First Edition: February 19, 2019

Kaiser Health News: For 2020 Dem Hopefuls, ‘Medicare-For-All’ Is A Defining Issue, However They Define It
Democrats with 2020 presidential aspirations are courting the party’s increasingly influential progressive wing and staking out ambitious policy platforms. Front and center are three words: Medicare. For. All. That simple phrase is loaded with political baggage, and often accompanied by vague promises and complex jargon. Different candidates use it to target different voter blocs, leading to sometimes divergent, even contradictory ideas. (Luthra, 2/19)

Kaiser Health News: The High Cost Of Sex: Insurers Often Don’t Pay For Drugs To Treat Problems
For some older people, the joy of sex may be tempered by financial concerns: Can they afford the medications they need to improve their experience between the sheets? Medicare and many private insurers don’t cover drugs that are prescribed to treat problems people have engaging in sex. Recent developments, including the approval of generic versions of popular drugs Viagra and Cialis, help consumers afford the treatments. Still, for many people, paying for pricey medications may be their only option. (Andrews, 2/19)

The Washington Post: At Least 20 Abortion Cases Are In The Pipeline To The Supreme Court. Any One Could Gut Roe V. Wade. 
The Supreme Court’s 5-to-4 vote this month to block a restrictive Louisiana abortion law from taking effect provided some measure of consolation to reproductive rights advocates who feared the court’s new conservative majority would act immediately to restrict access to the procedure. But that relief is likely to be short lived. In the pipeline are at least 20 lawsuits, in various stages of judicial review, that have the potential to be decided in ways that could significantly change the rights laid out in the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling, and refined almost two decades later in Planned Parenthood v. Casey. The 1992 decision said a state may place restrictions on abortion as long as it does not create an “undue burden” on a woman’s right to abortion. (Cha, 2/15)

The New York Times: Embryo ‘Adoption’ Is Growing, But It’s Getting Tangled In The Abortion Debate
As evangelical Christians, Paul and Susan Lim believe that life begins at conception. So when they decided to have a third child, in vitro fertilization was out of the question, since the process often yields extra embryos. But “adopting” the frozen embryos of another couple who had gone through I.V.F. was not. Dr. Lim called it a “rescue operation.” To him, transferring donated embryos to his wife’s uterus was akin to saving a life. “These children are being abandoned in a frozen state,” he said. “If they don’t get adopted, they’re dead.” (Lester, 2/17)

The New York Times: States Flout Abortion Coverage Requirements, Federal Investigators Say
Federal health officials are not enforcing requirements for Medicaid coverage of abortion in the limited circumstances where it is legal, congressional investigators have found. At least 13 states are flouting a requirement to cover abortion-inducing pills, and one state, South Dakota, has for 25 years failed to provide the required coverage for abortion in cases of rape or incest, the Government Accountability Office, a nonpartisan investigative arm of Congress, said in a report made public this month. (Pear, 2/17)

The Associated Press: Illinois Democrats Propose Expanded Abortion Access
Illinois Democrats have introduced two measures that would expand abortion access in the state by removing a parental notification requirement and a ban on late-term abortions. The proposed legislation was filed Wednesday, The Chicago Tribune reported. One bill sponsored by Democratic Rep. Emanuel Welch of Hillside would repeal the state's parental notice law, which requires minors to notify a legal guardian before having an abortion. (2/15)

The Associated Press: Iowa Governor Opts Not To Appeal Fetal Heartbeat Law Ruling
Iowa's governor said Monday she decided against appealing a judge's ruling last month that struck down Iowa's "fetal heartbeat" abortion law, which would have been the most restrictive anti-abortion law in the nation. Gov. Kim Reynolds called it an extremely difficult decision but the right one for the state. (Pitt, 2/18)

