First Edition: June 27, 2018

Kaiser Health News: ‘You Can’t Have Perfection’: Lawmakers Who Forged ACA Look Back
Former Sens. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) and former Reps. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and George Miller (D-Calif.) and retiring Rep. Sander Levin (D-Mich.) led the five key committees that pushed the Affordable Care Act toward its passage in 2010. They joined Kaiser Health News’ Julie Rovner during a session at the annual Aspen Ideas Festival in Colorado to discuss the partisan battles over the ACA, how their efforts in Congress differed from an earlier effort by the Clinton administration to revamp health care, and the problems that arose because they couldn’t get a bill through Congress to make corrections to the ACA. (6/27)

Kaiser Health News: ACA Protections For Sick Patients Still Popular Despite GOP’s Efforts To End Them 
As the 2018 congressional elections near, Democratic and independent voters identify health care as “the most important issue” for candidates to discuss. Support for the provision is especially strong among households where someone has a preexisting condition. But it remains a second-tier priority for Republican voters, according to the poll, nearly tied with immigration and behind the economy and jobs. Nearly 6 in 10 Republican voters place a priority on a candidate’s support for repealing the health law. (Rau, 6/27)

California Healthline: At L.A. Clinic, Free Showers Can Get Homeless People In To See A Doctor
Gregory Andrews, 60, sleeps in his Chevy Malibu just outside a health clinic on the west side of Los Angeles. In the morning, he lines up there for a free shower. “Besides trying to find something healthy to eat, the next most important thing is to take a shower,” Andrews said. “It keeps your self-esteem up.” Not many health clinics offer showers, but Saban Community Clinic, where Andrews goes, has been doing it for about three decades. The clinic serves an urgent need, given L.A. County’s growing homeless population, which is up almost 50 percent in the past six years to roughly 53,000, though it dipped slightly this year, according to the annual homeless count. (Gorman, 6/26)

The New York Times: Justices Back Pregnancy Centers That Oppose Abortion, In Free Speech Case
Ruling for opponents of abortion on free speech grounds, the Supreme Court said on Tuesday that the State of California may not require religiously oriented “crisis pregnancy centers” to supply women with information about how to end their pregnancies. The case was a clash between state efforts to provide women with facts about their medical options and First Amendment rulings that place limits on the government’s ability to compel people to say things at odds with their beliefs. (Liptak, 6/26)

Reuters: Supreme Court Blocks California Law On Anti-Abortion Centers
The justices reversed a 2016 ruling by the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that refused to block the law because it likely did not violate free speech rights. California's Reproductive FACT Act, passed by a Democratic-led legislature and signed by Democratic Governor Jerry Brown in 2015, required centers licensed by the state as family planning facilities to post or distribute notices that the state has programs offering free or low-cost birth control, prenatal care and abortion services. The law also mandated unlicensed centers that may have no medical provider on staff to disclose that fact. (Chung, 6/26)

The Washington Post: Supreme Court Says Crisis Pregnancy Centers Do Not Have To Provide Women Abortion Information
[Thomas] said that the “government-drafted script” specifically mentions abortion — “the very practice that petitioners are devoted to opposing.” “By requiring petitioners to inform women how they can obtain state-subsidized abortions, at the same time petitioners try to dissuade women from choosing that option ... plainly alters the content of petitioners’speech,” Thomas wrote. (Barnes, 6/26)

The Wall Street Journal: Supreme Court Casts Doubt On California Disclosure Law On Abortion Availability
Liberals, in a dissent by Justice Stephen Breyer, accused the majority of a double standard, in light of the court’s rulings upholding laws in other states that require abortion clinics to advise pregnant women of alternatives to the procedure, including adoption services and programs to assist with childbirth costs. Justice Thomas rejected that argument. States can impose such requirements because abortion is a medical procedure subject to a patient’s “informed consent,” while the notice California required “is not tied to a procedure at all,” he wrote, joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Anthony Kennedy, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch. (Bravin and Kendall, 6/26)

