Bloomberg: Health-Care Companies Pour $46.7 Million Into Midterm Vote 
The health-care industry has given $46.7 million to candidates in the midterm elections this year, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, pouring money into a tightly fought battle between Democrats and Republicans over control of Congress. Of the money given by health-care political action committees -- the official political arms of companies and industry or professional associations -- 57 percent went to Republicans. (Dodge, 10/29)

The Washington Post: Fact Checker: Democrats Hype Estimates Of People With Preexisting Conditions
If Democrats have their way, the midterm elections will turn on the issue of preexisting conditions. As we have documented, some House Republicans have even sought to diminish the impact of their votes in favor of the House GOP plan to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act by falsely citing our fact checks. But Democrats, in pressing their advantage on the issue, have gone too far in claiming how many people potentially would have been affected if the GOP bill had been enacted into law. Some of their tweets and statements are even undercut by a report issued Oct. 24 by Democrats on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. (Kessler, 10/30)

Kaiser Health News: GOP’s Latest Campaign Punch On Health Care Relies On Classic Hook: Medicare
Democrats throughout the election season have been hammering Republicans over votes and lawsuits that would eliminate insurance protections for preexisting conditions for consumers. But now Republicans are working to change the health care conversation with a tried-and-true technique used by both parties over the years: telling seniors their Medicare coverage may be in danger. It’s not yet clear, however, whether these dependable voters are responding to the warning. (Rovner, 10/30)

Stat: Pharma Braces For A Pelosi Speakership And Democrats' Drug Pricing Agenda 
{House Minority Leader Nancy] Pelosi spoke in detailed terms of a federal statute that allows the U.S. government to effectively strip drug companies of exclusive licenses to some blockbuster medicines. ... The boardroom ambush from Washington’s most powerful Democrat could prove the first of many such moments for drug manufacturers, which have come under fire from the White House and lawmakers from both parties in the past two years. Interviews with drug industry lobbyists and Democratic aides across the Capitol suggest the same: that the wing of Pelosi’s party outlining an ambitious agenda to combat high drug costs could turn 2019 into PhRMA’s doomsday scenario. (Facher, 10/30)

Arizona Republic: Martha McSally: 'I'm Getting My Ass Kicked' On Health Care Vote
Now locked in a competitive statewide Senate race against Democrat Kyrsten Sinema, McSally finds herself blistered by campaign attack ads and having to explain her past votes and current views on health care and the Affordable Care Act, which has grown in popularity in recent years. About 20 million more Americans gained health insurance after the act passed. McSally told The Arizona Republic on Saturday that she's being "character assassinated" by her critics on health care. (Wingett Sanchez and Innes, 10/29)

Concord (N.H.) Monitor: From Taxes To Health Care: Kuster Vs. Negron On The Issues
[Rep. Annie] Kuster is a staunch supporter of the Affordable Care Act. [Republican nominee Steve] Negron thinks it should be replaced with something better. But while the Republican candidate [for New Hampshire's 2nd Congressional District] is critical of the law as ineffective in its goal to provide affordable premiums, he would not immediately repeal it unless there was a plan ready to replace it with, he said. That should be up to Congress, he said. Other ideas Negron supports: ending restrictions on cross-state insurance policies to lower costs, and introducing cost transparency to allow consumers to better compare care. (DeWitt, 10/29)

Miami Herald: 2018 Election: Florida Democrats And GOP Court Hispanics
Democrats and Republicans spent months making trips to Puerto Rico, jostling for endorsements from island politicians and cutting Spanish-language TV ads that reached as far as San Juan. But one week from Election Day, there isn’t much evidence that Puerto Ricans who came to Florida after Hurricane Maria will end up shaping the state’s high-profile races for governor and U.S. Senate, where Republicans Ron DeSantis and Rick Scott are running against Democrats Andrew Gillum and Bill Nelson. (Daugherty, Ostroff and Vassolo, 10/30)

Boston Globe: Support Is Dropping For Ballot Question On Nurse Staffing, Poll Shows
Fifty-nine percent of those surveyed oppose Question 1, which would limit the number of patients assigned to hospital nurses at one time, while 32 percent said they are voting for it. Many respondents, however, said it was not the multimillion-dollar ad campaign surrounding the question that swayed them but the input from a nurse they personally know. (Stout, 10/29)

Boston Globe: When Are Nurse Staffing Levels Unsafe? Reports Fuel Debate Over Ballot Question
[Nurse staffing reports] provide a glimpse into the behind-the-scenes pressures caregivers can feel juggling acutely ill patients. They also have become a tool in the battle over Question 1. (Kowalczyk, 10/30)