The Washington Post: Democrats Call On Trump Administration To Delay Title X Family Planning Rule, Citing ‘Serious Concerns’
Democratic members of Congress are asking the Trump administration to slow down efforts to overhaul the $260 million family planning program, citing issues with what they call an “unconventional and nontransparent” review process. The proposed changes to the Title X program, which were announced last May, are a top priority of conservatives who helped elect the president. They would bar clinics that provide abortion services or referrals from receiving federal family-planning funds. A wide range of critics — from medical groups to abortion rights activists — have decried the effort as an attack on Planned Parenthood, which stands to lose millions of dollars a year if the changes go into effect. (Cha, 2/15)

The Associated Press: Lawsuit Claims Discrimination By Foster Agency
A Catholic mother accuses a federally funded South Carolina foster agency of not working with her because she's "not the right kind of Christian," her lawyers say. In a federal lawsuit filed Friday, Aimee Maddonna and her lawyers say Miracle Hill Ministries is unconstitutionally discriminating against non-Protestants. The lawsuit challenges a waiver granted this year to the Greenville agency, which previously has come under fire for denying services to same-sex couples and non-Christian families. (Kinnard, 2/15)

The Hill: Congress Allows Violence Against Women Act To Lapse
The Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), which provides funding and grants for a variety of programs that tackle domestic abuse, lapsed at the end of Friday after Congress failed to pass an extension before leaving for its one-week recess. Lawmakers squabbled over whether a clean extension of the landmark legislation, which was first signed into law in 1994, should be wrapped into a massive must-pass government funding deal that was signed by President Trump on Friday. (Brufke, 2/16)

The Wall Street Journal: Voter Initiatives, Including Medicaid Expansion, Could Get Harder To Pass
Some Republican lawmakers are moving to curtail future state voter initiatives, posing a possible obstacle to supporters of Medicaid expansion, who are already locked in a bitter fight to preserve initiatives passed in the November midterm elections. Lawmakers in Florida and Missouri are weighing legislation to make ballot initiatives more challenging by charging fees, mandating more petition signatures or requiring more votes for passage. Both states are likely to be targeted by organizers for Medicaid-expansion petition drives in 2020 because they are among states that haven’t broadened the program but allow for voter-led ballot initiatives. (Armour, 2/17)

NPR: Medicaid In Arkansas Has Lost Thousands Of People From Its Rolls
Grisel Sustache Flores takes a seat at a health clinic in Springdale, Ark., for low-income patients. The 46-year old Puerto Rico native says she learned last fall that she qualified for Medicaid, which Arkansas expanded under the Affordable Care Act to cover more adults. It would cost her only $13 a month, so Flores, who suffers from multiple sclerosis, eagerly signed up. "My doctors in Puerto Rico say my condition is very difficult," Flores says through an interpreter at the Community Clinic facility. "Every day, it gets harder and harder." (Froelich, 2/18)

The Wall Street Journal: South Dakota Senator Moves For Evaluation Of Indian Health Service
Sen. Mike Rounds, a South Dakota Republican, introduced legislation Thursday calling for a broad assessment of the U.S. Indian Health Service, following an investigation of the agency by The Wall Street Journal and the PBS series Frontline. The bill calls for a sweeping evaluation of the agency’s performance, including its long-term vacancies, how it allocates money to its more than two dozen hospitals and the competency of the agency’s leadership. The Journal/Frontline investigation revealed the Indian Health Service mishandled allegations of sexual assault by a pediatrician it employed for decades and routinely hired physicians with troubled backgrounds to fill slots at its remote hospitals on Native American reservations. (Weaver and Frosch, 2/15)

Texas Tribune: Adult Migrant From Mexico Dies In Border Patrol Custody
An adult migrant has died after being taken into U.S. Border Patrol custody this month in Texas’ Rio Grande Valley. The 45-year-old undocumented immigrant from Mexico died Monday morning after being diagnosed with congestive heart failure and cirrhosis of the liver. The immigrant's death was first reported by USA Today. According to a U.S. Customs and Border Protection news release, the immigrant was encountered by the police department in Roma, Texas, a small border community between Laredo and Mission, on Feb. 2. The person, who wasn’t identified, then requested medical attention. (Aguilar, 2/18)

