Politico: The Great American Health Care Panic
With whiffs of cigarette smoke wafting from the adjoining Band Box bar, surrounded by the nonstop clatter of bowling pins, Donna Brown and Kaci Rickert sat across from each other at a little low table one recent evening at the shabby, homey Levittown Lanes. The women’s league teammates ate salad and ziti and made small talk. Brown got up for her turn, and Rickert offered an admission in what was almost a whisper. “We’re on two different sides of the political aisle,” she said, “but we don’t discuss it.” There was, however, one perennial problem they wanted to talk about. And when they started, they couldn’t stop. (Kruse, 10/15)

The Associated Press: Democratic Candidates Focus On Health Care As Midterms Near
In a windowless conference room, Republican Senate candidate Martha McSally was asking executives at a small crane manufacturing company how the GOP tax cut has helped their business when one woman said: "I want to ask you a question about health care." Marylea Evans recounted how, decades ago, her husband had been unable to get health insurance after developing cancer, forcing the couple to sell some of their Texas ranch to pay for his treatment. Now she was worried about Democratic ads saying McSally, currently a congresswoman, supported legislation removing the requirement that insurers cover people with pre-existing medical conditions. (Riccardi, 10/15)

Modern Healthcare: Tight Iowa Congressional Races Key On Pre-Existing Condition Protections
The battle over keeping the Affordable Care Act's strong insurance protections for people with pre-existing medical conditions has surged to the center of tight House and Senate contests across the country. But the issue has become particularly heated in two toss-up House races in Iowa. Unregulated Farm Bureau health plans will go on sale Nov. 1, and they can consider pre-existing conditions under a new state law. It's expected that some Iowans applying for the cheaper Farm Bureau plans will get turned down or will be quoted higher rates based on their health status. That could raise the stakes for voters. (Meyer, 10/12)

The Washington Post Fact Checker: Democratic Attack Ad Falsely Knocks Republican On Preexisting Conditions
This is a story about how relatively minor procedural votes make their way into campaign ads. A key issue in the debate over the American Health Care Act (AHCA), the failed House Republican plan to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, was Obamacare’s popular provisions barring insurance companies from refusing people with preexisting health conditions — or charging them more. As we have documented, the GOP bill would have weakened those protections, with states having the option to make changes that could have left people with preexisting conditions vulnerable to large increases in premiums, according to the Congressional Budget Office. (Kessler, 10/15)

The Hill: Vulnerable Republicans Throw ‘Hail Mary’ On Pre-Existing Conditions 
Dozens of vulnerable House Republicans have recently signed on to bills or resolutions in support of pre-existing conditions protections, part of an eleventh-hour attempt to demonstrate their affinity for one of ObamaCare’s most popular provisions. Thirty-two of the 49 GOP incumbents in races deemed competitive by the nonpartisan Cook Political Report have backed congressional measures on pre-existing conditions in the past six weeks, according to an analysis by The Hill. (Hellmann, 10/14)

The Associated Press: Ohio US Senate Candidates Spar Over Health Care, Immigration
Candidates in Ohio's U.S. senate campaign sparred Sunday over health care, approaches to climate change, student loan debt, immigration, tariffs and gun control in the first of three debates. Republican U.S. Rep. Jim Renacci repeatedly criticized incumbent Democrat Sherrod Brown as being a Washington insider, citing Brown's connections to Democratic New York Sen. Chuck Schumer multiple times. (Welsh-Huggins, 10/14)

KQED: Health Care Is Top Issue In California Swing Districts, Search Data Shows
Searches from California's most competitive swing districts are reflecting an outsize interest in health care issues, according to search data from Google Trends. In nearly all of the seven districts rated "Lean" or "Toss Up" by the Cook Political Report, election searches around health care issues outnumbered interest in issues like immigration or the economy. (Marzorati, 10/13)

Pioneer Press: MN Governor Candidates Tim Walz And Jeff Johnson On Health Care
Tim Walz and Jeff Johnson are both promising Minnesotans better-quality health care for less cost.But it is unlikely that either candidate for governor’s plan would do just that.That’s the conclusion of several health care experts interviewed by the Pioneer Press. ...Walz, a Democrat and Mankato congressman, is pushing a philosophy that expands government programs to those who would benefit from them. Johnson, a Republican Hennepin County commissioner, is arguing that government needs to get out of the way and allow market forces to work. (Orrick and Magan, 10/14)

Meanwhile, ballot measures have become a popular way to navigate around state legislatures —

The New York Times: First Came A Flood Of Ballot Measures From Voters. Then Politicians Pushed Back.
The South Dakota Legislature’s social calendar was busy this year. Video lottery operators held a hog roast. Truckers put on an ice cream sundae social. Beer distributors organized an especially sought-after gathering featuring plenty of samples. And the American Legislative Exchange Council, known for drafting conservative-leaning model legislation, hosted a wine and cheese party. The gatherings — 107 events in all during the Legislature’s 38-day session — are popular with lawmakers, but less so with the public. (Williams, 10/15)

