The Associated Press: Health Care Comes In Focus, This Time As Risk For Democrats
With health care at the center of presidential politics, Democrats are split over eliminating employer-provided health insurance under "Medicare for All." The risk is that history has shown voters are wary of disruptions to job-based insurance, the mainstay of coverage for Americans over three generations. Divisions were on display in the two Democratic debates this week, with Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren calling for a complete switch to government-run health insurance for all. (Alonso-Zaldivar, 8/1)

The Hill: Schumer Warns Democrats Against 'Circular Firing Squad' On Health Care 
Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Thursday warned Democratic presidential candidates not to become so focused on the internal differences over health care that they lose sight of fighting against President Trump. ..."If we get all focused on the differences between, say Bernie [Sanders] and Cory [Booker] and Mayor Pete [Buttigieg] and [John] Hickenlooper, we'll lose sight of the fact that it's Donald Trump who's now trying to reduce health care, destroy health care, get rid of it for everybody," Schumer said. (Weixel, 8/1)

Politico: Warren Has Lots Of Plans. But Not On Health Care.
Elizabeth Warren boasts she has a plan for everything, but there’s one glaring omission: health care. Warren, who has recently leaped into the top tier of a crowded primary field as she rolled out detailed policies for seemingly everything — from climate change to the opioid crisis to breaking up tech giants — has instead embraced “Medicare for All” legislation from Sen. Bernie Sanders, her foremost progressive rival. And for many single-payer activists thrilled the once-fringe issue has entered the party’s mainstream, that’s good enough. (Ollstein, 8/2)

The Washington Post: Democrats' Failure To Talk About Drug Prices Was 'A Missed Opportunity'
The soaring cost of prescription drugs is among voters’ greatest concerns, but the issue drew little attention from the Democratic candidates during this week’s presidential debates. The low wattage trained on the issue during nearly six hours of debate Tuesday and Wednesday contrasts with the attention President Trump and his top aides are showering on the issue. That partisan gap poses risks for Democrats who might forfeit the advantage they have long held when voters are asked which party they trust to fix health-care problems, according to health policy analysts and pollsters. (Goldstein, 8/1)

Vox: The Democratic Debates Mostly Ignored The Opioid Epidemic
We’ve now had four nights of Democratic debates — and in all that time, we’ve learned next to nothing about what any of the candidates want to do about America’s opioid epidemic, one of the worst public health crises facing the country. Throughout the debates, the opioid epidemic was only mentioned in asides, used as a vehicle to make a broader point rather than an issue unto itself. Joe Biden and Beto O’Rourke brought up opioids to criticize the health care industry. Cory Booker brought them up to blast incarcerating people who use drugs. Andrew Yang did so to vaguely talk about how the economy is sending people into despair. No one explained how they plan to fight the crisis head on. (Lopez, 8/1)

The Washington Post: Black Voters Hear Little In Debate To Excite Them
Some who watched said they were disappointed that in a debate held in Detroit, which is 79 percent black, there was only a passing discussion of the social and economic disparities between blacks and whites that have increased as the region recovers from the automotive industry crisis. And in Flint, which grabbed headlines five years ago when it was discovered that local officials had made decisions that resulted in lead and other toxins contaminating the water supply, those attending watch parties were disappointed that some candidates said nothing about their ongoing challenge to get safe drinking water. (Williams, 8/1)

Kaiser Health News: KHN’s ‘What The Health?’: Deciphering The Democrats’ Health Debate
Twenty Democratic candidates for president debated health care at length over two nights in Detroit this week. But countless 30-second charges and countercharges from “Medicare for All” backers and those who want a more gradual approach to universal coverage may have left the audience more confused than ever about the best way to make the health system better and more affordable. (8/1)

The New York Times: Trump Treats Rally In Cincinnati As Rebuttal To Democratic Debates
After imbibing days of wall-to-wall news coverage of the 2020 Democratic debates, President Trump seemed to feel a little left out. “The Democrats spent more time attacking Barack Obama than they did attacking me, practically,” he marveled. ... Delivering a reliably red-meat, 80-minute speech, Mr. Trump singled out former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and he seized on some of the more liberal proposals advanced by Democrats, including eliminating private health insurance in favor of a government-run system and providing health care coverage even to illegal immigrants. (Baker and Rogers, 8/1)

The Associated Press: At Rally, Trump Laces Into Democrats But Avoids Race
He mocked some of the leading Democratic contenders, reviving his nickname of “Sleepy” for Joe Biden, teasing Elizabeth Warren for claiming some Native American heritage and lashing the Democrats for their health care and immigration proposals. “The Democrats have never been so far outside the mainstream,” Trump claimed. (Lemire and Sewell, 8/1)

The New York Times: Republicans Watch Fractious Democratic Debates And Like What They See
After two nights of debates between 20 presidential hopefuls that exposed a wide rift between the Democratic Party’s progressive and centrist wings, President Trump’s allies and Republican strategists said Thursday that they had gotten largely what they wanted: Five hours of a nationally televised clash where Democrats themselves questioned the practicality of prominent liberal wish-list items. ... “What the moderates were doing was pointing out that a large group of the Democrats running are simply out of sync with mainstream swing voters,” said Karl Rove, the former top political adviser to President George W. Bush’s two winning presidential campaigns. “The idea they’re going to provide illegal immigrants free health care, that’s not going to go down in union households in Michigan.” (Peters and Karni, 8/1)

The Associated Press: Canadians Worried By Plan To Let Americans Import Drugs
A Trump administration plan to let Americans legally import cheaper prescription drugs from Canada is causing concern among Canadians who that fear it could cause shortages of some medications — as well as surprise by officials who say they weren't consulted about a possible influx of U.S. drug-buyers. The plan is a "clear and present danger" to the health and well-being of Canadians who need prescription medications, said John Adams, the volunteer chairman of the Best Medicines Coalition, a non-profit organization representing 28 national patient organizations. (8/1)

The Washington Post: Trump And Sanders Want To Ease Imports Of Drugs From Canada. Canada Says Not So Fast 
The response from Canadians? Sorry, but back off. Pharmacists, patient groups, doctors and some lawmakers here worry that the large-scale importation of pharmaceuticals could deplete the drug supply for the country’s 37 million residents. “This is going to exacerbate some of the drug shortages that we’re already seeing in Canada,” said Joelle Walker, the vice president of public affairs for the Canadian Pharmacists Association. “We aren’t equipped to deal with a country that is ten times our size.” (Coletta, 8/1)

Roll Call: HHS Outlines Drug Import Plans As Canada Ratchets Up Concern
Canada’s system “isn’t designed to supply medications to a population size that is considerably bigger than ours,” said Joelle Walker, the vice president of public affairs for the Canadian Pharmacists Association. Ahead of a visit to Canada last weekend by presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., with American patients purchasing insulin, her group and 14 others wrote to the Canadian health ministry expressing those concerns and asking the ministry to intervene if necessary to protect the Canadian drug supply. “We’re allotted a certain amount of their product at a Canadian level and so that could actually be a significant drain on the Canadian supply,” Walker told CQ Roll Call. (Siddons, 8/1)