The Hill: ObamaCare Enrollment Unlikely To Increase In 2019
Enrollment in ObamaCare plans is unlikely to increase next year as the Trump administration provides an escape hatch for people who say they have been priced out of coverage. The repeal of the penalty for not having insurance and the administration’s expansion of cheaper, slimmed-down plans that don’t meet ObamaCare’s requirements could cause more people to leave the exchanges when the sign-up period starts Thursday, according to health experts. The administration will also fund fewer local groups this year that help people enroll. (Hellmann, 10/30)

Kaiser Health News: With One Hand, Administration Boosts ACA Marketplaces, Weakens Them With Another
In the span of less than 12 hours, the Trump administration took two seemingly contradictory actions that could have profound effects on the insurance marketplaces set up by the Affordable Care Act. ... Both efforts play into the parallel narratives dominating the bitter political debate over the ACA. (Appleby, 10/30)

Pioneer Press: 2019 MNsure Open Enrollment Begins On Thursday
The 2019 MNsure open enrollment period begins Thursday. Starting at 7 a.m. Nov. 1, Minnesotans can log on to the MNsure website and enroll. For those who want coverage that begins Jan. 1, they must enroll by Dec. 15. Open enrollment runs until Jan. 13. MNsure is a Minnesota-made health insurance marketplace created in accordance with the Affordable Care Act. At MNsure.org, Minnesotans can compare plans from multiple companies and estimate out-of-pocket costs. Current enrollees can check to see if their 2018 plan will be available in 2019 and also compare plans from multiple companies to look at premiums and out-of-pocket expenses. (10/29)

Houston Chronicle: Plan Choices Mostly Unchanged As ACA Enrollment Opens Thursday
The landscape for Houston individual exchange plans is mostly unchanged from a year ago, something supporters say is a tribute to the adhesiveness of a health care law that has been under attack from the moment it was passed in 2010. Last year there was one more plan offered for a total of 34 but the number of insurers in Houston remains unchanged in 2019 at four. They are: Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas, Community Health Choice, Molina Healthcare, and Ambetter from Superior HealthPlan. (Deam, 10/30)

Knoxville (Tenn.) News Sentinel: Affordable Care Act Health Insurance Open Enrollment 2019: What's New To Know In Tennessee
In 2017, for a time, it was unclear if any insurers would offer ACA plans in Tennessee. In 2018, every county in the state was covered — but many by only one insurer. In 2019, two new companies have entered the game: Bright in three metropolitan markets and Celtic in two. In addition, Oscar and Cigna are expanding their coverage areas, and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee will offer insurance everywhere but Nashville and Memphis. That means most counties will have at least two options, and some will have even more. (Nelson, 10/29)

MPR: The Ins And Outs Of High Deductible Healthcare Plans
Many people opt for a high deductible plan when choosing insurance. But what's the actual cost of such a plan? MPR News host Kerri Miller sat down with two experts to talk about the good and the bad of high deductible healthcare plans and answer questions from listeners. (Miller and Shockman, 10/29)

New Orleans Times-Picayune: Ochsner Teams With Walmart To Launch New Health Insurance Plan 
Walmart is partnering with Ochsner Health Network to roll out a new type of health insurance plan for roughly 6,600 Walmart and Sam’s Club employees in the greater New Orleans area and in Baton Rouge. The plan will be available starting Jan. 1, 2019. The idea behind the collaboration, called the Ochsner Accountable Care Plan, is to improve the quality of care for employees who choose to opt in, while lowering overall health costs, according to Dr. David Carmouche, the president of the Ochsner Health Network. This is the first time Ochsner has partnered in this capacity with a large national employer, he said. (Clark, 10/29)

Stat: Heart Failure Study Paused Over Concerns About Disputed Cell Therapy Papers 
A government agency has paused a clinical trial testing an experimental stem cell therapy in heart failure patients, a move made public on Monday and sparked by recommendations to retract 31 journal articles from the lab of a controversial cardiac stem cell researcher. “Recent calls for the retraction of journal articles in related fields of cell therapy research have raised concerns about the scientific foundations of this trial,” the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute said in a statement posted Monday. (Cooney, 10/29)

