First Edition: June 2, 2017
Today's early morning highlights from the major news organizations.
Kaiser Health News:
As Government-Funded Cancer Research Sags, Scientists Fear U.S. Is ‘Losing Its Edge’
Less and less of the research presented at a prominent cancer conference is supported by the National Institutes of Health, a development that some of the country’s top scientists see as a worrisome trend. The number of studies fully funded by the NIH at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) — the world’s largest gathering of cancer researchers — has fallen 75 percent in the past decade, from 575 papers in 2008 to 144 this year, according to the society, which meets Friday through Tuesday in Chicago. (Szabo, 5/2)
The Wall Street Journal:
Republican Senator Says Deal On Health Care Unlikely This Year
Sen. Richard Burr (R., N.C.) said that the Senate probably won’t reach a deal to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act when it returns from a recess next week, in a stark assessment of the party’s health-care prospects. “It’s unlikely that we will get a health-care deal,” Mr. Burr told WXII 12 News, a North Carolina news station, on Thursday. He said that the House-passed GOP health plan was “dead on arrival,” and that “I don’t see a comprehensive health-care plan this year.” (Hughes, 6/2)
The Wall Street Journal:
GOP Senators Weigh Taxing Employer-Health Plans
Senate Republicans set on reworking the Affordable Care Act are considering taxing employer-sponsored health insurance plans, a move that would meet stiff resistance from companies and potentially raise taxes on millions of people who get coverage on the job. The move could raise billions in revenue that could be used to help stabilize the fragile individual insurance market. But it could be politically risky, since it could expand the impact of GOP health proposals from Medicaid recipients and those who buy insurance on their own to the roughly 177 million people who get coverage through their employers. (Armour and Peterson, 6/1)
The Wall Street Journal:
How Proposed Spending Caps To Medicaid Are Calculated
In his first full budget proposal, President Donald Trump advocates changing the way the federal government funds Medicaid. The fiscal 2018 budget, released last week, was short on details but endorses a bill passed last month by the U.S. House of Representatives that would restrict Medicaid spending for the first time since the program started in 1965. Medicaid is a joint federal and state program that provides health insurance for 77 million poor and low-income people. It cost the federal government $368 billion last year, or about 9% of the national budget. Based on spending, it is the third largest domestic program behind Social Security and Medicare. (McGinty, 6/2)
Los Angeles Times:
Single-Payer Healthcare Plan Advances In California Senate — Without A Way To Pay Its $400-Billion Tab
A proposal to adopt a single-payer healthcare system for California took an initial step forward Thursday when the state Senate approved a bare-bones bill that lacks a method for paying the $400-billion cost of the plan. The proposal was made by legislators led by Sen. Ricardo Lara (D-Bell Gardens) at the same time President Trump and Republican members of Congress are working to repeal and replace the federal Affordable Care Act. (McGreevy, 6/1)
The Associated Press:
California Senate Backs Longshot Single-Payer Care Bill
The move came even as proponents acknowledged they don't know how to pay its huge $400 billion price tag. The measure would have died if it failed to clear the Senate this week. Democrats said they wanted to keep it alive as the Assembly tries to work out a massive overhaul of the state health care system. "With President Trump's promise to abandon the Affordable Care Act as we know it, it leaves millions without access to care and California is once again tasked to lead," said Sen. Ricardo Lara, a Democrat from Bell Gardens who wrote the single-payer bill with Sen. Toni Atkins, a San Diego Democrat. (Cooper, 6/1)
Los Angeles Times:
Health Experts Are Furious With Trump For Pulling Out Of The Paris Climate Agreement
Environmentalists aren’t the only ones outraged over President Trump’s decision to have the U.S. walk away from the Paris accord on global warming. Health experts are pretty dismayed as well. The climate agreement, reached in Paris in 2015 after years of negotiation, aims to keep Earth’s temperature within 2 degrees Celsius (or 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) of pre-industrial levels. Meeting that goal would have required the U.S. to cut its emissions of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping greenhouse gasses — moves that Trump said would wipe out the jobs of millions of Americans. (Many economists disagree.) (Kaplan, 6/1)
The New York Times:
Trump Rule Could Deny Birth Control Coverage To Hundreds Of Thousands Of Women
The Trump administration has drafted a sweeping revision of the government’s contraception coverage mandate that could deny birth control benefits to hundreds of thousands of women who now receive them at no cost under the Affordable Care Act. The new rule, which could go into effect as soon as it is published in the Federal Register, greatly expands the number of employers and insurers that could qualify for exemptions from the mandate by claiming a moral or religious objection, including for-profit, publicly traded corporations. (Pear, 6/1)
Stateline:
Coaching Overdose Survivors To Avoid The Next One
Nationwide, tens of thousands of opioid overdose victims have been saved over the last two decades by first responders, friends, family and bystanders who administered naloxone, an opioid overdose antidote. But the majority of those who are rescued from near death go back to using drugs as soon as they leave the hospital, pushed by the brutal withdrawal symptoms that accompany an opioid overdose reversal. (Vestal, 6/2)
Courier-Journal:
The Last Words Of A 'Heroin Junkie': There Seems To Be No Escape
Adam Cooley died mid-sentence.The young man couldn't have known the danger as he reclined in bed at his parents' Pleasure Ridge Park home, writing a thank you note to a family friend. On the eve of what was to be a long rehabilitation stay, and hopefully a final lifeline, the longtime heroin user did what many addicts do — he went on one last bender. But this time, in what would be the 27-year-old's last snort, something more potent and much more dangerous was hidden inside. (Warren, 6/1)
