First Edition: July 6, 2017

Kaiser Health News: New On The Streets: Drug For Nerve Pain Boosts High For Opioid Abusers
On April 5, Ciera Smith sat in a car parked on the gravel driveway of the Rural Women’s Recovery Program here with a choice to make: go to jail or enter treatment for her addiction. Smith, 22, started abusing drugs when she was 18, enticed by the “good time” she and her friends found in smoking marijuana. She later turned to addictive painkillers, then anti-anxiety medications such as Xanax and eventually Suboxone, a narcotic often used to replace opioids when treating addiction. (Heredia Rodriguez, 7/6)

The New York Times: White House Backs Conservative Health Plan, But G.O.P. Leaders Are Leery
The White House is backing a health care proposal that would make it easier for insurance companies to avoid complying with consumer protection standards, siding with some of the most conservative senators, though Senate Republican leaders remain leery of the idea. (Pear, 7/5)

Politico: GOP Promises Lower Health Premiums But Ignores All That’s Driving Them
Republicans promise to bring down the cost of health insurance for millions of Americans by repealing Obamacare. But in the race to make insurance premiums cheaper, they ignore a more ominous number — the $3.2 trillion-plus the U.S. spends annually on health care overall. (Kenen, 7/6)

The New York Times: Ted Cruz Has An Idea For How To Cover High-Risk Patients
The health care bill that passed the House a few months ago called for Americans with a history of serious illnesses to be covered in their own, special high-risk insurance pool. When the Senate unveiled its health legislation in June, it notably omitted the unpopular provision, instead requiring that all Americans be covered by the same kind of insurance, and be charged the same price as other customers of the same age. (Margot Sanger-Katz, 7/5)

The Wall Street Journal: Ted Cruz’s Plan To Save Republican Health-Care Bill Gains Traction
Senate Republican leaders, in a bid to salvage their health overhaul, are weighing the merits of a proposal by Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas) to let insurers that sell plans that conform to the Affordable Care Act’s regulations also sell policies that don’t. The idea, also backed by Sen. Mike Lee (R., Utah), would allow insurers to offer cheaper, less-comprehensive policies, likely to be bought by healthier people. Those policies could charge higher prices to those with pre-existing medical conditions, and possibly deny them coverage altogether. (Armour and Peterson, 7/5)

Politico: Right Threatens McConnell's Obamacare Repeal
Conservative groups are aggressively backing Sens. Mike Lee and Ted Cruz in their bid to move the Senate Republicans' Obamacare repeal bill further to the right, setting up a major confrontation between the party’s warring factions next week. On Wednesday afternoon both FreedomWorks and the Club for Growth urged Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to adopt an amendment from Cruz of Texas and Lee of Utah that would largely gut Obamacare’s regulatory regime. (Everett, 7/5)

The New York Times: Health Care? Taxes? Budget? G.O.P. Has Big To-Do List, But Little Time
An iffy health care vote. An unresolved budget resolution. A heavy debt ceiling lift. And, of course, there is that tax overhaul plan. Congress has a lot to do, and it doesn’t have much time. So much for a lazy July in Washington. (Rappeport, 7/5)

The Hill: Republicans Ask Dems: Where's Your Healthcare Plan?
The Republican National Committee (RNC) on Wednesday released an ad attacking Democrats for being unwilling to work with the GOP to repeal and replace ObamaCare while not offering their own plan. The ad features video footage of Democrats such as Sen. Elizabeth Warren (Mass.) and Hillary Clinton attacking the House and Senate plans to repeal ObamaCare. (Bowden, 7/5)

USA Today: Hillary Clinton Responds To RNC Asking Where Her Health Care Plan Is: 'Right Here'
Clinton responded with a link to her 2016 presidential campaign website, where there was a bullet-point version of a health care plan that would keep Obamacare and further expand Medicaid. (Collin, 7/5)

USA Today: Health Care Divides Democrats, Beyond Opposing Republicans
It’s not just the GOP that’s divided on health care. Legislation Sen. Bernie Sanders plans to introduce soon highlights a wedge issue for Democrats and is emerging as the Republican retort to their own problems with repealing and replacing Obamacare. (Gaudiano, 7/5)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wisconsin Democrats Double Down On Expanding Public Health Coverage
As congressional Republicans seek to scale back the private health marketplaces in Obamacare, Democrats here and nationally are proposing expansions of public coverage. President Donald Trump and the GOP Congress are considering how to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, including the subsidized private insurance it provides to qualifying Americans. Some Democrats in Wisconsin and around the country are responding with proposals that would make government-run coverage available to more citizens. (Stein, 7/5)

