First Edition: May 15, 2019

Kaiser Health News: ‘Living Their Values’: Palliative Care Power Couple Faces Cancer At Home
In the 18 years that Kathy Brandt and Kim Acquaviva have been together, death has been a constant companion. It’s the reason they went to work each morning. Acquaviva, a professor of nursing, wrote an acclaimed 2017 book on inclusive end-of-life care for LGBTQ people. Brandt, a nationally known hospice industry leader and consultant, was tapped to write and edit the latest clinical guidelines for quality palliative care. But in January, the professional became acutely personal: Brandt, 53, was diagnosed with metastatic ovarian cancer and learned she had mere months to live. (Aleccia, 5/15)

Kaiser Health News: Walmart Charts New Course By Steering Workers To High-Quality Imaging Centers
Walmart Inc., the nation’s largest private employer, is worried that too many of its workers are having health conditions misdiagnosed, leading to unnecessary surgery and wasted health spending. The issue crystallized for Walmart officials when they discovered about half of the company’s workers who went to the Mayo Clinic and other specialized hospitals for back surgery in the past few years turned out to not need those operations. They were either misdiagnosed by their doctor or needed only non-surgical treatment. (Galewitz, 5/15)

Kaiser Health News: Listen: A Blitz Of Health Care Bills
Julie Rovner, Kaiser Health News’ chief Washington correspondent, talks with Robin Young on “Here and Now” about Democrats’ plans to push a package of health care bills through the House this week. The measure will give lawmakers a talking point about their efforts to bolster the Affordable Care Act after the Trump administration has sought to weaken it. The package, however, includes several bills with bipartisan support to get generics on the market sooner. (5/14)

The New York Times: Where Steve Bullock Stands On The Issues
Steve Bullock, the latest Democrat to enter the presidential race, was twice elected governor of deep-red Montana. In 2016, in fact, more than 20 percent of Trump voters also voted to re-elect him. ... Most of the Democrats running for president are calling for universal health care, but Mr. Bullock isn’t. Asked last year whether he supported Medicare for all, he demurred, saying there were “any number of different paths” to make health care “affordable, accessible and of quality.” He did shepherd an expansion of Medicaid through the Republican-controlled Montana Legislature in 2015. He also supports the Affordable Care Act and has spoken out against attempts to repeal or undermine it, accusing the Trump administration and congressional Republicans of trying to “sabotage” the law. (Astor, 5/14)

The Washington Post: Montana Gov. Bullock Joins 2020 Democratic Presidential Race
His immediate challenge is corralling enough donors and support in the polls to qualify for the first Democratic debate in June. He told reporters during an appearance at the high school from which he graduated that he hopes to do that over the next month, but he’ll still be out campaigning even if he doesn’t make the cut. “The debate stage would be lacking a bit if they didn’t have somebody who actually got reelected in a state where Donald Trump won,” he said. “I’ll do the best I can to get there.” (Barrow and Volz, 5/14)

Politico: Kamala Harris Escalates Gun Control Agenda
Kamala Harris' unilateral crackdown on guns is expanding. At a presidential campaign event Wednesday in New Hampshire, Harris will pledge to take executive action banning the importation of AR-15-style assault weapons — a move that comes just three weeks after the California Democrat rolled out her sweeping gun-control proposal. (Cadelago, 5/15)

The New York Times: Alabama Lawmakers Vote To Effectively Ban Abortion In The State
The Alabama Senate approved a measure on Tuesday that would outlaw almost all abortions in the state, setting up a direct challenge to Roe v. Wade, the case that recognized a woman’s constitutional right to end a pregnancy. The legislation bans abortions at every stage of pregnancy and criminalizes the procedure for doctors, who could be charged with felonies and face up to 99 years in prison. It includes an exception for cases when the mother’s life is at serious risk, but not for cases of rape or incest — a subject of fierce debate among lawmakers in recent days. (Williams and Blinder, 5/14)

Los Angeles Times: Alabama Lawmakers Vote To Ban All Abortions In The State And To Punish Doctors
“You just aborted and you raped the state of Alabama,” Sen. Minority Leader Bobby Singleton railed at his Republican colleagues after the vote against the amendment. “All of you should be put in jail for this abortion that you just laid on the state of Alabama. This is just a shame. This is a disgrace. It is a travesty.” In an extraordinary protest against the vote on the amendment, Singleton vowed that Democrats would stay up through the night to filibuster the bill. (Jarvie, 5/14)