The Hill: Sanders Pledges To Allow Prescription Drug Imports On First Day In Office 
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Thursday pledged to allow the importation of cheaper prescription drugs from Canada on his first day in office. The Democratic presidential candidate's pledge comes one day after President Trump made a more incremental move toward allowing some drug importation. (Sullivan, 8/1)

Stat: Everything You Need To Know About Importing Drugs From Canada
President Trump’s new plan to import cheaper drugs from Canada seems like a no-brainer. But like most things in health care, it’s complicated. The logic is simple enough: Canadians buy the same drugs, made by the same manufacturers, but they get them at a much cheaper cost. So, says Trump, let’s take their drugs. It’s also wildly popular: 80% of Americans said in a recent survey they support importing prescription drugs, making the idea one of the most well-liked drug pricing proposals currently being considered in Washington. (Florko, 7/31)

Stat: Pharma Lawsuit Against California Transparency Law Can Proceed
A federal judge breathed new life into a long-running effort by the pharmaceutical industry to thwart a controversial California law that requires drug makers to not only provide advance notice of price hikes, but also give the reasons for any increases. In a ruling on Wednesday, U.S. District Court Judge Morrison England Jr. allowed the PhRMA trade group to proceed with an amended lawsuit that argues the law is unconstitutional because it violates interstate commerce and free speech principles, unfairly holds drug makers largely accountable for prices, and purportedly has fuzzy language about the timeframe for providing notice of a price hike. (Silverman, 8/1)

In other pharmaceutical news —

Stat: PhRMA’s Top Lobbyist Will Leave At The End Of August 
Rodger Currie, the top lobbyist for the drug industry trade group PhRMA, is leaving the organization at the end of August, three sources confirmed to STAT. The news was announced internally by the association’s president, Steve Ubl, in an internal email sent late Thursday afternoon. Currie has chosen to “pursue new opportunities,” according to the internal email. (Florko, 8/1)

Stat: Pharmacy Groups Seek To Break Impasse On Monitoring Compounders
A behind-the-scenes dispute over a regulatory memorandum threatens to scramble long-running efforts to bolster oversight of compounding pharmacies, a concern that has haunted government officials ever since an outbreak of fungal meningitis killed dozens of people seven years ago. At issue is an attempt by the Food and Drug Administration to sort out responsibilities with the states for monitoring inordinate amounts of medicines shipped by two different types of compounders — those making large quantities and smaller pharmacies that dispense medicines for individual patients. The distinction was created as part of a federal law in 2013 in response to the fatal outbreak. (Silverman, 8/1)

Stat: Life Sciences VC Firm Vida Ventures Raises $600 Million In Second Fund
The Boston-based venture capital firm Vida Ventures snagged $600 million more to invest in early-stage biotech companies in a second fund, it announced Thursday. That fund should bolster the firm’s attempts to become a more significant player in the cottage industry of biotech venture capitalists. Vida has only formally invested in 14 companies since its launch in April 2018, though one — the cell therapy company Allogene (ALLO)— has already gone public. Merck bought another, Peloton Therapeutics, for $1 billion upfront. (Sheridan, 8/1)

Politico Pro: Emails Show Miller Pressed Hard To Limit Green Cards
White House senior adviser Stephen Miller wasn't getting an immigration regulation he wanted. So he sent a series of scorching emails to top immigration officials, calling the department an "embarrassment" for not acting faster, according to emails obtained by POLITICO. The regulation in question would allow the Department of Homeland Security to bar legal immigrants from obtaining green cards if they receive certain government benefits. The rule will likely be released in the coming days, according to a pair of current and former Trump officials briefed on the timeline. The emails, which POLITICO obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, shed new light on how aggressively Miller has pressured the Department of Homeland Security to move faster on regulations to limit immigration. Critics say the new rule will be used to shore up Trump's political base in the coming election year, and that it's an illegitimate tool to reduce legal immigration. (Hesson, 8/1)

The Washington Post: Trump Administration To Stall Billions In Puerto Rico Funds Amid Island’s Political Crisis
The Trump administration will place new restrictions on billions of dollars in federal disaster aid for Puerto Rico, according to two senior government officials briefed on the plan, as the island struggles to recover from a weeks-long political crisis that has forced the governor to announce his resignation. The decision will impose new safeguards on about $8.3 billion in Housing and Urban Development disaster mitigation funding to Puerto Rico, as well as about $770 million in similar funding for the U.S. Virgin Islands, according to the senior officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly. (Stein and Dawsey, 8/1)

Cincinnati Enquirer: Trump's War On HIV: CDC Director Hears Ohio's Plans To Fight Infection
Dozens of Ohio’s public health officials met Thursday with the director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on the Trump administration’s ambitious drive to reduce the rate of new HIV infection in the Buckeye State. ...Cincinnati, Columbus and Cleveland are among 57 jurisdictions targeted under a plan the president unveiled in his State of the Union address in January to cut new HIV infection by 75% in five years and by 90% in 10 years. The president proposed spending $291 million to kick off the initiative. (Saker, 8/1)

Modern Healthcare: FCC To Prioritize Telemedicine Funding By 'Rurality'
The Federal Communications Commission is moving forward with plans to reform how funding is distributed for the agency's rural telemedicine program. The FCC on Thursday voted to adopt a report and order for its Rural Health Care Program, which helps fund broadband and telecommunications services for some healthcare providers in rural areas. A major part of the program involves subsidizing the difference between urban and rural rates for telecommunications services. (Cohen, 8/1)

Reuters: Congress Approves Trump-Backed Two-Year Spending, Debt Limit Deal
The U.S. Senate on Thursday passed and sent to President Donald Trump a two-year budget deal that would increase federal spending on defense and an array of other domestic programs, significantly adding to rapidly escalating government debt. By a vote of 67-28, the Senate ignored late-hour appeals from some conservative Republicans who support bigger military expenditures and tax cuts that constrain revenues but were angered over more spending for non-defense domestic programs. (Cowan, 8/1)

CBS News: Senate Passes Budget Deal And Suspends Debt Ceiling Until 2021
The government's debt has increased significantly since Mr. Trump took office in 2017. When he became president, the national debt was $19 trillion, and it's now reached a high of $22 trillion. In 2016, the president promised he'd eliminate the national debt over an eight-year period. (Segers and Tillett, 8/1)

Roll Call: Two-Year Budget Pact Clears Senate, Ending Fiscal 2020 Impasse
Trump has embraced the deal, however, because it would uncork the higher military spending he wants — $738 billion in fiscal 2020, just shy of his initial budget request — while freeing up nondefense dollars that could be used for his priorities like border security and veterans health care. Spending cuts, the president says, can come later. “Budget Deal is phenomenal for our Great Military, our Vets, and Jobs, Jobs, Jobs!” Trump tweeted before the vote Thursday. “Two year deal gets us past the Election. Go for it Republicans, there is always plenty of time to CUT!“ Aides say he also has been making calls to on-the-fence GOP senators. (Shutt, 8/1)

The Washington Post: Senate Passes Two-Year Budget And Debt Ceiling Bill, Will Send It To Trump
Passage of the bill was the Senate’s last act before leaving town for an extended summer recess, on the tails of House members who adjourned last week. Lawmakers will return to the Capitol after Labor Day to confront a thin legislative agenda, including the pending North America trade deal, which faces an uncertain outcome. (Werner, 8/1)