The Washington Post: Sen. Bill Cassidy, A Liver Doctor, Grapples With Louisiana’s Liver Disease Crisis
Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) vividly remembers his worst day as a doctor. His patient, an 18-year-old woman with hepatitis B, needed a liver transplant, and he arranged to have her airlifted to Shreveport for the procedure. “I was sitting there thinking, if we had vaccinated this girl with a $50 vaccine, we could have saved a $250,000 operation and a lifetime of $50,000-a-year medical bills,” Cassidy recalled in a recent interview. There's a happy ending to the story: The patient's liver began to recover, avoiding the need for a transplant. But Cassidy didn't know that as the helicopter took off. He was motivated to set up a vaccination program to prevent the infection. Over six years, 36,000 schoolchildren in his state were vaccinated. (Johnson, 7/5)

The Wall Street Journal: FDA Suspends Certain Clinical Trials Of Merck’s Keytruda
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration suspended two clinical trials and a portion of a third testing Merck & Co.’s Keytruda as a treatment for blood cancer, after more patients receiving the drug died than those receiving other treatments, the company said. Merck said Wednesday the FDA determined the risks of Keytruda, when added to the other drugs the patients in the trial were taking, outweighed any potential benefit for patients with the blood cancer multiple myeloma, based on available data. The other drugs used in the studies are Celgene Corp.’s Pomalyst and Revlimid. (Loftus, 7/5)

The Wall Street Journal: Lung, Liver And Stomach Cancers Kill A Million Chinese A Year; Big Pharma Responds
Big Pharma is investing billions of dollars to tackle deadly diseases prevalent in China, developing new drugs to combat a lineup of top killers that differ from those in the West. (Rana, 7/5)

NPR: Surgeon General Nominee Pushed For Syringe Exchange In Indiana
Several weeks before President Trump nominated Indiana's state health commissioner Jerome Adams to be the next U.S. Surgeon General, Adams toured the Salvation Army Harbor Light detox center in Indianapolis, Ind., the only treatment facility in the state for people without insurance. (Forman, 7/5)

The Washington Post: Opioid Crisis: In Maryland, A House Of Recovery And Reckoning
The chime on Rusty Bakalar’s phone rarely signals good news. But on a Friday evening in June, as he tallied rents he’d collected from the residents of Champ House, it brought a moment of hope. On the line was Dalton Jones, 20, who the day before had walked out of the oddly shaped building in Bowie, Md., and vanished without a trace. Disappearing is against every rule of Champ House, an against-all-odds place that runs on donations and goodwill, where up to 15 men at a time fight addiction through chores and camaraderie. (Hernandez, 7/5)

The Associated Press: Oregon Approves Measure Requiring Insurers To Cover Abortion
Insurance companies in Oregon would be required to cover abortions and other reproductive services at no cost to the patient regardless of income, citizenship status or gender identity under a measure approved Wednesday by lawmakers. (7/5)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wisconsin's Cap On Medical Malpractice Awards Unconstitutional, Court Rules
Ruling that Wisconsin's $750,000 cap on medical malpractice claims is unconstitutional, an appellate court said Wednesday that a Milwaukee woman who lost all four limbs should collect the $16.5 million for pain and suffering awarded to her and her husband. (Spivak, 7/5)

Los Angeles Times: Patrick Soon-Shiong's NantWorks To Take Over St. Vincent And 5 Other California Hospitals
NantWorks, the Culver City company controlled by billionaire physician Patrick Soon-Shiong, has taken over the operator of half a dozen California hospitals, including St. Vincent Medical Center near downtown Los Angeles and St. Francis Medical Center in Lynwood. NantWorks acquired a controlling stake in Integrity Healthcare, which in 2015 took over management of six hospitals from the struggling nonprofit Daughters of Charity Health System. The hospital chain now goes by the name Verity Health. (Koren, 7/5)

The New York Times: Heartburn Drugs May Increase Risk Of Early Death
Proton pump inhibitors, or P.P.I.s, the widely used heartburn medicines, may increase the risk of early death, a new study reports. P.P.I.s, sold over the counter under such brand names as Nexium and Prevacid, have been associated with serious adverse side effects, including kidney disease, bone fractures and infections. This study found an association with death from any cause. (Bakalar, 7/5)

The New York Times: Poor Sleep Tied To Increased Alzheimer’s Risk
Poor sleep may be an indication of increased risk for Alzheimer’s disease, a new study of older people suggests. Researchers studied 101 cognitively normal people, average age 63, who completed well-validated sleep questionnaires. They analyzed their spinal fluid for the presence of indicators of the plaques and tangles that are characteristic of Alzheimer’s. The study is in Neurology. (Bakalar, 7/5)

Los Angeles Times: Does My Sense Of Smell Make Me Look Fat? In Mice, The Answer Seems To Be Yes
Having an exceptionally keen sense of smell would seem to be an unmitigated blessing: It can provide early warning of dangers, detect the presence of an attractive mate, and enhance the gustatory delight of a delicious meal. But when you’re a mouse (or, perhaps, a human) and fattening food is all around, a new study finds that those with little or no ability to detect odors may have a key advantage. While mice with an intact sense of smell grow obese on a steady diet of high-fat chow, their littermates who have had their sense of smell expunged can eat the same food yet remain trim. (Healy, 7/5)