First Edition: January 14, 2020

Kaiser Health News: Loopholes Limit New California Law To Guard Against Lofty Air Ambulance Bills
Kathleen Hoechlin lost control as she crested a small jump on her final ski run of the day at California’s Mammoth Mountain two years ago. She landed hard on her back, crushing one of the vertebra in her lower spine “like a Cheerio,” she said. An air ambulance flew Hoechlin, then 32, to an airport near Loma Linda University Medical Center in Southern California’s Inland Empire. There she underwent emergency 12-hour surgery to remove bone fragments and replace the crushed vertebra with a metal cage that was fused to the rest of her spine with rods and screws to provide structure and stability. (Andrews, 1/14)

Kaiser Health News: Team Trump Says Administration’s Action On Health Care ‘Is Working.’ Is It?
“That tweet is so far inconsistent with the direction of their policy push,” said Linda Blumberg, a health policy analyst at the Urban Institute, a think tank. “It’s just astounding to me.” The administration has attempted to or successfully undermined coverage, argued Blumberg and other policy analysts, pointing to the Affordable Care Act repeal effort, which the president championed and continues to prioritize, along with changes made to the individual marketplace, where people buy insurance. (Luthra, 1/13)

The Hill: Trump Knocks 'Mini Mike Bloomberg' Over Health Care, 'False Advertising'
President Trump on Monday lashed out at former New York City Mayor and Democratic presidential hopeful Michael Bloomberg, defending his administration's health care record. "Mini Mike Bloomberg is spending a lot of money on False Advertising," Trump tweeted. "I was the person who saved Pre-Existing Conditions in your Healthcare," he continued, adding that he would "always protect your Pre-Existing Conditions, the Dems will not!" (Sullivan, 1/13)

The New York Times: To The Contrary, Trump Has Tried To Weaken Protections For Pre-Existing Conditions
President Trump was not in Washington when the Affordable Care Act established a right to health insurance for Americans with pre-existing health conditions. His first legislative priority as president was a bill that would have repealed key parts of Obamacare and weakened such protections. His Justice Department is arguing in court that the entire law should be overturned. His tweets Monday morning, describing himself as “the person who saved pre-existing conditions,” contradict this record. (Sanger-Katz, 1/13)

The Associated Press Fact Check: No, Trump Didn't Save Preexisting Conditions
Trump's administration has been pressing in court for full repeal of the Obama-era law, including provisions that protect people with preexisting conditions from health insurance discrimination. With “Obamacare” still in place, preexisting conditions continue to be covered by regular individual health insurance plans. Insurers must take all applicants, regardless of medical history, and charge the same standard premiums to healthy people and those who are in poor health, or have a history of medical problems. (Yen, 1/13)

Politico: Trump Attacks Bloomberg On Health Care With Misleading Claim
Under Trump, the Justice Department also dropped its legal defense of Obamacare — a nearly unprecedented move that drove the senior DOJ lawyer on the case to resign in protest — and supported a lawsuit by Republican-governed states to scrap the law. A federal judge in December 2018 agreed with the GOP plaintiffs and ruled that the entire law should be struck down. The Trump administration earlier this month asked the Supreme Court to delay hearing appeals in the case until after the 2020 election. (Forgey and Diamond, 1/13)

The Washington Post Fact Checker: Trump’s Traffic Jam Of False Claims On Preexisting Conditions
Moreover, the Trump administration has issued new rules that promote the use of low-quality short-term plans that were prohibited under the ACA. These plans typically don’t have the same protections for people with existing health conditions, allowing insurance companies to deny coverage or charge higher prices. (A number of states, mainly Democratic-leaning, have acted to prohibit or limit these Trump plans.) (Kessler, 1/13)

The New York Times: What Happened When A State Made Food Stamps Harder To Get
In the early mornings, Chastity and Paul Peyton walk from their small and barely heated apartment to Taco Bell to clean fryers and take orders for as many work hours as they can get. It rarely adds up to full-time week’s worth, often not even close. With this income and whatever cash Mr. Peyton can scrape up doing odd jobs — which are hard to come by in a small town in winter, for someone without a car — the couple pays rent, utilities and his child support payments. Then there is the matter of food. (Robertson, 1/13)