Idaho Statesman: What Idaho Medicaid Expansion May Mean For Rural Hospitals
Idaho’s small-town hospitals have their own reason to back Medicaid expansion: In some cases, it may keep their doors open. After years of stalled debate in the Idaho Legislature, expansion will go to a statewide public vote Nov. 6. Among other arguments, proponents have urged Idahoans to consider that small, rural hospitals may have to close if they can’t start tapping Medicaid for their poorest patients. (Dutton and Davlin, 10/14)

The New York Times: Inside The Vast Tent City Housing Migrant Children In A Texas Desert
On a barren patch of desert near the border, the incident commander stepped into the Incident Command Post trailer. Walkie-talkies were charging in the corner. Flat-screen TVs and computer monitors showed surveillance camera footage and weather forecasting models. The 911 dispatch center, in a nearby trailer, was quiet, and so were the ambulances and fire trucks. (Fernandez and Dickerson, 10/12)

The Wall Street Journal: Inside The Texas Tent City Housing More Than 1,000 Migrant Teens
Officially, the massive complex just north of the Mexican border is a temporary, emergency “influx shelter” overseen by the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement. But in practical terms, it is home, school and playground for migrant teens who were arrested after illegally crossing the U.S. border. Most are now asking for asylum and will spend an average of two months total in the government’s care. Government officials opened the Tornillo shelter to reporters Friday as part of an effort to combat criticisms of conditions inside the facility. (Caldwell, 10/12)

Reuters: Texas Desert Tent City For Immigrant Children Balloons In Size
Since it opened, the camp, with air-conditioned tents, has enhanced its amenities to include access to legal services for the children, medical care, soccer, televised sports events and religious services, U.S. officials said. The average stay of a child at Tornillo is 29 days before the child is released to a sponsor, according to Health and Human Services. Civil rights groups have said that no matter what amenities are offered, holding children in a detention facility for prolonged periods can be a human rights violation. (Chavez, 10/12)

The New York Times/ProPublica: Sloan Kettering Researchers Correct The Record By Revealing Company Ties
Top researchers at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center have filed at least seven corrections with medical journals recently, divulging financial relationships with health care companies that they did not previously disclose. The hospital’s chief executive, Dr. Craig B. Thompson, disclosed his relationship with companies including the drug maker Merck, and Dr. Jedd Wolchok, a noted pioneer in cancer immunotherapy, listed his affiliations with 31 companies. (Ornstein and Thomas, 10/12)

In other research and transparency news —

Stat: Harvard And The Brigham Call For 31 Retractions Of Cardiac Stem Cell Research 
Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital have recommended that 31 papers from a former lab director be retracted from medical journals. The papers from the lab of Dr. Piero Anversa, who studied cardiac stem cells, “included falsified and/or fabricated data,” according to a statement to Retraction Watch and STAT from the two institutions. (Oransky and Marcus, 10/14)

Stat: Industry Influence Over Clinical Trial Design And Reporting Lacks Transparency 
Although it is widely known that drug and device makers fund most clinical trials, a new analysis finds these companies are not always transparent about the influence they exert on trial design and reporting. And the researchers suggest business concerns may too often trump patient interests. On the plus side, the analysis found the vast majority of academics and their industry partners, including contract research organizations, contributed to trial design and reporting. And four of five academics had complete access to all of the data generated by the trials that were examined, according to the analysis, which was published in BMJ. (Silverman, 10/11)

Reuters: In Crackdown, U.S. FDA Seeks Details On New Electronic Cigarettes
Faced with a proliferation of new electronic cigarettes and a sharp rise in teen vaping, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Friday sent letters to 21 electronic cigarette manufacturers seeking information to assess whether the products are being marketed illegally. (Kirkham, 10/12)

The Washington Post: FDA Investigating Whether Dozens Of E-Cigarette Products Are Being Illegally Marketed
The FDA said it has asked 21 manufacturers and importers to provide information about whether more than 40 products were on the market before Aug. 8, 2016. Products introduced or changed after that date must receive FDA clearance before going on sale. If the FDA determines that the products are being sold illegally, the companies could face fines, seizures or a court order to take them off the market. Friday’s move is the agency’s first large-scale action to enforce the requirement that products introduced after the August 2016 date get advance agency clearance, officials said. (McGinley, 10/12)