Los Angeles Times: Senate Approves Two-Year, $2.7-Trillion Government Spending Bill
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) tried to frame the deal as the best compromise possible in a divided government. And he stressed the importance of avoiding the “chaos” that would come if the government defaulted on its debts. “I am confident it is not exactly the legislation that either side of the aisle would have written if one party held the White House, the House, and had 60 votes in the Senate. That’s divided government,” he said on the Senate floor this week. “But I am equally confident that this is a deal that every one of my colleagues should support.” (Haberkorn, 8/1)

In other news from Capitol Hill —

The Wall Street Journal: Bill Would Let Cash-Strapped Injured Veterans Keep Disability Money During Bankruptcy
Congress passed a bill that would extend a lifeline to financially struggling injured veterans, enabling them to spend disability payments instead of using them to pay down debt in bankruptcy protection. The Senate on Thursday passed a bill sponsored by Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D., Wis.) that consumer advocates say fixes a mistake written into a 2005 overhaul of the country’s bankruptcy rules. The House passed the bill last week. It now goes to the White House for President Trump’s signature. (Ferek, 8/1)

The Washington Post: Harvard, Johns Hopkins Doctors Urge Probe Of Child Migrant Deaths: ‘Poor Conditions’ At Border Increase Risk Of Spreading Flu
A group of doctors from Harvard and Johns Hopkins has urged Congress to investigate the deaths of six migrant children who were held in government custody after crossing the southern border in the past year, warning that “poor conditions” at U.S. facilities are increasing the risk of spreading deadly infectious diseases, especially the flu. The doctors, who wrote to Congress on Thursday, said autopsy reports show that at least three of the children — ages 2, 6 and 16 — died in part as a result of having the flu, a far higher incidence of such deaths than across the general population. Child flu deaths are rare, the doctors said, and should be preventable. (Moore, 8/1)

The Hill: Doctors Urge Congress To Look Into Flu Spreading Amid 'Poor Conditions' At Migrant Facilities
“With so many lives at risk, these issues are worthy of congressional investigation. Another influenza season is around the corner, and there are other types of infectious diseases that pose a threat to detained populations. Timely action is critical,” it reads. (Klar, 8/1)

CBS News: Doctors Call For Investigation After 3 Migrant Children In Custody Die Of Flu
At least three of the children died from the flu, according to autopsies. The doctors wrote in their letter that flu deaths "are fairly rare events for children living in the United States." Domestically, the U.S. experiences a rate of about one flu death per 600,000 children, according to the doctors. Among migrants children in custody, the numbers are far higher, they wrote. (Kates, 8/1)

In other news on immigration —

WBUR: New Commission Will Work To Certify Immigrant Medical Providers, Alleviate Care Shortages
Massachusetts has thousands of highly-skilled medical providers who aren't working at the level at which they've been trained. For many, that's because they were educated in other countries, and they're having a tough time affording — among other challenges — the path to a license here. (Dooling, 8/1)

The Salt Lake Tribune: Medicaid Supporters Call For Full Expansion After Failure Of Utah Legislature’s Health Care Plan
Between 2007 and 2012, Griffin Bonacci was injured in a pair of accidents that left him with five fractured disks in his back and neck and severe nerve damage throughout his body. The Magna resident was nearly paralyzed from the neck down, he said, and he has undergone 14 surgeries to maintain function in his arms and hands. “Nothing, still, works very well,” Bonacci said. (Wood, 8/2)

The Associated Press: 300,000 Virginians Newly Covered Through Medicaid Expansion
Just over 300,000 low-income Virginia adults have enrolled in the state’s expanded Medicaid program. Gov. Ralph Northam made the announcement Wednesday at a health center in Alexandria. State officials have previously estimated that roughly 400,000 adults would be newly eligible for Medicaid under the expansion lawmakers approved last year. (8/1)

Rocky Mount Telegram: State Official Touts Benefits Of Medicaid Expansion
State Commerce Secretary Anthony Copeland did more than speak about economic development while he was at a business and education gathering Thursday in the Twin Counties. Copeland called for the audience to support expanding Medicaid in North Carolina.“I’m looking at this from an economic development point of view — billions of dollars, 50,000 jobs,” Copeland said. (West, 8/2)

NH Times Union: New Hampshire Attorney General Will Appeal Federal Medicaid Work Requirement Ruling 
New Hampshire Attorney General Gordon MacDonald plans to appeal a federal judge’s ruling that halted plans to impose work requirements on Medicaid recipients. The work requirement proposal, passed by the state legislature last year, needed approval from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The plan required anyone covered by expanded Medicaid, known as Granite Advantage, to complete 100 hours of work or approved community activities each month to keep their Medicaid health insurance, unless they are too frail to work, or fall into other exceptions listed in the law. (8/1)

The Associated Press: Cities Now See More Overdose Deaths Than Rural Areas 
U.S. drug overdose deaths, which have been concentrated in Appalachia and other rural areas for more than a dozen years, are back to being most common in big cities again, according to a government report issued Friday. The report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the urban overdose death rate surpassed the rural rate in 2016 and 2017. Rates for last year and this year are not yet available. But experts, citing available data, say the urban rate is likely to stay higher in the near future. (Stobbe, 8/2)

The Wall Street Journal: U.S. Drug Epidemic Becoming More Urban
For years, death rates from drug overdoses rose faster in rural America, as supply chains of opioids and other drugs expanded and abuse took off. But urban overdose death rates overtook those of rural counties in 2016, the analysis by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed. The findings reflect the effects of bootleg synthetic opioids such as fentanyl on a large, older cohort of longtime drug users in urban areas, some experts said. Fentanyl, a potent opioid with 50 times the strength of heroin, is a major culprit in a skyrocketing number of deaths from drug use since 2014, according to the CDC. (McKay and Kamp, 8/2)

In other news on the opioid epidemic —

Pioneer Press: Minnesota DHS Overpaid Tribes By $25.3 Million For Substance Abuse Treatment 
The Minnesota Department of Human Services overpaid tribal governments $25.3 million for treatments covered under Medicaid, according to internal memos obtained by the Pioneer Press. DHS officials learned this spring that they overpaid the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe and the White Earth Nation for therapy used to treat substance abuse disorder, the memos state. The agency reimbursed the tribes for in-person visits with health care providers when the patients actually were self-administering the medication at home. (Faircloth, 8/1)

The Star Tribune: Minnesota Overpaid $25M To Two Tribes For Substance Abuse Treatment 
Legislative Auditor James Nobles said Thursday that his office — an independent, nonpartisan arm of the Legislature — is exploring the cause of the overpayments, when they began, why they were not discovered earlier and who was responsible. He said DHS notified his office of the overpayments about 10 days ago. The alleged overpayments were made to the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe and the White Earth Nation to provide Suboxone, a medication used to treat opioid dependency, he said. (Serre and Howatt, 8/1)

