First Edition: November 18, 2016

California Healthline: Blue Shield, California’s Biggest Obamacare Insurer, Vows It’s Not ‘Running For The Hills’
The chief executive of Blue Shield of California, the largest insurer on the state-run marketplace, says he’s committed to selling coverage there even as Republicans pursue a repeal of the federal health law. In an interview this week with California Healthline, Paul Markovich also criticized President-elect Donald Trump’s support for the sale of insurance plans across state lines in order to boost competition and consumer choice. (Terhune, 11/17)

Reuters: Americans Want Trump To Focus On Healthcare First: Poll
Healthcare is the top issue Americans want Donald Trump to address during his first 100 days in the White House, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Thursday, an apparent rebuke of outgoing President Barack Obama's signature reform, Obamacare. Some 21 percent of Americans want Trump to focus on the healthcare system when he enters the White House on Jan. 20, according to the Nov. 9-14 poll, conducted in the week after the Republican won the U.S. presidential election. (Khan, 11/17)

The Washington Post: The Ultimate Q&A About Health Care Under A Trump Presidency
While it's pretty much a given that the Affordable Care Act won't survive a Trump presidency and Republican Congress in its current form, there are sweeping implications of reversing a law that has reached in so many ways into our health care system. The government has never undone a major benefits program after it has taken effect — and neither the incoming administration nor GOP lawmakers know exactly how they'll replace it. (Cha and Goldstein, 11/17)

The New York Times: Former Valeant And Philidor Executives Charged In Kickback Scheme
A secret relationship had made the two men rich: one, the head of a mail-order pharmacy, the other, an executive at a major pharmaceutical company who had promised to funnel millions of dollars to his partner in exchange for receiving millions of his own.They celebrated over email like characters in a classic western movie — with one saying that they would soon “ride into the sunset” together. (Thomas and Goldstein, 11/17)

The Wall Street Journal: U.S. Attorney Charges Former Valeant, Philidor Executives, Alleging Fraud And Kickback Scheme
Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. for a year has weathered a scandal over its relationship with a mail-order pharmacy that critics say helped it secure lofty prices for its drugs. Now prosecutors say they have uncovered another troubling connection between the two companies. They alleged Thursday that two men—one from each company—enriched each other through a multimillion-dollar fraud and kickback scheme by directing more business and money to the pharmacy, Philidor Rx Services LLC. (McNish, Steele and Matthews, 11/17)

The Washington Post Fact Checker: Are There Really 10,000 Diseases And Just 500 ‘Cures’?
“You know, there’s 10,000 diseases, and we only have 500 cures," [said] House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.). McCarthy made this comment while arguing for the need to replace Obamacare during a Trump administration. The numbers seemed so perfect and round — 10,000 and 500 — that we decided they had to be checked out. (Kessler, 11/17)

The Washington Post: Life And Death In The United States, In Two Maps
The latest news about preventable deaths in the United States has some encouraging data and one sobering statistic. On the good-news front, fewer people are dying prematurely from three of the five leading causes of death between 2010 and 2014: cancer, stroke and heart disease. But there was a significant increase in preventable deaths from unintentional injuries, mostly because deaths from opioid overdoses are increasing. (Sun, 11/17)

Los Angeles Times: In America, The Rich Outlive The Poor By Up To 9.5 Years, Study Says
The United States is one of the richest countries in the world, but it would look dramatically different if its 50 states were organized according to income instead of geography. If that were the case, residents of the poorest state in the union would have a median household income that’s just above the federal poverty line for a family of four. They would also expect to live shorter lives than people in more than half of the world's countries. (Kaplan, 11/17)

The Washington Post: Michigan Fights Court Order To Deliver Bottled Water To Flint Residents
The state of Michigan on Thursday challenged a federal court order demanding that officials deliver bottled water to Flint residents who can’t easily pick up their own from distribution sites around the city, calling the requirement “unnecessary” and saying it would require “a tremendous expenditure of taxpayer funds.” (Dennis, 11/17)

The Associated Press: Michigan May Require Lead Screening Of All Young Children
Michigan, where a man-made water crisis is roiling one of its biggest cities, will consider requiring all infants and toddlers to be tested for lead poisoning as part of an initiative to eradicate children's exposure to the neurotoxin statewide. The recommendation is among many unveiled Thursday by a state board that Gov. Rick Snyder tasked with proposing a strategy to protect children from all sources of lead poisoning. (11/17)

The Washington Post: Scientists Catalogue The Yucky Stuff On New York City ATMs
Bacteria found on human skin. Microbes from bony fish, mollusks, chicken and baked goods. These are part of the long list of life-forms that live on the surfaces of ATM keypads in Manhattan, Queens and Brooklyn, according to a new analysis. The study was published in the American Society for Microbiology's open access journal mSphere. It is one of a number of fascinating research projects in recent years to catalogue and understand the microbes that live among, on or inside us and how they impact human health. (Cha, 11/17)