The Washington Post: Heart Failure Stem Cell Trial To Be Paused After Calls For Retractions
The decision to temporarily pause the trial came “out of an abundance of caution,” said David Goff, director of the Division of Cardiovascular Sciences at the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, who said the trial’s scientific rationale is largely based on animal studies not conducted by Anversa. Goff said the board charged with overseeing the safety and integrity of the trial was convened last week and NIH leadership made the decision to pause the trial, which has enrolled 125 of 144 patients, to allow a thorough review. (Johnson, 10/29)

The New York Times: He Promised To Restore Damaged Hearts. Harvard Says His Lab Fabricated Research.
For Dr. Piero Anversa, the fall from scientific grace has been long, and the landing hard. Researchers worldwide once hailed his research as revolutionary, promising the seemingly impossible: a way to grow new heart cells to replace those lost in heart attacks and heart failure, leading killers in the United States. But Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, his former employers, this month accused Dr. Anversa and his laboratory of extensive scientific malpractice. (Kolata, 10/29)

Meanwhile, red flags have been raised regarding another study —

Stat: ER Patients Given Ketamine In Clinical Trials Without Their Consent, FDA Finds 
A Minneapolis hospital tested powerful antipsychotics and the potent anesthetic ketamine on emergency room patients without their knowledge or consent, violating regulations on human research, federal inspectors have determined. Based on those findings, a health watchdog group on Monday urged federal regulators to suspend all clinical trials at the hospital. In a letter to the Food and Drug Administration and the Department of Health and Human Services office that protects human research subjects, Public Citizen also called for regulators to immediately launch an investigation into the conduct and oversight of the studies and “impose severe sanctions for the serious ethical and regulatory lapses that have occurred in the ketamine clinical trials and other studies” at Minneapolis’s Hennepin County Medical Center. (Begley, 10/29)

The Star Tribune: FDA: Hennepin Healthcare Flouted Patient Safety Rules In Sedation Studies 
A board that approves research at Minnesota's largest safety-net hospital failed to follow federal rules designed to protect patients when it fast-tracked studies on powerful sedatives, including ketamine, according to inspection reports from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The Institutional Review Board (IRB) at Hennepin Healthcare expedited approval for at least four studies between 2014 and 2018 that did not require patients to consent beforehand, even though they included a likelihood of using "vulnerable subjects." (Mannix, 10/29)

And ProPublica reports —

ProPublica: “We Will Keep On Fighting For Him.”
This is Wilson.* His mother, Aline, took the picture to mark a happy and hopeful moment following a traumatic period when Wilson participated in a University of Illinois at Chicago clinical trial that tested whether lithium was effective in treating children with bipolar disorder. ProPublica Illinois reported in April that the UIC psychiatrist who oversaw several federally funded studies, Dr. Mani Pavuluri, violated research rules, failed to alert parents of risks and falsified data to cover up misconduct, and that UIC didn’t properly oversee her work. (Cohen and Jaffe, 10/25)

In other related news —

Stat: Conflicts Of Interest In Clinical Practice Guidelines An 'Intractable Problem'
Despite a parade of studies warning that treatment guidelines issued by professional medical societies fail to fully disclose potential financial conflicts, two new analyses report that the problem persists. In one analysis, researchers found that 57 percent of 91 authors who developed 18 different guidelines for several big-selling medicines had financial conflicts, and 25 percent of the authors did not disclose a conflict in the guidelines or supplemental materials. The median undisclosed payment was $522, while the average was $17,000. Moreover, none of the guidelines were fully compliant with disclosure requirements issued by the National Academy of Medicine. (Silverman, 10/29)

The Washington Post: Pittsburgh Trauma Center Stayed Calm As Victims Kept Arriving
The first to arrive was a SWAT officer with a hand wound. Then an older man, badly wounded, gray from loss of blood. Then another SWAT officer, arms and legs riddled with bullets. An elderly woman with a gunshot to her upper arm. There was no shouting, no panic. Emergency doctors, nurses, surgeons and technicians poured into UPMC Presbyterian’s trauma center as word of a mass-casualty event spread. ... As the number of multi-casualty shootings in the United States has grown, Level 1 trauma centers like this one have stepped up preparations and training for events like Saturday’s rampage at Tree of Life synagogue here. (Bernstein, 10/29)

The Washington Post: ‘I’m Dr. Cohen’: The Powerful Humanity Of The Jewish Hospital Staff That Treated Robert Bowers
The man accused in the brutal killings of 11 people in a synagogue in Pittsburgh was taken to the hospital after he was apprehended to be treated for the injuries he suffered in a gunfight with the police. In the emergency room when he arrived, he was shouting, “I want to kill all the Jews,” according to hospital’s president. If he only knew then about the identity of the team tasked with keeping him alive: at least three of the doctors and nurses who cared for him at the Allegheny General Hospital were Jewish, according to president Dr. Jeffrey K. Cohen. (Rosenberg, 10/30)

