First Edition: March 23, 2018

Kaiser Health News: For One Father And Son In Puerto Rico, Hurricane Maria’s Cloud Has Not Lifted
To reach the Martinez home in Puerto Rico’s central mountains, social worker Eileen Calderon steers around piles of dirt, treacherous potholes and power company trucks that block the road. Finally, she pulls up to a sagging, cement home, its roof done in by Hurricane Maria. Laundry hangs under a tarp, and a cat is tied to a leash outside the door. Calderon, who is based in San Juan, and works for VarMed, a company that handles complex medical cases in Puerto Rico, has brought two colleagues — a nurse, Anamelia Velazquez, and a primary care physician, Dr. Carla Rossotti — to check in on Osvaldo Martinez and his son, Osvaldo Daniel Martinez. (Varney, 3/23)

Kaiser Health News: Poll: Americans Aghast Over Drug Costs But Aren’t Holding Their Breath For A Fix
Drug prices are among the few areas of health policy where Americans seem to find consensus. Eighty percent of people said they think drug prices are too high, and both Democrats (65 percent) and Republicans (74 percent) agreed the industry has too much sway over lawmakers. (Bluth, 3/23)

The Associated Press: Congress OKs $1.3 Trillion Budget, Averting Another Shutdown
Congress gave final approval Friday to a giant $1.3 trillion spending bill that ends the budget battles for now, but only after late scuffles and conservatives objections to big outlays on Democratic priorities at a time when Republicans control the House, Senate and White House. Senate passage shortly after midnight averted a third federal shutdown this year, an outcome both parties wanted to avoid. But in crafting a sweeping deal that busts budget caps, they've stirred conservative opposition and set the contours for the next funding fight ahead of the midterm elections. (Mascaro and Fram, 3/23)

The Washington Post: In Late-Night Drama, Senate Passes $1.3 Trillion Spending Bill, Averting Government Shutdown
Action by the Senate shortly before 1 a.m. capped a day of suspense, including the late-night revelation that the legislation had been stalled for hours partly because Sen. James E. Risch (R-Idaho) objected to the renaming of a federal wilderness area after a deceased political rival. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) also held out against the bill for much of the day Thursday, voicing objections to what he viewed as unnecessary deficit spending while keeping colleagues in the dark about whether he would delay action on the legislation and force a brief government shutdown, as he did last month over an earlier spending deal. (Werner and DeBonis, 3/23)

Politico: McConnell Averts Shutdown With ‘Begging, Pleading And Cajoling’
“This is ridiculous. This is juvenile,” fumed Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), who asked McConnell for an explanation of why the chamber was in at midnight. “What has occurred over the last 11 hours that keeps us here voting on a bill that we all know is going to pass?” McConnell didn’t go into detail but acknowledged the difficult path he took to getting the spending bill across the finish line. “My principal responsibility is begging, pleading and cajoling. I have been in continuous discussions, shall I say, with several of our members who were legitimately unhappy,” McConnell said. (Everett, 3/22)

The Wall Street Journal: Congress Passes Mammoth Spending Bill, Averts Shutdown
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) depicted the bill as “legislation that neither side sees as perfect, but which contains a host of significant victories and important achievements on behalf of the American people.” Among them, he said, are a 15% increase in military spending and funding to combat an opioid epidemic as well as a down payment toward Mr. Trump’s border wall. (Peterson and Hughes, 3/23)

Reuters: Factbox: What Is In The $1.3 Trillion Spending Bill Before The Congress
The bill allots additional funds to the National Institutes of Health, including a $414 million increase for Alzheimer's disease research, $40 million more for research on developing a universal flu vaccine and $17 million more for antibiotic-resistance bacteria research. Separately, it earmarks an additional $2.8 billion to fund treatment and prevention of opioid addiction and research into the subject. (Becker and Cowan, 3/23)

The Hill: Spending Bill Includes $10M Increase For Abstinence Education 
Abstinence-only education would see a $10 million funding boost under the spending bill released by Congress Wednesday night and advanced by the House Thursday morning. Under the $1.3 trillion omnibus bill, the Sexual Risk Avoidance Education (SRAE) grant program would receive a 67 percent increase in funding, bringing it up to $25 million. (Hellmann, 3/22)

NPR: There's No Affordable Care Act Stabilization In The Omnibus Budget Deal
Here's the rundown of what's included in the 2,232-page spending bill, now in the hands of a Senate vote, based on summaries released by the House and Senate appropriations committees. (Kodjak, 3/22)

The Wall Street Journal: Lawmakers Pull All-Nighter To Study 2,232 Page Spending Bill
When the 2,232-page government spending bill posted on Wednesday night, Rep. Gary Palmer (R., Ala.) divided it into four sections and broke out the sugar. “I’m not a big dessert eater, but I confess, after one section I finished, I ate a pack of Bud’s Best Cookies,” Mr. Palmer said, referring to the Alabama-made treats he gives away in his office. “And then I finished another section, I got up and walked around, got hot tea and then I go back and do another section.” (Andrews and Peterson, 3/22)

