First Edition: November 8, 2017
Today's early morning highlights from the major news organizations.
California Healthline:
Taking A Page From Pharma’s Playbook To Fight The Opioid Crisis
Dr. Mary Meengs remembers the days, a couple of decades ago, when pharmaceutical salespeople would drop into her family practice in Chicago, eager to catch a moment between patients so they could pitch her a new drug. Now living in Humboldt County, Calif., Meengs is taking a page from the pharmaceutical industry’s playbook with an opposite goal in mind: to reduce the use of prescription painkillers. (Bartolone, 11/8)
Kaiser Health News:
For Active Seniors, Cohousing Offers A Cozier Alternative To Downsizing
The 5-mile hikes, yoga classes and communal dinners are now routines for the residents at PDX Commons Cohousing in Portland, Ore. These 39 individuals (about half partnered but largely strangers at first) started forging relationships well before they moved in late this summer to join a trend called cohousing. “Here, you walk in and know every one of the people and you know them well,” said Steve Fisher, 63, a retired transportation planner who leads the weekly hikes. He and his wife moved from San Jose, Calif., to PDX Commons. “You greet them. They’re your friends. You do stuff with them. It’s the opposite of the isolation you sometimes get in the urban areas.” (Jayson, 11/8)
The New York Times:
Maine Voters Approve Medicaid Expansion, A Rebuke Of Gov. LePage
Voters in Maine approved a ballot measure on Tuesday to allow many more low-income residents to qualify for Medicaid coverage under the Affordable Care Act, The Associated Press said. The vote was a rebuke of Gov. Paul LePage, a Republican who has repeatedly vetoed legislation to expand Medicaid. At least 80,000 additional Maine residents will become eligible for Medicaid as a result of the referendum. (Goodnough, 11/7)
The Associated Press:
Maine OKs Medicaid Expansion In First-Of-Its-Kind Referendum
The referendum represents the first time since the law took effect that the question of expansion had been put in front of U.S. voters. Some 11 million people in the country have gotten coverage through the expansion of Medicaid, a health insurance program for low income people. LePage vetoed five different attempts by the state Legislature to expand the program. Tuesday's vote follows repeated failures by President Donald Trump, a LePage ally, and his fellow Republicans in Congress to repeal the signature legislation of Obama, a Democrat. (11/8)
The Wall Street Journal:
Maine Votes To Expand Medicaid Under The Health Law
Supporters of the measure cheered its passage, which will extend Medicaid health benefits to all low-income adults in the state. Medicaid in Maine and other non-expansion states in many cases doesn’t cover working-age residents without children. State Sen. Thomas Saviello, a Republican who voted multiple times in favor of expanding Medicaid, said state residents recognized the program’s benefits. “They recognize what it takes to move this state forward, and in order to do that, you need to have a healthy population,” he said. “We are a poor state and it makes a huge difference in rural areas to have this expansion.” (Hackman and Levitz, 11/7)
The Washington Post:
Maine Just Resoundingly Became The First State To Expand Medicaid By Ballot Initiative
What happened in Maine could provide momentum for progressives to get voters in other states to expand Medicaid, such as Alaska and Idaho, where groups have already started similar Medicaid expansion ballot initiatives next year. “This will send a clear signal to where the rest of the country is on health care,” said Jonathan Schleifer, executive director of the Fairness Project, which helped put together the ballot initiative. As Republicans have tried to roll back Obamacare, public support for an active government role in health care has spiked. (Phillips, 11/7)
Stat:
Ohio Voters Reject Measure To Rein In Drug Costs
A ballot proposal to rein in drug costs appeared headed for a lopsided defeat in Ohio Tuesday after an expensive ballot fight that drew tens of millions of dollars from the pharmaceutical industry. The ballot proposal, known as the Drug Price Relief Act, was rejected by nearly 80 percent of voters in early results, causing the Associated Press to project defeat for the measure. It would have required that state agencies pay no more for medicine than the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, which gets a 24 percent discount off average manufacturers’ prices. (Ross, 11/7)
Cleveland Plain Dealer:
After A Divisive And Expensive Campaign, Issue 2 Fails At The Polls
Issue 2 - the Ohio Drug Price Relief Act - sought to lower how much the state pays for pharmaceuticals to the price given to the Department of Veterans Affairs. Backed by the nonprofit AIDS Healthcare Foundation, Issue 2 faced an uphill battle from the onset. What could have been a contentious Election Night ended quickly, with the race called before 8:30 p.m. Proponents conceded less than an hour after the polls closed. (Richardson, 11/7)
The New York Times:
Trump Administration Will Support Work Requirements For Medicaid