The Associated Press: Alabama Ban On Nearly All Abortions In GOP Governor's Hands
Ivey has not said whether she'll sign the bill. Sponsor Rep. Terri Collins says she expects the governor to support the ban. And the lopsided vote suggests a veto could be easily overcome. But an Ivey spokeswoman said before Tuesday's vote that "the governor intends to withhold comment until she has had a chance to thoroughly review the final version of the bill that passed." In Alabama and other conservative states, anti-abortion politicians and activists emboldened by the addition of conservative justices to the U.S. Supreme Court hope to ignite legal fights and eventually overturn the landmark 1973 decision Roe v. Wade, putting an end to the constitutional right to abortion. (Chandler, 5/15)

The Washington Post: Alabama Senate Passes Nation’s Most Restrictive Abortion Ban, Which Makes No Exceptions For Victims Of Rape And Incest
“This bill is about challenging Roe v. Wade and protecting the lives of the unborn because an unborn baby is a person who deserves love and protection,” Alabama state Rep. Terri Collins (R), the sponsor of the bill, said after the vote Tuesday night. “I have prayed my way through this bill. This is the way we get where we want to get eventually.” (Wax-Thibodeaux and Brownlee, 5/14)

Politico: Alabama Senate Approves Nation’s Strictest Abortion Ban
Abortion rights groups said they will immediately mount a legal challenge to the measure, contending it violates the landmark 1973 Roe ruling guaranteeing a woman’s right to an abortion until a fetus is viable. “Politicians in Alabama just passed the most extreme and dangerous policy since Roe v. Wade,“ said Leana Wen, president of Planned Parenthood Action Fund. “Doctors and public health leaders agree: the cost will be women’s lives. … Politicians who say they value life should advocate for policies to solve the public health crises that are killing women, not dismantle what little access to health care Alabamians have left.“ (Goldberg, 5/14)

The Wall Street Journal: Alabama Senate Approves Abortion Ban
It highlights growing efforts by abortion opponents to try to challenge the legality of abortion more directly instead of pursuing incremental measures that erect regulatory and other hurdles. The new approach has gained steam in the wake of President Trump’s appointment of conservative Justice Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. (Campo-Flores, 5/15)

Los Angeles Times: Georgia Governor Postpones L.A. Visit Amid Hollywood Clash Over Abortion Law
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp has postponed a trip to Los Angeles next week amid mounting criticism over the state’s controversial abortion bill that he signed into law last week. But Kemp has plans for a later visit. “We have confirmed a date to go out to L.A. this fall,” Kemp’s spokesman, Cody Hall, said in a statement to The Times on Tuesday. At next week’s visit in L.A., Kemp had planned to tout his state’s ties to Hollywood productions. (Saad, 5/14)

The Associated Press: Pennsylvania House Tries Anew To Ban Down Syndrome Abortions
The Pennsylvania House of Representatives is launching another effort to outlaw abortions because of a prenatal diagnosis of Down syndrome, passing legislation Tuesday that faces a veto by Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf, if it even reaches his desk. The vote comes amid a wave of abortion restrictions advancing in more conservative states, setting them on a course to virtually eliminate abortion access in parts of the Midwest and Deep South, in hopes that a more conservative U.S. Supreme Court will approve. (Levy, 5/14)

The Associated Press: Michigan Lawmakers OK Ban On Abortion Procedure; Veto Vowed
Michigan's Republican-led Legislature voted Tuesday to ban a common second-trimester abortion procedure, pushing ahead with legislation Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said she would veto. The bills would prohibit physicians from performing abortion by dilation and evacuation except to save a woman's life. Anti-abortion advocates refer to the procedure by the non-medical term "dismemberment abortion." (5/14)

The Washington Post: ‘Heartbeat’ Abortion Ban To Be Debated In Missouri Senate
Missouri’s Republican-led Senate is set to take up a bill to ban abortions after eight weeks, a move that comes as GOP legislatures across the U.S. are emboldened by the possibility that a more conservative Supreme Court could overturn its landmark ruling legalizing the procedure. The Missouri bill would be one of the nation’s most restrictive if enacted. It’s similar to “heartbeat” bills signed into law in Mississippi, Kentucky, Ohio and Georgia that ban abortion once a fetal heartbeat is detected. That can occur in about the sixth week of pregnancy. (Ballentine, 5/15)