CNN: State Of Oklahoma Tells Judge To Deliver Record $17.1 Billion Verdict Against Johnson & Johnson
In its final filing of a case being watched around the country, the state of Oklahoma implored a judge to deliver a record $17.2 billion verdict against Johnson & Johnson for flooding the state with opioids. It said the drug company created a crisis that killed more than 6,000 Oklahomans, destroyed families and wreaked havoc on communities."The source of this crisis is the flood of prescription opioids that has inundated Oklahoma for the past two decades," attorneys for the state wrote in its more than 700-page court filing. "It was brought into being by the pharmaceutical industry, including Defendants. The harm it has wrought, and the threat it continues to pose to the health, safety and welfare of the State, make it the worst nuisance Oklahoma has ever known." (Drash, 8/1)

Boston Globe: Kennedy Family Announces Death Of Saoirse Hill, Granddaughter Of Ethel Kennedy
Saoirse Kennedy Hill, the 22-year-old granddaughter of Robert F. Kennedy, died of an apparent overdose Thursday at the Kennedy compound, according to her family and law enforcement officials. A statement released by Kennedy Hill’s family Thursday night confirmed her death without providing a cause. A source familiar with the investigation said she died at the home of her grandmother, Ethel Kennedy, the 91-year-old widow of Robert F. Kennedy. (McDonald, Saric and Browning, 8/1)

The Associated Press: Health Insurers Experience July Heatwave
Health insurer stocks heated up in July. UnitedHealth Group, Anthem and several other insurers outpaced the broader market in what has been an otherwise choppy year for the industry. The industry is also holding up surprisingly well during the most recent round of corporate earnings. It is showing solid profit growth while companies within the broader S&P 500 are expected to report an overall contraction. (Troise, 8/1)

Reuters: Higher Medical Costs Take Shine Off Cigna Second-Quarter Profit Beat
Health insurer Cigna Corp raised its 2019 profit forecast on Thursday, helped by last year's acquisition of pharmacy benefit manager Express Scripts, but medical costs in the second quarter were higher than expected and its shares fell slightly. As health insurers face regulatory uncertainty amid political efforts to lower U.S. healthcare costs ahead of the 2020 presidential election, Cigna is hoping the $52 billion acquisition will help rein in its own costs. (Mathias and Humer, 8/1)

MPR: 3M Claims 'Major Victory' In Medical Device Litigation
A federal judge has dismissed thousands of lawsuits against the 3M Bair Hugger patient warming system.The system keeps patients warm before, during and after surgery. 3M says its forced-air heating blankets have been used safety more than 300 million times in the past 30 years. (Moylan, 8/1)

Modern Healthcare: HCA's Government Relations Head Retiring After 47 Years
The head of HCA Healthcare's government relations team is retiring after 47 years with the investor-owned hospital chain. Vic Campbell, HCA's senior vice president of government relations, will step down Feb. 29, 2020, the company announced Thursday. Nashville-based HCA has tapped a longtime Federation of American Hospitals lobbyist to take over the role. (Bannow, 8/1)

Modern Healthcare: Labs' Challenge Of Multibillion-Dollar Medicare Cut Gets New Life
A federal appeals court on Tuesday revived a group of clinical laboratories' challenge to billions of dollars in lost Medicare revenue. In a unanimous decision, the three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit overturned a lower court ruling that the laboratories couldn't dispute the lost reimbursement funding. The Medicare changes stemmed from the Protecting Access to Medicare Act of 2014, or PAMA, which required certain clinical laboratories to give the CMS private payer data that could be used to set new reimbursement rates. (Teichert, 7/31)

Modern Healthcare: Hospices To Score $520 Million Medicare Pay Increase
Hospices will see a smaller pay hike in fiscal 2020 than anticipated, after the CMS Wednesday finalized a 2.6%, or $520 million, raise for the providers. The agency in April proposed a 2.7% increase. The agency also finalized its payment policy for inpatient rehabilitation facilities, giving them a 2.5%, or $210 million, raise for fiscal 2020. The CMS initially proposed a $195 million increase. (8/1)

The Associated Press: E-Cigarette Giant Juul's Campaign Donations Favor Democrats
E-cigarette giant Juul Labs gave nearly $100,000 to members of Congress during the first half of 2019 as the company faced the bulk of the blame for a surge of underage vaping and calls for tighter government regulation of the industry. The donations from Juul's political action committee represent a sharp increase over last year's total, according to a Federal Election Commission report released Thursday that shows most of the money went to Democrats. (Lardner and Perrone, 8/1)

Politico Pro: Former FDA Commissioner: Juul Vapors Are Designed To Hook New Smokers
Juul’s potent but palatable vapors lend themselves better to getting new tobacco users hooked than helping others quit, former FDA Commissioner David Kessler wrote in a letter to Illinois Democrat and longtime vaping critic Dick Durbin this week. The e-cigarette product’s unique design helps mask the harsh taste of nicotine that might otherwise make tobacco unappealing to new users such as the millions of teens vaping today, wrote Kessler, who led the FDA when it probed tobacco companies on nicotine addiction 25 years ago. (Owermohle, 8/1)

The Hill: Almost Three-Quarters Say Minimum Age To Buy Tobacco Should Be 21: Gallup
Nearly three-quarters of respondents in a new poll said they support raising the minimum age to purchase tobacco products from 18 to 21. Gallup found that 73 percent of Americans said they backed raising the minimum tobacco purchase age to 21. Support for the move was higher among older respondents, the survey giant added. (Klar, 8/1)

Iowa Public Radio: Report Finds Iowa Falls Short On Tobacco Prevention Efforts
Iowa is not doing enough to deter kids from using tobacco, according to a report by the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network. The annual report ranks how well states are implementing policies to reduce cancer rates. (Krebs, 8/1)

Bloomberg: CBD Piques Consumer Health Giants’ Interest As Market Takes Off 
CBD, the trendy cannabis extract increasingly used to relieve pain, anxiety and insomnia, is attracting the interest of the biggest consumer-health companies. The venture formed by pharma giants GlaxoSmithKline Plc and Pfizer Inc. is studying CBD as part of an effort to ensure it’s the No. 1 consumer pain relief company in the world, Chief Executive Officer Brian McNamara said in an interview Thursday after the companies announced the transaction was complete. The new entity hasn’t made any decisions, he said. (Paton and Milligan, 8/1)

The Oregonian: Wilsonville Mom Loses Bid To Treat 13-Year-Old’s Cancer With CBD, Not Surgery
After months of argument about whether Oregon should strengthen its requirement that all children be vaccinated, the debate about how far an Oregon parent’s right to refuse established medical advice is back on the national radar. This time it involves CBD, a flashpoint in medical research as cannabis is slowly legalized. Kylee Dixon, 13, became an emblem of the debate when her mother, Christine, was accused of defying a court order to deliver Kylee to state care in order to prevent her from getting a surgery to remove a cancerous tumor from her liver. (Harbarger, 8/1)

The Associated Press: Medical Marijuana Cleared For Release To Louisiana Patients 
Medical marijuana is expected to start reaching select dispensaries in Louisiana on Tuesday, after the state agriculture department completed final testing and cleared therapeutic cannabis for release to patients. Agriculture Commissioner Mike Strain announced Thursday evening that GB Sciences, one of two state-sanctioned growers, can begin shipping out the product to Louisiana’s registered dispensaries. Strain thanked “everyone who has worked tirelessly from inception through production and testing to make this a reality.” (Deslatte, 8/1)