The Associated Press:
Ohio's Lieutenant Governor Reveals Sons' Opioid Addictions
Ohio's lieutenant governor revealed Thursday that her two sons have struggled with opioid addiction, adding her family to the thousands affected by the nation's prescription painkiller and heroin epidemic. "Like many Ohioans, my family is struggling with addiction, and the opiate crisis has, you know, it's come in my front door," Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor said in making the revelation to the Dayton Daily News. (Carr Smyth, 6/1)
The Associated Press:
6 Suspected Overdose Deaths In Delaware So Far This Week
Public health officials say there have been six suspected overdose deaths in Delaware this week, bringing the total so far this year to 94. Officials also say paramedics and the Delaware State Police responded to several overdoses in New Castle County in a span of less than eight hours Tuesday. (6/1)
The Associated Press:
Missouri Health Chief Pledges Crackdown On Abortion Law
Missouri's only licensed abortion provider said Thursday it was unaware until recently that it had to report any complications from the procedures under a 38-year-old state law that Missouri's new health chief is pledging to enforce more rigorously. (6/1)
The Associated Press:
Kansas Lawmakers Pass Concealed Gun Bill In Defeat For NRA
Kansas legislators approved a bill Thursday to keep concealed guns out of public hospitals and mental health centers, and handed the National Rifle Association and its state allies their first big political defeat in years. The House vote Thursday evening was 91-33, coming hours after the Senate approved the measure, 24-16. It goes next to conservative Republican Gov. Sam Brownback, a strong gun-rights supporter. (6/1)
The Associated Press:
As NYPD Trained On Mental Illness, A Call Ended In Shooting
A year before a police sergeant shot and killed a bat-wielding woman with schizophrenia, the New York Police Department began giving officers specialized training on how to handle the mentally ill. But the sergeant, who was charged this week with murder, hadn't received it. The October shooting of Deborah Danner became a searing illustration of the argument for the training, which so far has reached about 5,800 of the department's 35,000 officers. The NYPD says it's trying to extend it as widely and quickly as possible. (6/2)
The New York Times:
You Look Familiar. Now Scientists Know Why.
The brain has an amazing capacity for recognizing faces. It can identify a face in a few thousandths of a second, form a first impression of its owner and retain the memory for decades. Central to these abilities is a longstanding puzzle: how the image of a face is encoded by the brain. Two Caltech biologists, Le Chang and Doris Y. Tsao, reported in Thursday’s issue of Cell that they have deciphered the code of how faces are recognized. (Wade, 6/1)
NPR:
Primates Recognize Faces Instantly Using Specialized Neurons
In macaque monkeys, which share humans' skill with faces, groups of specialized neurons in the brain called face cells appeared to divide up the task of assessing a face, a team at the California Institute of Technology reports Thursday in the journal Cell. "The cells were coding faces in a very simple way," says Doris Tsao, an author of the study and a professor of biology at Caltech. "Each neuron was coding a different aspect of the face." (Hamilton, 6/1)
The Washington Post:
Measles Outbreak In Minnesota Surpasses Last Year’s Total For The Entire Country
Minnesota’s measles outbreak has exceeded the total number of cases reported in the entire United States last year, with no sign of slowing. Health officials worry that the holy month of Ramadan, which began Friday night and brings Muslims together in prayer and festivities, will accelerate the spread of the highly infectious and potentially deadly disease, which is plaguing the close-knit Somali American community. (Sun, 6/1)
The Wall Street Journal:
Authorities Holding Off Deployment Of Experimental Ebola Vaccine In Congo
International health authorities and the Democratic Republic of the Congo are holding off on deploying an experimental Ebola vaccine to the site of the country’s latest outbreak of the virus, indicating that it may now not be needed. In a statement Thursday, medical-aid organization Doctors Without Borders said that preparations are under way for vaccination in Congo, but suggested that it will be used only if a new Ebola case arises. (McKay and Bariyo, 6/1)
USA Today:
Researchers: Strokes Striking More Young People
Gary Vanderwall didn’t win the lottery, but friends acted like he hit a million-to-one shot. “They thought it was a crazy one-off thing that happened,” the 35-year-old said after he told them he’d had a stroke. “Everybody was amazed. They said there’s no way.” The episode happened on Memorial Day last year, and Vanderwall was in the hospital for two months. He returned to work in January. He said he still walks with a slight limp. (Singer, 6/1)
NPR:
Using Music And Rhythm To Develop Grammar
Reyna Gordon was an aspiring opera singer fresh out of college when she began contemplating the questions that would eventually define her career. "I moved to Italy when I finished my bachelor of music, and I started to take more linguistic classes and to think about language in the brain, and music in the brain," she says. "What was happening in our brains when we were listening to music, when we were singing? What was happening in my brain when I was singing?" (Siegel and Hsu, 6/1)
The New York Times:
New Electrical Brain Stimulation Technique Shows Promise In Mice
Pulses of electricity delivered to the brain can help patients with Parkinson’s disease, depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder and possibly other conditions. But the available methods all have shortcomings: They either involve the risks of surgery, from implanting electrodes deep within the brain, or they stimulate from the skull’s surface, limiting the ability to target electricity to the right brain areas. (Belluck, 6/1)