The Associated Press: Pregnancy Center Ruling A Blow For Abortion-Rights Advocates
Despite the court's 5-4 decision Tuesday, abortion-rights advocates pledged to keep fighting what they call "fake health centers," but their next steps weren't immediately clear. Some saw potential to use the ruling to push back against laws in conservative states such as Wisconsin and Texas that require abortion providers to share information about adoption or to combat the federal push to ban U.S.-funded family planning clinics from referring women for abortions. (6/27)

The Washington Post: Supreme Court Decision On Crisis Pregnancy Centers Draws Strong Reaction From All Sides
“Today's decision will harm women, full stop. The Supreme Court's ruling will allow fake health clinics to continue peddling anti-choice propaganda and misinformation. It will let them lie to vulnerable women, pretend to ​offer licensed ​medical providers and withhold potentially lifesaving medical care, ” said Stephanie Schriock, president, Emily's List. (Cha, 6/26)

The Hill: Supreme Court Ruling May Pave Way For More Faith-Based Pregnancy Centers
The Supreme Court’s ruling Tuesday in favor of anti-abortion clinics in California will make it easier for similar facilities in other states to dissuade women from getting abortions. (Wheeler and Hellmann, 6/26)

Reuters: Notre Dame Students Sue School, White House Over Birth Control Policy
Students at the University of Notre Dame on Tuesday sued the Indiana school and the Trump administration over a move this year to drop coverage for some forms of birth control from the university's health insurance plan, citing religious objections. The suit touches on two hot-button issues that have been key parts of President Donald Trump's agenda - scaling back the 2010 U.S. healthcare reform law known as Obamacare and promoting the rights of organizations with religious affiliations. Notre Dame was founded by a Roman Catholic religious order, and Catholic teaching prohibits most forms of birth control. (Cherelus, 6/26)

The Washington Post: Robert Wilkie, Trump’s VA Nominee, Built A Career Working With Polarizing Figures In American Politics
Robert Wilkie, President Trump’s choice to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs, is a conservative Washington insider who would bring three decades of military policymaking and a deep list of Capitol Hill connections to a Cabinet post responsible for serving one of the administration’s most crucial constituencies. But when he appears Wednesday for his Senate confirmation hearing, Wilkie will also draw on a career spent working shoulder to shoulder with polarizing figures in American politics and often defending their most divisive views. (Sonne and Rein, 6/26)

The Associated Press: Low-Key Washington Insider Makes A Bid To Fix Struggling VA
Wilkie wasn't Trump's first choice to replace Shulkin; his nomination of White House doctor Ronny Jackson withered in the face of late-surfacing allegations of workplace misconduct. All the while, Wilkie was quietly working at the VA, signing a major $10 billion deal to overhaul veterans' electronic medical records. He was taken aback when Trump made an impromptu offer of the permanent job at a public event in mid-May. (6/26)

The New York Times: Veteran Sets Himself On Fire Outside State Capitol In Atlanta
A man who said he was an Air Force veteran upset with the Department of Veterans Affairs set himself on fire outside the state Capitol in Atlanta on Tuesday morning. Capt. Mark Perry of the Georgia State Patrol said that the man parked a passenger vehicle around 10:45 a.m. and began walking toward the Capitol. (Zraick, 6/26)

The New York Times: ‘Brain Performance’ Firm DeVos Invested In Is Hit For Misleading Claims
A “brain-performance” business backed by Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has agreed to stop advertising success rates for children and adults suffering from maladies such as attention deficit disorder, depression and autism after a review found the company could not support the outcomes it was promoting. The company, Neurocore, which has received more than $5 million from Ms. DeVos and her husband, Richard DeVos Jr., to run “brain performance centers” in Michigan and Florida, lost an appeal before an advertising-industry review board, which found that the company’s claims of curbing and curing a range of afflictions without medication were based on mixed research and unscientific internal studies. (Green, 6/26)

The Wall Street Journal: HHS Secretary Seeks To Reassure Lawmakers On Family Separation Policy
Hundreds of children separated from their parents under the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” immigration policy have been reunited with relatives and every parent has access to information on where their children are, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said Tuesday. Mr. Azar sought to reassure lawmakers about the reunification process at a drug-pricing hearing before the Senate Finance Committee. He said his agency has received more than 2,300 children separated from family members along the border with about 2,047 now under the agency’s care. (Armour, 6/26)