The New York Times: Code Name Jane: The Women Behind A Covert Abortion Network
The no-frills advertisement, printed at times in student and alternative newspapers, went straight to the point: “Pregnant? Don’t want to be? Call Jane.” A telephone number followed. This was nearly half a century ago, when abortion was illegal almost everywhere in the country and alternative newspapers were in their heyday. There was no Jane, though, not literally anyway. Yet at the same time, Jane was anybody. (Haberman, 10/14)

The Associated Press: Texas Cancels Troubled Contract With Anti-Abortion Group
Texas is canceling $6 million in troubled contracts with an anti-abortion group hired to bolster women's health services after Republican lawmakers cut off Planned Parenthood, and officials said Friday that more than $1 million in billings are under investigation. The announcement ends a tumultuous two years of Texas in business with the Heidi Group, an evangelical nonprofit that started in the 1990s promoting alternatives to abortion. (10/12)

Dallas Morning News: Texas Health Department Ends Its Contracts With Underperforming Anti-Abortion Group 
The Heidi Group served only 3,300 clients out of nearly 70,000 it told the state it would cover in fiscal 2017, according to data from the commission. Despite this, the group was awarded new contracts for fiscal 2019, which began Sept. 1. But after a regular review, spokeswoman Carrie Williams said, the agency decided to end the partnership effective Dec. 11. (Stone, 10/13)

The Washington Post: Diet, Weight Loss And Sex Supplements Are Tainted With Unapproved Drugs
Researchers found unapproved and sometimes dangerous drugs in 746 dietary supplements, almost all of them marketed for sexual enhancement, weight loss or muscle growth, a new analysis published Friday shows. The review of a Food and Drug Administration database of contaminated supplements for the years 2007 to 2016 most commonly turned up sildenafil — the drug sold as Viagra — and other erectile dysfunction drugs in sex enhancement products; sibutramine and the laxative phenolphthalein, both banned by the FDA, in weight-loss supplements; and steroids or their analogues in muscle-building products. (Bernstein, 10/12)

NPR: Viagra, Steroids And More Appear In Products Marketed As 'Natural'
"The FDA didn't even bother to recall more than half of the potentially hazardous supplements," says Dr. Pieter Cohen, a Harvard Medical School professor and an internist with Cambridge Health Alliance in Boston, who wrote an accompanying commentary in the journal. "How could it be that our premier public health agency spends the time and money to detect these hidden ingredients and then doesn't take the next obvious step, which is to ensure that they are removed from the marketplace?" he asks. (Cohen, 10/12)

Kaiser Health News: Hidden Drugs And Danger Lurk In Over-The-Counter Supplements, Study Finds
“It’s mind-boggling to imagine what’s happening here,” said Dr. Pieter Cohen, an associate professor of medicine at the Cambridge Health Alliance in Massachusetts. Cohen wasn’t involved in the study but wrote a commentary published alongside the research. (Bluth, 10/12)

Reuters: Without Captions, Warnings About Hurricane Michael Failed To Reach Disabled
When Oscar-winning deaf actress Marlee Matlin turned to the internet to view a video warning about Hurricane Michael, she was quickly reminded that sign language interpreters are often edited out of broadcast clips and closed captioning seems to be non-existent online. "There are 35 million deaf and hard of hearing people and it's amazing today that there isn't full access to them," she told Reuters through an interpreter on Friday in a telephone interview. (10/13)

PBS NewsHour: As Disasters Strike, Advocates Worry FEMA Policy Changes Put Disability Community At Risk
FEMA deploys teams of Disability Integration Advisors to provide assistance to those with disabilities during federally declared natural disasters, such as hurricanes, wildfires and floods. ... But back in May, FEMA said it was reducing the number of DIAs per disaster from 60 to 5. (Rohrich, 10/12)

The Wall Street Journal: Hurricane Michael Forces Florida Hospitals To Shut Down
Hurricane Michael has forced five hospitals in Florida to close, and two more facilities in coastal Panama City were evacuating patents Thursday, reporting that the storm had damaged their roofs, buckled walls and shattered windows. Two more hospitals in the state said they planned to evacuate following the hurricane, which came ashore Wednesday, bringing to nine the number of Florida hospitals shut down by the storm. (Evans, 10/12)

Georgia Health News: Rural Hospitals Survive — And Shine — Amid The Devastation Of Michael
The two hospitals’ experiences show medical staffs at their best, reacting in a crisis situation to provide care to patients within damaged facilities. And the episodes reflect how important rural health care is to small communities when a disaster strikes. (Miller, 10/12)

Stat: The Fertility Business Is Growing, And So Is Investor Interest
The field of fertility medicine is booming right now. Women are waiting longer and longer to have children. Same-sex couples looking to start families are increasingly turning to in vitro fertilization. And investors are pouring money into startups pitching egg freezing and genetic testing and other services to young women. There are few observers more qualified to weigh in on this business than Dr. David Sable. Sable previously spent years as an IVF doctor and now he invests in biotech on Wall Street, as a portfolio manager for the firm Special Situations. (Robbins, Feuerstein and Garde, 10/12)