The Associated Press: Guns Send Over 8,000 US Kids To ER Each Year, Analysis Says
Gun injuries, including many from assaults, sent 75,000 U.S. children and teens to emergency rooms over nine years at a cost of almost $3 billion, a first-of-its-kind study found. Researchers called it the first nationally representative study on ER visits for gun injuries among U.S. kids. They found that more than one-third of the wounded children were hospitalized and 6 percent died. Injuries declined during most of the 2006-14 study, but there was an upswing in the final year. The researchers found that 11 of every 100,000 children and teens treated in U.S. emergency rooms have gun-related injuries. That amounts to about 8,300 kids each year. (Tanner, 10/29)

Wyoming Public Radio: Data Gaps Make It Hard To Track Hate Crimes In Rural Areas
Saturday's attack on a synagogue in Pittsburgh has focused attention on the rising number of hate crimes in this country. In 2016, according to the latest FBI data, more than 6,000 hate crimes were reported -- motivated by biases against things like race, religion or sexual orientation. Most happen in cities. But data is lacking for these crimes in rural areas, including the Mountain West. (Mullen, 10/29)

WBUR: Food Stamps For Soda: Time To End Billion-Dollar Subsidy For Sugary Drinks?
According to a 2016 report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, sweetened beverages, including soda, are among the most commonly purchased items by recipients of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program — or SNAP. ..."Low-income American adults now consume nearly two [sugar-sweetened beverage] servings a day, and for every one to two daily servings consumed, the lifetime risk of developing diabetes increases by 30 percent," according to a paper published this year by Harvard adjunct public policy professor Robert Paarlberg. (Aubrey, 10/29)

NBC News: Evacuated After 'Health Attacks' In Cuba And China, Diplomats Face New Ordeals In U.S.
What follows is the first comprehensive account of the extraordinary chain of events set off by a suspected "health attack," as the U.S. calls the mysterious phenomena, on a U.S. worker abroad. It draws on interviews with more than a dozen current U.S. officials, a written testimonial from [Catherine] Werner's mother to members of Congress obtained by NBC News, internal State Department documents, recorded conversations and other interviews. NBC News also reviewed hundreds of pages of medical records of U.S. government workers evacuated from both Cuba and China, including those the U.S. has "medically confirmed" were attacked and those it ultimately said were not. (Lederman, 10/29)

WBUR: Study: Do Even Older Moms Have To Wait 18 Months Between Pregnancies?
A new paper in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine uses medical records from nearly 150,000 Canadian pregnancies to tease out how a mother's age influences the effects of a shorter-than-recommended interval between pregnancies. For older moms in a hurry, the bad news is that the study adds evidence that conceiving within 12 months of a birth does mean heightened health risks for both mother and child. (Goldberg, 10/29)

The Hill: FDA Takes Step Toward Requiring Allergy Labels For Sesame 
The Food and Drug Administration on Monday took a step to consider requiring sesame to be listed as an allergen on food labels. The request for information came in response to growing concerns about the prevalence of allergies to sesame seeds, which are currently not among the major allergens that are required to be disclosed on food ingredient lists. (Sullivan, 10/29)

The Associated Press: Jets' Leggett Helping Raise Awareness For Abdominal Injuries
Jordan Leggett remembers the sudden buzz on the sideline and in the stands as cellphones lit up with texts delivering the scary news. A young player from a rival high school football squad in Florida had been seriously injured during a game and he might not make it. "Everybody on the team where I was from was like, 'Oh, man, he must've just got like a big hit,'" the New York Jets tight end recalled. "We heard later that he passed away, so it was kind of a big deal." (Waszak, 10/29)

The Washington Post: How Dogs Could Help Eradicate Malaria 
Steven Lindsay, a public health entomologist at Durham University in England, has been researching malaria control for decades. His preferred approach, he says, is to “sit on the boundaries,” drumming up ideas that others might not. So it’s perhaps unsurprising that his latest project was inspired by the baggage-claim area at Dulles International Airport. If the beagles there could use their noses to detect explosives or contraband in suitcases, he wondered, could they also be trained to sniff out an intractable disease that kills more than 400,000 people each year? (Brulliard, 10/29)