The Hill: Top Official Says Government Can't Reunite Migrant Families Under Current Law 
Under questioning from Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee, HHS Secretary Alex Azar indicated it's the responsibility of Congress or the courts to reunite the 2,047 migrant children still in the agency's custody. “We are working to get all these kids ready to be placed back with their parents as soon as Congress passes a change, or if those parents complete their immigration proceedings,” Azar said. “We do not want any children separated from their parents any longer than necessary under the law.” (Weixel, 6/26)

Reuters: States Sue Trump Over Immigrant Families As Congress Quarrels
More than a dozen states sued the Trump administration on Tuesday over its separation of migrant children and parents at the U.S.-Mexico border, saying President Donald Trump's order last week ending the breakups was illusory. In a complaint filed with U.S. District Court in Seattle, 17 states and the District of Columbia argued the administration's policy was unconstitutional in part because it was "motivated by animus and a desire to harm" immigrants arriving from Latin America. (Cowan and Stempel, 6/26)

The Hill: HHS Sued For Documents Related To Child Separation Policy 
A government watchdog on Tuesday sued the Trump administration for documents related to migrant children being separated from their families at the U.S. border. Equity Forward, which describes itself as a reproductive health watchdog group, filed a lawsuit after the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) failed to respond to four Freedom of Information Act requests, the first being filed in January. (Hellmann, 6/26)

The New York Times: Federal Judge In California Halts Splitting Of Migrant Families At Border
A federal judge in California issued a nationwide injunction late Tuesday temporarily stopping the Trump administration from separating children from their parents at the border and ordered that all families already separated be reunited within 30 days. Judge Dana M. Sabraw of the Federal District Court in San Diego said children under 5 must be reunited with their parents within 14 days, and he ordered that all children must be allowed to talk to their parents within 10 days. (Shear, Hirschfeld Davis, Kaplan and Pear, 6/26)

The Wall Street Journal: Judge Orders Migrant Families Separated At Border To Be Reunited Within 30 Days
The nationwide preliminary injunction by U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw late Tuesday comes in a class action brought by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of parents who had been separated from children after crossing the border and detained in immigration custody. The order requires the federal government to reunite all children within 30 days and those younger than 5 within two weeks. Judge Sabraw said that for now, parents can no longer be detained or deported without their children unless the minors are found to be in danger or the parents have consented. (Randazzo, 6/27)

Los Angeles Times: California Federal Judge Orders Separated Children Reunited With Parents Within 30 Days
In a strongly worded opinion, U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw wrote “the facts set forth before the court portray reactive governance — responses to address a chaotic circumstance of the government’s own making. They belie measured and ordered governance, which is central to the concept of due process enshrined in our Constitution. ”Under the order, children younger than 5 years old must be reunited with their parents within 14 days, while older children must be reunited with their parents within 30 days. Within 10 days, federal authorities must allow parents to call their children if they're not already in contact with them. (Tchekmedyian and Davis, 6/27)

The Associated Press: Unclear Math: HHS Has 2,047 Children; Full US Count Lacking
The number of migrant children in custody after being separated from their parents barely dropped since last week, even as Trump administration said it's doing everything possible to expedite family reunification. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar told senators at a hearing Tuesday that his agency currently has 2,047 migrant children — or six fewer than the total HHS count last week. (6/26)

Politico: Doctors Say Migrant Children Separated From Their Parents Will Face Lasting Ills
Lawyers challenging the Trump administration’s family separation policies are getting strong backing from the medical community. In several recent lawsuits, legal advocates are using statements signed by hundreds of physicians and medical experts warning that migrant children separated from their parents will face years of mental and physical illnesses. (Rayasam, 6/26)

Politico: Pulse Check: The Courts, Congress And The Migrant Crisis With Bob Carey
Bob Carey, who ran the HHS refugee office during the Obama administration, debunks myths about the migrant crisis. POLITICO reporters analyze the latest Supreme Court decisions and Congress' rush to pass opioid legislation. (6/26)

