First Edition: October 17, 2018

Kaiser Health News: States Act To Safeguard Young Cancer Patients’ Chances To Have Children
When Katherine Frega was diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma eight years ago at age 17, she was so sick that all she could focus on was starting chemotherapy to treat her aggressive blood cancer. It was her dad who thought to ask the oncologist, “How is this treatment going to affect her ability to have children?” The oncologist discussed the risks but stressed that Frega needed to start treatment right away. (Andrews, 10/17)

Kaiser Health News: Medicare For All? CMS Chief Warns Program Has Enough Problems Already
The Trump administration’s top Medicare official Tuesday slammed the federal health program as riddled with problems that hinder care to beneficiaries, increase costs for taxpayers and escalate fraud and abuse. Seema Verma, administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), said those troubles underscore why she opposes calls by many Democrats for dramatically widening eligibility for Medicare, now serving 60 million seniors and people with disabilities, to tens of millions other people. (Galewitz, 10/16)

Kaiser Health News: FDA Allows Food Makers To Fortify Corn Masa To Halt Birth Defects, But Few Do
Two years after the Food and Drug Administration allowed manufacturers to add folic acid, a crucial B vitamin that prevents terrible birth defects, to their corn flour, very few have done so. A new research report found that only 10 percent of corn masa flour and no soft corn tortillas contained folic acid, which can help prevent devastating neural tube birth defects, including spina bifida and anencephaly. The grain is a staple food in the diet of Hispanics, who have higher rates of the disabling and sometimes fatal defects. (Aleccia, 10/16)

The Hill: Trump Officials Ratchet Up Drug Pricing Fight
The Trump administration is ratcheting up its fight with the drug industry, with a new proposal that would force drugmakers to disclose their prices in television advertising. For months, officials have beat the drum over high drug prices but offered only minor tweaks to address the issue. With the latest proposal, which the industry is vowing to defeat, both sides are heading for a fierce clash. (Weixel, 10/17)

Stat: Five Drug Makers Will Be Hit Hardest By Trump’s New Proposal On Drug Ads 
President Trump wants to force drug companies to disclose their prices in TV ads — and that’s going to hit five companies much harder than any others: Pfizer, AbbVie, Eli Lilly, Amgen, and Allergan. Just a few dozen drug companies run any TV ads at all, and those five companies alone were responsible for more than half of the drug ads customers saw on TV in the last 12 months, according to a STAT analysis of data provided by analytics company iSpot.tv. Pfizer, for example, ran 37 unique ads in the last 12 months — racking up an advertising bill of over $600 million, according to iSpot’s estimate. (Florko, 10/17)

CBS News: Families Say Disclosing Drug Prices In TV Ads Not Enough
Five-year-old Elijah needs a drug with a big price tag: nearly $300,000 per year. Living with a life-threatening condition, Elijah was just three when he landed in the hospital after his family couldn't – and their insurance company wouldn't – cover the cost of a key drug, reports CBS News correspondent Chip Reid. "He was screaming 'Mommy why am I here?' Mommy, please take me home," his mother, Juliana Keeping, recalled. "People are cutting their pills in half, they are going without food, they are being hospitalized, and they are even dying because they can't afford prescription drugs. That happened to us and it's happening all over the country." (10/16)

Bloomberg: J&J Says Putting Drug Prices In Ads May Scare Away Patients 
Johnson & Johnson, the world’s most valuable health-care company, says U.S. patients may avoid buying their medications if they see the prices in television ads. A proposal from the Trump administration forcing drugmakers to disclose the list price of any medication that costs more than $35 could discourage some from seeking treatment, executives from Johnson & Johnson said on an earnings conference call Tuesday. (Hopkins, 10/16)

The Wall Street Journal: By Adding Patents, Drugmaker Keeps Cheaper Humira Copies Out Of U.S.
Cheaper copies of the world’s biggest-selling drug will roll out across Europe this week after a key European patent for Humira expires Tuesday, but U.S. patients and insurers will have to wait to access less-expensive versions of the blockbuster drug. The reason: a formidable wall of patents built up by Humira-maker AbbVie Inc., that prevents the developers of “biosimilar” versions launching their products in the U.S. (Loftus and Roland, 10/16)