The New York Times: Why Is CBD Everywhere?
It’s hard to say the precise moment when CBD, the voguish cannabis derivative, went from being a fidget spinner alternative for stoners to a mainstream panacea. ... So the question now becomes: Is this the dawning of a new miracle elixir, or does all the hype mean we have already reached Peak CBD? Either way, it would be hard to script a more of-the-moment salve for a nation on edge. (Williams, 10/27)

KQED: How Hot Was It In California Homes Last Summer? Really Hot. Here's The Data
Heat kills people, even in the cool, coastal regions of California. Our investigation found that last year, two heat waves killed 14 people in the Bay Area, and sent hundreds more to the hospital. By our count, 79 percent of people who died started to experience heat illness at home. This year, a team of reporters and producers, with consulting from scientists, placed sensors inside dozens of homes around the state. (Peterson, 10/30)

In other environmental news -

MPR: Hydrogen Fluoride Questions Remain As Husky Reports 300 Percent Profit Gain In Third Quarter
Husky reported the company's net profits grew to around $415 million U.S. dollars in its third quarter earnings report. In the midst of this news, Ginger Juel, co-founder of Twin Ports Action Alliance, has been pushing Husky to end its use of the highly toxic chemical hydrogen fluoride. The chemical, which can pose serious health risks if released, caused the evacuation order for Superior residents on April 26. (Kaeding, 10/29)

Bloomberg: Lucrative Drug Trials Prompt Regional Hospitals To Join Forces 
Small hospitals need money. Drug companies need patients for tests. Both sides say they’ve found a solution. Regional hospitals across the U.S. are banding together to make it easier for pharmaceutical companies to use their facilities for clinical trials, a strategy that could boost revenue and give drugmakers increased access to patients. (Hopkins, 10/29)

Georgia Health News: Northside Suffers Another Legal Setback In Fight Over Its Records
Northside Hospital has lost another round in court in its long-running open records fight. But the case still may have more time to run before a final resolution. The new ruling comes almost a year after the Georgia Supreme Court reversed lower court decisions that barred access to Northside’s financial records, and sent the case back to the original trial court. (Miller, 10/29)

Boston Globe: Blue Cross Wants To Reward Hospitals — For Keeping Patients Out Of Hospitals
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts will announce Tuesday that it is developing a program to pay hospitals not for every patient they admit and every procedure they do, but for how well they control costs while helping to keep patients healthy. Hospitals would be rewarded when they collaborate with physician groups — even physicians affiliated with a different hospital — to manage costs and improve patient outcomes. (Dayal McCluskey, 10/29)

Richmond Times-Dispatch: Wounded Warrior Project Expands Mental Health Care Services For Veterans
As suicide rates among veterans remain high, the Wounded Warrior Project has committed to expanding its mental health care services to reach about 5,000 additional veterans across the nation over the next five years. ...The network, which was launched in 2016, sponsors veterans through an intensive, two- to three-week program to help them cope with post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury at one of four academic medical centers: UCLA Health in California, Emory Healthcare in Georgia, Rush University Medical Center in Illinois and Massachusetts General Hospital. (Balch, 10/29)

KCUR: Hospital Investigation Underway After Kansas City Nurse Dresses In Blackface 
Less than a week after NBC host Megyn Kelly was fired for defending blackface on her morning show, a photo of a Kansas City couple in blackface started circulating on Facebook. A user took a screenshot of Shelbi Elliott-Heenan's Facebook post — a photo of herself and a man in blackface, dressed as Beyonce and Jay-Z. Elliott-Heenan is a registered nurse at St. Luke's Hospital in Kansas City. (Tudhope, 10/29)

The Salt Lake Tribune: To Fight High Drug Prices, Utah Will Pay For Public Employees To Go Fill Prescriptions In Mexico
Amid a flurry of national proposals to bring exorbitant U.S. drug prices in line with other countries’ charges, one Utah insurer has a different option for patients: Pay them to go to Mexico. PEHP, which covers 160,000 public employees and family members, is offering plane tickets to San Diego, transportation to Tijuana, and a $500 cash payout to patients who need certain expensive drugs for multiple sclerosis, cancer and autoimmune disorders. (Alberty, 10/29)

The Associated Press: Training Teams Sent To Centers Amid Deadly Viral Outbreaks
New Jersey health officials said Monday they are sending infection-control teams to four long-term pediatric centers and a hospital to assist with training amid viral and bacterial outbreaks that have left 10 people dead. The teams will assess infection prevention practices and deploy beginning in November, according to Health Commissioner Dr. Shereef Elnahal. The response comes amid a fatal adenovirus outbreak at the Wanaque Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation that left 9 people dead, most under age 18. (Catalini, 10/29)