The Wall Street Journal: How Fathers Should Talk With Their Sons About Sex In The #MeToo Era
When Michael Kawula was 14 years old and dating his first girlfriend, his dad brought up the topic of sex for the first—and last—time: He rolled up a copy of a Playboy magazine and stuffed it in his son’s Christmas stocking. “That was the end of my sexual education from my dad,” says Mr. Kawula, a 45-year-old entrepreneur from Trinity, Fla. With his own son, now 16, Mr. Kawula says he tries to be much more open. Talking about sex with our boys “is a conversation that needs to be had,” he says, “even more so today than in the past.” (Bernstein, 10/13)

NPR: The Flu Nearly Killed Him. Now He Says 'Get The Vaccine'
Charlie Hinderliter wasn't opposed to the flu shot. He didn't have a problem with vaccinations. He was one of about 53 percent of Americans who just don't get one. "I figured [the flu] was something that's dangerous to the elderly and the young, not somebody who is healthy and in their 30s," says Hinderliter, who is 39 and the director of government affairs at the St. Louis Realtors association. "Turns out, I was wrong," he says. (Sable-Smith, 10/14)

The New York Times: How An Unlikely Family History Website Transformed Cold Case Investigations
On Halloween night in 1996, a man in a skeleton mask knocked on the door of a house in Martinez, Calif., handcuffed the woman who greeted him and raped her. Two weeks later, he called the dental office where she worked. Investigators tried to track him down through phone records, but got nowhere. They obtained traces of his semen, but there was no match for his DNA in any criminal database. (Murphy, 10/15)

The New York Times: Tiny Nanoparticles To Treat A Huge Problem: Snakebites
An Epi-Pen to treat a snakebite? It’s still a distant dream, but a Californian chemist and Costa Rican venom expert are reporting progress in a novel effort to make injectable nanoparticles that can neutralize snake venom and can be carried in backpacks. (McNeil, 10/12)

NPR: Shared Scooters May Be Fun, But Are Riders Safe?
Over the past year, companies have been rolling out electric scooters by the thousands in cities across the country — from Washington, D.C. to Milwaukee, to Lubbock, Texas. People download the app, find a nearby scooter and then just unlock and ride. But as these shared scooters have spread, so have concerns about safety. (Prichep, 10/15)

The Washington Post: Autism And The Risk Of Antidepressant Use During Pregnancy
Among the many things a woman is supposed to avoid when pregnant are antidepressants, particularly a subtype of the drugs that some studies have linked to an increased risk of autism and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Yet the evidence linking antidepressants to autism is thin. And untreated depression is dangerous for a mother and her child. (Wright, 10/14)

KCUR: Hitting The Open Road: Travel Nursing Catches On With Millennials 
A little noticed sub-niche of the healthcare industry, travel nursing seems to be catching on with millennials and younger baby boomers who, like the Crafts, want a change of scenery and a chance to make more money. It’s just another way the gig economy has become at least a partial solution to a workforce problem – in this case, the demand for nurses exceeding the supply.Travel nurses typically sign on with agencies that place them in short-term assignments. The usual posting is for 13 weeks, but employers can ask for a second stint if they still need the help. If that doesn’t happen, the nurse will start looking for a new assignment toward the end of the contract. (Hammill, 10/15)

The Washington Post: Why Do Women Suffer More Migraines Than Men?
Migraine can afflict men, women and children. But it is not an equal opportunity disorder. Of those who suffer chronic crippling migraine attacks, the vast majority are women. They are as many as85 percent, according to the Migraine Research Foundation. “A researcher once said that ‘the femaleness of migraine is inescapable,’ ” says Elizabeth Loder, associate professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School and chief of the division of headache and pain at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. “It’s true. Migraine disproportionately affects women.” (Cimons, 10/13)

The Washington Post: Eugenics Movement History Is Examined
What if you could engineer the perfect baby? Would you, if you could? A century ago, a group of American scientists and reformers thought it was possible — and desirable. Their perfect baby was white, able-bodied, Christian. And the cause they embraced, eugenics, was used to justify incarceration, sterilization and even murder. (Blakemore, 10/14)

Kaiser Health News: As U.S. Suicides Rates Rise, Hispanics Show Relative Immunity
The young man held the medication in his hand — and considered using it to end his life. But then he “put it down and said, ‘No. I need help,’” before heading to a Laredo, Texas, emergency room, said Kimberly Gallegos, who at the time earlier this year was a mobile crisis worker for a local mental health center. (Huff, 10/15)