USA Today: Third Migrant Dies In Border Patrol Custody In As Many Months
The immigrant illegally crossed the border and was arrested by the Roma (Texas) Police Department on Feb. 2, requested medical attention and was taken to a local hospital, according to a statement released Monday night by Customs and Border Protection. The immigrant "was cleared" by officials at the Mission Regional Medical Center and was handed over to Border Patrol officials at the Rio Grande City Border Patrol Station, according to the CBP statement. The following day, after receiving a welfare check by CBP officials, the immigrant again requested medical attention and was taken to the McAllen Medical Center, where the immigrant was diagnosed with cirrhosis of the liver and congestive heart failure, CBP said. The immigrant remained at the hospital before dying on Monday morning. (Gomez, 2/18)

The New York Times: Another Migrant With An Illness Has Died In Border Patrol Custody
The death came less than two months after 7-year-old Jakelin Caal Maquin and 8-year-old Felipe Gomez Alonzo also died in the agency’s custody, in December, amid three straight months of record-breaking numbers of migrant families entering the country. Both had shown symptoms of illness after they were taken into custody along the Southwest border, and their deaths prompted widespread condemnation from members of Congress and the public. The agency soon after announced new medical checks for children, and a temporary infusion of support from other federal agencies, including the Coast Guard and the United States Public Health Service. (Dickerson, 2/18)

ProPublica: The VA Is Paying for a Top Official’s Cross-Country Commute
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs paid $13,000 over a three-month period for a senior official’s biweekly commute to Washington from his home in California, according to expense reports obtained by ProPublica. The official, Darin Selnick, is a senior adviser to VA Secretary Robert Wilkie and has played a key role in developing the administration’s controversial new rules on referring veterans to private doctors. The proposal, announced last month, has drawn opposition from some lawmakers and veterans groups. (Arnsdorf, 2/15)

The Associated Press: Judge Halts Air Force's Efforts To Discharge Airmen With HIV
A federal judge on Friday ordered the U.S. Air Force to temporarily stop discharging service members who are HIV-positive, ruling that it's working under a policy that is "irrational" and "outdated." U.S. District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema in Alexandria, Virginia, issued her decision as a lawsuit moves forward against the U.S. Military. (2/15)

The New York Times: As Measles Outbreak Flares, Vaccination Rates Soar And Some Come Off The Fence
The one-day immunization clinic at David Douglas High School in Portland, Ore., was hectic on Saturday, with a wait of 45 minutes to over an hour just to see a nurse. But Cameron Wagner said that after balking this long at getting her 4-year-old son vaccinated, out of concerns about potential side effects, a few more minutes would not matter. “I’ve talked to more doctors and have weighed the options, and decided to come in and get a shot,” said Ms. Wagner, 46, a massage therapist. (Johnson, 2/16)

Reuters: Explainer: Low Vaccination Rates, Global Outbreaks Fuel U.S. Measles Spread
A measles outbreak that has stricken at least 225 people in New York state since October began with a traveler who visited Israel during the Jewish high holidays and returned to a predominantly ultra-Orthodox Jewish neighborhood of Rockland County. A similar pattern unfolded three months later and nearly 3,000 miles away when a person who visited Eastern Europe returned to a community with strong ties to a local church group in Vancouver, Washington. More than 50 people fell ill there. (2/15)

CNN: Vaccine U-Turn: Measles Surges As Campaigners Ride Populist Wave Of Distrust In Government
More than a century before Facebook, anti-vaccination campaigners had another method for spreading their message -- an eye-catching march through town with tiny children's coffins emblazoned with the words: "Another victim of vaccination." The year was 1885, and smallpox vaccinations were compulsory in the UK -- reportedly inciting 100,000 people to demonstrate in the city of Leicester, England, one sunny March day. Fast-forward to 2019 and the anti-vaccination campaign is a global, multi-faced beast -- spurred by safety concerns, religious and political beliefs, preferences for homeopathic approaches and widespread misinformation. (McKenzie and Fox, 2/18)