The Associated Press: Bid To Ban State Funds For Abortions Tests Open Oregon Laws
Teenage girls in Oregon don’t need their parents’ consent to end an unwanted pregnancy, women in the country illegally have coverage for the procedure and private insurers will soon be required to cover the full cost of an abortion under a new law. Oregon has the least restrictive laws on abortion access in the U.S., making it a political standard-bearer for the abortion rights movement. But a dozen years after voters last rejected a measure to reduce women’s ability to get an abortion, a question on the Nov. 6 ballot is asking a new generation to amend the Oregon Constitution to ban the use of state funding for abortion. (Flaccus, 10/29)

Georgia Health News: Special Report: Doctors Born In India Filling Medical Gaps
India provides the largest number of international medical graduates to the U.S., according to a study conducted by the New England Journal of Medicine. Most of them belong to the American Association for Physicians of Indian Origin (AAPI), which claims to have a membership of 80,000 doctors, as well 40,000 residents, fellows and medical students in the United States. (Ridderbusch, 10/29)

Georgia Health News and Kaiser Health News: Republicans’ Drive To Tighten Immigration Overlooks Need For Doctors
The American Medical Association said that, as of last year, 18 percent of practicing physicians and medical residents in the U.S. in patient care were born in other countries. Georgia’s percentage of foreign-born doctors is similar, at 17 percent. Yet President Donald Trump’s focus on securing U.S. borders and restricting immigration — and the bitter arguments between the national political parties on the issue during midterm campaigns — have sown concerns about opportunities for foreign-born doctors. (Blau, Miller and Ridderbusch, 10/30)

NPR and WHYY: When To Give Narcan Can Be Daunting For Overdose Bystanders
The antidote quickly blocks the effects of opioids — both the euphoria and dangerous side effects, such as slowed breathing that cuts off oxygen to the brain.In the process, it can send someone into instant withdrawal. Many people who use drugs say withdrawal is like having the worst flu of your life, complete with cold sweats, shakes and vomiting. (Feldman, 10/29)

The Wall Street Journal: Why NYU Is Making Its Medical School Tuition-Free
Although NYU’s tuition initiative isn’t the first of its kind, it is the first of such scale. The medical school has raised more than $450 million of the $600 million it will need to fund the initiative into perpetuity, including $100 million from Mr. Langone and his wife, Elaine. ... In a conversation with The Wall Street Journal, Dr. Grossman discussed why covering medical-school tuition addresses a “moral imperative” and responded to critics. Here are edited excerpts of the conversation. (Toy, 10/29)

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Two Health Clinics Open In North St. Louis County High Schools 
Health clinics opened Monday at two high schools in north St. Louis County, following a trend of school-based care to address racial and geographic disparities in medical outcomes. The clinics in Hazelwood East High/Middle School Center and Riverview Gardens High School are funded by Christian Hospital Foundation and staffed by the federally-funded CareSTL Health clinics. (Bernhard, 10/29)

USA Today Network: Same-Sex Couple Carries Same Baby In IVF Fertility Treatment First
Two Texas mothers each carried their "miracle baby" because of a medical advance that allowed them to do what they thought was otherwise impossible. Ashleigh Coulter, 28, and Bliss Coutler, 36, met six years ago and later were married. The couple who desired a baby knew that welcoming their own biological child would require a sperm donor, and some creativity. ... Fertility specialists Dr. Kathy Doody and her husband, Dr. Kevin Doody, of the CARE Fertility in Bedford, Texas, were the first to try reciprocal effortless in vitro fertilization using radical technology, which gave the Coutlers a shot at motherhood. (Azad, 10/29)

The Wall Street Journal: ObamaCare’s Red State Trap
Many readers no doubt take comfort in living thousands of miles away from the tax and spending misadventures of Illinois or Connecticut. But fair warning: One of the worst deals in state spending is coming to a red state near you, and that’s expanding Medicaid to adult men above the poverty line. On Nov. 6 four states will consider ballot initiatives on expanding Medicaid: Nebraska, Utah, Idaho and Montana, the last of which would extend an expansion that is set to expire. More than 30 states have expanded the entitlement as part of the Affordable Care Act. (10/29)

Omaha World-Herald: Medicaid Expansion Is In Nebraska's Best Interest, Deserves Voter Approval
Nebraska voters this fall have an important opportunity to extend health insurance to the state’s working poor. That opportunity, in the form of Initiative 427, can bring significant benefits to Nebraska.Approval of Initiative 427, expanding Medicaid to 90,000 low-income Nebraskans, would greatly improve their quality of health care, shifting from high-cost emergency treatment toward lower-cost preventive care. (10/28)

