Latest From California Healthline:
California Healthline Original Stories
The Air Ambulance Billed More Than His Surgeon Did For A Lung Transplant
After Tom Saputo underwent double lung transplant surgery in 2018, he was stunned by a surprise bill of more than $11,000 for the 27-mile air ambulance ride to the hospital. State and federal proposals would crack down on extreme air ambulance charges, including a new California law that will limit how much some patients pay for air ambulance rides. (Anna Almendrala, )
Good morning! Here are your top California health stories of the day.
San Francisco Voters Overwhelmingly Reject Proposition That Would Have Reversed Ban On E-Cigarettes: The measure would have allowed the sale of vaping devices and nicotine cartridges with some new restrictions. It would have limited the number of vaping products a person could buy to two devices and five packs of cartridges per transaction in brick-and-mortar stores, and two devices and 60 milliliters of nicotine liquid each month online. The measure also would have required online sellers to apply for a permit, similar to what brick-and-mortar stores must do. The regulations would have taken the place of the outright sales ban on e-cigarettes that supervisors approved to combat the rise in teen vaping. The legislation, slated to take effect in January, suspends the sale of e-cigarettes that have not passed a Food and Drug Administration review — which includes all e-cigarettes now on the market. Juul spent nearly $19 million to promote Prop. C through the Coalition for Reasonable Vaping Regulation — a campaign committee — before abruptly withdrawing its financial support in late September. Read more from Catherine Ho of the San Francisco Chronicle and Laura Klivans of KQED.
The Suicide Watch At Kern County Sheriff’s Office Is Meant To Stop Deaths. It’s Having The Opposite Effect: Each year, the Kern County Sheriff’s Office sends hundreds of people into this kind of suicide watch isolation. Inmates awaiting trial spend weeks and sometimes months in solitary, according to state and county records. When those cells fill up, deputies place people into “overflow” areas, rooms with nothing more than four rubberized walls and a grate in the floor for bodily fluids. They receive no mental health treatment, only a yoga mat to rest on. Kern County sheriff’s officials say they turned to isolation rooms to help prevent deaths after a spate of jail suicides that started in 2011. This wasn’t what state lawmakers envisioned when they undertook a sweeping criminal justice overhaul nearly a decade ago to alleviate what the U.S. Supreme Court deemed the “cruel and unusual” conditions for people in overcrowded state prisons. Read more from Jason Pohl of the Sacramento Bee and Ryan Gabrielson of ProPublica.
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
Reuters:
Special Report: Juul Disregarded Early Evidence It Was Hooking Teens
The San Francisco startup that invented the groundbreaking Juul e-cigarette had a central goal during its development: captivating users with the first hit. The company had concluded that consumers had largely rejected earlier e-cigarettes, former employees told Reuters, because the devices either failed to deliver enough nicotine or delivered it with a harsh taste. Developers of the Juul tackled both problems with a strategy they found scouring old tobacco-company research and patents: adding organic acids to nicotine, which allowed for a unique combination of smooth taste and a potent dose. (11/5)
The Associated Press:
US Teen Vaping Numbers Climb, Fueled By Juul & Mint Flavor
New research shows U.S. teens who use electronic cigarettes prefer those made by Juul Labs, and mint is the favorite flavor for many of them, suggesting a shift after the company stopped selling fruit and dessert flavors in stores. The results are in a pair of studies published Tuesday, including one that details previously released figures indicating that the surge in underage use of e-cigarettes shows no signs of slowing down. (11/5)
Sacramento Bee:
Hundreds Of Thousands In CA Miss Out On Food Stamps
All told, roughly 1.6 million Californians are not getting help from the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as CalFresh here, even though they are eligible. That means 28 percent of people with poverty-level budgets didn’t receive the food assistance they needed, according to 2017 state data. (Botts and Mello, 11/6)
San Francisco Chronicle:
California DMV Improperly Shared Social Security Info For Thousands Of People
The California Department of Motor Vehicles granted other state and federal agencies improper access to Social Security information about thousands of its customers, the department said Tuesday. At least seven agencies, including the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, received permission to review driver’s license records they were not legally entitled to over the past four years, DMV spokeswoman Anita Gore said. The data breach was discovered this summer during a legal compliance review for a public records request made by an independent journalist. (Koseff, 11/5)
Los Angeles Times:
In Wake Of Scandals, USC Radically Cuts Number Of Trustees, Imposes Age Limits, Pledges More Diversity
USC trustees approved far-reaching changes to their governing board Tuesday aimed at reforming leadership weaknesses that prevented the private university from effectively handling a series of scandals over the last few years. Trustees voted to dramatically reduce the board’s size, impose term and age limits, diversify membership and limit the ability of the university president and board chair to handpick members of the powerful executive committee. (Watanabe, 11/5)
Fresno Bee:
Merced CA Health Care Executive Sentenced To Prison, Fined
Sandra Haar, the former executive of several Merced area health clinics who pleaded guilty last year to fraud, was sentenced to five years in prison and ordered to pay a $6 million fine, the U.S. Attorney’s Office reported. Haar, 59, was the founder of Horisons Unlimited, a nonprofit health and dental corporation that operated a string of clinics serving thousands of low-income patients in the central San Joaquin Valley. Haar’s sentence was handed down Monday in U.S. District Court in Fresno. (Shanker, 11/5)
Los Angeles Times:
Los Angeles Sued Over Homeless Housing Money By AIDS Nonprofit
An AIDS foundation that has tangled with the city over real estate development and lambasted its handling of the homelessness crisis is now suing Los Angeles, arguing that it was improperly turned down for funding to house homeless people. In its lawsuit, the AIDS Healthcare Foundation accused the city of violating L.A. rules when the foundation was rejected for nearly $25 million in funding from Proposition HHH, a $1.2-billion bond measure approved by voters. (Reyes, 11/5)
Los Angeles Times:
L.A. Losing Homeless Housing In Closed Board And Care Homes
The news came in September: Long Beach Residential, a 49-bed home for adults who are mentally ill, was being sold. The residents of the converted apartment building, some of whom had lived there for decades, would have 60 days to move. It’s a scenario that is becoming increasingly common across California, brought on by a combination of an inadequate state funding system and California’s red hot real estate market. (Smith, 11/6)
Modesto Bee:
Officials Show Off New Modesto CA Homeless Shelter
More than 100 people gathered Tuesday by The Salvation Army’s Berberian Center to celebrate a big step in helping homeless people — a 182-bed low-barrier shelter that will take couples, pets and belongings and an access center staffed with workers who will help people find housing and other services. Stanislaus County is working with The Salvation Army and Modesto on these facilities, which the county is paying for with state homeless funding. The shelter will open Nov. 15, and the access center will open in January. (Valine, 11/5)
KQED:
Homelessness Crisis Impossible To Ignore For Bay Area Musicians
Originally released on Fantastic Negrito's album The Last Days of Oakland, "Working Poor" is featured on a new compilation from Bay Area producer Scott Mickelson called Blanket the Homeless, due out on Nov. 8. The album and its release show at the Independent on Nov. 7 raise money for an eponymous organization that gives out survival supplies to unsheltered people in the Bay Area. (Voynovskaya, 11/5)
Los Angeles Times:
California Fire Season Likely To Last Through December, With No Rain In Sight
The sun was beginning to set on Halloween when a small fire began to glow on a hillside near Santa Paula. Within seconds — fanned by the most potent Santa Ana winds of the season — the blaze roared to life with immense speed, chewing through thousands of acres of bone-dry brush and eventually consuming homes. Devastating fire weather that ushered in a flurry of blazes across the state last month helped the Maria fire, which charred nearly 10,000 acres in four days, earn the title of this year’s largest Southern California wildfire. (Fry and Rong-Gong, 11/5)
KQED:
Californians Turn To Low-Cost Sensors For Highly Local Air Quality Data
When the EPA site, called AirNow, went down, web users rushed to alternative, unofficial websites like the interactive, crowdsourced map maintained by PurpleAir, a manufacturer of low-cost air monitors. After AirNow crashed, PurpleAir immediately saw a 200-fold increase in web traffic, according to company founder Adrian Dybwad. (Stark, Arcuni and Brooks, 11/5)
Ventura County Star:
Thousand Oaks Shooting Taskforce Finds Steps To Stop Mass Shootings
A Ventura County task force formed to prevent mass shootings has identified changes to be made in safety measures and mental health treatment in the wake of the Borderline attack. Possibilities include the opening of outpatient psychiatric centers by both private and public hospitals and a pilot program to streamline the process for seizing guns from people legally barred from having them. Officials also are looking at an awareness campaign to inform the public about existing options for deterring gun violence, including the use of restraining orders for firearms and the process for getting a person in crisis into treatment. (Wilson, 11/5)
The New York Times:
Warren Has Her Plan. Buttigieg Suggests Another Way To Cut Health Prices.
