- California Healthline Original Stories 3
- California’s Healthy Kids Programs Fade As Undocumented Children Gain Access To Medi-Cal
- Drop In Teen Pregnancies Is Due To More Contraceptives, Not Less Sex
- Should Proposition 64 Pass Or Go Up In Smoke?
- Pharmaceuticals 2
- Meet One Of The Pharmaceutical Industry's Most-Hated Foes
- Financial Uncertainty Casts Doubt On MannKind's Inhalable Epinephrine Plans
- Covered California & The Health Law 1
- Consumers Paying Price For ACA Critics' Efforts To Undermine The Law
Latest From California Healthline:
California Healthline Original Stories
California’s Healthy Kids Programs Fade As Undocumented Children Gain Access To Medi-Cal
The now-redundant subsidized insurance programs have served tens of thousands of children over 15 years. (Jocelyn Wiener, )
Drop In Teen Pregnancies Is Due To More Contraceptives, Not Less Sex
Sexually active teenagers are more likely to use birth control and are choosing forms that are more effective, a study finds. Births to teens dropped by 36 percent from 2007 to 2013. (Julie Rovner, )
Should Proposition 64 Pass Or Go Up In Smoke?
Two voices from law enforcement disagree on ballot measure to legalize marijuana. (Stephanie Stephens, )
More News From Across The State
Meet One Of The Pharmaceutical Industry's Most-Hated Foes
The man behind California's price control initiative has been called a bully and a thug -- by fellow activists and foes alike. And he embraces the hostility.
Stat:
The Drug Pricing Crusader At The Center Of One Of The Nastiest Fights Of The Election Season
There’s nobody the drug companies are spending more to fight than Michael Weinstein. And Weinstein takes pride in their hostility. “That’s a badge of honor,” he said. A longtime HIV/AIDS activist, Weinstein is the driving force behind a drug price control initiative in California that could set a national precedent. It’s just the latest in a long string of legal and political fights he’s picked. (Robbins, 9/6)
Financial Uncertainty Casts Doubt On MannKind's Inhalable Epinephrine Plans
The California company wants to offer competition to Mylan, but it is already facing struggles with its inhalable insulin product.
Los Angeles Times:
MannKind Developing Inhalable Epinephrine To Challenge Mylan's EpiPen
A Valencia drugmaker that has tried to convince diabetics to inhale rather than inject their insulin is working on a product that will make a similar pitch to a new group of patients: severe allergy sufferers who rely on Mylan Pharmaceuticals’ pricey EpiPen. Even as it struggles to ramp up sales of its Afrezza inhalable insulin, MannKind Corp. is now in the early stages of developing an inhalable form of epinephrine that aims to take market share from the injectable version at the center of a storm over drug pricing. (Koren, 9/6)
In other drug pricing news —
Reuters:
Allergan Vows Limited Price Hikes, Says 'Outliers' Deter Research
The chief executive officer of Allergan Plc said his company would limit annual price increases on its prescription drugs, and that "outlier" drugmakers that have imposed huge price increases on their products were scaring off venture capital investors. Allergan, the maker of such products as Botox, plans to raise prices no more than once a year and keep price hikes to no more than low-to-mid-single-digit percentages, slightly above the current annual rate of inflation, CEO Brent Saunders said on Tuesday. (Pierson, 9/6)
Bill Protecting Planned Parenthood From Secret Recordings Draws Fire
Critics say the measure goes too far on both First Amendment and equal protection grounds.
Fox News:
Planned Parenthood-Backed Bill Faces ACLU, Media Backlash In California
California lawmakers have OK'd a Planned Parenthood-backed bill that creates new penalties for distributing secret recordings of discussions with health providers – but civil rights and media advocates say the measure goes too far. The bill, which passed Friday and now goes to Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown’s desk, targets activists such as the Center for Medical Progress -- which last year released secretly recorded videos purportedly showing activists discussing the purchase of aborted fetal body parts with Planned Parenthood representatives. (9/7)
Covered California & The Health Law
Consumers Paying Price For ACA Critics' Efforts To Undermine The Law
Many of the decisions made by those who did not support the health law have led to the current turmoil of the exchanges.
Los Angeles Times:
The States With The Biggest Obamacare Struggles Spent Years Undermining The Law
As insurers exit Obamacare marketplaces across the country, critics of the Affordable Care Act have redoubled claims that the health law isn’t working. Yet these same critics, many of them Republican politicians in red states, took steps over the last several years to undermine the 2010 law and fuel the current turmoil in their insurance markets. Among other things, they blocked expansion of Medicaid coverage for the poor, erected barriers to enrollment and refused to move health plans into the Obamacare marketplaces, a key step to bringing in healthier consumers. (Levey, 9/7)
Pediatricians: FluMist Should Not Be Used In Any Setting For Kids This Year
Doctors are warning that the shot is the only way to go for the flu vaccine this season, after scientists found FluMist is only 3 percent effective in children aged 2 through 17.