Great Falls Tribune: Montana Needs To Continue Medicaid Expansion Beyond 2019 Sunset Date
I’d like to talk a bit about the importance of continuation of Medicaid Expansion (the HELP Act) beyond its scheduled 2019 sunset date. The HELP Act/Medicaid Expansion is simply too important to Montanans (96,000 are covered by Medicaid Expansion in Montana), the state of Montana, and the healthcare industry in Montana (Montana’s No. 1 employer) to not continue. The question will be whether tweaks to the program should be made and how to best fund the state’s 10 percent portion of the cost (the program is 90 percent federally-funded). Those questions are best answered through a bi-partisan, across-the-aisle approach and those bi-partisan discussions need to be occurring now. (John Goodnow, 10/23)

Health Affairs: CMS Approves North Carolina’s Innovative Medicaid Demonstration To Help Improve Health Outcomes
But too often states have been stymied by outdated regulations and rigid federal rules in their efforts to find creative new ways to deliver better care. That’s why we believe that the best thing that CMS can do is create a fertile ground for states to fulfill their role as the laboratories of innovation in Medicaid policy. To do this, we’ve expanded opportunities for states to seek demonstrations to test new and exciting reforms. Today, I’m pleased to announce another example of that commitment through our approval of North Carolina’s innovative Medicaid reform demonstration. Through this demonstration, North Carolina will shift their program toward one that delivers better value with a more predictable budget through the transition from fee-for-service to a managed care delivery system. (Seema Verma, 10/24)

Bloomberg: Health-Care Costs Are Still Eating The U.S. Economy
Health-care costs are not as much in the news nowadays as they used to be. A big reason might be that cost growth has slowed in recent years. Between 1967 and 2007, per-capita health care costs rose at an average of 2.36 percent a year. Since then, it’s only been about 1.31 percent.That’s actually not such great news. Health-care costs as a percentage of the economy have continued to rise: (Noah Smith, 10/29)

Arizona Republic: Martha McSally Hurt Those With Pre-Existing Conditions? Not Exactly
Democrats are charging that Martha McSally, and other Republicans, want to eliminate Obamacare protections for those with pre-existing conditions. The charge is not entirely groundless. But it is fundamentally misleading – in a way symptomatic of the general unwillingness of Democrats, including Kyrsten Sinema, to level with the American people about a tough decision to be made. (Robert Robb, 10/26)

Bloomberg: The FDA Wakes Up To The Danger Of E-Cigarettes
Like a parent who’s just caught the kids vaping in the backyard, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has been jolted into realizing that electronic cigarettes are a problem. The agency’s wake-up call came in the form of startling early data from the National Youth Tobacco Survey indicating that e-cigarette use among high school students is up more than 75 percent since last year, and among middle-schoolers by 50 percent.FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb has warned Juul and the other leading e-cigarette companies that he means business when he says they need to keep their devices out of teenagers’ hands. He accused the companies of so far treating the problem as a “public-relations challenge” rather than a serious legal and public-health concern. (10/29)

The New York Times:  It’s Time To Talk About The N.R.A.
The massacre of 11 people at a Pittsburgh synagogue on Saturday, allegedly by a man with 21 guns registered to his name, was terrifyingly predictable. Every day in America, about 104 people die from guns, while in Japan it takes about a decade for that many to die from gun violence. Equally predictable was the response. President Trump and members of Congress denounced the violence but show no signs of actually doing anything to stop it: So Americans will continue to die from guns at a rate of one every 15 minutes. (Nicholas Kristof, 10/29)

Cincinnati Enquirer: Time To Double Down On Opioid Fight
This latest, bipartisan effort in the battle against our national opioid epidemic, called the SUPPORT for Patients and Communities Act (H.R. 6), is a comprehensive package of bills targeted towards advancing treatment and recovery initiatives, improving addiction prevention, protecting our communities and bolstering efforts to fight deadly illicit synthetic drugs such as fentanyl.This isn’t the beginning of efforts to battle the ongoing opioid crisis, and it certainly is not the end either. It cannot be. (Brad Wenstrup, 10/29)