KCUR: Why Black Entrepreneurs In Kansas City Might Be Left Out Of The Medical Marijuana Boom 
Missouri starts officially accepting applications for medical marijuana businesses Saturday, and it’s a potentially lucrative business: A cannabis data research company estimates that by 2025, Missouri could see $111 million in medical marijuana sales yearly. But [Angela] Boykin and other applicants are black, and even though Missouri by law can’t factor in race or gender when awarding licenses, the national trend is that pot business owners and founders are overwhelmingly white. (Okeson-Haberman, 8/1)

Kaiser Health News: Colorado Doctors Note The Challenges In Treating Marijuana Users Who Undergo Surgery
When Colorado legalized marijuana, it became a pioneer in creating new policies to deal with the drug. Now the state’s surgeons, nurses and anesthesiologists are becoming pioneers of a different sort in understanding what weed may do to patients who go under the knife. Their observations and initial research show that marijuana use may affect patients’ responses to anesthesia on the operating table — and, depending on the patient’s history of using the drug, either help or hinder their symptoms afterward in the recovery room. (Ruder, 8/2)

The New York Times: A Blood Test For Alzheimer’s? It’s Coming, Scientists Report
For decades, researchers have sought a blood test for beta amyloid, the protein that is a hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease. Several groups and companies have made progress, and on Thursday, scientists at Washington University in St. Louis reported that they had devised the most sensitive blood test yet. The test will not be available for clinical use for years, and in any event, amyloid is not a perfect predictor of Alzheimer’s disease: Most symptomless older people with amyloid deposits in their brains will not develop dementia. (Kolata, 8/1)

The Guardian: Alzheimer’s Blood Test Could Predict Onset Up To 20 Years In Advance
The results of the study, which was published in the journal Neurology on Thursday, represent a potential breakthrough in the fight against the disease. “Right now we screen people for clinical trials with brain scans, which is time-consuming and expensive, and enrolling participants takes years,” said the senior author, Randall Bateman, a leading professor of neurology. “But with a blood test, we could potentially screen thousands of people a month. That means we can more efficiently enroll participants in clinical trials, which will help us find treatments faster, and could have an enormous impact on the cost of the disease as well as the human suffering that goes with it.” (Rawlinson, 8/2)

US News And World Report: Blood Test Detects Signs Of Alzheimer’s Disease With 94% Accuracy
The test uses a technique called mass spectrometry to measure the amounts of two forms of amyloid beta in the blood. The ratio of the two proteins decreases as the amount of deposits of the protein in the brain increases. Researchers analyzed data from 158 adults over several years and compared the blood test results to PET brain scans, which also screen for evidence of Alzheimer's disease. (Lardieri, 8/1)

Newsweek: New Alzheimer's Test Could Detect Signs Of Disease Decades Before Symptoms Show
Experts worked for years to find a way to measure levels of beta-amyloid 42 and beta-amyloid 40 in plasma, and published their findings in the journal Neurology. There is currently no cure for Alzheimer's disease, and scientists do not know its cause. Identifying the condition in an individual as soon as possible can help doctors to reverse and treat some symptoms. (Gander, 8/1)

The New York Times: Colorectal Cancer Rises Among Younger Adults
Colorectal cancer is typically considered a disease of aging — most new cases are diagnosed in people over age 50. But even as the rates decrease in older adults, scientists have documented a worrisome trend in the opposite direction among patients in their 20s and 30s. Now, data from national cancer registries in Canada add to the evidence that colorectal cancer rates are rising in younger adults. The increases may even be accelerating. (Sheikh, 7/31)

WBUR: LGBT Cancer Survivors Face Disparities In Post-Cancer Care, BU Study Says
A study of more than 70,000 cancer survivors conducted by Boston University researchers shows that LGBT cancer survivors receive less access to follow-up care for preventing and detecting recurrences, and screening for long-term effects of cancer treatments than their heterosexual counterparts. That can lead such sexual minorities, especially LGBT women, to suffer from poorer mental and physical health post-cancer in a country where there could be more than 1 million LGBT cancer survivors in need of care. (Thompson, 8/1)

The Hill: Ebola Outbreak Highlights Global Rise In Epidemics
A year after the deadly Ebola virus broke out in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, public health officials are struggling to contain what has become the second-worst epidemic of the virus in modern history. That outbreak — which as of Wednesday had infected more than 2,700 people and killed two-thirds of them — is just one of a troubling spread of viral epidemics happening around the world. (Wilson, 8/1)

CNN: Massachusetts Towns Are At 'High Risk' For A Mosquito-Borne Virus That Can Cause Brain Swelling
Health officials are warning that seven towns in southeastern Massachusetts are at "high risk" for a potentially fatal mosquito-borne virus known as Eastern equine encephalitis or EEE. The virus has been found in 92 mosquito samples this year, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health said Wednesday, and one-third of them are from a species that can spread the virus to people. "We're raising the risk level because there is more activity than we typically see and it is happening early in the season," Public Health Commissioner Monica Bharel said in a statement. (Lou, 8/1)

The New York Times: Got Impossible Milk? The Quest For Lab-Made Dairy
In recent years, the alternatives to conventional cows’ milk have proliferated. The local grocery store is likely to offer any number of plant-based options: milks made from soy, almonds, oats, rice, hemp, coconuts, cashews, pea plants and more. But most nondairy milks pale in comparison to cows’ milk. Plant-based milks are made by breaking down plants and reconstituting their proteins in water to resemble the fluid from a lactating bovine. (Sheikh, 8/2)

The Wall Street Journal: Meatless Burgers Stoke Sales And Questions About Nutrition
Plant-based burger makers say their products are better for the planet than beef. Whether they are better for consumers’ health is a different question. Debate over the nutritional merits of patties made from soy, peas, coconut and other plants is growing as meatless products stampede into tens of thousands of supermarkets and restaurants, and their manufacturers rush to ramp up production. (Bunge and Haddon, 8/1)

Los Angeles Times: These Six Things Can Stave Off Weight Gain, Even If Your Genes Boost Your Risk Of Obesity
You can run away from your fat genes, and you can waltz right on by a hereditary risk of gaining weight. But it’s a little less clear that mimicking funky moves in front of a video game console will protect you from a genetic vulnerability to becoming obese. So finds a new study that identifies six ways people with unlucky bits of DNA can stave off the accumulation of excess pounds. (Healy, 8/1)

The Washington Post: Allyson Felix Became A Mother, And Now She Wants To Be An Activist
A fundamental tenet of being a sprinter is staying in your lane, and for years, Allyson Felix applied it to every portion of her career. Obsessive focus helped make her the most decorated American woman in Olympic history. By age 30, she had won nine Olympic medals — six gold, three silver — and nine of her 11 world championships. She ran for an apparel company, endorsed products and stayed silent on issues outside of her performance. The thought of using her platform for other purposes scared her. She viewed herself, first and only, as an athlete. (Kilgore, 8/1)

The Wall Street Journal: 938 New York City Classrooms Tested Positive For Lead
New York City principals will notify thousands of parents of young children that their classrooms had cracked, chipped or peeling paint that tested positive for lead this summer, city officials said Thursday. In a round of inspections starting in June, contractors found lead in deteriorating paint in 938 public-school classrooms for children under 6 years old in 302 buildings, according to new Department of Education data. Its officials said these trouble spots will be fixed, typically by repainting, before school opens in September. (Brody, 8/1)