Stat: Ebola Experts From CDC Were Pulled From Outbreak Zone Amid Security Concern
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was forced to withdraw its Ebola experts from an outbreak zone in the Democratic Republic of the Congo several weeks ago amid heightened security concerns, a decision that is fueling worry over the impact on efforts to contain the epidemic, according to U.S. officials and public health experts familiar with the matter. The Ebola experts — among the most experienced on the planet — and other U.S. government employees have been told by the State Department that they cannot travel to eastern DRC to help with the on-the-ground response. (Branswell, 10/14)

Boston Globe: Study: Veterinarians Struggle As They Balance The Needs Of Pets And Owners
The study, the first to investigate moral distress among veterinarians in North America, is being published by the Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine this month. The survey of 889 veterinarians found that those who responded reported widespread ethical conflict and moral distress, which might be “an important source of stress and poor well-being,” the study states. (Phillips, 10/15)

Columbus Dispatch: More Needs To Be Done To Support Aging LGBTQ Adults, Experts Say
Aging can be a challenge for any community. But the lives of LGBTQ seniors bring distinct pains. Advocates in Columbus and throughout the nation are training health-care and senior-service groups to better support LGBTQ seniors. (Stankiewicz, 10/14)

St. Louis Post Dispatch: Tests Taken By High School Students 58 Years Ago Could Predict Whether They Get Alzheimer's
Against the backdrop of the heated space race between the U.S. and the Soviet Union, the test of 440,000 students set out to identify the strengths and interests of the new generation to see if American teens were being guided into a career that would make the best use of their talents. Now, 58 years later, [Sanford] Kornberg is being tested again, part of a study focusing on memory and cognitive skills in an effort to help unlock the mysteries of Alzheimer’s disease, the most common form of dementia. (Moore, 10/15)

The New York Times: Should You Have Knee Replacement Surgery?
For the vast majority of patients with debilitating knee pain, joint replacement surgery is considered an “elective” procedure. While it’s true that one’s life doesn’t depend on it, what about quality of life? Many people hobbling about on painful knees would hardly regard the surgery as optional. Consider, for example, two people I know: a 56-year-old man passionate about tennis who can no longer run for a bus, let alone on the court, and a 67-year-old otherwise healthy woman with bone-on-bone arthritis who can’t walk without a cane or stand for more than a few minutes. (Brody, 10/15)

Kaiser Health News: Who Knew? Life Begins (Again) At 65
I was convinced I would become an adult when I turned 21. But now, I’m certain that turning 65 was the watershed moment that finally grew me up. I’m pleased as pomegranate punch to be 65 — and alive. Not just alive and breathing, but actively engaged in making the right choices about this next chapter. (Horovitz, 10/15)

The New York Times: Fathers And Sons, Reliving On Film The Pain Of Addiction
Nic Sheff was sitting next to his father, David, as he recounted one of the lowest moments in his life. It was the time when Nic, college-aged and living in his father’s home, observed his little brother, Jasper, and their younger sister, Daisy, fighting over a few missing dollars that Jasper accused Daisy of stealing from him. All along, Nic knew that he was the thief and that he’d robbed his brother to finance his own methamphetamine habit. Having recently watched this re-enacted in a movie, Nic, now 36 and eight years sober, struggled for a moment as he sought the right words to describe the disembodied way it made him feel. (Itzkoff, 10/12)

And in other news on the national drug crisis —

New Hampshire Public Radio: Harvard Pilgrim Starts Hosting Narcan Training For Businesses
Harvard Pilgrim is now offering Narcan trainings for businesses using their health insurance. Their first ever training was in Concord on Friday at Riverbend Community Mental Health. (Allee, 10/12)

The CT Mirror: In A State Of Great Wealth, All The Health Care Some Can Afford
Despite her current coverage, however, Grossman is one of tens of thousands of Connecticut residents whose access to health care is hanging by a thread, despite Connecticut’s tremendous wealth and strong embrace of the federal Affordable Care Act, health care advocates say. Among the challenges is that HUSKY, which covers more than 800,000 low-income state residents, could face steep cuts — either because of Connecticut’s continued struggles with huge budget deficits, or because Congressional leaders succeed in changing how Medicaid is funded. (Phaneuf, 10/15)

The Baltimore Sun: As Maryland Leaders Celebrate Lower Health Insurance Rates, They Don't Mention Rising Deductibles 
For weeks, Maryland leaders have been touting a bipartisan deal that will allow the state’s residents to pay lower premiums to buy health insurance — the first such rate reductions in years. The deal, made by Republican Gov. Larry Hogan, Maryland House of Delegates Speaker Michael Busch and Senate President Thomas V. “Mike” Miller, created a reinsurance program that uses taxpayer dollars to help insurers cover the costs of expensive health care claims — and led to a recently announced reduction of premiums of up to 17 percent. (Broadwater, 10/13)

