registered nurse at Kaiser Oakland and board member for the California Nurses Association, which represents some 86,000 nurses statewide. Nurses will be protesting the hospital's failure to hire more nurses, including resource nurses, who provide support to bedside nurses, and training nurses for specialty areas that have a shortage of staff, such as labor and delivery and intensive care, Roemer said. (Ioffee, 7/19)

Orange County Register: As Southern California's Blood Supply Dwindles, Red Cross Issues Emergency Call For Donations
From the Zika virus to a safety recall that rendered hundreds of units of blood useless, several factors have caused Southern California’s blood supply to dip to dangerous lows, local health officials said Tuesday. The blood supply is getting so low that the American Red Cross, for the first time in eight years, has issued an emergency call for blood and platelets – cells in the blood – urging all eligible donors to give now to replenish the reserves. The shortage is not exclusive to Southern California. (Bharath, 7/20)

In other news, officials confirm a case of zika in Stanislaus County —

The Modesto Bee: Stanislaus County Man Tests Positive For Zika Virus
Health officials announced Monday afternoon that a 19-year-old Stanislaus County man has contracted the Zika virus while traveling outside the U.S. The Stanislaus County Health Services Agency confirmed that the young man tested positive for Zika virus. Officials did not say where the man lives or where he traveled or give any information on his condition. (7/20)

Los Angeles Times: Near Exide Plant, Dangerous Lead Levels In Some Yards Are 100 Times Above Health Limits
Homes, schools and at least one day-care center near a shuttered Vernon battery recycler are contaminated with higher levels of brain-damaging lead than previously disclosed, with soil samples at some properties found to be so hazardous they are as much as 100 times above California’s health standard, state and county records show. The public remains largely in the dark about where and at what concentrations the poisonous metal has been detected in neighborhoods near the Exide Technologies plant because state regulators have failed to release pollution readings for the vast majority of properties. The California Department of Toxic Substances Control says it has tested the soil of more than 2,400 homes. Despite repeated requests from The Times, the agency provided readings for just 269 properties. (Barboza and Poston, 7/20)

In other public health news —

Los Angeles Times: Sewage Spill In L.A. Grows To 2.4 Million Gallons, Prompting Bans On Swimming In Seal Beach And Long Beach
A damaged sewage line spilled a total of about 2.4 million gallons of untreated waste into the Los Angeles River and has forced the closure of all beaches in Long Beach and Seal Beach, officials said Tuesday. The sewage line began leaking Monday about 2 p.m. and was stopped late that night, but the cracked pipe split again Tuesday as repairs were underway, said Tonya Durrell, a spokeswoman for the City of Los Angeles Department of Public Works. The overflow, which occurred near 6th Street and Mission Road in Boyle Heights, was fully stopped Tuesday afternoon, Durrell said. (Rocha, Fernandez and Hamilton, 7/19)

Orange County Register: Seal Beach, Long Beach Beaches Closed Because Of Massive Sewage Spill From Downtown Los Angeles
Beaches in Seal Beach and Long Beach were closed Tuesday in the wake of a massive sewage spill in downtown Los Angeles that flowed 20 miles and into the Pacific Ocean. The surf in Seal Beach and Long Beach were made off-limits to waders and swimmers after the waste traveled to the ocean via the Los Angeles River. Signs on Tuesday dotted the sand in both cities, telling people to keep out of the water by order of health officials. (Fausto, Smith and Edwards, 7/19)

Capital Public Radio: California To Set Legal Limit On Probable Carcinogen In Water
The California State Water Resources Control Board will soon set a maximum contaminant level for 1,2,3 Trichloropropane, or 1,2,3 TCP. It's found in industrial solvents and cleaning agents, but it was once found in two popular soil fumigants made by Dow Chemical and Shell Oil Company. ... Right now, water systems in California are only required to notify residents if the chemical is found at a certain health-based advisory level. (Quinton, 7/19)

LA Daily News: IRS Won’t Tax Porter Ranch Residents On Gas Leak Reimbursements
The Internal Revenue Service on Tuesday announced that Porter Ranch residents who received financial assistance from the Southern California Gas Company in the midst of the massive Porter Ranch-area natural gas leak will not have to pay taxes on the money. However, family and friends who received payments under the utility’s relocation plan for residents must include these payments in their gross income. “My neighbors in Porter Ranch have been through enough,” Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Sherman Oaks, and a Porter Ranch resident, said in a statement. “They shouldn’t have to worry that the IRS would seek to tax them on the reimbursements they received from SoCalGas.” (Wilcox, 7/19)

KPCC: A Cautionary Tale: Former Addict Developed 'Gigantic Addiction' To Vicodin
"Mary" knew opioid painkillers were highly addictive and, as a former heroin addict, she knew she was at an elevated risk for a relapse. So even though she had been sober for decades, she pushed back when her doctor prescribed Vicodin for an injured rotator cuff and a couple of cracked ribs. ... Mary's doctor said the drugs were necessary; the broken ribs were making it hard for her to breathe and he said she risked developing a collapsed lung. ... "What really shocked me was how quickly it escalated into a gigantic addiction," she says. (Plevin, 7/20)