The Trump administration announced on Tuesday what it called “a new day for Medicaid,” telling state health officials that the federal government would be more receptive to work requirements and other conservative policy ideas to reshape the main government health program for low-income people. Seema Verma, the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said the administration would approve proposals from states to require work or community engagement for people who want to receive Medicaid. (Pear, 11/7)
USA Today:
State Medicaid Programs Can Require Work, Will Get Rated On How Well They Improve Health
More states can require Medicaid recipients to work — or at least "volunteer" — in one of the new ways the Trump administration plans to "help them break the chains of poverty," the nation's chief Medicaid official said Tuesday. The Obama administration, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Seema Verma said, had the "soft bigotry of low expectations" by refusing to allow states to tie Medicaid benefits to employment. (O'Donnell, 11/7)
The Washington Post:
States Will Be Allowed To Impose Medicaid Work Requirements, Top Federal Official Says
Seema Verma, who heads the Health and Human Services Department’s Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, did not spare criticisms of the Obama administration and called its opposition to work requirements “soft bigotry.” “Believing that community engagement requirements do not support the objectives of Medicaid is a tragic example of the soft bigotry of low expectations consistently espoused by the prior administration,” Verma said in a sweeping address to the National Association of Medicaid Directors. “Those days are over.” (Cunningham, 11/7)
The Wall Street Journal:
GOP Senators Aim to Retain Medical-Expenses Deduction
Senate Republicans aim to preserve a popular tax deduction for household medical expenses when they release their version of a tax plan later this week, parting ways with House lawmakers on a proposal that costs about $182 billion over a decade, according to people familiar with the matter. They are also considering delaying the start of a cut in the top corporate tax rate to 20% from 35% but hadn’t decided on the matter as of Tuesday evening. (Hughes, 11/7)
Bloomberg:
Revenue Hole May Bring GOP Back To Repeal Of Obamacare Mandate
The impact of House Ways and Means Chairman Kevin Brady’s amendment to revise one of the GOP tax bill’s offshore provisions emerged late Tuesday -- an estimated $74 billion revenue hole, which is sending tax writers scrambling to find additional revenue. They may pursue a risky strategy to make up the shortfall: repealing the 2010 Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate. House Republicans are edging closer to accepting President Donald Trump’s suggestion to combine their tax legislation with a repeal of the mandate that all individuals purchase health insurance, according to a person who’s helping to draft the tax bill. (11/8)
Bloomberg:
Ted Cruz Is Pushing To Include Obamacare Mandate Repeal In Tax Bill
Senator Ted Cruz of Texas is pushing to keep alive the idea of including a repeal of Obamacare’s individual mandate in the tax overhaul plan, even as House Republicans struggle with how to address an issue that threatens to complicate the tax debate. At a news conference Tuesday, Cruz said it’s vital to use the tax legislation to end the mandate that all Americans have health insurance or pay a penalty. If nothing else, he said, doing so will in effect be a tax cut for the 6.5 million Americans who now pay a penalty because they don’t have health insurance coverage. (Litvan, 11/7)
The Associated Press:
Notre Dame Employees Keeping Free Birth Control Coverage
The University of Notre Dame told its employees Tuesday that they will continue to receive no-cost birth control coverage in a reversal from what the university told its faculty and staff last week. The Roman Catholic university in northern Indiana sent an email to employees saying its insurance provider is continuing to offer contraception coverage not funded by the university. Notre Dame notified employees a week earlier that contraception coverage would end Jan. 1. (Davies, 11/7)
The Hill:
Notre Dame Reverses Decision To End No-Cost Contraceptive Coverage
"The University of Notre Dame, as a Catholic Institution, follows Catholic teaching about the use of contraceptives and engaged in the recent lawsuit to protect its freedom to act in accord with its principles," the university said in an email Tuesday. "Recognizing, however, the plurality of religious and other convictions among its employees, it will not interfere with the provision of contraceptives that will be administered and funded independently of the University." (Savransky, 11/7)
The New York Times:
Texas Gunman Once Escaped From Mental Health Facility
The gunman behind the worst mass shooting in Texas history escaped from a psychiatric hospital while he was in the Air Force, and was caught a few miles away by the local police, who were told that he had made death threats against his superiors and tried to smuggle weapons onto his base, a 2012 police report showed. That episode, which came to light on Tuesday, was another in a series of red flags about the threat the gunman, Devin P. Kelley, posed to those around him. But none of the warnings stopped Mr. Kelley from legally purchasing several firearms, including the rifle he used to kill 26 people at the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs on Sunday. (Romero, Blinder and Perez-Pena, 11/7)