One way Elizabeth Warren wants to control health care spending in the United States is simple in principle: pay doctors and hospitals significantly less. Under her version of “Medicare for all,” the government would provide health insurance to everyone, and it would be able to set the prices it pays for medical services. Numerous international studies have shown that the biggest reason the American health system is so expensive is that prices for medical care are so high. We pay more for doctors, hospitals, drugs and medical devices. This insight has become a sort of cliché among health economists, who are fond of citing a famous paper: “It’s the Prices, Stupid.” But Pete Buttigieg, the South Bend, Ind., mayor, has another idea about how to regulate health care prices. (Sanger-Katz, 11/6)
The Hill:
Democrats Give Warren's 'Medicare For All' Plan The Cold Shoulder
Senate Democrats are distancing themselves from Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s (D-Mass.) “Medicare for All” plan, casting doubt on whether it could pass even if she does win the presidency. Warren rolled out her proposal for Medicare for All last week, instantly fanning the flames of a raging debate among the Democratic presidential contenders over the idea. (Sullivan, 11/6)
Reuters:
U.S. Presidential Contender Biden Calls Warren Jab 'Elitism'
U.S. presidential contender Joe Biden launched a new attack on one of his fiercest rivals in the Democratic party on Tuesday, accusing U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren of "elitism" for dismissing his criticism of her healthcare plan. On Friday, Warren unveiled details of a $20.5 trillion Medicare for All plan she wants to implement to extend government healthcare coverage to all Americans. The Biden campaign said the plan relied on "mathematical gymnastics" and would raise taxes. (11/5)
The Wall Street Journal:
States’ Attempts At Medicare-For-All Proposals Haven’t Ended Well
Democratic presidential front-runners Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren are confronting the same challenges to their health-care policies that foiled state lawmakers who tried to launch universal health systems in recent years. Legislators in Vermont, Mr. Sanders’s state, backed Medicare for All before figuring out a detailed financing plan, and the final numbers were too high to sell politically. Colorado weighed its own version of guaranteed health care, but public support fell as the industry ramped up an opposition effort. (Armour, 11/5)
The Hill:
Warren Unveils Plan To Address Veteran Suicide Rates, Mental Health
White House hopeful Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) on Tuesday set a goal of cutting the rate of veteran suicides in half during her first term as part of a sprawling plan to improve their lives. "Every single one of these deaths is a tragedy that could have been prevented," Warren said on a webpage outlining the plan. "As President, I will set a goal of cutting veteran suicides in half within my first term — and pursue a suite of concrete policies to make sure we get there." (Frazin, 11/5)
Politico:
Warren Pledges To Overturn Military Transgender Ban On Day 1
Elizabeth Warren Tuesday released a detailed plan to tackle the needs of the military and veterans that pledges to roll back Trump administration policies that bar transgender troops and to not deport non-citizens who have served in uniform, or their families. The Massachusetts senator who is seeking the Democratic presidential nomination maintains her first step as president would be to overturn President Donald Trump's decision to prohibit transgender troops in the military. (Bender, 11/5)
The Associated Press:
White House And Pelosi Part Ways On Relief For Drug Prices
The White House on Tuesday signaled President Donald Trump's blunt thumbs-down to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's plan allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices. Her office's sharp retort: "Working people won't like it if he sells them out. "Despite the House impeachment inquiry, the White House and top aides to the California Democrat have been in regular contact on efforts to curb drug prices, a mutual objective and a top concern for Americans across party lines. (11/5)
Reuters:
UPS Drone Makes First Home Prescription Deliveries For CVS
United Parcel Service Inc Flight Forward drones have flown prescription medications to the front lawn of a private home and to a retirement center, the UPS unit's first revenue-generating deliveries for drugstore chain CVS Health Corp. Flight Forward's maiden delivery flight on Friday in Cary, North Carolina, beat rivals in one phase of the race for the nascent market. The second drone flight delivered medications to a public space at a retirement community. (11/5)
Stat:
What Money? The CDC Is Urged To Acknowledge Industry Funding
Several advocacy groups petitioned the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to stop making claims that it does not accept commercial support or have financial relationships with drug makers and other companies that may benefit from agency research. In arguing their case, the groups contend that disclaimers appear in various CDC publications, even though the agency has actually accepted tens of millions of dollars of commercial support through the National Foundation for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The nonprofit, which was created by Congress to generate private sector support for the agency’s work, was launched in 1995. (Silverman, 11/5)
The Associated Press:
US Health Officials Link Childhood Trauma To Adult Illness
U.S. health officials estimate that millions of cases of heart disease and other illnesses are linked to abuse and other physical and psychological harm suffered early in life. In a report released Tuesday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tried to estimate the impact of harmful childhood experiences on health in adulthood. (11/5)