First Edition: November 8, 2019

Kaiser Health News: Bruising Labor Battles Put Kaiser Permanente’s Reputation On The Line
Kaiser Permanente, which just narrowly averted one massive strike, is facing another one Monday. The ongoing labor battles have undermined the health giant’s once-golden reputation as a model of cost-effective care that caters to satisfied patients — which it calls “members” — and is exposing it to new scrutiny from politicians and health policy analysts. (Almendrala, 11/8)

California Healthline: Flavor Bans Multiply, But Menthol Continues To Divide
As states and communities rush to ban the sale of flavored tobacco products linked to vaping, Carol McGruder races from town to town, urging officials to include what she calls “the mother lode of all flavors”: menthol. McGruder, co-chair of the African American Tobacco Control Leadership Council, has tried for years to warn lawmakers that menthol attracts new smokers, especially African Americans. Now that more officials are willing to listen, she wants them to prohibit menthol cigarettes and cigarillos, not just e-cigarette flavors, to reduce smoking among blacks. (Ibarra, 11/7)

Kaiser Health News: KHN’s ‘What The Health?’: Elections Matter
Big Democratic wins in the 2019 off-year elections could spell big changes for Medicaid and other health policies in Virginia and Kentucky. Meanwhile, on the campaign trail, Mass. Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s new “Medicare For All” plan is getting hammered from all parts of the political spectrum, including most of her opponents for the Democratic presidential nomination. (11/7)

Kaiser Health News: Listen: How Skimpy Insurance Led To A $21,634 Hospital Bill
Laura Ungar, a Kaiser Health News editor and correspondent, joined Illinois Public Media’s “The 21st” with host Christine Herman and Chicago-area patient Arline Feilen to discuss the challenges that arise when health plans don’t have adequate coverage. Ungar reported on the case of Feilen, who ended up with a $21,634 bill after a mental health crisis put her in the hospital for five nights. “It’s more than a year’s pay, let’s put it that way,” Feilen said. (11/8)

Kaiser Health News: Listen: HHS Files Challenge Over Rights To Gilead’s HIV-Prevention Drug
KHN’s Shefali Luthra spoke with Jeremy Hobsons, host of WBUR’s Hear & Now, about the Trump administration’s lawsuit over sales of the HIV-prevention drug Truvada. (11/7)

The New York Times: What If The Road To Single-Payer Led Through The States?
As presidential hopefuls campaign on a national “Medicare for all” system, a California congressman is pushing for a different path to universal coverage: letting the states go first. Ro Khanna, a Democratic representative, will introduce legislation Friday that lets states bundle all their health care spending — including Medicare, Medicaid, Affordable Care Act dollars and more — to fund a state-level single-payer system. The policy could create something akin to Medicaid for all. It would be 50 separate programs, jointly funded by the state and the federal government, with local officials making decisions about whom to cover, how much to pay doctors, and what benefits to cover. (Kliff, 11/8)

The Associated Press: Warren Health Plan Departs From US 'Social Insurance' Idea
Sen. Elizabeth Warren's plan to pay for "Medicare for All" without raising taxes on the middle class departs from how the U.S. has traditionally financed bedrock social insurance programs. That might impact its political viability now and in the future. While echoing her party's longstanding call for universal health care, the Massachusetts Democrat is proposing to raise most of the additional $20.5 trillion her campaign believes would be needed from taxes on businesses, wealthy people and investors. (Alonso-Zaldivar, 11/7)

The Hill: Harris Says Her Health Care Plan Is 'Superior' To Warren's 
Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Kamala Harris (Calif.) said Thursday that she thinks her health care plan is “superior” to Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s (D-Mass.) “Medicare for All” plan. During an interview on MSNBC’s "Morning Joe," Harris said she doesn’t need to point out any of the inconsistencies in Warren’s Medicare for All funding plan because her own health care plan is better anyway. (Weixel, 11/07)

The Hill: Hillary Clinton: Warren's 'Medicare For All' Plan Would Never Get Enacted
“I believe the smarter approach is to build on what we have. A public option is something I've been in favor of for a very long time,” Clinton said. “I don't believe we should be in the midst of a big disruption while we are trying to get to 100 percent coverage and deal with costs.” Amid the raging health care debate among the Democratic presidential candidates, Clinton, the party’s 2016 nominee, appears to line up more with former Vice President Joe Biden and South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg, who are pushing for an optional government insurance plan, rather than Warren and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who are pushing government insurance for all. (Sullivan, 11/07)