The Associated Press:
Gunman Once Fled Mental Health Center, Threatened Superiors
The records that emerged Tuesday add up to at least three missed opportunities that might have offered law enforcement a way to stop Kelley from having access to guns long before he slaughtered much of the congregation in the middle of a service. Authorities said the death toll of 26 included the unborn baby of one of the women killed. Kelley died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound after he was chased by bystanders and crashed his car. (11/8)
Los Angeles Times:
Texas Gunman Escaped From Mental Health Facility In 2012, Threatened Military Superiors
Kelley "suffered from mental health disorders" and had apparently been sent to the facility during his Air Force court-martial proceedings on charges of beating his wife and stepson in 2011 and 2012, according to the police records. An incident report described Kelley as "a danger to himself and others as he had already been caught sneaking firearms onto Holloman Air Force Base" in New Mexico, and said that he had concocted a plan to use a bus to escape the mental health facility. (Pearce, 11/7)
NPR:
Texas Shooter's History Raises Questions About Mental Health And Mass Murder
Devin Kelley, the man we now know killed more than two dozen people at a Texas church on Sunday, escaped a mental health facility before the Air Force could try him on charges that he beat his wife and baby stepson back in 2012. And President Trump, like many people before him, is pointing to mental health — not guns — as the cause of the church massacre. (Kodjak, 11/7)
The Wall Street Journal:
Investors Sue Ad Startup Outcome Health For Alleged Fraud
Investors in Outcome Health on Tuesday sued the prominent Chicago advertising startup and its two founders, claiming fraud and breach of contract some eight months after investing nearly $500 million in the company. Funds managed by an investment unit of Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Google parent Alphabet Inc., and other firms alleged the company and its founders, Rishi Shah and Shradha Agarwal, misled them by knowingly providing false data and financial reports before the firms invested $487.5 million beginning in March. (Wrinkler, 11/8)
Los Angeles Times:
Over-The-Counter Painkillers Treated Painful Injuries Just As Well As Opioids In New Study
In an opioid epidemic that currently claims an average of 91 lives per day, there have been many paths to addiction. For some, it started with a fall or a sports injury, a trip to a nearby emergency room and a prescription for a narcotic pain reliever that seemed to work well in the ER. New research underscores how tragically risky — and unnecessary — such prescribing choices have been. (Healy, 11/7)
The New York Times:
Cancer Doctors Cite Risks Of Drinking Alcohol
The American Society of Clinical Oncology, which represents many of the nation’s top cancer doctors, is calling attention to the ties between alcohol and cancer. In a statement published Tuesday in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, the group cites evidence that even light drinking can slightly raise a woman’s risk of breast cancer and increase a common type of esophageal cancer. Heavy drinkers face much higher risks of mouth and throat cancer, cancer of the voice box, liver cancer and, to a lesser extent, colorectal cancers, the group cautions. (Rabin, 11/7)
The Washington Post:
New Evidence Of Brain Damage From West Nile Virus, Scientists Say
Experts who work on the mosquito-borne West Nile virus have long known that it can cause serious neurological symptoms, such as memory problems and tremors, when it invades the brain and spinal cord. Now researchers have found physical evidence of brain damage in patients years after their original infection, the first such documentation using magnetic resonance imaging, or MRI. (Sun, 11/7)
The New York Times:
Women More Likely Than Men To Die In First Year After Heart Attack
Compared with men, women are at significantly higher risk of death in the first year after a heart attack, a new study has found. The generally higher risk of death in women who have heart attacks is well known, but the differences are largely explained by women’s older age when the attack occurs, higher rates of other diseases, and types of treatment they typically receive. (Bakalar, 11/7)
NPR:
You Can Get Your DNA Tested At An NFL Game. Should You?
Depending on who you ask, finding out whether your genes make you a better athlete or give you healthier skin may be as easy as swabbing your cheeks for a DNA test on your way into a football game. But others say these "wellness" tests marketed directly to consumers are modern snake oil – worthless, or even misleading. On Monday, the Food and Drug Administration gave a boost to direct-to-consumer genetic testing, when it announced plans to streamline its approval process. (Levy, 11/8)
The New York Times:
Could You Be Allergic To Additives In Food Or Drugs?
When Kammy Eisenberg broke out in hives last December, she attributed it to stress. But the rash persisted, and Ms. Eisenberg was covered in hives “from head to toe” for eight months. “It was everywhere,” said Ms. Eisenberg, 52, who lives in Atlanta. “I was beyond itchy.” Even powerful drugs like prednisone provided only moderate relief, she said. “My allergist was at a loss.” (Rabin, 11/7)