CNN: Officials Hope To Change Minds Amid 'Exquisitely Contagious' Measles Outbreak
Officials in Clark County, Washington, publish a list every day of where people infected with measles have been. Among them: busy spots like Concourse D at Oregon's Portland International Airport on January 7 and the sold-out Portland Trail Blazers' home game four days later. There's also a Costco, a Trader Joe's, numerous schools, day-care centers and churches, a swimming pool and even a trampoline park. "It is exquisitely contagious," said Dr. Alan Melnick, director of the county health department. "You can be in a room where somebody with measles had left two hours earlier and still get the disease." (Watt, 2/13)

The Hill: Washington State House Committee Passes Bill To Ban Personal, Philosophical Vaccine Exemptions 
A Washington state House committee on Friday passed a bill to ban the personal or philosophical exemption for the vaccine against measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) for school-age children amid an outbreak of the virus. The bill passed through the state's Health Care and Wellness Committee, despite opposition from critics who say parents should have a right to choose whether to vaccinate their children, The Seattle Times reported. (Gstalter, 2/16)

Stat: Vaccines Don't Work Against Some Viruses. CRISPR Might Fix That 
Despite decades of trying, there are still no vaccines against viruses that kill tens of millions of people and cause untold suffering every year: HIV, respiratory syncytial virus, influenza, and the cancer-causing Epstein-Barr virus. There are many reasons why, including how hard it is to identify the exact piece of an antigen that will trigger production of an effective antibody. And even when vaccines exist, they fail when B cells don’t rearrange their DNA segments in a way necessary to manufacture the needed antibodies. (Begley, 2/19)

The New York Times: A Mother Learns The Identity Of Her Child’s Grandmother. A Sperm Bank Threatens To Sue.
Danielle Teuscher decided to give DNA tests as presents last Christmas to her father, close friends and 5-year-old daughter, joining the growing number of people taking advantage of low-cost, accessible genetic testing. But the 23andMe test produced an unexpected result. Ms. Teuscher, 30, a nanny in Portland, Ore., said she unintentionally discovered the identity of the sperm donor she had used to conceive her young child. The mother of the donor was identified on her daughter’s test results as her grandmother. Excited and curious, Ms. Teuscher decided to reach out. (Mroz, 2/16)

NPR: Understanding Pregnancy Basics Could Make Childbirth Safer
Brittney Crystal was just over 25 weeks pregnant when her water broke. It was her second pregnancy — the first had been rough, and the baby came early. To try to avoid a second premature birth, Dr. Joy-Sarah Vink, an obstetrician and co-director of the Preterm Birth Prevention Center at Columbia University Medical Center, arranged for Crystal to be transported by ambulance from her local Connecticut hospital to New York City, where Vink could direct her care. (Kodjak, 2/18)

The Wall Street Journal: The Link Between Menopause And Alzheimer’s
Women make up nearly two-thirds of patients with Alzheimer’s disease in the U.S., in part because they live longer than men. Now, researchers are exploring whether hormonal changes related to menopause affect the development of the disease. “The truth is that Alzheimer’s is not a disease of old age, it’s a disease of middle age,” says Lisa Mosconi, director of the Weill Cornell Women’s Brain Initiative in New York City, a research program aimed at reducing Alzheimer’s risk. “In reality, the brain changes start in mid-life.” (Reddy, 2/18)