The Washington Post: Trump Restrictions On Fetal Tissue Research Unsettle Key Studies And Scientists
A recent Trump administration decision to limit funding of research that uses fetal tissue is already disrupting research into major diseases, including AIDS, Down syndrome and diabetes, scientists say. The controversial federal funding rules, announced seven months ago, are reshaping scientists’ research paths and the grants they seek from the National Institutes of Health. Graduate students cannot get training grants if their research involves fetal tissue. (Goldstein, 1/13)

ProPublica: Six Children Died In Border Patrol Care. Democrats In Congress Want To Know Why.
After a ProPublica investigation into the death of a teenager in Border Patrol custody, House Democrats are ramping up pressure on the Trump administration to explain how six migrant children died after entering the U.S. “I find it appalling that (Customs and Border Protection) has still not taken responsibility for the deaths of children in their care,” said Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee. (Moore, 1/13)

The Hill: Trump Asks Supreme Court To Let Immigrant 'Public Charge' Rule Take Effect
The Trump administration on Monday asked the Supreme Court to allow it to move forward with a rule aimed at cutting back benefits for immigrants while litigation plays out in court. The Justice Department, on behalf of the administration, asked the justices to lift a nationwide halt on President Trump’s "public charge" rule that links immigrants’ legal status to their use of public benefits. (Kruzel, 1/13)

The Wall Street Journal: Trump Administration Makes Supreme Court Appeal On Immigration Plan
Several federal trial judges issued preliminary rulings last October that blocked the regulations from going into effect, finding they likely crossed legal boundaries. In the case at the center of the administration’s emergency appeal, U.S. District Judge George Daniels in the Southern District of New York found the rule departed from longstanding U.S. policy without legal justification and “is repugnant to the American dream of the opportunity for prosperity and success through hard work and upward mobility.” (Kendall, 1/13)

The Hill: Senate Democrats Blast Exemptions In Trump Vaping Ban
More than 30 Senate Democrats on Monday criticized the Trump administration’s new vaping ban for exempting menthol flavored e-cigarettes and any e-liquids that are not in a cartridge. In a letter to newly appointed Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Stephen Hahn, the 31 Democrats, led by Sen. Patty Murray (Wash.), said the omissions in the policy will place millions of children at risk of addiction. (Weixel, 1/13)

The Wall Street Journal: New Jersey Legislature Passes Flavored-Vape Ban
New Jersey lawmakers approved a legislative package strengthening regulations on e-cigarettes, including a ban on flavored-vaping products, in a growing campaign to fight tobacco use among young people. One measure stiffens penalties for retailers selling tobacco and vaping products to people under the age of 21, while another forbids the use of coupons or discounts to purchase tobacco and vaping products. The sale of vaping liquid that contains nicotine in a concentration of more than 2% will also be prohibited. (De Avila and Grayce West, 1/13)

The Associated Press: Oklahoma Attorney General Sues Distributors Of Opioids
Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter on Monday brought a lawsuit against three distributors of opioids after winning a lawsuit against one drug manufacturer and reaching pretrial settlements in other cases. Hunter filed the lawsuit in Cleveland County District Court against Cardinal Health Inc., McKesson Corp. and AmerisourceBergen Corp. (1/13)

The Washington Post: Oklahoma Files Suit Against Three Major Opioid Distributors 
Oklahoma State Attorney General Mike Hunter (R) said the three companies — McKesson Corp., Cardinal Health and AmerisourceBergen — delivered more than 34 billion doses of narcotics to Oklahoma and the rest of the United States between 2006 and 2012, failing to halt plainly suspicious drug orders because they were making so much money. “Defendants fueled the opioid crisis by supplying massive and patently unreasonable quantities of opioids to communities throughout the United States, including Oklahoma,” attorneys wrote in court papers filed in Cleveland County, the site of the previous court battle. (Bernstein, 1/13)

The Associated Press: Shareholders Entitled To Opioid Distributor's Board Records 
A Delaware judge has ordered one of the world's largest distributors of opioid painkillers to turn over corporate records to shareholders investigating whether the company engaged in wrongdoing. The judge ruled Monday that shareholders of AmerisourceBergen have demonstrated that they have proper purposes to conduct an inspection of company records and have established their right to inspect "formal board materials." (1/13)