Cleveland Plain Dealer: Cleveland Lead-Safe Law Could Drive Up Rents, Cost Property Owners $128.5 Million To Comply, Analysis Says
City rents could go up $100 per month, on average, to offset costs associated with testing and making rental units lead-safe, as required under a recently passed city law, according to an economic impact analysis commissioned by a local association of real estate professionals. The Akron Cleveland Association of Realtors (ACAR) commissioned the study after Cleveland City Council declined the group’s request to delay passage of the lead-poisoning prevention ordinance until the costs for property owners and renters and workforce needs could be more closely studied. (Dissell, 8/1)

KQED: West Oakland Advocates Unhappy With EPA, City Agreement On Dirty Air
After negotiating for two years, federal environmental officials reached a voluntary settlement with the city and Port of Oakland over a discrimination complaint related to West Oakland's dirty air. The settlement outlines a series of goals to improve communication between the community, the city and the port. (Stark, 8/1)

Georgia Health News: Kemp Administration Probing Ethylene Oxide Risk In Georgia
Gov. Brian Kemp’s office said Thursday that it’s investigating toxic pollution involving two medical device sterilization plants in metro Atlanta. An EPA report last year flagged two census tracts in the Smyrna area and one in Covington — along with dozens of other areas in the United States — for higher risks of cancer, driven largely by airborne releases of ethylene oxide, a gas used by sterilization facilities. (Goodman and Miller, 8/1)

The New York Times: North Carolina Hospital Found Compliant But ‘Significantly Different’ After Complaints
Regulators have determined that North Carolina Children’s Hospital is in compliance with federal rules but markedly changed since doctors, department heads and a top administrator expressed concerns three years ago about patients undergoing heart surgery there. Inspection records released on Thursday cited no deficiencies with the hospital’s operations. But a spokesman for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which oversaw an investigation with the state health agency, said the institution’s heart surgery program “is significantly different than it was during 2016-17.” (Gabler, 8/1)

Miami Herald: Florida Court Overturns Ruling On Abortion Waiting Period
In a victory for Republican state leaders and abortion opponents, a split appeals court Thursday overturned a circuit judge’s decision that tossed out a 2015 law requiring women to wait 24 hours before having abortions. The 2-1 decision by a panel of the First District Court of Appeal sends the case back to Leon County circuit court. The 24-hour waiting period case could eventually become a key test for the Florida Supreme Court, which has historically backed abortion rights but is now dominated by conservative justices. (Saunders and Kam, 8/1)

The Associated Press: New Jersey's Medically Assisted Suicide Law Takes Effect
A New Jersey law allowing terminally ill patients to seek life-ending drugs went into effect Thursday. Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy had signed the bill in April, making New Jersey the seventh state with such a measure. Maine enacted a similar law in June, becoming the eighth. The Medical Aid in Dying for the Terminally Ill Act in New Jersey allows only patients who are terminally ill and have a prognosis of six months or less to live to acquire medication to end their lives. (8/1)

Miami Herald: Florida’s Hepatitis A Outbreak Is Public Health Emergency
With 56 new cases of Hepatitis A reported statewide in the week since the last reporting period, the Florida Surgeon General declared a public health emergency on Thursday, allowing health officials to test and treat people suspected of carrying the virus. ...The number of reported Hepatitis A cases in Florida in 2019 rose to 2,034 as of July 27, up from the 1,978 cases reported on July 20, the Florida Department of Health said. (Padro Ocasio, 8/2)

Los Angeles Times: California Has The Most Homeless People Of Any State. But L.A. Is Still A National Model
With tens of thousands of homeless people living on the streets, Los Angeles officials have increasingly found themselves as the subject of criticism for what many Angelenos see as a failure to keep up with a problem that seems to be getting worse. But across the country, L.A. isn’t considered to be a failure. To the contrary, at last week’s National Conference on Ending Homelessness in Washington, D.C., attendees repeatedly held up the city, the county and the state as models of political will for getting people into housing. (Oreskes, 8/1)

The Advocate: Baton Rouge Tech Startup Raises Seed Round For Telemedicine Software
Relief Telemed, a Baton Rouge-based technology startup that sells telemedicine software to health care providers, raised a $150,000 seed round from investors — mostly friends and family — and entered a second seed round. Relief Telemed was co-founded in 2017 by entrepreneur Vishal Vasanji and James Davis, a professor at LSU as chief technology officer. This year, Dr. Ronald Andrews, a physician who owns Pediatric and Internal Medicine Associates in Baton Rouge, joined the company as its medical director. (Mosbrucker, 8/1)

State House News Service: State Commission To Examine Licensing For Medical Professionals Trained In Other Countries
One of the more than 100 outside sections in the $43.3 billion state budget Governor Charlie Baker signed into law on Wednesday creates a 23-member commission of government and health care officials, giving them just under two years to report on “strategies to integrate foreign-trained medical professionals into rural and underserved areas in need of medical services.” According to the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition, more than 20 percent of the over 8,000 doctors, nurses, pharmacists, mental health providers, and other medical professionals in the Bay State who were educated abroad are unemployed or underemployed because of difficulties getting licensed in the US. (Lannan, 8/1)

The Associated Press: San Francisco Public Toilets Help Homeless, Cost $200,000
The sidewalks surrounding Ahmed Al Barak’s corner market in one of San Francisco’s roughest neighborhoods are filled with cardboard, used syringes and homeless people who have nowhere safe to go at night. But Al Barak says it’s an improvement from a year ago, before the city posted a portable toilet across the street from his business in the city’s Tenderloin district. He no longer regularly sees people relieve themselves in broad daylight, and he doesn’t see as much feces and urine on the streets. In his opinion, it’s the one bright spot in a city where taxes are too high. (Har, 8/2)

Tampa Bay Times: Bayfront Health St. Petersburg Dogged By Questions About Finances, Patient Care
The city’s routine annual checkup with its largest hospital turned into an acute case of confusion Thursday as executives for Bayfront Health struggled to explain their own financial numbers under tough questioning from City Council members and confronted troubling accounts from area nurses, who aired complaints of deteriorating care. Joseph Mullany, regional CEO of Bayfront Health, the health care network which has the St. Petersburg hospital as its flagship, painted a rosy picture in a presentation before council members. He said the 480-bed facility had increased charity care for the uninsured and was intent on growing and serving the community. (Griffin, 8/1)

Los Angeles Times: This California Town Wants To Be A 2nd Amendment 'Sanctuary City' For Guns And Ammo
The blistering sun hung high above the barren landscape, 118 degrees of scatter-the-critters hot, as Tim Terral loaded a magazine into his 9-millimeter pistol. He narrowed his eyes, fixing his gaze on a target before a succession of pops cut through the silence. Bull’s-eye. Satisfied, Terral wiped a bead of sweat off his brow and cocked his head to the side, a coy smile spreading across his slender face. “I don’t miss much,” he crowed. (Fry, 8/1)