The Associated Press: Judge Rescinds Ruling Against ‘Physicians-Only’ Abortion Law
A federal judge has rescinded his own ruling that struck down a Virginia law that said only physicians may perform first-trimester abortions. U.S. District Court Henry Hudson last week found that the law was “unduly burdensome” to women seeking abortions. Hudson’s ruling came ahead of a trial scheduled to begin next week in a lawsuit challenging Virginia abortion laws. (5/14)

The Washington Post: Which States Are Blocking Abortion — And Which Are Enacting Protections?
The Alabama Senate tonight approved a bill that would create the nation’s strictest abortion ban, the latest attempt to prompt the Supreme Court to reconsider Roe v. Wade. The bill, which would make performing virtually all abortions a crime, has passed the state House and Senate and now goes to the governor for signature to become a law. (Keating, Tierney, Meko and Rindler, 5/14)

The Hill: Dem House Chairman, Top Republican Release Measure To End Surprise Medical Bills 
The Democratic and Republican leaders of the House Energy and Commerce Committee on Tuesday released a discussion draft of a measure to protect patients from getting massive, unexpected medical bills, a sign of bipartisan momentum on the issue. The release from Energy and Commerce Chairman Frank Pallone Jr. (D-N.J.) and ranking member Greg Walden (R-Ore.) comes after President Trump called for action on the issue last week. (Sullivan, 5/14)

The Associated Press: Lawmakers Ask Watchdog To Probe Migrant Teen Camp's Contract
Three Democratic lawmakers are asking a government watchdog agency to investigate how a private company tied to former White House Chief of Staff John Kelly secured a no-bid contract to hold migrant children in a Florida facility. South Florida U.S. representatives Donna Shalala, Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Debbie Mucarsel-Powell sent a letter to the Office of Inspector General in the Department of Health and Human Services on Monday. In the document made public Tuesday, the House members ask for a probe of Kelly's role in the contract negotiations, given he was a board member of the contractor's umbrella company, Caliburn International. (Gomez Licon, 5/14)

The Associated Press: Congresswomen To Form A Caucus Focusing On Female Veterans
Congresswomen with military service in their past, some of them forged on post-Sept. 11 wars, are hoping to create their own caucus to drive an agenda to support the nation's growing ranks of female service members. Such a caucus — bipartisan and including men — would be a first, too. There are more than a dozen military and veteran-related caucuses in the House, but none dedicated to the specific needs of women who serve. (Kellman, 5/15)

The Wall Street Journal: New York Bill To Close Vaccination Loophole Stalls In State Assembly
Hundreds of people who oppose vaccination requirements rallied Tuesday at the State Capitol, decrying a bill that would eliminate an exemption to the rules based on a family’s religious beliefs. The measure has been introduced for years but gained new urgency amid the country’s largest measles outbreak since 1994, said the bill’s sponsors, state Assemblyman Jeff Dinowitz and state Sen. Brad Hoylman. Both men were booed in absentia during a two-hour rally that included Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Del Bigtree, who produced the antivaccine documentary “Vaxxed.” (Vielkind and West, 5/14)

The Associated Press: Parents Rally At State Capitol To Keep Vaccine Exemptions
Hundreds of parents and vaccine skeptics have called on New York lawmakers not to narrow existing exemptions to the state childhood immunization rules. The group stood in the rain outside the state Capitol Tuesday urging lawmakers to protect a state law that permits people not to vaccinate their children for religious reasons. (5/14)

The New York Times: Despite Measles Warnings, Anti-Vaccine Rally Draws Hundreds Of Ultra-Orthodox Jews
An ultra-Orthodox rabbi falsely described the measles outbreak among Jews as part of an elaborate plan concocted by Mayor Bill de Blasio of New York to deflect attention from “more serious” diseases brought by Central American migrants. A pediatrician questioned whether Jews were being intentionally given “bad lots” of vaccines that ended up giving children a new strain of the virus. And Andrew Wakefield, the British doctor whose study linking measles vaccines with autism was widely discredited and condemned, appeared via Skype to offer an almost apocalyptic vision of a world in which vaccines were giving rise to deadlier immunization-resistant diseases. (de Freytas-Tamura, 5/14)