Chicago Tribune: Frustrated With Health Insurance Costs, Some Turn To Religious Plans: 'For Us It's Been A Godsend' 
The Barazza family belongs to a health care sharing ministry, a religious nonprofit in which members pay for each other’s health care needs. Compared with traditional health insurance premiums, ministries’ monthly member costs are often much lower. But unlike traditional insurance, members must often commit to religious principles. The ministries generally won’t pay for services that don’t align with those principles, such as abortion and substance abuse treatment, and they often limit coverage of pre-existing conditions and prescriptions. (Schencker, 10/14)

San Francisco Chronicle: Suit Against Sutter Spawns Fight With Bay Area Hospitals Over Trade Secrets
In Silicon Valley, trade secrets are often thought of as a coveted technology or a patent for a lucrative device. But for hospitals, it is their confidential contracts with health insurance companies, which determine how they get paid, that they guard with their life. (Ho, 10/14)

New Hampshire Union Leader: Losing As Much As $10K Per Baby Born, Another NH Hospital No Longer Delivers 
It cost Lakes Region General Hospital $10,000 in staff and equipment for every healthy baby delivered in its labor ward. Well over half of the mothers who gave birth at the hospital were Medicaid recipients, and the federal program only reimbursed LRGH $5,000 for each delivery, hospital president Kevin Donovan said. And fewer babies are being born in the lakes region — in all of New Hampshire, compared to past years — with fewer obstetricians to deliver them. (Feathers, 10/14)

WBUR: Nurses Are Split On Staffing Ratio Ballot Question, WBUR Poll Finds
A WBUR poll of 500 registered nurses shows 48 percent plan to vote for the ballot question that would establish nurse-to-patient ratios in state law, and 45 percent say they'll vote against the measure. Seven percent are undecided. ...Why the split? Koczela says the answer is in the range of experiences among nurses in Massachusetts. (Bebinger, 10/15)

State House News Service: Mental Health Study Could Address ‘Structural Disaster,’ Joe Kennedy III Says
US Representative Joseph P. Kennedy III wants to put a dollar figure on the amount the United States spends as a result of limited access to mental and behavioral health services, a tally of incarceration and addiction-fighting costs he says will help make the case that the money would be better spent addressing the root issue of mental health. ... Kennedy said that 20 percent of Americans will battle with a mental or behavioral health issue in their lifetime and the National Alliance on Mental Health said serious mental illness costs Americans $193.2 billion in lost earnings each year. (Young, 10/13)

California Healthline: Children’s Hospitals Again Cry For Help From Voters, But Are They Really Hurting?
Back in 2004, California’s children’s hospitals asked voters to approve a $750 million bond measure to help fund construction and new medical equipment. In 2008, they asked for $980 million more. Now they’re hoping voters will agree on Nov. 6 to cough up an additional $1.5 billion. The state’s 13 children’s hospitals treat California’s sickest kids — including those with leukemia, sickle cell disease, rare cancers and cystic fibrosis — so approving their fund-raising requests is an easy “yes” for many voters. (Ibarra, 10/12)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: ProHealth Care's New Mukwonago Hospital Continues Growth Of Campus
ProHealth Care unveiled design plans Friday, Oct. 12, for a new $55 million hospital in Mukwonago that depict a three-story glass façade. The designs for the hospital will come before the village of Mukwonago Plan Commission at an upcoming meeting. (Kuhagen, 10/12)

The Times-Picayune: Program Offers Rides To Cancer Patients To, From Treatment
The ACS conducted a national survey of hospital social workers who reported that about 125,000 cancer patients require transportation services each year to keep up to date with their treatment appointments. To address the need, the organization launched the Road to Recovery Volunteer Program to recruit drivers able to provide rides to and from patients' cancer-related medical appointments. (Clark, 10/14)

Austin American-Statesman: Pension Checks Delayed For Hundreds Of Recently Retired Texas Teachers
One-third of recently retired Texas teachers were delayed in receiving their first pension checks after the state transitioned to a new pension processing system. In previous years, the Teacher Retirement System of Texas would have sent out almost all checks by Sept. 1 to teachers who had retired over the summer — about 20,000 annually. (Chang, 10/12)

Austin American-Statesman: Despite Legal Uncertainty, Sales Of Cannabis Extract Booming In Texas
Stores selling CBD – a nonpsychoactive component of marijuana and hemp – have been popping up statewide, almost as if Texas recently enacted a sweeping medical cannabis program. It hasn’t. The boom in retail sales of products containing CBD, or cannabidiol, has instead been taking place in a legal gray zone, with law enforcement agencies, prosecutors and some pro-cannabis activists disagreeing among themselves as to whether it is lawful in Texas. (Sechler, 10/12)