Capital Public Radio: California Mental Health Organizations To Receive $13 Million Boost
The California Department of Public Health will award $13 million to organizations focused on serving the mental health needs of underserved communities. Grants will be given to 11 pilot projects that provide mental health services to African American, Asian and Pacific Islander, LGBTQ and Native American people. ... Funding will be released over a five and a half year period as part of the state’s California Reducing Disparities Project. The state plans to award an additional $47 million between 2016 and 2022. (Johnson, 7/18)

In other news from across the state —

The San Diego Union-Tribune: County Approves Anti-HIV Plan
The transmission of HIV has declined dramatically since the height of the epidemic in 1990, but a plan approved by county supervisors on Wednesday aims to bring the rate the virus that causes AIDS is spread down to zero. Supervisors unanimously approved a plan that attempts to get as many people who have HIV into viral suppression — a condition where people who have the disease have a limited presence of the virus in their body and at are at low risk of giving it other people. (Stewart, 7/19)

Orange County Register: City Will Pursue Lawsuits Against Sober-Living Homes
City officials said Tuesday they are not backing off of two lawsuits that aim to shut down two Capistrano Beach sober-living houses affiliated with two treatment centers, saying their operation violates state law and the city’s zoning code. The lawsuits, filed by the city June 22 in Orange County Superior Court, allege that sober-living homes Capo By the Sea, at 27036 Azul Drive, and Sovereign Health Group, at 25512 Evans Pointe, are operating as drug abuse recovery and treatment facilities without state licenses. The city also alleges in the lawsuits that the homes are providing service to more than six people, which under the Dana Point zoning code means they are businesses, and that they are illegally operating in a residential area. (Ritchie, 7/19)

Bloomberg: U.S. Said Readying Suits Against Anthem, Aetna Insurer Deals
U.S. antitrust officials are poised to file lawsuits to block Anthem Inc.’s takeover of rival health-insurer Cigna Corp. and Aetna Inc.’s deal to buy Humana Inc., according to a person familiar with the matter. Justice Department officials, who are responsible for protecting competition, are concerned that the deals, which would transform the health-insurance industry by turning its five biggest companies into three, would harm customers, according to several people familiar with the situation. While the companies may offer to sell assets to gain approval for the deals, that’s unlikely to sway antitrust officials, one of the people said. (McLaughlin and Forden, 7/19)

The Wall Street Journal: Justice Department To Challenge Two Health-Insurance Mergers
Antitrust lawsuits against the planned mergers would be the culmination of concerns the Justice Department has had about the deals from the outset. During a yearlong review of the mergers, the department’s skepticism hasn’t subsided, people familiar with the matter said. (Kendall and Wilde Mathews, 7/19)

New York Times: Justice Dept. Will Seek To Block 2 Health Insurance Mergers
The proposed mergers would greatly reshape the health insurance landscape. The combination of Anthem with Cigna would create a powerful presence in the market to offer insurance administration to large employers. And Aetna’s combination with Humana threatened to further consolidate the market for private Medicare plans. (Picker and Abelson, 7/19)

Los Angeles Times: Two Major Healthcare Mergers Could Be In Trouble Amid Competition Concerns
A decision whether to file the suits could come as early as this week, and the companies could fight in court or agree to settle, the reports said. A Justice Department spokesman declined to comment. Shares of the four companies fell 2% to 4% on Tuesday. (Puzzanghera, 7/19)

Modern Healthcare: Aetna, Anthem Mega-Deals Appear Headed For Trouble
Antitrust observers and financial analysts have increasingly viewed the Anthem-Cigna deal as more difficult to complete because it would create a highly concentrated market for employer coverage. It's also unclear how Anthem would resolve issues with the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association. [Analyst Ira] Gorsky believes Aetna's transaction with Humana is more likely to withstand federal pushback, as long as the insurer can prove selling some Medicare Advantage assets to another buyer appeases anti-competitive concerns. (Herman, 7/19)

Reuters: U.S. Antitrust Officials Set To Challenge Anthem, Aetna Deals: Source
Leerink Partners analyst Ana Gupte said in a research note that she expects the companies to fight the Department of Justice, but that Anthem's and Cigna's chances of success were slim. Indeed, a source familiar with the situation told Reuters earlier this month that Aetna was prepared to fight the Justice Department. (Humer, 7/19)

Harford Courant: Stocks Slide For Insurance Companies Amid Report U.S. DOJ Readying Suits
A eport that the U.S. Department of Justice is readying legal challenges to sweeping insurance industry acquisitions involving Aetna and Cigna sparked a strong reaction from Wall Street and little comment from the companies involved. The report ... sent shares tumbling as investors speculated whether federal regulators would block the proposed $54 billion purchase of Cigna by Anthem and the proposed $37 billion acquisition of Humana by Aetna. (Singer and Blair, 7/19)

Previous Coverage On California Healthline: California Regulators’ Split View of Health Insurance Mergers (6/28)