Stat: Minnesota Becomes First State To Sue Major Insulin Makers Over Price-Gouging
In the latest sign of anger over the cost of insulin, the Minnesota attorney general on Tuesday filed a lawsuit accusing the three largest manufacturers — Eli Lilly, Sanofi and Novo Nordisk — with deceptively raising prices, the first state to go to court over the issue. “Insulin is a life-or-death drug for people with diabetes,” said Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson in a statement. “Many people can’t afford the price hikes but can’t afford to stop taking the medication either.” As an example, the lawsuit cited the Lantus insulin sold by Sanofi, which cost $99.35 for a 10-milliliter vial in 2010, now costs $269.54. (Silverman, 10/16)

The Hill: Minnesota AG Sues Drug Companies Over Insulin Price Hikes 
The lawsuit was filed against the country's three major makers of insulin: Sanofi-Aventis, Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly and Co. "We believe the claims are without merit, and we will defend against them vigorously," an Eli Lilly spokesman said. "We have no further comment at this time.” (Sullivan, 10/16)

The New York Times: Is It Possible To Be An Anti-Abortion Democrat? One Woman Tried To Find Out
Joan Barry has been a member of the Missouri Democratic Party for 53 years. As a state legislator, she voted regularly for workers’ rights, health care and programs for the poor. So when the party began writing a new platform after its crushing losses in 2016, Ms. Barry, a member of its state committee, did not think it was too much to ask for a plank that welcomed people like her — Democrats who oppose abortion. (Tavernise, 10/16)

The Associated Press: Mysterious Paralyzing Illness Found Among Kids In 22 States
U.S. health officials on Tuesday reported a jump in cases of a rare paralyzing illness in children, and said it seems to be following an every-other-year pattern. At least 62 cases have been confirmed in 22 states this year, and at least 65 additional illnesses in those states are being investigated, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Similar waves of the same illness occurred in 2014 and 2016. (Stobbe, 10/16)

The Washington Post: Paralyzing Polio-Like Illness Mainly Affecting Children Confirmed In 22 States, CDC Says
The surge has baffled health officials, who on Tuesday announced a change in the way the agency is counting cases. They also wanted to raise awareness about the condition so parents can seek medical care if their child develops symptoms, and so physicians can quickly relay reports of the potential illness to the CDC. “We understand that people, particularly parents, are concerned about AFM,” said Messonnier, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases. Despite extensive laboratory and other testing, CDC has not been able to find the cause for the majority of the cases. “There is a lot we don’t know about AFM, and I am frustrated that despite all of our efforts, we haven’t been able to identify the cause of this mystery illness." (Sun, 10/16)

The Wall Street Journal: Cases Of Rare Neurological Condition Rise In U.S.
There is no specific treatment. Immunoglobulin, corticosteroids and other therapies have been used, but there is no evidence they help, according to the National Institutes of Health. Physical therapy can help with recovery. Some patients recover quickly, but others remain paralyzed and require ongoing care, Dr. Messonnier said. The condition is “incredibly rare,” she said, causing fewer than one in one million cases a year in the U.S. She said the CDC knows of one death from AFM, which occurred in 2017. (McKay, 10/16)

NPR: Acute Flaccid Myelitis Cases Rise; Cause Unclear
Since the condition was first recognized by CDC in 2014, the agency has confirmed 386 cases through Oct. 16, mostly in children. AFM appears to be seasonal, occurring mostly in the late summer and fall, but appears in greater numbers every other year. The number of cases in 2018 is on track to match a similar number of cases in 2014 and 2016. But Messonnier cautioned that it would be "premature" to be confident that this year will be the same as the earlier years. (Neel and Aubrey, 10/16)

The Washington Post: Five Kids In Maryland May Have A Polio-Like Disease, As CDC Investigates
Health officials said five kids in Maryland are believed to have contracted a virus this fall that has symptoms similar to polio. The state’s health department said the five reported cases of acute flaccid myelitis (AFM) also are being investigated by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and are among dozens of cases the federal health agency is looking into across the country. (Hedgpeth and Moyer, 10/16)