USA Today: It Took A Village To Kill My Brother: How Families, Hospitals And Government Fail Alcoholics
According to the National Institute of Health approximately 88,000 Americans die annually from alcohol-related causes. Yet, Columbia University’s 2012 study on addiction medicine found that “only a small fraction of individuals receive interventions or treatment consistent with scientific knowledge about what works.” Not every alcoholic responds favorably to any particular treatment — as with any chronic disease. It’s no surprise then that Tim failed to find sobriety in any of the 16 treatment facilities endorsing the 12-steps that he entered in his last three years. Many medical professionals recommend that hardcore addicts spend at least 90 days in an inpatient facility; he usually stayed about 30 days. (Jeff Gewert, 10/30)

USA Today: 'A Star Is Born' Movie Is A Lesson In Addiction Treatment Gone Wrong
I went to the movies this week to see "A Star Is Born", so excited for a night off to watch a movie about music and romance. I’d never seen any of the previous versions and was caught off guard in the theater as the story that unfolded was another tragedy about the failures and missed opportunities of treating a person struggling with addiction. I grew up with parents who suffered from severe heroin use disorder and have worked in this field for over two decades. ... This story could have had a different ending. The nearly 200 lives we lose to overdose death every day, based on 2017 numbers, could have and should have a different ending. (Jessica Hulsey Nickel, 10/28)

The Hill: Decline In US Birth Rates Shouldn't Be Viewed As A Doomsday Prophecy
According to a recent report released by the CDC, fertility rates are down and the age of first-time mother’s has increased. As a high-risk pregnancy doctor who works at one of the busiest labor and delivery units in the country, these facts mirror my daily reality. But contrary to the alarming headlines that are invoking panic in reproductive-aged women across the country, the report’s findings are not necessarily bad news.In fact, I think they highlight an opposite truth. While there are many factors likely contributing to why the demographics of childbearing are shifting, the most noteworthy — particularly in a period when reproductive autonomy is being threatened — is that women are taking more control over the timing and circumstances of their pregnancies. (Priya Rajan, 10/29)

Stat: Postpartum Can Be Boundless Love And Deep Sadness. It Shouldn’t Mean Silence
It was hard to admit that a mental health crisis had crept up on me, just weeks after one of the happiest days of my life. I told myself that I was exaggerating my own symptoms, that I was just overtired. Many women have it worse, I thought. I could make it work. And yet, even as I was “making it work,” I was pierced by moments of breathtaking sadness. I was underwater before I saw the tide coming in.I loved my baby more than it was possible to describe. I also had postpartum depression and anxiety. It was hard to square those facts. (Alissa Ambrose, 10/30)

Los Angeles Times: The President Refuses To Take Responsibility For His Dangerous Rhetoric
If President Trump were a different — and better — man, he would have reacted to the sickening slaughter of 11 congregants at a Pittsburgh synagogue by engaging in some sober self-examination and refraining from incendiary comments that might energize other violent extremists. (10/30)

Stat: States Are Protecting Living Organ Donors. Congress Should Follow Suit 
The national Living Donor Protection Act of 2017 (H.R. 1270), sponsored by Reps. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) and Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-Wash.), would guarantee that living donors can take unpaid leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act to undergo living donor surgery and recover from it without losing their jobs. It would also prohibit insurers from declining or limiting coverage of a living donor under any life insurance policy, disability insurance policy, or long-term care insurance policy, or consider his or her kidney donation status in determining premiums. Many states have passed their own legislation to protect living donors and encourage living donation. (Lavarne A. Burton, 10/30)

Los Angeles Times: Dialysis Companies' Anti-Proposition 8 Fight Has Gone Over The Top — In Self-Interested Campaign Spending
As we have learned from bitter experience over the years, in California’s ballot initiative process, money talks. On Proposition 8, which aims to rein in profits of the kidney dialysis industry, it’s been screaming at top volume. The for-profit dialysis industry just set an all-time record in spending, bringing its total war chest to defeat the measure to more than $111 million. That spending has bested the record set in 2016 by the pharmaceutical industry, which spent $109 million to kill a California ballot measure aimed at capping drug prices. (Michael Hiltzik, 10/29)

Dallas Morning News: Dallas Must Stop Arresting Homeless People For Not Having Homes 
Dallas County's homeless population is steadily rising. With no stable place to lay their heads, the homeless people have taken to the streets, a new normal that is disruptive to homeless residents and to the many business owners in Dallas and its surrounding cities. Government has responded to this difficult problem in the most expensive and inhumane way imaginable: by jailing its homeless population through aggressive prosecutions for criminal trespass, a low-level misdemeanor that simply means being on someone else's property. The majority of these cases do not involve anyone's home, but rather gas stations, hospitals, malls and even DART stations. (Philip Kingston and Mark Clayton, 10/29)