The Wall Street Journal: 9/11 Responders Have Higher Rates Of Leukemia, Study Shows
Researchers found an elevated incidence of leukemia in first responders and other workers at the World Trade Center site after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks compared with the general population. The study, by New York researchers, is the first to show an increase in the incidence of the blood cancer, which can occur years after exposure to carcinogens. (Grayce West, 1/14)

The Hill: Appeals Court Skeptical Of Trump Rule On TV Drug Ads
The Trump administration urged a federal appeals court Monday to overturn that ruling, arguing it has the authority under the law to run the Medicare and Medicaid programs efficiently. The health care programs for the elderly and the poor paid about $240 billion for prescription drugs in 2016. (Hellmann, 1/13)

The Wall Street Journal: Drugmakers Test New Ways To Pay For Six-Figure Treatments
Drugmakers are experimenting with new ways to get paid for their most expensive medicines, as resistance to escalating prices builds and the collection and analysis of patient data improves. Now that six-figure price tags are common, drug companies are finding creative ways to get reimbursed, from installment plans and subscriptions to more complex value-based contracts that tie payment to when a drug helps a patient. (Hopkins, 1/13)

Stat: High Cost Of MS Medicines Forcing Patients To Take 'Drastic Actions'
The high cost of multiple sclerosis treatments has forced 40% of patients to take “drastic actions” and alter their use of the medicines, such as cutting back or skipping dosages altogether. And many report the financial burden is not only hurting their lifestyle, but impairing their ability to save for retirement or college for their children, a new survey found. For instance, 14% reported they switched to a generic, despite being satisfied with their existing treatment; 12% stopped using their medication for a period of time; 9% skipped or delayed filling a prescription; and 8% took less of their medicine than prescribed, according to the survey by the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. (Silverman, 1/13)

Stat: AstraZeneca Fish Oil Drug Fails, Leaving Amarin As Last Drug Standing
AstraZeneca (AZN) said Monday that it would stop a large clinical study of a fish-oil-derived heart drug, Epanova, after an independent committee concluded it was “unlikely to demonstrate a benefit to patients.” The news removes the most likely competitor for Vascepa, the first heart drug derived from fish oil to be approved to reduce the risk of heart attacks, strokes, and hospitalizations due to heart problems in patients with high levels of triglycerides. (Herper, 1/13)

Reuters: Novartis To Speed Access To $10 Billion Heart Drug Via NHS Deal
Novartis and Britain's National Health Service (NHS) on Monday announced a pact that will clear the way for accelerated review by the country's health watchdog NICE for heart drug inclisiran, which could make it broadly available as soon as 2021. Novartis hopes the NHS deal will boost sales of cholesterol-lowering inclisiran, which the Swiss drugmaker bought in a deal announced last year for nearly $10 billion (£7.70 billion) and predicts will be a top seller. (1/13)

The New York Times: Why Is Air Pollution So Harmful? DNA May Hold The Answer
The threat of air pollution grabs our attention when we see it — for example, the tendrils of smoke of Australian brush fires, now visible from space, or the poisonous soup of smog that descends on cities like New Delhi in the winter. But polluted air also harms billions of people on a continuing basis. Outdoors, we breathe in toxins delivered by car traffic, coal-fired plants and oil refineries. Indoor fires for heat and cooking taint the air for billions of people in poor countries. Over a billion people add toxins to their lungs by smoking cigarettes — and more recently, by vaping. (Zimmer, 1/13)

NPR: Direct Primary Care, More Affordable 'Concierge' Medicine, Is Hard To Scale Up 
Some people pay $200 a month on the golf course or a fancy cable TV package, says David Westbrook, a hospital executive in Kansas City, Mo. His splurge? He pays Dr. John Dunlap $133 a month for what he considers exceptional primary care. "I have the resources to spend a little extra money on my health care to my primary care physician relationship," Westbrook says. "Because I have that access — and am very proactive in managing my personal health — I think I'm going to be healthier." (Simmons-Duffin, 1/13)

The New York Times: Longing For Stability After A Childhood Spent In Hospitals
Silas Waller has measured his life in hospital stays. He has neurofibromatosis, a genetic disorder that causes tumors to form on nerve tissue. The condition makes it hard for him to walk. “My childhood was a constant string of going to and from hospitals,” said Mr. Waller, 18. “My first year of high school, I had over 50 absences, purely because I had that many doctor’s appointments.” (Brown, 1/14)