Modern Healthcare: Anthem's $16M Breach Settlement Reminds Others To Assess Their Cyber Risks 
Anthem's record-breaking data breach settlement on Monday has put providers and insurers on notice that ignoring cybersecurity risks could come with a hefty pricetag. The nation's second-largest insurer will pay HHS' Office for Civil Rights $16 million over a 2015 data breach that affected almost 79 million people, the largest data breach ever reported to the agency. Other healthcare organizations face similar threats, especially if they have large sets of data that can entice hackers, according to cybersecurity experts. (Arndt and Livinsgton, 10/16)

The Wall Street Journal: UnitedHealth Raises Full-Year Earnings Projection
UnitedHealth Group Inc. raised its full-year earnings projection for 2018 and offered reassurance about its early outlook for next year, as the company pointed to growth drivers including the continuing expansion of private Medicare plans. UnitedHealth said Tuesday it expects to earn $12.80 a share on an adjusted basis this year, compared with the range of $12.50 to $12.75 a share it previously suggested. (Wilde Mathews and Chin, 10/16)

Stateline: How Fentanyl Changes The Opioid Equation
More than a decade into the opioid epidemic, illicit fentanyl and related synthetic drugs are now driving the nation’s spiraling overdose death toll. Involved in nearly half of the roughly 200 U.S. drug overdose deaths every day, fentanyl appears to be here to stay. ...As governors in the hardest-hit New England, Mid-Atlantic and Midwestern states call for intensified law enforcement efforts and stiffer penalties for fentanyl dealers, public health officials are saying this latest drug scourge underscores the urgent need to get more people into treatment, particularly those who use heroin. (Vestal, 10/17)

NPR: They're Down About Drugs, Jobs, But Rural Americans Aren't Ready To Give Up Hope
Rural Americans are preoccupied with the problems of opioid and drug addiction in their communities, citing it as a worry on par with concerns about local jobs and the economy, according to a new poll from NPR, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. "For many years, the opioid crisis was seen as affecting only a few states — West Virginia, Kentucky and New Hampshire among others. But it never was just about those states," says poll co-director Robert J. Blendon, a professor of public health and health policy at Harvard. "It's now at the same level of a very serious economic plight that people are really worried about. It affects elections, and it affects how people elected from rural areas view their priorities." (Neel and Kodjak, 10/16)

The Associated Press: Melania Trump To Focus On Opioids, Newborns In Hospital Tour
First lady Melania Trump will travel to Philadelphia to meet with families of children who were affected by exposure to opioids while in the womb. Mrs. Trump is being joined on her Wednesday visit to Thomas Jefferson University Hospital by U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar. The hospital has provided care to mothers with opioid use disorder and their newborn children for more than 45 years. (10/16)

The New York Times: ‘No Word From My Son’: Dozens Still Missing As Hurricane Michael Death Toll Rises
Nicholas Sines was last heard from at his tiny apartment in Panama City more than a week ago. As Hurricane Michael was bearing down on the Florida Panhandle, his mother, Kristine Wright, urged her son to get out before it was too late. “I begged him,” she said. “Please go to a shelter.” “I’m staying here,” he told her. (Blinder, 10/16)

The New York Times: Domestic Violence Awareness Hasn’t Caught Up With #MeToo. Here’s Why.
When Kaylee Kapatos posted on Facebook this month that she was a survivor of domestic violence, using the hashtag #WhyIStayed, the response among her friends was muted. Only the week before, she had posted about sexual assault with the hashtag #WhyIDidntReport and got what she called “overwhelmingly positive feedback.” “It’s totally different,” said Ms. Kapatos, 25, who works as a residence life coordinator at Michigan Technological University. “People just don’t want to talk about it.” (Mervosh, 10/16)

The Washington Post: Masculinity Is Not A ‘Mental Health Issue,’ University Of Texas Clarifies After Right-Wing Fury
Colleges and universities are walking a tightrope as they accept the burden of molding student values, sometimes finding themselves in conflict with Americans committed to a more traditional worldview. Nowhere is the friction more pronounced than in Texas, as illuminated by the story of how the state’s flagship university got caught in the maw of the culture wars. A campus effort to question assumptions about masculinity has become a flash point revealing how much influence right-wing media wields in debates over gender and sexual violence, as President Trump warns that the #MeToo movement holds dangers for men. (Stanley-Becker, 10/17)