Los Angeles Times: Cedars-Sinai Division Director And UCLA Instructor Pleads Not Guilty To Felony Child Porn Charges
A UCLA instructor and division director at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center pleaded not guilty Thursday to charges of distributing and possessing child pornography. Guido Germano of Santa Monica is charged with one felony count each of distribution of obscene matter and possession of child or youth pornography, the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office said in a release. Germano, 59, is suspected of distributing child pornography videos using peer-to-peer software and downloading them onto his personal computer at his home. (Diaz, 8/1)

Los Angeles Times: After Boy's Death, Family Sues L.A. County’s Child Welfare Agency For $50 Million
Even years later, tears still flow easily for Maria Barron when she describes her efforts to rescue her nephew, Anthony Avalos, from his abusive Antelope Valley home. She had been a constant presence in Anthony’s life — potty training, consulting with his teachers in preschool, hearing his boyhood dreams about being a fireman. Before his death at age 10, the boy confided in her and her husband about the abuse, too. (Stiles, 8/1)

The New York Times: Vas Narasimhan Of Novartis: ‘We Are Not At All Prepared For A Pandemic’
Vas Narasimhan was drawn to work in public health. He pursued degrees in medicine, worked to combat disease in India and Africa and studied with Paul Farmer, the renowned physician. But after a brief stint at the World Health Organization, he became disillusioned with public-sector bureaucracy. “I found there to be a dearth of real leaders,” Mr. Narasimhan said. “There wasn’t a mind-set of: How do you create great leaders and how do you lead large organizations?” (Gelles, 8/1)

The New York Times Magazine: ‘We Have Fire Everywhere’: Escaping California’s Deadliest Blaze
The fire was already growing at a rate of one football field per second when Tamra Fisher woke up on the edge of Paradise, Calif., feeling that her life was no longer insurmountably strenuous or unpleasant and that she might be up to the challenge of living it again. She was 49 and had spent almost all of those years on the Ridge — the sweeping incline, in the foothills of California’s Sierra Nevada, on which Paradise and several tinier, unincorporated communities sit. Fisher moved to the Ridge as a child, married at 16, then raised four children of her own, working 70-hour-plus weeks caring for disabled adults and the elderly. (Mooallem, 7/31)

The Atlantic: The Placental Microbiome Should Be A Cautionary Tale
For decades, scientists believed that babies encounter microbes for the very first time when they are born. Both a healthy womb and the placenta that nourishes the growing fetus, they said, are sterile. If bacteria do sneak in, they’re intruders and bad news for the fetus. But in 2014, Kjersti Aagaard from Baylor College of Medicine challenged that dogma. In placental tissue samples from 320 women, she found DNA from many kinds of bacteria, which made up a “unique placental microbiome,” she argued. Aagaard suggested that this microbiome is part of natural pregnancy and might seed a fetus’s body with microbes in utero. (Young, 7/31)

The New York Times: An American Middle Schooler, Orphaned By Deportation
After color-guard practice one fall Wednesday, Fanny’s coach caught her in the parking lot getting into an Uber and wanted to know why. Fanny was still in seventh grade, a cadet on the junior team, and in the Atlanta suburb where she had spent her whole life, parents, not taxis, usually waited in the school parking lot. Coach Stephanie was concerned that a stranger was picking up a 13-year-old, but Fanny didn’t feel like explaining that she rode with strangers all the time now, or that “home” was with people who, until recently, had more or less been strangers, too. Her mother had been gone for months. Her father hadn’t been around for years. Her 22-year-old brother lived a 45-minute drive away. (Yee, 7/30)

Boston Globe: Five Things I Learned Writing About Opioid Addiction
For more than a year, the Globe has been examining the opioid crisis in Massachusetts, searching to understand why so many are dying and, especially, what can be done about it. The result was a nine-part series that ended Sunday.It’s a tragic story: young lives derailed, communities destroyed, parents hollowed out by grief. But as I wrap up the series, I’m heartened by the compassion and resolve of caregivers, and the courage and resilience of those struggling with addiction. (Freyer, 7/29)

Los Angeles Times: He'd Been Kept Alive With Tubes For Nearly 17 Years. Who Is He, And Is It Possible He’s Conscious?
It was his 34th birthday and the icing from the cake was his first taste of food in almost 17 years. He didn’t react when the dollop of chocolate settled onto his tongue. Maybe his taste buds had stopped working. Or maybe he had just forgotten what real food was like. What else had he missed all these years he’d been confined to a hospital bed? How long had it been since he heard a dog bark or a baby cry? Since he squinted from the sun in his eyes or felt rain on his cheeks? Since he was held by someone he loved? (Faryon, 8/1)

Wired: The Notre Dame Fire Spread Toxic Lead Dust Over Paris
Three months after the devastating fire at Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris, reports of a new, previously unheeded threat to local residents have emerged: lead poisoning. According to confidential documents leaked to the (paywalled) website Mediapart earlier this month and discussed across French media, locations surrounding the fire-damaged cathedral have registered levels of lead contamination ranging between 500 and 800 times the official safe level. The building’s roof and spire were clad in several hundred tons of the metal, which can be toxic if particles are inhaled or consumed, especially to children. The blaze that consumed the cathedral’s roof liquified oceans of lead and lofted a plume of lead particles across the city. This month’s lead alert has triggered the indefinite closure of two local schools and a halt to all work on the cathedral site. (O'Sullivan, 8/1)

The New York Times: Democrats Are Having The Wrong Health Care Debate
As this week’s Democratic debates made clear, the party is divided on how to improve health care for Americans. Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and others are for a single-payer Medicare for All system. Joe Biden, Pete Buttigieg, Amy Klobuchar and others want an incremental approach building on the Affordable Care Act. But candidates who are battling over plans like Medicare for All (Mr. Sanders) versus Medicare for All Who Want It (Pete Buttigieg) versus Medicare for America (Beto O’Rourke) versus BetterCare (John Delaney) — and many others — are having the wrong debate. Instead, they should be competing to find the best ways to tackle affordability — an issue they can all agree on and President Trump has done nothing about. (Ezekiel J. Emanuel, 8/2)

Stat: Repealing The ACA Will Contribute To Deaths Of Despair In Rural U.S.
Repealing the ACA would deny insurance to 4 million people with behavioral health disorders. The Medicaid expansion provision of the ACA alone has resulted in significant improvements in access to lifesaving treatment for opioid use disorder, such as buprenorphine. In Ohio, Kentucky, and West Virginia, for example, Medicaid covers between 40% and 50% of all prescriptions for buprenorphine, a medication that helps individuals recover from addictions to opioids. Each of these states allowed Medicaid expansion under the ACA. While these states have the highest death rates due to drug overdoses in the U.S., their federal legislators have consistently voted to repeal the ACA and the Medicaid expansion that comes with it. (Nickolas D. Zaller, 8/2)

The Wall Street Journal: Kamala’s Medicare-For-All Straddle
Even liberals say Kamala Harris had a bad second debate Wednesday as she struggled to defend her record as a prosecutor and her new health-care plan. The latter is especially revealing about the Democratic debate on health care and is worth explaining in more detail. Ms. Harris in the June debate raised her hand when the moderators asked who would eliminate private health insurance. Then she backtracked. Ahead of the debates this week in a post on Medium, Ms. Harris tried to clarify how she’d “make transformative change for the better” on health care. It’s transformative all right. (8/1)