The Hill: Poll: Pre-Existing Condition Protections A Top Health Issue
The majority of people in a new poll say it’s important to them that ObamaCare’s protections for people with pre-existing conditions aren’t endangered. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation’s latest tracking poll, majorities of Republicans, Democrats and independents surveyed said it is “very important” to them that ObamaCare’s provisions protecting those with preexisting conditions remain law. (Weixel, 6/27)

Stat: Most Americans Buy Trump's Idea To Force Pharma To Advertise Drug Prices
When the Trump administration released its blueprint for coping with high drug costs last month, one particular idea was widely derided — requiring drug makers to include list prices in consumer advertising. That’s because drug pricing is highly confusing and few people actually pay list prices. Nonetheless, the White House seems to believe that such transparency could force companies to compete on price. Whether or not this is correct remains to be seen, but for the moment, most Americans like the idea. (Silverman, 6/27)

Stat: Ariadne Labs: Atul Gawande's Testing Ground For New Ideas In Health Care
Dr. Atul Gawande is best known as a surgeon and a writer, but it’s his experience running a Boston-based health research program that may be most relevant to his new role as chief executive of the health care venture spun out of Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway, and JPMorgan Chase. Ariadne Labs, a partnership between a major Boston hospital and Harvard University, has since 2012 served as a testing ground for projects to improve the quality of health care around the world. The project’s track record, and how Gawande has run it, may be indicative of what’s in store for the company he’ll be heading up starting July 9. (Swetlitz, 6/27)

The Washington Post: Why Are We Being So Rude To Each Other? Research Shows Incivility Often Spreads Like A Contagious Cold
These are rude times we live in. And many people find themselves struggling with how to respond. Do they fight fire with fire or try somehow to take the moral high ground? Scientific research has surprisingly quite a lot to say about it all. (Wan, 6/26)

Stat: Flu Drug, Taken In Single Dose, Could Upend Treatment If Approved In U.S.
Next winter, there may be a new drug for people who contract influenza — one that appears to be able to shut down infection quickly and, unlike anything else on the market, can be taken as a single pill. The Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday said that it would give the drug, baloxavir morboxil, a priority review, and approval has the potential to upend the way influenza is treated. (Branswell, 6/27)

The New York Times: High-Resolution Snapshot Of Zika Virus Reveals Clues To Fighting It
Scientists have captured the clearest and most detailed image yet of Zika, the virus that set off a global health crisis in 2015 and 2016 and left thousands of babies with serious birth defects. The work could contribute to the development of more effective vaccines and treatments to combat the virus. The research, published Tuesday in the journal Structure, combined tens of thousands of two-dimensional images to construct a three-dimensional model of the virus’s structure. (Baumgaertner, 6/26)

Los Angeles Times: Fewer Americans Are Spending Their Final Days In The Hospital And More Are Dying At Home
The American way of dying seems to have become less frantic, desperate and expensive. That’s the upshot of a new study that finds that seniors insured by Medicare who died in 2015 were less likely to do so in a hospital and more likely to pass away in a home or other community setting than those who died in 2000. The new research also showed that the proportion of American seniors who were admitted to the intensive care unit during their final month of life has stabilized after rising between 2000 and 2009. By 2015, 29% of dying patients insured by Medicare spent part of their final month of life in the ICU. (Healy, 6/27)

The Washington Post: Polio Virus Treatment Increased Survival In Patients With Deadly Brain Tumors, Study Shows
A genetically modified polio virus improved the longer-term survival of patients with a lethal type of brain tumor, according to the results of an early-stage clinical trial published Tuesday. Twenty-one percent of the patients treated with the virus — all with disease that had recurred — were alive after three years, compared with just 4 percent of those who had undergone standard chemotherapy. The trial at the Duke Cancer Institute involved patients with glioblastoma, the kind of tumor that Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) is battling. The results were published online in the New England Journal of Medicine and presented Tuesday at an international brain tumor conference in Norway. (McGinley, 6/26)

The Associated Press: Enemy Turned Ally: Poliovirus Is Used To Fight Brain Tumors
One of the world's most dreaded viruses has been turned into a treatment to fight deadly brain tumors. Survival was better than expected for patients in a small study who were given genetically modified poliovirus, which helped their bodies attack the cancer, doctors report. It was the first human test of this and it didn't help most patients or improve median survival. But many who did respond seemed to have long-lasting benefit: About 21 percent were alive at three years versus 4 percent in a comparison group of previous brain tumor patients. (6/26)

