First Edition: June 1, 2016

California Healthline/Kaiser Health News: UnitedHealth To Exit California’s Obamacare Market
Critics of the Affordable Care Act have seized on the company’s exit, state by state, as further evidence the health-law insurance exchanges aren’t sustainable financially and that premiums will rise even higher for consumers. The Obama administration has countered that the number of health plans offering exchange policies has increased since the 2014 launch, and that it expects the individual market will continue to stabilize as adjustments are made. (Terhune, 5/31)

Kaiser Health News: How And Where To Dump Your Leftover Drugs — Responsibly
Opioids like Vicodin and Percocet are commonly prescribed to dull pain after medical procedures and to treat chronic pain. They also commonly languish in medicine cabinets, sometimes for years, making easy pickings for someone with an addiction. The consequences can be deadly: More than 165,000 people died in the U.S. from overdoses related to prescription opioids between 1999 and 2014, says the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. ... What are consumers to do the rest of the year if they want a safe alternative to flushing unwanted drugs down the toilet or tossing them into the garbage? Drugs that are flushed can taint our rivers, lakes and water supplies. Drugs in the trash also may harm the environment, and can be found by children, pets — and even adults looking for a high. (Bazar, 6/1)

The Wall Street Journal: UnitedHealth To Exit Key ACA Market
UnitedHealth Group Inc. told brokers that it has filed paperwork to offer plans in just six states’ health-law marketplaces next year, providing the most complete picture so far of its previously announced widespread withdrawal. The biggest U.S. health insurer said in April that it would pull out of all but a handful of the 34 states where it was selling the Affordable Care Act exchange plans, in the wake of mounting losses in that business. Since then, the insurer’s 2017 exchange decisions have been emerging piecemeal as various state regulators disclosed that UnitedHealth wouldn’t be in their exchanges next year. (Wilde Mathews, 5/31)

Los Angeles Times: UnitedHealth To Stop Selling Obamacare Coverage In California
United’s move will have almost no effect on Covered California, as the insurer has only about 1,200 members this year, accounting for less than one tenth of 1% of the marketplace’s 1.4 million consumers. United’s current customers will continue to have coverage through the end of this year. But they will have to select new coverage for 2017 during the open enrollment period this fall. “We will learn in July whether any new plans will join Covered California or if any of our existing plans will expand their coverage areas, as they did in 2016,” said Covered California spokesman James Scullary. (Levey, 5/31)

The New York Times: American Death Rate Rises For First Time In A Decade
The death rate in the United States rose last year for the first time in a decade, preliminary federal data show, a rare increase that was driven in part by more people dying from drug overdoses, suicide and Alzheimer’s disease. The death rate from heart disease, long in decline, edged up slightly. Death rates — measured as the number of deaths per 100,000 people — have been declining for years, an effect of improvements in health, disease management and medical technology. (Tavernise, 6/1)

The Washington Post: Reversing Long-Term Trend, Death Rate For Americans Ticks Upward
The long decline in Americans' death rates has reversed course, according to preliminary 2015 numbers for all causes of mortality as compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Many factors are implicated in the turnaround, including a rise in deaths from firearms, drug overdoses, accidental injuries, suicides, Alzheimer's disease, hypertension and stroke. In a report released Wednesday, the CDC looked at changes in death rates per 100,000 people between 2014 and 2015, adjusting the findings to reflect an aging population as the baby boomers head into their retirement years. (Achenbach, 6/1)

The Wall Street Journal: Nurses Seek Democratic Showdown
The 185,000-strong National Nurses United is the scrubs-wearing symbol of a split in the Democratic Party that threatens to inflict damage at the presidential nominating convention in Philadelphia. ... The nurses aren’t deterred by delegate math showing Mrs. Clinton with an all-but-insurmountable lead over Sen. Bernie Sanders. Nor are they much interested in smoothing over rifts. With at least 150 nurses set to attend the convention as pro-Sanders delegates, they will travel to Philadelphia for one last effort to land him the nomination. ... The nurses want the party to embrace a single-payer, government-run health plan that Mr. Sanders backs and Mrs. Clinton opposes. Nurses heading to the convention said they plan to join demonstrations there aimed at wringing a commitment from the party for such a sweeping overhaul. (Nicholas, 5/31)

The Washington Post: In Tough Reelection Fight, Ohio Sen. Rob Portman’s First TV Ads Focus On Efforts To Combat Heroin Epidemic
Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), running for reelection in one of the most important contests in the battle for the Senate majority, is going up with his first TV ads of 2016, three commercials that seek to highlight his record fighting Ohio's severe prescription drug and heroin addiction problems. The commercials, shared with The Washington Post and slated to hit the airwaves Wednesday, are in line with a broader Senate Republican strategy to talk mostly about local issues this year, in order to create some distance from the top of the ticket. Senate GOP officials have instructed Republican senators to run as though they are running for sheriff. Many dodged and diverted when recently asked whether they would campaign with presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump. (Sullivan, 5/31)

The New York Times: Valeant’s Former C.E.O. To Receive $9 Million Severance
J. Michael Pearson, the former chief executive of Valeant Pharmaceuticals International who departed in early May during a series of investigations into the company’s business practices, will receive a $9 million severance payment and continue working as a consultant through 2017, Valeant said Tuesday. The company, as well as a major investor, William A. Ackman, have taken steps to distance themselves from Mr. Pearson and signal that the company was making a fresh start. But under the agreement, Mr. Pearson will also receive more than $83,000 a month through the end of this year and $15,000 monthly in 2017, plus expenses and health insurance benefits, to help the company make the transition to a new chief executive and handle the host of legal investigations. (Thomas, 5/31)

The Associated Press: Poll: People Unsure About Ability To Pay For Long-Term Care
Demand for long-term care is expected to increase as the nation ages, but the majority of Americans 40 and older lack confidence in their ability to pay for it. The annual cost of long-term care expenses range from $17,680 for adult day care to more than $92,000 for a private room in a nursing home, according to Genworth Financial. Yet an Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research survey finds that a third of Americans 40 and older have done no planning for their own-long term care needs, such as setting aside money to pay for a home aide or to help with daily activities or a room in a nursing home. (Cancino, 6/1)

The Associated Press: UN: Sex Transmission Of Zika More Common Than First Thought
The U.N. health agency says sexual transmission of Zika is more common than first thought. It is updating its advice to women who have been in areas hit by the virus, telling them to wait even longer to conceive. The World Health Organization said Tuesday that couples or women planning pregnancy who live in or are returning from Zika-hit areas “are strongly recommended to wait at least eight weeks before trying to conceive” to ensure the virus has cleared their bodies. Previously, WHO recommended a four-week minimum period before trying to conceive in such circumstances. (5/31)

The Associated Press: Feds: Woman Repeatedly Dislocated Shoulder To Get Pain Pills
A woman accused of purposely and repeatedly dislocated her shoulder so she could get painkillers pleaded guilty Tuesday to fraud charges. Kari Richards, of Latrobe, pleaded guilty in federal court in Pittsburgh to health care fraud and obtaining controlled substances by fraud. Sentencing is scheduled for Sept. 7 following completion of a presentencing report. Federal prosecutors alleged last June that Richards defrauded Highmark Inc.'s Community Blue health insurance plan by traveling to more than 100 hospitals in 11 states to obtain prescriptions for shoulder dislocations she was causing herself. Authorities said that during a 16-month period, Richards sought treatment at hospitals more than 300 times. (5/31)