The New York Times: Is Medicare For All The Answer To Sky-High Administrative Costs?
Calls for a Medicare for All system are growing louder. Many Democrats have embraced it, while President Trump said last week that it would raise health care costs drastically. Democrats say that giving people the option to partake in Medicare — no matter their age — will actually cut costs. American administrative costs for health care are the highest in the world, and they argue that one advantage of Medicare for All is that it would save money because Medicare's administrative costs are below those of private insurers. Does that argument hold up? (Austin Frakt, 10/15)

The Washington Post: Medicare-For-All? Without Action, There Won’t Be Medicare At All
The recent debate between Democrats and Republicans on “Medicare-for-All” reveals just how fruitless our politics have become. Medicare-for-All is Senator Bernie Sanders’s idea, which many Democrats have adopted as their next big health-care idea. (Other Democrats embrace less expansive ideas, like a more limited Medicare buy-in plan or a public option on the exchanges.) The plan, the cost of which Sanders pegs at $1.3 trillion a year (another study puts it at over $3 trillion), projects covering millions of still-uninsured or underinsured Americans in a Medicare-like government program. (Carter Eskew, 10/12)

The Hill: When Does The 'Affordable' In The Affordable Care Act Kick In?
It’s a good thing Democrats made health insurance “affordable” when they passed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act in 2010. I’d hate to see how much health insurance would cost if it were expensive. The Kaiser Family Foundation just released its annual survey of employer-sponsored coverage, finding that the average premium for family coverage increased 5 percent to $19,616. (Merrill Matthews, 10/14)

The New York Times: Why I Wanted To Learn To Perform Abortions
It starts with steel. A speculum. A needle. A tenaculum to steady the cervix. A set of dilators. These were the instruments I used when I trained to perform abortions in the 1990s. There was also plastic and suction. The equipment was all so hard and sharp, and yet the procedure itself required a delicate touch. This was before ultrasound was commonly used, so a surgical abortion was often performed blindly. It took experience to recognize and understand the feel of steel and hard plastic on the cervix and the uterus. Not just because you couldn’t see, but also because the tissue changes week by week as the uterus enlarges and the muscle thins. (Jen Gunter, 10/14)

Boston Globe: The Secret To Inclusive Societies: Women’s Reproductive Freedom
While media representation, civic education, and socioeconomic status are rightfully acknowledged as critical elements to public leadership, a girl’s long-term political potential and the socio-economic reality for her, her family, and crucially, her community as a whole, are contingent on two things: her health and reproductive rights. (Alaa Murabit, 10/11)

USA Today: Food Stamps Shouldn't Help Farmers Line Their Pockets With A Farm Bill
We’re going to say it out loud: It’s time for the farm bill and SNAP to get divorced. The 2018 farm bill debate underlines how the once-productive partnership between nutrition advocates and farm subsidy proponents has turned into a legislatively miserable relationship. There is a path forward to cost-effective, transparent federal safety nets that meet the needs of food insecure households, farm businesses, and taxpayers. Remove nutrition programs from the agriculture committees and the farm subsidy special interests they serve. (Ryan Alexander, 10/14)

The Hill: Bourdain's CNN Special — Death By Suicide Is A Serious Public Health Issue
Today, CNN is paying tribute to Anthony Bourdain with a special episode of the late chef's hit Parts Unknown. When news of the death by suicide of Bourdain, the chef, author and television host were revealed, food fans around the globe, international celebrities and even President Barack Obama, mourned his loss. It also seemed like many people who didn’t read Bourdain’s books or watch his show were drawn to candlelight vigils for him or those of other celebrities who die by similar means. Those people aren’t particularly fans or truly care about Bourdain. But their mood is lifted, by the camaraderie and support they find in this collective expression of grief. (Jim Coyne and Joan Cook, 10/14)

USA Today: Mental Health: My Family's Mental Illness Fight, Hope
Rock bottom, looking back, came 11 days after the Green Bay Packers lost to the Seattle Seahawks in the NFC championship game. My life, along with my family’s fabric, had slowly unraveled for months, spiraling into the abyss of mental illness. We had every reason to be happy in the fall of 2014. I was in my first season on the Packers beat, a dream job. My wife, Kelly, and I had three healthy, amazing boys. Each day was vibrant. (Ryan Wood, 10/13)

The Wall Street Journal: Technology For Older People Doesn’t Have To Be Ugly
Technologies aimed at keeping older people healthy have long combined cumbersome form and infantilizing function. Way back in 1947, you could strap on a wearable heart-rate detector and go for a stroll. (At 85 pounds, it was “wearable” only on your back, and not for long.) In 1975 the American International Telephone Corp. began selling necklace-style alert systems that could summon an ambulance in an emergency. By 2009 you could buy a wearable device to detect if you’d taken a fall in your home. (Joseph F. Coughlin and Luke Yoquinto, 10/14)