The Washington Post: Pramila Jayapal: It’s Time For Democrats To Get Their Facts Right On Medicare-For-All
In the wake of the second Democratic presidential debate, it is clear that Medicare-for-all has become a defining issue of the 2020 election. Earlier this year, when I introduced our comprehensive, 120-page “Medicare for All Act of 2019,” I expected attacks from big pharma and for-profit insurance companies. But I did not expect misrepresentations from Democratic presidential candidates about what the bill is and is not. Let’s be clear about the scale of this crisis. The United States currently spends an astronomical $3.6 trillion per year on health care — almost double what peer countries spend — and it is set to increase within 10 years to $6 trillion annually. (Pramila Jayapal, 8/1)

USA Today: Forget Medicare For All. Democrats Should Focus On Saving Obamacare.
Suppose you have an unhinged neighbor who wants to burn down your house. You’d probably spend much of your time making sure that that doesn’t happen. Drafting plans for a megamansion you hope to build where your house once stood probably wouldn’t be a priority. But that seems to be the approach of some Democratic aspirants for the presidency, who spent big chunks of their recent debates arguing about details of costly "Medicare for All" plans that have no chance of becoming law. Let's get real here. (8/1)

The Washington Post: Why Go To The Trouble Of Running For President To Promote Ideas That Can’t Work?
"I don't understand why anybody goes to all the trouble of running for president of the United States just to talk about what we really can’t do and shouldn’t fight for,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said Tuesday night, in the most notable zinger of July’s Democratic presidential primary debate. “I get a little bit tired of Democrats afraid of big ideas,” Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), the other major candidate on the field’s left wing, piled on. This got us thinking about some big ideas in U.S history. Like, say, amending the Constitution to outlaw liquor. Or sending half a million troops into Vietnam. Or passing a $1.5 trillion tax cut for the wealthy in a time of massive deficits. (8/1)

The Hill: The Myth Of Health Insurance Choice
“Choice” has taken center stage as Democratic candidates spar over “Medicare for all” versus fixing the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and keeping private insurance. There are compelling arguments in favor of each. But the argument that preserving private insurance promotes choice is not one of them. (Allison Hoffman, 8/1)

San Francisco Chronicle: Health Care Moves To The Fore In 2020 Election — While Legal Uncertainty Looms
As a political matter, the challenge will be to assure Americans who, time and again, have proved apprehensive about any change to their health care coverage — however flawed or expensive. A recent Kaiser Family Foundation Health Tracking Poll found that just 51% of the public now say they favor Medicare for All. What is telling about that number is it is down from 56% in April. (8/1)

The Washington Post: A Question Missing From The Health-Care Debate: Will Doctors Make Less Money?
Won’t single-payer health care require higher taxes? (Yes, obviously.) And won’t abolishing employer-sponsored insurance face opposition from some of the 160 million people happily on those plans now? (Almost certainly.) At the debates, in post-debate spin rooms and on Sunday TV show interviews, the Democratic presidential candidates are asked these questions repeatedly as if they are “gotcha” questions. Then they duck and weave to avoid providing the honest but damning (affirmative) sound bite, instead offering some version of: I can convince voters they’d still come out ahead. (Catherine Rampell, 8/1)

Los Angeles Times: Trump Comes To His Senses On Prescription Drug Imports
President Trump would prefer that you think he’s working tirelessly to protect Americans from soaring drug prices. His administration announced this week it wants to create a system that allows people to legally access lower-cost prescription meds from Canada. “For too long American patients have been paying exorbitantly high prices for prescription drugs that are made available to other countries at lower prices,” said Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar. (David Lazarus, 8/1)

Bloomberg: Congo’s Ebola Outbreak Is A U.S. National Security Threat 
In 2014, the U.S. led the effort by governments to blunt the world’s biggest outbreak of Ebola, which took more than 11,000 lives in West Africa before it was declared over in mid-2016. Now, a smaller but more complex outbreak rages in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and the U.S. response has been shaped by indifference and bureaucratic haggling. The consequences are potentially disastrous, and not just for those immediately at risk. (8/1)

The Hill: Fear And Distrust Are Fueling The Ebola Outbreak
Crossing the border on foot from Rwanda to the Democratic Republic of Congo, it was immediately apparent that we were entering a place at war. War has been a part of the landscape of Eastern Congo for decades, and it is the home of the largest U.N. peacekeeping operation in the world. But at the border there were no guns or peacekeepers. This border was at war with an invisible but potentially even more deadly foe: Ebola. August marks the one-year milestone for this Ebola outbreak — and the end is not yet in sight. (Allyson Bear, 8/1)

Stat: Why The Term 'Natural' Is So Seductive — And Possibly Misleading
Several years ago, a friend asked two of us if an over-the-counter drug that promised to increase one’s lifespan actually had evidence to support this claim. We couldn’t find any research on the drug and suggested that our friend refrain from using it since it hadn’t been tested for safety. Her response: “But it’s natural, so it can’t hurt you.” We were dumbfounded by this statement. After all, substances like arsenic and botulinum toxins are natural — but they are also deadly poisons. After much discussion, we wondered if her belief was isolated or representative of a general belief. In other words, do people have a default belief that “natural” items are safer and better than non-natural or human-made items? (Barry Meier, Amanda Dillard and Courtney Lappas, 8/2)

Los Angeles Times: Homeless And Need To Find A Shelter Bed In Los Angeles? Good Luck
It turns out that a single homeless woman, without a child in tow, who is a victim of domestic violence and decides after 5 p.m. that she would like to stay in a shelter for the night is generally out of luck in the city of Los Angeles. Overnight emergency shelter beds are in dwindling supply.If Michelle had had a child with her, the 211 operator probably could have gotten her a motel room for the night with a county-funded voucher. But many shelters won’t take a victim of domestic violence, fearing that her abuser could find her and endanger the other shelter residents. (The locations of domestic violence shelters are kept confidential for this reason.) I understand that, but turning away a homeless person who might need to be off the street to avoid an abuser seems particularly cruel. (Carla Hall, 8/2)

The Wall Street Journal: The Fasting Cure Is No Fad
Fasting is one of the biggest weight-loss trends to arise in recent years. Endorsed by A-list celebrities and the subject of a spate of best-selling books, it was the eighth most-Googled diet in America in 2018. But fasting shouldn’t be dismissed as just another fad. At the Charité University Hospital in Berlin, I’ve employed what’s called intermittent fasting, or time-restricted eating, to help patients with an array of chronic conditions. These include diabetes, high blood pressure, rheumatism and bowel diseases, as well as pain syndromes such as migraines and osteoarthritis. (Andreas Michalsen, 8/1)

San Francisco Chronicle: California Needs Master Plan For Aging
Newsom noted in his State of the State address in February that California’s over-65 population will nearly double to 8.6 million in the next decade. Recently, he issued an executive order to devise a plan that will help the aging population of the Golden State better enjoy its golden years.In charging a cabinet-level workgroup with developing a Master Plan for Aging by Oct. 1, 2020, Gov. Newsom is tackling a formidable, long-term challenge. (Jeannee Parker Martin, 8/1)