The Associated Press: Oregon Vaccine Bill Dead As US Measles Count Soars
Critics blasted a decision by Oregon lawmakers that killed a bill aimed at getting more children vaccinated for measles and other preventable diseases in order pass a tax on large businesses, saying it jeopardized public health. Despite passing the House and having the necessary votes in the Senate, the measure to make it harder for families to opt out of required vaccinations was nixed as part of a deal announced Monday to end a week-long Republican walkout over a multibillion school funding tax. (Zimmerman, 5/14)

The Washington Post: Justice Department Says FDA ‘Lacks Jurisdiction’ Over Death-Penalty Drugs
The Justice Department says in a new legal opinion that the Food and Drug Administration does not have authority over drugs used in lethal injections, a stance sure to be challenged by death-penalty opponents. The department’s Office of Legal Counsel said that “articles intended for use in capital punishment by a state or the federal government cannot be regulated as ‘drugs’ or ‘devices.’ ” The legal opinion, issued this month, comes as states have struggled in recent years to obtain drugs for lethal injections, which remain the country’s primary method of execution even as the number of executions has declined. (McGinley and Berman, 5/14)

Politico: FDA Can’t Control Death Penalty Drugs, DOJ Says
The immediate effect of the Trump administration decision is unclear because of a court injunction issued in 2012 barring the FDA from allowing the importation of a key execution drug, sodium thiopental. Shortages of that drug have led many states to scale back or halt executions in recent years. In a statement, an FDA spokesperson said the agency would “follow the conclusion of the opinion to the extent permissible” by the 7-year-old order, which remains in effect. (Gerstein, 5/14)

Modern Healthcare: AMA Hires Its First Chief Health Equity Officer
The American Medical Association has hired its first chief health equity officer to launch a new program addressing health disparities in the U.S. and working toward optimal health for all. Dr. Aletha Maybank, a pediatrician and public health specialist, will head the AMA's new Center for Health Equity, designed to make health equity and diversity a key part of all the organization's processes and activities. She previously served as deputy commissioner and founding director of the Center for Health Equity within New York City's public health department. (Meyer, 5/14)

The Associated Press: New Liver Transplant Rules Begin Amid Fight Over Fairness
Wilnelia Cruz-Ulloa spent the last months of her life in a New York City hospital, waiting for a donated liver that never came. Doctors had urged the 38-year-old to move to another state that has more organs to go around. But she couldn't afford to. Where you live makes a difference in how sick you have to be to get a transplant, or if you'll die waiting. Now the nation's transplant system is aiming to make the wait for livers, and eventually all organs, less dependent on your ZIP code. New rules mandating wider sharing of donated livers went into effect Tuesday despite a fierce and ongoing hospital turf war in federal court. (5/14)

The Wall Street Journal: Hospital Drug-Making Venture Picks Antibiotics As First Products
Two critical antibiotics will be the first products supplied by a group of hospitals that are trying to overcome high drug prices and short supplies by producing the medicines themselves. Civica Rx, the nonprofit drugmaking venture established by the hospitals, plans to begin distributing vancomycin hydrochloride and daptomycin before the end of September, according to Civica’s chief executive. (Evans, 5/15)

Stat: New Ventures Strike Deals With Drug Makers To Combat Shortages
The efforts reflect the extent to which drug shortages continue to plague hospitals and the pharmaceutical supply chain more broadly. Over the past decade, a growing number of generic drugs in particular have been hard to obtain as manufacturers encounter quality control issues or some companies cease production of low-profit medicines. “Some of the drugs have gotten to a price so low that no quality manufacturer wants to produce the products without a sustainable financial model. So a lot have chosen to exit” the market, Michael Moloney, group vice president of integrated pharmacy at Premier, told us recently. “We see the problem as a structural inefficiency.” (Silverman, 5/15)

Stat: Gilead Struck Anti-Competitive Deals To Hike HIV Drug Profits: Lawsuit
In a bid to maintain its dominance in the HIV market, Gilead Sciences (GILD) allegedly conspired with other drug makers whose medicines were part of a so-called combination cocktail in order to block generic competition, according to a lawsuit filed by AIDS activists and two unions. The complaint describes an unusual scheme concerning these cocktails, which are actually fixed-dose combinations of different medicines and have been widely used for several years to combat the virus. Although Gilead has been a dominant player in the HIV marketplace, other companies manufacture HIV medicines that are useful components in a cocktail treatment. (Silverman, 5/14)