Los Angeles Times: First, Dementia Stole My Mother's Smile. Now It's Turning Our Lifelong Conversation Into Silence
There are millions of people living with all kinds of dementia. Millions. I assume each case is as different as the sufferer. I know my mom’s version, but only as a deeply biased observer. She and I have now spent five years negotiating the deterioration of her mind, and yet the conversation we began before my birth continues. My mom and I were never shoppers. We didn't bowl or work out or cook together. Our thing was always talking, on the phone or on the couch, sharing an afghan. We talked when I was growing up; we talked after I left home and when I went back to visit. (Amy Koss, 10/14)

The Washington Post: Menopause Body Changes Have Sent My Pencil Skirts To The Donate Pile
Remember when you went through puberty? How your body changed rapidly in new and astonishing ways? Maybe you thought, “Wow! This is kind of weird. But I’m becoming an adult.” It was sometimes disorienting, but often exciting. Soon you’d be driving and voting and having sex and (legally) drinking. Pretty great, right? I’m 51 and I’m learning that menopause is a lot like puberty. But instead of unveiling the mysteries of adulthood, it often feels as if it’s pushing me toward the encroaching grave, reminding me that I have fewer days in front of me than behind me and, for good measure, that my skirts that once fit perfectly must now be consigned to the “donate” pile. (O, hips! Why have you betrayed me so?) (Litsa Dremousis, 10/13)

The Coloradoan: It's Time For Equal Mental Health Care Coverage
A teenager trapped by depression. A daughter addicted to heroin. A son lost to suicide. More than a million Coloradans face a mental health or substance use disorder, but only half get the care they need. The consequences can be catastrophic: crowded emergency rooms and prison cells, increased unemployment and homelessness, and one of the highest suicide rates in the nation. This crisis is not simply statistical — it’s profoundly personal. (Andrew Romanoff, 10/12)

The Baltimore Sun: Governor Hogan Says We've Tried Everything To Stem Overdoses. Fortunately, That's Not Quite True.
When we asked Gov. Larry Hogan about opioids in a recent editorial board interview, he took less evident satisfaction in discussing his record than he did when we asked about education, the environment, health care or most anything else. It’s not that he’s ignored the issue — far from it. He has, in his words, “tried everything.” Maryland has devoted more resources to combating opioid abuse (if not nearly as much as advocates say is necessary). It has expanded the availability of the anti-overdose drug Narcan and persuaded the federal government to let Medicaid cover some residential drug treatment. It has taken steps to prevent the abuse of prescription painkillers, and it has established a system for coordinating the response to the epidemic across the state. And still 2,282 people died of overdose deaths in Maryland last year, the vast majority from opioids and increasingly because of the spread of the highly potent synthetic drug fentanyl. “We’ve done more than anyone else has ever done, but we still haven’t solved the problem,” Mr. Hogan said. (10/12)

Dallas Morning News: Our Culture Teaches Girls Not To Talk And Boys Not To Feel
I disagree with academic feminism a lot — with those vague oppressor stories about the patriarchy, with the strange unwillingness to admit inherited-gender differences and with the tone of faculty lounge militancy. But academic feminism is right about the big thing. The big thing is that for thousands of years, social thinking has been dominated by men — usually alpha men — who saw life as a place where warriors and traders went out and competed for wealth and power. These male writers were largely blind to the systems of care that undergirded everything else. (David Brooks, 10/15)

Los Angeles Times: Hundreds Of Workers Have Lead Poisoning. Why Hasn't Cal/OSHA Stepped In?
Lead poisoning is most often discussed as a hazard to children. But adults exposed to the neurotoxin suffer serious and humiliating consequences. As one man who’d worked at a battery recycling plant in Los Angeles told me, “Lead acts like a wrecking ball on the body.” He recounted chronic tremors, mood swings, weakness and sexual dysfunction. The dangers spread beyond the factory gates, too. Workers track lead dust home where it can wreak further havoc on their families. (Joe Rubin, 10/14)

Columbus Dispatch: Hospital Ready To Change Odds For Kids
A 1 in 5 chance of winning the lottery would be a good thing, but there’s nothing good about 1 in 5 children dealing with mental-health problems. Making the problem worse is that children dealing with anxiety or depression may not know how to express what they’re feeling, and parents and other adults in their lives may not know how to recognize signs that they need help. (10/14)

Sacramento Bee: How California’s New Pot Regulations Put Kids At Risk
Two years ago, Californians voted overwhelmingly to decriminalize and regulate cannabis through Proposition 64. As a physician and one of the co-authors of the measure, it is critical to me to ensure that the new, legal system includes safeguards for our children, including the toughest child-resistant packaging requirements in the nation. (Donald Lyman, 10/12)