The New York Times: Why White Supremacists Are Chugging Milk (And Why Geneticists Are Alarmed)
Nowhere on the agenda of the annual meeting of the American Society of Human Genetics, being held in San Diego this week, is a topic plaguing many of its members: the recurring appropriation of the field’s research in the name of white supremacy. “Sticking your neck out on political issues is difficult,” said Jennifer Wagner, a bioethicist and president of the group’s social issues committee, who had sought to convene a panel on the racist misuse of genetics and found little traction. But the specter of the field’s ignominious past, which includes support for the American eugenics movement, looms large for many geneticists in light of today’s white identity politics. (Harmon, 10/17)

NPR: Microsoft Pioneer's Legacy: Allen Institute For Brain Science
Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, who died Monday, made his fortune from software that ran computer brains. But Allen's own passion was for the human brain. "The human brain works in, so far, mysterious and wondrous ways that are completely different than the ways that computers calculate," he told NPR during an interview in 2003. "Things like appetite or emotion, how do those function in the brain?" (Hamilton, 10/16)

The New York Times: A Device That Makes Running Faster And Easier
A newly invented wearable device could provide support, succor and an unexpected boost in speed to runners who might otherwise not be able to keep up with their training partners or former selves, as well as people who might like to try running but fear it is just too hard. The device, a kind of lightweight harness worn around the midsection and legs, can increase someone’s running efficiency by about 8 percent or more, according to a new study, making running feel much easier and also raising interesting questions about whether and how we should augment natural human abilities. (Reynolds, 10/17)

The Associated Press: Obesity Surgery May Lower Heart Attack Danger In Diabetics
Obesity surgery may dramatically lower the danger of heart attacks and strokes in patients with diabetes, new research suggests, reinforcing evidence that benefits extend beyond weight loss. The study tracked about 20,000 severely obese patients with Type 2 diabetes. Those who had weight loss surgery had a 40 percent lower chance of developing a heart attack or stroke in the five years following surgery compared to those who got usual care with diabetes medicines or insulin. (Johnson, 10/16)

The Washington Post: Concussions Were Down 13 Percent During The NFL Preseason, League Says
The number of concussions suffered by NFL players during the preseason dropped 13 percent this year, the league announced Tuesday. The decrease came after the league enacted a plan to reduce concussions, following a 2017 season in which concussions were up. There were 79 concussions suffered by players during preseason practices and games this year, NFL officials said during the owners’ fall meeting. That was down from 91 concussions suffered by players during the same time frame last year. (Maske, 10/16)

NPR: Veterinarians Asked To Euthanize Animals Improperly Feel 'Moral Distress'
In some ways, it can be harder to be a doctor of animals than a doctor of humans. "We are in the really unenviable, and really difficult, position of caring for patients maybe for their entire lives, developing our own relationships with those animals — and then being asked to kill them," says Dr. Lisa Moses, a veterinarian at the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals-Angell Animal Medical Center and a bioethicist at Harvard Medical School. (Goldberg, 10/17)

Reuters: Why It’s So Hard To Diagnose Zika
When a Zika epidemic was at its height in the Americas two years ago, diagnostics makers began working feverishly to create diagnostic tests for a virus that few in the U.S. had heard of. Those efforts have now largely stalled, as public concern has waned, health experts say, and the development of inexpensive tests that can quickly detect Zika infections and distinguish them from similar mosquito-borne diseases remains elusive. (10/17)

Reuters: Mothers Of Babies Afflicted By Zika Fight Poverty, Despair
Nearly three years after a Zika outbreak in Brazil caused thousands of cases of microcephaly and other devastating birth defects in newborns, Reuters returned to check on the mothers and their children. Zika, the first mosquito-borne virus known to damage developing fetuses, has since disappeared from headlines, but world health officials fear its spread to new populations. In Angola, dozens of babies born with microcephaly since 2017 appear linked to the same strain of Zika that hit Latin America. (10/17)