The Associated Press: Maker Of OxyContin Gets Hit With Another State Lawsuit
The company that makes OxyContin did not stop pitching the powerful opioid painkiller to doctors even when its sales representatives raised concerns that they were prescribing the drug inappropriately, the Pennsylvania attorney general's office said in a lawsuit announced Tuesday. The lawsuit against Connecticut-based Purdue Pharma was filed on May 2 under seal and announced on Tuesday. It made Pennsylvania at least the 39th state to sue the company seeking to hold it responsible for the toll of opioids, which have been killing more people in the U.S. and Pennsylvania each year than car crashes. (Mulvihill, 5/14)

The Hill: Pennsylvania Attorney General Sues Purdue Pharma Over Opioid Epidemic 
Shapiro’s lawsuit accuses the drugmaker of aiming more than 500,000 misleading or deceptive messages about its products' potential for addiction at Pennsylvania doctors. “Simply stated, Purdue took advantage of addiction to make money,” the suit says. The lawsuit says the company made more sales visits in Pennsylvania than any other state except California. The Connecticut-based firm has sold more than 2.9 million opioid prescriptions in Pennsylvania since May 2007, according to Shapiro. (Budryk, 5/14)

The Associated Press: Fewer Babies As US Birth Rate Fails To Rebound With Economy
America's baby bust isn't over. The nation's birth rates last year reached record lows for women in their teens and 20s, a government report shows, leading to the fewest babies in 32 years. The provisional report, released Wednesday and based on more than 99% of U.S. birth records, found 3.788 million births last year. It was the fourth year the number of births has fallen, the lowest since 1986 and a surprise to some experts given the improving economy. (5/15)

The Wall Street Journal: U.S. Births Fall To Lowest Rates Since 1980s
About 3.79 million babies were born in the U.S. in 2018, according to provisional data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics. That was a 2% decline from the previous year and marked the fourth year in a row that the number fell. The general fertility rate—the number of births per 1,000 women ages 15 to 44—fell to 59.0, the lowest since the start of federal record-keeping. With the latest decline, births in the U.S. have fallen in 10 of the last 11 years since peaking in 2007, just before the recession. Many demographers believed that births would rebound as the economy recovered, but that trend hasn’t materialized. (DeBarros and Adamy, 5/15)

The New York Times: Primal Fear: Can Monkeys Help Unlock The Secrets Of Trauma?
On Valentine’s Day, 2018, five months after Hurricane Maria made landfall, Daniel Phillips stood at the edge of a denuded forest on the eastern half of a 38-acre island known as Cayo Santiago, a clipboard in his hand, his eyes on the monkeys. The island sits about a half-mile off the southeast coast of Puerto Rico, near a village called Punta Santiago. Phillips and his co-workers left the mainland shortly after dawn, and the monkeys had already begun to gather by the time they arrived, their screams and oddly birdlike chirps louder than the low rumble of the motorboat that ferried the humans. (Dittrich, 5/14)

The New York Times: Scans Suggested The Boy Had Cancer. But No Doctor Could Prove It. Why?
The mother was in a grocery store on the North Side of Chicago when she got the news. “I talked to a doctor who might be able to help figure out what’s wrong with your son,” her friend said. The words were a relief; she had been searching for months. The woman, her husband and their 16-year-old son were in Florida for spring break several months earlier when the boy first mentioned the pain in his right knee. That school year, he had thrown himself into sports with enthusiasm — first softball, then basketball, playing almost every day — so his mother wasn’t surprised that he was having pain, only that he complained about it. (Sanders, 5/15)

The Associated Press: 'Zombie Cells' Buildup In Your Body May Play Role In Aging
Call them zombie cells — they refuse to die. As they build up in your body, studies suggest, they promote aging and the conditions that come with it like osteoporosis and Alzheimer's disease. Researchers are studying drugs that can kill zombie cells and possibly treat the problems they bring. (5/14)

The Associated Press: What Helps Prevent Dementia? Try Exercise, Not Vitamin Pills
If you want to save your brain, focus on keeping the rest of your body well with exercise and healthy habits rather than popping vitamin pills, new guidelines for preventing dementia advise. About 50 million people currently have dementia, and Alzheimer's disease is the most common type. Each year brings 10 million new cases, says the report released Tuesday by the World Health Organization. (5/14)