The Hill: Senate GOP Leader: 'There Will Be A Vote' On GOP ObamaCare Fix
Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (Texas), the No. 2 Senate Republican, said Thursday "there will be a vote" on a GOP bill to lower ObamaCare premiums. Cornyn would not say whether the vote would come as an amendment to the must-pass government funding bill or as a stand-alone measure. (Sullivan, 3/22)

Bloomberg: Centene Hasn’t Fixed Obamacare Plan Doctor Shortage, Washington State Says
Centene Corp. still hasn’t fixed problems in Washington that led the state to briefly bar the health insurer from selling Obamacare plans, the insurance regulator there said Thursday. Washington will fine Centene’s Coordinated Care unit $100,000 for not complying with a December agreement to boost coverage of physicians such as anesthesiologists, Steve Valandra, deputy commissioner for public affairs at the state’s Office of the Insurance Commissioner, said by phone. (Tracer, 3/22)

Stat: Lawmakers Ask Medicaid If It Needs More Power To Fix Drug Misclassifications
In a rare move, a group of bipartisan lawmakers from the House and Senate joined forces Thursday to demand greater transparency about what the government pays for certain drugs — and to offer legislation toward that end. The ten lawmakers who penned a letter to Seema Verma, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said they were “deeply concerned”  about her agency’s oversight of the way Medicaid pays for drugs. The top signer was Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), who chairs the Senate Committee on Finance. The ranking member of that committee, Ron Wyden (D-Oregon), as well as the top lawmakers on the House Energy & Commerce Committee also signed on. (Swetlitz, 3/22)

Politico: HHS Official Who Approved Tom Price's Flights Resigns
John Bardis, a top HHS official who signed off on ex-Secretary Tom Price's charter jet flights, is resigning effective April 6, the agency confirmed Thursday. The health care entrepreneur and longtime friend of Price's from Georgia served as HHS assistant secretary of administration since March 2017 and was responsible for departmental operations. He also helped oversee the ReImagine HHS project, an initiative to overhaul the agency and cut costs. (Diamond, 3/22)

The New York Times: Beyond Gun Control, Student Marchers Aim To Upend Elections
On Saturday, Rebecca Schneid plans to pull on her sneakers, sling a camera over her shoulder and march down Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington with thousands of other students demanding an end to the gun violence that has cut through so many American communities. But to Ms. Schneid, a survivor of the school shooting that killed 17 people last month in Parkland, Fla., the march is just the beginning — a moment of political awakening, she hopes, that will put the nation on notice that young people plan to be a greater, more organized force than teenagers and college students in the past. (Burns and Turkewitz, 3/22)

The Washington Post: March For Our Lives: Parkland, D.C. Students Make Plea For Tougher Gun Laws
Before the assembly, before the mayor spoke and people cheered, before TV cameras packed the gymnasium at Thurgood Marshall Academy in Southeast Washington on Thursday, Dakota McNeely drew a purple heart on her hand in ink. Then, through its center, she carved a crack.It was an homage to her friend, James Smith, 17, who was shot dead in an apparent robbery a few days before Christmas last year. It was a way to feel Smith’s presence as she joined her classmates and Parkland, Fla., teenagers in calling for stricter gun laws. (Lang, 3/22)

The Washington Post: A City That Makes Guns Confronts Its Role In The Parkland Mass Shooting
Hussein Abdi, 19, had never given much thought to the gunmaker down the street from his high school. He often passed the Smith & Wesson factory and its flashing marquee touting the company’s deep ties to the city, “Since 1852.” Nyasia Jordan, 18, knew it only as the place where her mom used to work. It’s one of the city’s largest employers. Others saw Smith & Wesson’s presence as another detail central to Springfield’s identity, the place where basketball was invented, Dr. Seuss was born and guns are made. (Frankel, 3/22)

The Associated Press: Idaho To Require Personal Details Of Women Getting Abortions
Idaho will require abortion providers to report how many times their patients have terminated a pregnancy in the past and other personal information under the latest anti-abortion law approved in the conservative state. Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter signed the legislation Thursday, just two days after approving a measure requiring women seeking abortions to be informed that the drug-induced procedures can be halted halfway. That is despite opposition from medical groups that say there is little evidence to support that claim. (Kruesi, 3/22)

The Associated Press: Kansas Appeals Planned Parenthood Case To US Supreme Court
Kansas is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a federal appeals court ruling that prevents the state from cutting off Medicaid funds to a Planned Parenthood affiliate. Republican Gov. Jeff Colyer said Thursday that the state is seeking to reverse a 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision last month. Colyer is a strong abortion opponent. (3/22)

Reuters: Kentucky Senate Passes Bill Restricting Abortion Procedure
The Kentucky Senate overwhelmingly approved legislation on Thursday to ban a common abortion procedure once the patient reaches her 11th week of pregnancy, in what would amount to one of the strictest abortion limits yet in the United States. The Senate voted 31-5 in favor of the measure, which now goes back to the state's House of Representatives for final approval of changes to a version of the bill it passed 71-11 vote on March 12. Both bodies are controlled by Republicans. (Bittenbender, 3/23)