The New York Times: Juul Ends E-Cigarette Sales Of Mint-Flavored Pods
Juul Labs, the nation’s largest seller of e-cigarettes, said on Thursday that it would stop selling mint-flavored pods, which have become especially popular among teenagers. The move precedes an anticipated federal flavor ban that is to be announced soon, one that the Food and Drug Administration initially had said would include mint as well as menthol. In recent weeks, intense lobbying by the vaping and tobacco industries against a menthol ban has heightened speculation that menthol would be exempt from any prohibitions against flavors. (Kaplan, 11/7)

The Associated Press: Juul Halts US Sales Of Popular Mint-Flavored E-Cigarettes
The voluntary step comes days after new government research showed that Juul is the top brand among high schoolers who use e-cigarettes and that many prefer mint. "These results are unacceptable," said the company's CEO K.C. Crosthwaite, adding in a statement that the company must "earn the trust of society." Underage vaping has reached what health officials call epidemic levels. In the latest government survey, 1 in 4 high school students reported using e-cigarettes in the previous month, despite federal law banning sales to those under 18. (Perrone, 11/7)

The Washington Post: Sales Of Top-Selling Mint Vape Halted By Juul
Mint accounts for about 70 percent of Juul’s sales in the United States, compared with 20 percent for tobacco-flavored vapes and 10 percent for menthol, according to sales figures. Juul stopped selling its popular mango, fruit, creme and cucumber liquid-nicotine pods in brick-and-mortar stores last year and online in September. In a statement Thursday, Juul said it made the decision to halt mint sales “in light of” new data released this week showing mint’s popularity among underage vapers. The studies indicated that teens prefer Juul products and that mint is their favorite flavor. (McGinley, 11/7)

The Wall Street Journal: Juul To Stop Selling Mint E-Cigarettes
Juul’s move is voluntary, but it comes as the Food and Drug Administration is preparing to release details on a plan to remove most e-cigarette flavors from the market, including mint. Several major retailers, including Walmart Inc. and Walgreens, have already said they will discontinue all e-cigarette sales. (Maloney and Abbott, 11/7)

The Associated Press: More Than 2,000 In US Diagnosed In Vaping Illness Outbreak
New government figures show more than 2,000 people have been diagnosed with vaping illnesses in the still-unsolved U.S. outbreak. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Thursday said 2,051 confirmed and probable cases have been reported. Illnesses have occurred in every state but Alaska. Forty people in 24 states have died. (Stobbe, 11/7)

Reuters: U.S. Vaping-Related Deaths Climb To 39, Illnesses To 2,051
Investigators have not linked the cases to any specific product or compound, but have pointed to vaping oils containing THC, the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana, as being especially risky. (11/7)

The Washington Post: At Height Of Crisis, Walgreens Handled One In Five Of The Most Addictive Opioids
At the height of the opioid epidemic, Walgreens handled nearly one out of every five oxycodone and hydrocodone pills shipped to pharmacies across America. Walgreens dominated the nation’s retail opioid market from 2006 through 2012, buying about 13 billion pills — 3 billion more than CVS, its closest competitor, according to a Drug Enforcement Administration database of opioid shipments. Over those years, Walgreens more than doubled its purchases of oxycodone. (Abelson, Williams, Tran and Kornfield, 11/7)

The Washington Post: Statements From The Five Pharmacy Chains That Handled The Most Opioids
Five pharmacy chains ordered 33 billion pills containing oxycodone and hydrocodone from 2006 through 2012. This accounts for almost half of the prescription pain pills distributed in the United States, according to a Washington Post analysis of data compiled by the Drug Enforcement Administration. Below are statements issued by the five pharmacy chains. (Abelson, 11/7)

The Associated Press: New York Judge Sets Opioid Crisis Trial For January
A New York judge on Wednesday scheduled what could be the second state-level trial in the U.S. on the toll of opioids. Judge Jerry Garguilo set a trial date of Jan. 20 for claims brought by the state attorney general and the Long Island counties of Nassau and Suffolk against a group of drug manufacturers and distributors. The judge has selected those claims to move ahead while dozens of other cases he is overseeing from local New York governments are on hold. (11/7)

The Washington Post: A New Chain Of Christian Pregnancy Centers Will Provide A Controversial Service: Contraception
When a low-income woman searches for reproductive care, she often goes to a Planned Parenthood clinic, where she’s treated as a patient with an array of medical options. Or she might go to a Christian pregnancy center, where she is counseled to carry a pregnancy to term. But some Christians now see an opening for a third way to reach women — before they become pregnant — that also enables them to compete for federal money Planned Parenthood has decided to relinquish. Eight independent Texas-based pregnancy centers merged earlier this year to form a chain called The Source. (Bailey, 11/7)

