Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
California Governor Redirects Funds Intended For Health Care Priorities
Politico: Newsom Walks Back On Plan To Use MCO Tax For Additional Health Care Raises
Gov. Gavin Newsom is walking back promised pay raises for some health care workers and other health care investments generated from a tax agreed last year, instead using those funds to help balance the state budget amid a major deficit. In his new budget blueprint unveiled Friday, Newsom proposed using nearly $7 billion from the managed care organization tax — aka MCO — to balance the budget instead of using it to help hospitals. (Bluth, 5/10)
Politico: State Report: New Jersey Too Reliant On Nursing Homes, Should Overhaul Long-Term Care
A highly anticipated state report said Friday that New Jersey is overly reliant on nursing homes and should change its policies to incentivize home- and community-based care. The report released by the New Jersey Task Force on Long-Term Care Quality and Safety recommends policies that would drastically reshape long-term care as well as reimbursement models. (Han, 5/10)
In other news from around the country —
CNBC: Paid Time Off For Pregnant Women Could Go National As Work Movement
Paid leave for prenatal care is poised to become a national women’s health initiative. That’s now that New York has become the first state to mandate a standalone entitlement to paid prenatal leave. (Munk, 5/12)
The Colorado Sun: Colorado Abortion Providers Receiving Influx Of Florida Calls After Ban Took Effect
Requests for help to a Colorado fund that pays for abortions and associated travel expenses have climbed to an estimated $2.5 million this year, up from $212,000 before the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the constitutional right to abortion. (Brown and Ingold, 5/10)
Fox News: Experimental Cancer Treatment Gives New Jersey Mom A Chance For A Second Baby: ‘I Decided To Go For It’
A New Jersey mom had just given birth when she received a life-changing cancer diagnosis — and her biggest fear was she wouldn’t be able to have more children. When Kelly Spill first started experiencing bleeding, her doctors chalked it up to pregnancy and childbirth, especially given her young age of 28. But then came the weight loss, fatigue and loss of appetite. "I knew deep down that it was cancer," she told Fox News Digital. (Rudy, 5/12)
Reuters: Texas Top Court Rules Mother Can't Collect Damages Over Unwanted Pregnancy
Texas' highest court on Friday limited women's ability to obtain monetary damages from medical providers whose alleged negligence led them to have unwanted pregnancies, ruling that state law does not treat the birth of a healthy child as an injury for which a parent must be compensated. The Texas Supreme Court ruled, opens new tab that a mother in El Paso who alleged her doctor negligently failed to perform a sterilization procedure known as a tubal ligation was not entitled to recover any damages from him. (Raymond, 5/10)
The Texas Tribune: Panhandle City Leaders Reject Abortion Travel Ban
The City Council of Clarendon, a rural Panhandle town, rejected a proposed ordinance seeking to prohibit traveling through city limits to get an abortion in another state. Their 3-0 decision on Thursday makes Clarendon one of the first cities in Texas to reject an abortion travel ban as more conservative cities are approving similar measures. (Carver, 5/10)
The CT Mirror: CT Bills To Expand Insurance Coverage For Fertility Care Unsuccessful
Two bills aimed at expanding fertility access for those on Medicaid, LGBTQ+ families and would-be single parents stalled during a legislative session with little room in its budget for new expenses. (LeMaster, 5/10)
Also —
Reuters: Pharmacy Exec Sentenced In Michigan Over Deadly 2012 Meningitis Outbreak
A former owner of a Massachusetts compounding pharmacy whose mold-tainted drugs sparked a deadly U.S. fungal meningitis outbreak in 2012 was sentenced on Friday to at least 10 years in prison for his role in the deaths of 11 Michigan residents. (Raymond, 5/10)
CIDRAP: 2023 E Coli Outbreak In Kids In Utah Traced To Untreated Irrigation Water
A 2023 outbreak of Shiga toxin–producing Escherichia coli O157:H7 in Utah that sickened at least 13 children was traced to contaminated irrigation water the children used for drinking and playing, according to a report from scientists from Utah and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The account, published yesterday in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, points to the need to educate residents of communities that have untreated, pressurized municipal irrigation water (UPMIW) about the risks. (Van Beusekom, 5/10)
Philadelphia Inquirer: Paramedics In The Philadelphia Area Begin To Carry Blood In Their Ambulances
Paramedic Leonard Brown knew the patient ― a pale, Berks County man who could barely speak after days of internal bleeding ― needed a blood transfusion fast. But Brown did not have blood on his ambulance. On that day in April, the TowerDIRECT paramedic had to wait for dispatchers to send to the scene a critical care transport, a specialty truck staffed with a nurse and equipped with blood units. (Gutman, 5/13)
Anchorage Daily News: Alaska House Approves Marijuana Tax Reform, Advancing Bill To Senate
A decade after Alaska voters legalized recreational marijuana, the Alaska Legislature is advancing the first major change to the law that opened commercial sales here. On Friday, the Alaska House of Representatives voted to change the state’s $50 per ounce marijuana tax to a 7% sales tax. (Brooks and Beacon, 5/12)
KFF Health News: San Francisco Tries Tough Love By Tying Welfare To Drug Rehab
Raymond Llano carries a plastic bag with everything he owns in one hand, a cup of coffee in the other, and the flattened cardboard box he uses as a bed under his arm as he waits in line for lunch at Glide Memorial Church in San Francisco. At 55, he hasn’t had a home for 15 years, since he lost a job at Target. Llano once tried to get on public assistance but couldn’t — something, he said, looking perplexed, about owing the state money — and he’d like to apply again. (Cohen, 5/13)
KFF Health News: First Responders, Veterans Hail Benefits Of Psychedelic Drugs As California Debates Legalization
Wade Trammell recalls the time he and his fellow firefighters responded to a highway crash in which a beer truck rammed into a pole, propelling the truck’s engine through the cab and into the driver’s abdomen. “The guy was up there screaming and squirming. Then the cab caught on fire,” Trammell says. “I couldn’t move him. He burned to death right there in my arms.” (Wolfson, 5/13)