Los Angeles Times:
Sorry, Kids, Your Pediatrician Wants You To Get A Flu Shot This Year
Sorry, little one, this news is going to pinch for a couple of seconds: This year’s flu vaccine will probably have to come in the form of a shot, not those two little puffs up the nose. Because when it comes to preventing the misery of the flu, that nasal spray vaccine has proved to be a bit of a flop. No, the adults don’t really know why. But when they went back over the past three flu seasons and did the math, they found that kids between 2 and 17 who got the vaccine made with live attenuated virus — the puff up the nose — were two-and-a half times more likely than children who got the shot (which uses an inactivated virus to teach the immune system) to get sick with the flu. (Healy, 9/6)
In other public health news —
Capital Public Radio:
Bill Would Protect Nail Salon Workers And Customers From Chemical Exposure
Lawmakers want to protect the health of manicurists and their customers through a new bill that encourages nail salon workers to use less toxic products and practices. The Nail Salon Recognition Program would allow salons that use less toxic products and practices to be designated a healthy nail salon to consumers. (Johnson, 9/6)
LA Investigating Emergency Response To Skid Row Spice Outbreak
More than 70 people were sickened between Aug. 19 and Aug. 22 after smoking the synthetic drug.
Los Angeles Daily News:
Did Skid Row’s Spice Outbreak Threaten Public Safety? LA County Leaders Want To Know
A Los Angeles County supervisor has called for an evaluation of the response by emergency personnel to last month’s Spice outbreak on Skid Row, to determine if the event caused a “massive threat to public safety.” (Abram, 9/6)
In other health care news from across the state —
The Desert Sun:
Rancho Mirage Woman Faces New Charges In Fraud Scheme
A Rancho Mirage woman who served as executive director of a cosmetic surgery center was indicted on fraud and identity theft charges, adding to allegations that she and her husband billed insurance companies for more than $50 million in cosmetic surgeries they claimed were medically necessary, prosecutors said today. Linda Morrow, 64, was named in a 31-count superseding indictment that added three mail fraud charges, three counts of identity theft and three counts of aggravated identity theft. If convicted, she could be ordered to forfeit more than $20 million gained in the alleged scheme, according to prosecutors. (9/6)
San Diego Union-Tribune:
Alzheimer's Researchers To Meet Public Saturday
Some of the nation's top Alzheimer's researchers will talk with the public about the disease and answer questions Saturday morning. The experts will speak at a panel discussion at the University of San Diego Shiley Theatre. Attendance is free, but RSVPs are required for the 10 a.m. discussion, said Mary Ball, president and CEO of Alzheimer's San Diego, which is organizing the event. Last year's event drew a standing-room-only audience. (Fikes, 9/6)
Uninsured Rate Hits Record Low, But Pace Of Progress Drastically Slows
The National Health Interview Survey shows that about 1.3 million fewer people were uninsured the first three months of 2016 but those numbers are far lower than expected.
The Wall Street Journal:
Percentage Of Uninsured Historically Low
The number of uninsured people in the U.S. remained at a historic low in early 2016, according to a federal survey that found 8.6% of respondents without health coverage at the time of the interview. That translates to about 27.3 million people who lacked medical insurance when they were asked about it between January and March as part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Health Interview Survey. The previous survey, covering the whole of 2015, had put the figure at 9.1%, or about 1.3 million more people. CDC officials said the latest reduction wasn’t statistically significant. (Radnofsky, 9/7)
In other national health care news —
The Hill:
Officials To Test Tightening ObamaCare Sign-Up Rules
The Obama administration said Tuesday that it is planning to test out further steps to tighten the rules for ObamaCare sign-up periods that have drawn insurer complaints. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) said that it will launch a pilot program in 2017 to test ways to put in place a “pre-enrollment verification system,” meaning a way to check documentation to make sure enrollees are actually eligible to sign up for ObamaCare through an extra sign-up period. (Sullivan, 9/6)
The New York Times:
Senate Democrats Block Zika Bill Over Planned Parenthood Provisions
As Congress returned from a seven-week recess on Tuesday, Senate Democrats again stymied a $1.1 billion plan to fight the Zika virus, demanding that Republicans drop an effort to block Planned Parenthood from receiving money to combat the mosquito-borne disease. Democrats, who had essentially blocked the same legislation in late June, had enough votes Tuesday to prevent Congress from moving emergency funding public health experts say is desperately needed as they prepare for the possibility that Zika will spread to other states along the gulf coast. The vote was 52 to 46, and Republicans needed 60 votes to advance the bill. (Hutteman and Tavernise, 9/6)
Bloomberg:
Cigna Can’t Sign Up New Medicare Customers Due To U.S. Probe
Health insurer Cigna Corp. won’t be able to sign up new customers for its private Medicare plans during the fall enrollment season this year because of an investigation by U.S. regulators. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said in January that it found “widespread and systemic failures” in Cigna’s private Medicare business. On Tuesday, the Bloomfield, Connecticut-based insurer said in a regulatory filing that it probably can’t fix the problems in time for the enrollment season for private health insurance and drug coverage plans, which starts next month. (Tracer, 9/6)
The New York Times:
Why Your Toothpaste Still Has Triclosan
Last week, the Food and Drug Administration effectively banned the antibacterial chemical triclosan from soaps. But you can you still find it in your toothpaste. That’s because the best-selling toothpaste brand, Colgate Total, convinced the F.D.A. that the benefit of triclosan in toothpaste outweighs any risks. (Saint Louis, 9/7)