ProPublica: They Are Racist; Some Of Them Have Guns. Inside The White Supremacist Group Hiding In Plain Sight.
In the hours after the slaughter in El Paso, Texas, on Aug. 3, a final toll emerged: 22 dead, most of them Latinos, some Mexican nationals. A portrait of the gunman accused of killing them soon took shape: a 21-year-old from a suburb of Dallas who had been radicalized as a white supremacist online and who saw immigrants as a threat to the future of white America. While much of the country reacted with a weary sense of sorrow and outrage, word of the mass killing was processed differently by members of Patriot Front, one of the more prominent white supremacist groups in the U.S. (Schaeffer and Zimmermann, 11/8)

NPR: Treatment For Meth Addiction? Some Clinicians Try Naltrexone
Melinda McDowell had used drugs since she was a teenager. But she didn't try methamphetamine until one fateful night in 2017 after her mother died suddenly of a stroke. She went to a neighbor's house and he had crystal meth. "I tried it and I was hooked from the first hit," McDowell says. "It was an explosion of the senses. It was the biggest high I'd ever experienced." Afterward, McDowell says, that big high started getting more elusive. But she kept using the drug frequently, and it took a toll. (Kukakis, 11/7)

The New York Times: Wash Your Hands In The Kitchen And The Bathroom
While it’s important to wash your hands carefully after handling raw chicken, it may be even more important to wash them after going to the bathroom. The most dangerous antibiotic-resistant strains of E. coli, called ESBLs, are transmitted not through food, according to new research, but through contact of human feces with human mouths. British researchers examined many strains of ESBL-E. coli in human blood and feces, sewage, farm slurry, live animals, and raw meat, fruits and vegetables. (Bakalar, 11/7)

NPR: Math In The Brain Looks The Same For Young Boys And Girls
There's new evidence that girls start out with the same math abilities as boys. A study of 104 children from ages 3 to 10 found similar patterns of brain activity in boys and girls as they engaged in basic math tasks, researchers reported Friday in the journal Science of Learning. (Hamilton, 11/8)

The New York Times: Rapper T.I.’s Daughter Should Never Have Had A ‘Virginity Test’
The rapper and actor T.I. prompted widespread outrage after revealing on a podcast that he has accompanied his daughter, now 18, to a yearly doctor’s appointment to ensure that her hymen is still intact. Scientists have long condemned so-called virginity testing as a violation of a woman’s rights, as well as a sham procedure unsupported by evidence. “A virginity exam does not exist,” said Dr. Maura Quinlan, an associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Northwestern University in Chicago. (Rabin, 11/7)

The Washington Post: Rapper T.I. Says He Takes His Teen To The Gynecologist To Confirm Her Hymen Is ‘Still Intact’
As someone who damaged her hymen while riding a bicycle at 11 years old, Jenn Jackson, an assistant professor for political science at Syracuse University, found T.I.'s anecdote particularly troublesome. She said Harris’s experience likely resonates with many women, especially black women from religious families, who are led to believe their sexual organs are tied to their value and self-worth. These women are often told that for someone to love them they need to be “pure” and “intact,” as if engaging in sexual activity means something is wrong with them, said Jackson, who also conducts research in black politics, gender and sexuality. (Brice-Saddler, 11/7)

The New York Times: They Called 911. Then N.Y.P.D. Workers Sold The Data, Officials Say.
For years, Angela Meyers, a 911 operator with the New York Police Department, fielded emergency calls, then filed reports about the calls within the department. But according to court documents, when someone called 911 after a car accident, Ms. Meyers did something else: She also passed victims’ information to an insurance fraud ring in Queens. (Watkins, 11/7)

Reuters: UPS Liable For Shipping Contraband Cigarettes In New York, Damages Reduced: Court
A federal appeals court found United Parcel Service Inc liable to New York state and New York City for shipping hundreds of thousands of cartons of untaxed cigarettes, but reduced its payout for damages and unpaid taxes to about $97.6 million from $247 million. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan agreed with a trial judge that UPS violated a federal anti-cigarette trafficking law and New York's public health law by shipping the contraband cigarettes, which often came from Indian reservations. (11/7)

The Associated Press: Elevated Lead Levels Found In 27 Virginia Beach Schools
Virginia Beach City Public School officials say elevated lead levels have been detected at 27 of its schools. News outlets report the school district sent a notice to families Wednesday to share the results of tests conducted over the summer. They found 61 drinking and food-prep water sources had lead levels greater than state and federal limits. (11/7)

The Associated Press: Alien Grasses Are Making Wildfires More Frequent In The U.S., Study Finds
For much of the United States, invasive grass species are making wildfires more frequent, especially in fire-prone California, a new study finds. Twelve non-native species act as “little arsonist grasses,” said study co-author Bethany Bradley, a University of Massachusetts professor of environmental conservation. (11/7)