NPR: Opioid Overdoses Often Missed On Death Certificates
In a refrigerator in the coroner's office in Marion County, Ind., rows of vials await testing. They contain blood, urine and vitreous, the fluid collected from inside a human eye.In overdose cases, the fluids may contain clues for investigators. "We send that off to a toxicology lab to be tested for what we call drugs of abuse," said Alfie Ballew, deputy coroner. The results often include drugs such as cocaine, heroin, fentanyl or prescription pharmaceuticals. (Harper, 3/22)

USA Today: Drugmakers, Feds Combine Efforts To Combat Opioid Epidemic
Federal officials said they are working to get new non-opioid painkillers onto the market, along with opioid treatment drugs, part of the administration's strategy to address an addiction epidemic that shows no signs of abating. To those who became addicted after they were prescribed or tried pharmaceutical opioids as teens, the alternatives come too late but are still welcome news. (O'Donnell, 3/21)

The Hill: GOP Senators Push Tougher Sentencing For Synthetic Opioid 
A group of Republicans wants to bolster mandatory minimum sentencing for trafficking fentanyl, a move that comes as President Trump advocates for harsher punishments for drug traffickers. Fentanyl is “as much a weapon of mass destruction as it is a drug,” Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) said at a Thursday press conference, holding up a nearly empty salt shaker and explaining how that amount — less than 40 grams — of fentanyl could kill thousands of people. (Roubein, 3/22)

Stat: A Dietary Supplement Makes Old Mice Youthful. But Will It Work In People?
Transfusing young blood and freezing heads may get most of the anti-aging and life-extension buzz, but don’t count out the molecule hunters: After setbacks and stumbles and what critics called debacles, these scientists are figuring out which biochemicals might potentially, possibly be fountains of youth in pill form. In the latest advance, biologists reported on Thursday that a molecule already sold by supplement makers (even as scientists scramble to understand it) restored youthfulness to blood vessels in 20-month-old mice, an age comparable to 70 years in people. The research supports the idea that boosting certain genes and molecules that fade with age could keep people functional, resilient, and even spry well into their 80s, even without living longer. (Begley, 3/22)

Los Angeles Times: Modified Pap Tests Can Show Early Warning Signs Of Other Gynecological Cancers
The Pap test has already reduced the incidence of cervical cancer by more than 60%. Now it may become a key step in the early detection of two other gynecological malignancies — ovarian and endometrial cancers — that have been notorious killers because they're typically caught so late. A new study has found that by genetically analyzing the harvest of cells from a Pap smear, doctors could identify 81% of endometrial cancers and 33% of ovarian cancers.Some of those cancers were in their earliest stages, when they're more likely to respond to treatment. (Healy, 3/22)

Stat: Sequencing Patients' Genomes Might Not Break The Health Care Bank
The first rigorous study of its kind finds that sequencing people’s genomes might not lead to extensive and expensive follow-up care, researchers reported on Thursday. “That’s been the critical question that has the field [of medical genetics] very concerned: Will whole-genome sequencing drive up downstream costs?” said Kurt Christensen of Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, lead author of the study in Genetics in Medicine. (Begley, 3/22)

The New York Times: Omega-6s In Nuts, Seeds And Vegetable Oils May Aid The Heart
Are omega-6 fatty acids, the fats found in nuts, seeds and many vegetable oils, including those used in many processed and junk foods, helpful or harmful? It has been believed that omega-6s generally increase inflammation, while omega-3s, the fats in fish oil, lower it, and some studies suggest that a high omega-6 intake increases the risk for heart disease. But a new long-term study suggests omega-6s can be good for the heart. (Bakalar, 3/22)

USA Today: Art And Music As Therapy - Or Art And Music Therapy Helps Teens
Music and art are increasingly being used as tools for therapy for high school students who have faced trauma — from sexual abuse to homelessness — and have been proven to help students cope, both physically and psychologically. Studies have shown that participating in music and art can alleviate pain, help people manage stress, promote wellness, enhance memory, improve communications, aide physical rehabilitation, and give people a way to express their feelings. (Payne, O'Donnell and Doty, 3/22)

The New York Times: Netflix Adds A Warning Video To ‘13 Reasons Why’
Netflix has added a warning video that will play before its series “13 Reasons Why” and will promote resources to help young viewers and their parents address the show’s themes, the streaming service announced Wednesday. After being criticized for how the series’ first season depicted suicide, which had already led the network to add warning messages to the show, Netflix commissioned a study by the Northwestern University Center on Media and Human Development to gauge its impact on viewers. The show’s second season will be released this year. (Libbey, 3/22)

The Washington Post: Allegany Medical Marijuana Dispensary Has Banned At Least 5 Patients, Some For Online Complaints
A medical marijuana dispensary in western Maryland has banned at least four customers because they posted complaints online about pricing or other issues, sparking concern from advocates and potentially violating state rules for the emerging industry. Joy A. Strand, the executive director of the Maryland Medical Cannabis Commission, said registered dispensaries have the right to decline marijuana to patients or caregivers if they appear to be under the influence of drugs or alcohol. (Chappell, 3/22)