NPR: Study: Genetically Modified Poliovirus To Treat Brain Cancer
"I've been doing this for 50 years and I've never seen results like this," says Dr. Darell Bigner, the director emeritus of the The Preston Robert Tisch Brain Tumor Center at the Duke Cancer Institute, who is helping develop the treatment. But the researchers and other brain-cancer doctors caution the research is at a very early stage. In the study, only 21 percent of patients experienced a prolonged survival. Much more follow-up research is needed to better assess and hopefully improve the treatment's effectiveness, the researchers say. (Stein, 6/26)

The New York Times: Walk Briskly For Your Health. About 100 Steps A Minute.
Most of us know that we should walk briskly for the sake of our health. But how fast is brisk? A helpful new study of walking speed and health concludes that the answer seems to be about 100 steps per minute, a number that is probably lower than many of us might expect. Current exercise guidelines almost always state that we should walk at a brisk pace rather than stroll leisurely. But the recommendations do not always define what brisk walking means and, when they do, can deploy daunting terminology or technicalities. (Reynolds, 6/27)

The Associated Press: Brown Takes Victory Lap As He Signs California Budget
Gov. Jerry Brown will take a victory lap Wednesday when he signs a $139 billion California budget that marks a stark turnaround from the financial crisis he inherited seven years ago. Nearing the end of his final term as governor, Brown has celebrated the state’s financial strength and thriving economy, even as President Donald Trump and his allies paint the nation’s most populous state as a place in decline. ... The budget boosts funding for higher education, staving off tuition increases, and increasing welfare grants that have been slow to return to their pre-recession levels. It creates more slots for subsidized child care and gives a raise to doctors and dentists who see low-income patients on the state Medicaid program, Medi-Cal, which covers one in three Californians. (Cooper, 6/27)

The Associated Press: California Lead Paint Liability Initiative Heads To Ballot
California voters will likely see an initiative on the November ballot that limits the liability of lead paint companies by authorizing bond funding to clean up the paint and other health hazards in buildings in the state. The California Secretary of State announced Tuesday that backers of the measure collected enough signatures to make the ballot. (6/26)

The Associated Press: Hospital Suspends Trial Of Paramedics Administering Ketamine
Hennepin Healthcare is suspending a clinical trial of the sedative ketamine in emergency situations following criticism that its hospital, Hennepin County Medical Center, enrolled patients in the study without their knowledge. Paramedics’ use of the sedative on agitated people during emergency calls is already the subject of an independent investigation commissioned by the City of Minneapolis. The number of documented ketamine injections during police calls increased from three in 2012 to 62 last year, according to an investigation by the Minneapolis Office of Police Conduct. (6/26)

The Washington Post: Oklahoma Voters Just Approved One Of The Most Progressive Medical Marijuana Bills In The Country
Oklahoma voters approved a medical marijuana bill on Tuesday, making the state the 30th in the nation to permit the use of marijuana with a doctor’s recommendation. The measure is notable for reflecting one of the most permissive medical cannabis policies in the country. While most states specify a narrow list of medical conditions for which doctors can recommend the plant, in Oklahoma doctors will be able to recommend it for any condition. (Ingraham, 6/27)

Los Angeles Times: L.A. County Supervisors Call For Review Of Child Protection System In Wake Of Anthony Avalos' Death
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday ordered officials in charge of child protection to examine shortcomings in the system in the wake of a 10-year-old boy’s death last week. Anthony Avalos was found unresponsive at his family’s home in Lancaster on June 20 with severe head injuries and cigarette burns covering his body. He died Thursday. The Times reported Sunday that at least 16 calls had been made to the county’s child abuse hotline and to police before Anthony died. Callers alleged that he or his six siblings had been denied food and water, beaten, sexually abused, dangled upside-down from a staircase, forced to crouch for hours, locked in small spaces with no access to the bathroom, and forced to eat from the trash. (Agrawal, 6/26)