The Wall Street Journal: ‘I Had No Idea I Was Having A Heart Attack’: For Women, The Signals Often Aren’t Clear
On a sunny day in Bellevue, Wash., in June 2011, I had just completed a workout class when I experienced a bizarre sensation of intense, full-body muscle fatigue. I broke into a bone-chilling sweat. My upper left arm throbbed, a deep ache next to the bone. I was heaving for air at a rapid clip. I grew nauseated. A fist was pressing through my chest to my spine. I was 56 years old, an exercise enthusiast, a nonsmoker and a retired cardiac-care nurse. And yet I had no idea that I was having a heart attack. It felt nothing like I’d imagined. It turns out that it’s hard to recognize a heart attack as it happens. (Oliveira, 2/18)

NPR: At New York Fashion Week, Metastatic Breast Cancer Patients Walk The Runway
On a cold, bright Sunday afternoon during New York Fashion Week, nearly six hundred people packed into an old building in Manhattan's Lower East Side for an unusual lingerie show. The audience shouted exuberantly when the first model stepped onto the runway. Jaleh Panahi, of Kingston, New York, is a 73-year old practicing physician, mother and grandmother who's had metastatic breast cancer for eight years. (Schattner, 2/17)

The Washington Post: Mental Health App Guide Offers Reviews And Information
If you’re struggling with anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder or depression, an app might help. But should you invest in a therapy app or one that only tracks symptoms? Which apps are credible, and which ones are scams — or even harmful? (Blakemore, 2/17)

The New York Times: Dialysis Is A Way Of Life For Many Older Patients. Maybe It Shouldn’t Be.
John Everdell had lived most of his life with kidney disease. As a young man awaiting a transplant, he had briefly undergone dialysis. That’s how he knew, when the prospect of kidney failure loomed again in his late 60s, that he would refuse dialysis this round. “He was a very independent man, with an idea of how he was going to live his life,” said Trix Oakley, his partner of 22 years. (Span, 2/15)

The New York Times: ‘It Is Not A Closet. It Is A Cage.’ Gay Catholic Priests Speak Out
Gregory Greiten was 17 years old when the priests organized the game. It was 1982 and he was on a retreat with his classmates from St. Lawrence, a Roman Catholic seminary for teenage boys training to become priests. Leaders asked each boy to rank which he would rather be: burned over 90 percent of his body, paraplegic or gay. Each chose to be scorched or paralyzed. Not one uttered the word “gay.” They called the game the Game of Life. The lesson stuck. Seven years later, he climbed up into his seminary dorm window and dangled one leg over the edge. “I really am gay,” Father Greiten, now a priest near Milwaukee, remembered telling himself for the first time. “It was like a death sentence.” (Dias, 2/17)

USA Today: Spanking Kids Harms Mental Health, Says American Psychological Association
The American Psychological Association joined a growing list of health organizations calling for a ban to spanking because it can cause short- and long-term harm to children. The association has long warned physical discipline can be harmful to kids' mental health. It made its position official Feb. 15 with a policy change. (Haller, 2/18)

Los Angeles Times: Why American Voters Were Primed For A President Who Talks Like Trump
When in the grips of oratorical passion, President Obama liked to paraphrase the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. about the “long arc of history” bending toward justice. But when it comes to the oratory of American politicians, history’s long arc is bending away from such lofty rhetorical flourishes. New research finds that the punch-and-jab style of President Trump’s public speech — pugnaciously declarative, larded with personal pronouns, and light on the kinds of phrases that soften a claim or elevate an idea — appears to be just where presidential discourse is headed. (Healy, 2/15)

The Washington Post: New Ebola Treatments Are Being Tested In Congo Outbreak Area
Amid the second-largest Ebola outbreak ever, the hunt for a lifesaving treatment is on. A clinical trial of patients taking place in Congo is gathering evidence on experimental therapies, to provide a proven option when the deadly virus inevitably emerges again. The first multidrug clinical trial of Ebola therapies, which began enrolling patients in November, will compare the effectiveness of three antibody treatments and one antiviral drug. One therapy tested briefly during the 2014-2016 outbreak in West Africa, the largest ever, has already shown promise. (Cunningham, 2/17)