Stat: Scientists Bring Personalized Medicine To The Biology Of Aging
One 50-year-old has the nimble metabolism of a teenager, while another’s is so creaky he developed type 2 diabetes — though his immune system is that of a man 25 years his junior. Or one 70-year-old has the immune system of a Gen Xer while another’s is so decrepit she can’t gin up an antibody response to flu vaccines — but her high-performing liver clears out alcohol so fast she can sip Negronis all night without getting tipsy. (Begley, 1/13)

The New York Times: Bill To End Religious Exemptions For Vaccinations Collapses In N.J.
It began as one of the nation’s broadest proposed bans on religious exemptions to childhood vaccines. But after weeks of sustained and boisterous protests by vaccine skeptics, as well as a last-minute effort to amend the proposed bill to win over key New Jersey lawmakers, the effort collapsed on Monday in the State Senate. The Senate president, Stephen M. Sweeney, continued to maintain that science, not the protesters, would eventually emerge victorious. (Tully, 1/13)

The Washington Post: Four Firearms Bills Advance In Virginia’s Newly Gun-Free Capitol
Four gun-control bills sailed out of a Senate committee Monday as the General Assembly's new Democratic majority took up firearms legislation for the first time. In a visible show of opposition to the bills, gun rights activists swarmed the Capitol, where firearms were banned last week. But the Senate Judiciary Committee advanced most of the gun legislation proposed by Democrats, who wrested control of the state House and Senate from Republicans in November after a campaign season largely focused on guns and public safety. (Vozzella and Schneider, 1/13)

Los Angeles Times: If L.A. Wants Trump's Money For Homelessness, Strings Will Be Attached
A sweeping proposal by the Trump administration to help Los Angeles’ growing homeless population may come with strings attached, raising questions about whether a deal can be worked out between the city and the White House. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson told Mayor Eric Garcetti in a letter last Thursday that Trump officials are prepared to offer Los Angeles an array of resources, including emergency healthcare services and federal land. The Times obtained the letter through a public records request. (Smith, Oreskes and Bierman, 1/13)

Los Angeles Times: Homeless Task Force Proposes Punishment For Cities With People Remaining On The Street
With public and political pressure mounting to get homeless people off the streets of California, a task force appointed by Gov. Gavin Newsom is recommending that local governments face tough new legal sanctions for failing to make progress. In a report released Monday, the Council of Regional Homeless Advisors is calling for an amendment to the California Constitution that would create a legally enforceable mandate to reduce the homeless population. The Legislature would have to craft the plan, which would then appear as a statewide ballot measure in November. (Chabria, Oreskes and Luna, 1/13)

Reuters: California Governor's 'Homelessness Tour' Seeks Money, Solutions To Crisis On Streets
California's governor began a week-long "homelessness tour" on Monday seeking $750 million to address growing numbers of people living on the streets, stopping first in a rural community to show his state's problems extend beyond the big cities of San Francisco and Los Angeles. Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom last week asked state lawmakers to create the $750 million fund as part of his 2020-21 budget and plans to petition the federal government for additional money to help California's Medicaid program improve services for the homeless. (1/13)

The Associated Press: California Rejects Unique Intersex Surgery Ban For Some Kids
California lawmakers have rejected what would have been a first-of-its-kind ban on medically unnecessary treatment for infants born with ambiguous or conflicting genitalia. The measure would have banned all procedures on intersex children 6 and under unless they were deemed medically necessary by the Medical Board of California. (1/13)

Los Angeles Times: Bill To Ban Surgery On Intersex Children Fails In California Senate
Advocacy groups for intersex people, who have differences in their reproductive or sexual anatomy, have been seeking legislation in California that would postpone genital surgeries, which they say do more harm than good. The groups say infants born with atypical genitalia often undergo surgeries to “normalize” their body, which can lead to incorrect gender assignment or an irreversible loss of physical sensation. Senate Bill 201 by state Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), would have required that a child be at least 6 years old before a doctor could perform genital surgery that is not medically necessary. The bill faced opposition from doctors who said medical decisions should be left up to parents and the physicians treating a patient. (Gutierrez, 1/13)