The New York Times: Doctor, We Need You In The Writer’s Room, Stat
The surgeon is scrubbed and ready. He calls for a “ten-blade” and the nurse slaps the scalpel into his hand. He nods, unwavering, and runs the sharp edge against plastic skin. And then —A different kind of cut. The surgeon relaxes and now he is an actor waiting for a touch-up of his powder. The director makes a suggestion and he nods. He’s game. The patient sips from her water bottle. And in this world of seemingly unlimited takes, we are ready to go again. (Lamas, 5/15)

The New York Times: Glucosamine Tied To Heart Benefits
Glucosamine, the dietary supplement widely used for arthritic pain, may reduce the risk for cardiovascular disease, researchers report. Scientists looked at 466,039 British men and women, ages 40 to 69, who were free of cardiovascular disease at the start of the study. Participants completed detailed health questionnaires that included information on the use of dietary supplements. Nearly 90,000 of them, or 19 percent, reported regular use of glucosamine. The study, in BMJ, tracked the participants’ health for an average of seven years. (Bakalar, 5/14)

The New York Times: To Move Is To Thrive. It’s In Our Genes.
A need and desire to be in motion may have been bred into our DNA before we even became humans and could have helped to guide the evolution of our species, according to a fascinating new study of the genetics of physical activity. The study uses big data and sophisticated genetic analyses to determine that some of the gene variants associated with how much and whether people move seem to have joined our ancestors’ genome hundreds of thousands of years ago, making them integral to human existence and well-being and raising interesting questions about what that means today, when most humans are sedentary. (Reynolds, 5/15)

Politico: 5 Key Questions About The Country's First Public Option
Washington state formally approved the public option this week, becoming the first state to test a policy that numerous Democratic presidential candidates — including the state’s governor — will tout on the campaign trail. But the state’s work on the idea is just beginning, and it’s facing a major time crunch to get the plans launched by the legislation’s 2021 start date. State officials must wrestle with key questions about how to design the public plan to make it affordable enough to attract new customers, while ensuring enough hospitals and doctors will join its network. (Pradhan and Goldberg, 5/14)

Los Angeles Times: Newsom’s Tough Sell On Healthcare: Persuading Public On Fines For Those Without Coverage
Five months after unveiling a sweeping plan to lower health insurance costs for middle-class Californians, Gov. Gavin Newsom now must sell the politically unpopular part of his proposal — hefty fines on those who do not have medical coverage. On Tuesday, he launched his pitch by highlighting how the high cost of health insurance is hurting small-business owners, and he warned lawmakers that failing to approve the fees to fund expanded subsidies is a “bad decision.” (Gutierrez, 5/14)

The Associated Press: California Governor Wants To Help More Buy Health Insurance
Sydney Winlock owns a small business with his wife in Northern California, and they had a strange conversation recently: Should they make less money so they can afford their health insurance? The couple makes too much money to qualify for help from the federal government in paying their monthly insurance premiums, which now cost them $18,000 a year. But if they scale back their business and make less money, they would qualify for the help. (5/14)

The Associated Press: Delaware AG Investigating Prison Medical Contractor
Delaware's attorney general is investigating the state's prison system medical contractor amid allegations that staffers were ordered to forge documents to falsely state that inmates were getting mental health treatment they never received. Officials confirmed the investigation this week and urged anyone with information about the record-keeping practices of Connections Community Support Programs Inc. to contact the Office of Civil Rights and Public Trust. (5/14)

The Associated Press: Philly Soda Tax Study Sees Sales Dip, Health Impact Unclear
A new study bolsters evidence that soda taxes can reduce sales, but whether they influence health remains unclear. The research found that Philadelphia's 2017 tax led to a 38 percent decline in sugary soda and diet drink sales that year, even when taking into account an increase in sales in neighboring towns. (5/14)

The Associated Press: DC Votes To Close City’s Only Public Hospital Within 4 Years
The Washington, D.C., City Council has voted to close the city’s only public hospital by January 2023. The Washington Post reports the closure voted for Tuesday was part of the $15.5 billion budget approved by the council for the fiscal year starting Oct. 1. The local part of the budget controlled by city officials equals about $8.6 billion, the remainder is federal or special funding. (5/15)