The New York Times: Kaiser Permanente’s New Medical School Will Waive Tuition For Its First 5 Classes
Kaiser Permanente, the California-based health system that is preparing to open one of the few American medical schools not connected to a university, was set to announce Tuesday that it would waive tuition for every student in its first five graduating classes. Kaiser Permanente, which has its own hospitals, clinics, doctors and insurance plan, is following the New York University School of Medicine, which announced last year that it would eliminate tuition for all current and future students. Like N.Y.U., Kaiser’s main goal is to keep students from forgoing lower-paying specialties like family medicine because of crushing debt, or foreclosing the option of medical school altogether because of the cost. (Goodnough, 2/19)

The Associated Press: 9/11 Fund Running Out Of Money For Those With Illnesses
The compensation fund for victims of 9/11 is running out of money and will cut future payments by 50 to 70 percent, officials announced Friday. September 11th Victim Compensation Fund special master Rupa Bhattacharyya said she was "painfully aware of the inequity of the situation" but stressed that awarding some funds for every valid claim would be preferable to sending some legitimate claimants away empty-handed. "I could not abide a plan that would at the end of the day leave some claimants uncompensated," Bhattacharyya said. (2/15)

The Washington Post: Medical Marijuana And Opioids: Maryland Weighs Whether Cannabis Can Help Treat Addiction
Using medical marijuana to help cure opioid addiction may seem counterintuitive. But a growing number of physicians and patient advocates say marijuana should be added to the list of traditional treatment options, pointing to studies that show it helps reduce opioid cravings and withdrawal symptoms. A bill being considered by lawmakers in Maryland would make it the fourth state to explicitly legalize the use of marijuana to treat opioid-abuse disorder, following Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey. (Chason, 2/15)

The Associated Press: Officials: Ohio Has A Hepatitis A Outbreak, But It's Not New
The Ohio Department of Health says reports that wrongly imply a newly declared outbreak of hepatitis A are circulating around the state, apparently prompted by a recent case involving a restaurant worker. A statewide outbreak of hepatitis A was declared last summer. Department spokesman J.C. Benton said Monday that outbreak is ongoing, but no further outbreak has been announced and there's no new cause for concern. (2/18)

Los Angeles Times: California Attorney General Wants Oversight In Hospital Sale To Santa Clara County
California Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra is asking a federal district judge in Los Angeles to place a hold on the sale of two struggling hospitals to Santa Clara County, a request the county says could scuttle the purchase. Becerra’s action is the latest skirmish in a years-long effort by the state to maintain oversight of six financially beleaguered not-for-profit hospitals. The hospitals, located in both Northern and Southern California, are now in bankruptcy. (Dolan, 2/18)

The Washington Post: For These Four, Having A Beer Is A Crime — And They’ve Gone To Court To Challenge That
Police arrested Ryan Williams for sleeping in a park bathroom in Roanoke where an empty beer was found in the trash. Bryan Manning was picked up in the same city for smelling like alcohol and later for being at a Walmart where alcohol was sold. Richard Deckerhoff and Richard Eugene Walls were arrested near Richmond for being near beer cans. In the past decade, each man has been prosecuted in Virginia at least 11 times under a state law that makes it a crime for people designated in court as “habitual” drunks to consume or have alcohol. (Marimow, 2/18)

Los Angeles Times: Family Of Mentally Ill Anaheim Man Say Police Choked And Beat Him During Fatal 2018 Arrest
The family of a mentally ill Anaheim man who died in police custody last year has accused the arresting officers of choking him and failing to render medical aid after the violent clash, according to a federal lawsuit. Justin Perkins, 38, was beaten with batons and choked by two Anaheim officers at an apartment complex around 8:30 a.m. on Oct. 27, the lawsuit alleges. Perkins collapsed after the altercation, and the suit accuses the officers — identified as Shao Wang and Kenny Lee — of failing to get him medical aid for nearly 45 minutes. (Queally, 2/18)