State Highlights: As Momentum Rises For Calif. Single-Payer System, Skeptics Weigh In; Unsafe Lead Levels Reported In More Flint Water Samples

Sacramento Bee: California Health Care: Raise Taxes For Single-Payer Or Ration?
Republican Gov. Earl Warren suggested a taxpayer-financed universal health care system in 1945. Voters considered and defeated a version of universal care in 2004. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed a single-payer bill in 2006. Now there is renewed interest, as proponents like Sen. Kamala Harris and gubernatorial candidate Gavin Newsom see single-payer as the solution to Republican-led efforts to unravel Obamacare. (Hart, 3/13)

The Associated Press: More Flint Water Samples Show Elevated Lead Levels
Recent water tests at elementary schools in Flint have found an increase in samples showing lead levels above the federal action limit. The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality determined that 28 samples tested in February were above 15 parts per billion of lead, The Flint Journal reported . That compares to 20 such samples in January. (3/12)

Columbus Dispatch: Autism Therapy Firm Moves Into Ohio After State Law Broadens Insurance Coverage
An Indianapolis company is bringing two autism therapy centers to central Ohio as part of a plan to ultimately open 20 sites and provide about 1,000 jobs across the state. The Hopebridge centers, slated to open in late April in Dublin and Westerville, are among 10 the company plans to have operating within a year, said chief executive Dennis May. (Viviano, 3/12)

The Star Tribune: Children's In Mpls. Finds A Better Test For Appendicitis 
Research by a physician at Children’s Hospital in Minneapolis is offering a new solution to a common problem in pediatric care: sorting out the many patients with bad stomachaches from the few who need surgery for appendicitis. After studying a large group of children with belly pain, Dr. Anupam Kharbanda and colleagues reported Tuesday that white blood cell counts and other demographic details can distinguish many of those who are at high risk of appendicitis from those at low risk. (Olson, 3/13)

The CT Mirror: Health Care, Wage Issues Top Minority Caucus Agenda
Pay equity, a “liveable” wage and protecting women’s health care topped a list of priorities unveiled Monday by the General Assembly’s Black and Puerto Rican Caucus. And while the agenda does not propose specific tax hikes, the 24-member caucus does back several revenue-raisers to fund critical services, according to its chairman, Rep. Christopher Rosario, D-Bridgeport. (Phaneuf, 3/12)

Georgia Health News: Georgia Will Begin Auditing Water Utilities’ Lead Testing Sites
For the first time, the Georgia Division of Environmental Protection (EPD) will audit the addresses where water systems collect their samples to be sure those sites are at the highest risk for lead contamination, according to Lewis Hays, who is EPD’s watershed compliance program manager. (Miller, 3/12)

Health News Florida: Congress Could Eliminate Funding For Medicare Assistance Program
A program that helps thousands of Florida seniors sign up for Medicare could lose all of its funding by the end of the month if Congress doesn't act. Florida received $2.8 million last year from the national State Health Insurance Program. (Ochoa, 3/12)

Kaiser Health News: A Battered Doctor, A Slain Patient And A Family’s Quest For Answers
The police report is all David Cole Lang’s family has to describe his last moments on Earth. Fifty pages of officer narratives and witness interviews filled with grisly detail, it lacks any explanation for his death. Ten months later, Lang’s widow, Monique, says she still has no clue as to why the 33-year-old combat veteran and father who struggled with opioid addiction ended up fatally shot by a doctor whom — as far as Monique knew — he hadn’t seen in over a year. (Rinker, 3/13)

Reveal: OSHA: Georgia Goodyear Plant Lapses Put Employees At Serious Risk
Investigators from the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration imposed seven serious citations against the company in January after inspecting its plant last year in Social Circle, Georgia. Federal officials found the company failed to provide proper protective gear to workers processing rubber through hot metal presses with temperatures exceeding 350 degrees Fahrenheit. (Gollan, 3/12)

Houston Chronicle: Harris County Considers Turning Shuttered Riverside Hospital Into Mental Health Facility 
Harris County is considering purchasing the shuttered Riverside General Hospital property in Houston’s Third Ward and resurrecting it as a mental healthy facility, county documents and court records show. A $5.3 million grant from the nonprofit Houston Endowment Inc. is expected to help finance the purchase, if approved by the commissioners court. The hospital — Houston’s first nonprofit hospital for black patients — was plagued in its final years with financial and legal troubles before shutting its doors and ending up in bankruptcy proceedings. (Zaveri and George, 3/12)

NH Times Union: Patient At State Hospital Assaults 3 Staff Members 
Three staff members at the state psychiatric hospital were assaulted by a young patient who also caused property damage, according to Lori Shibinette, CEO of New Hampshire Hospital. Shibinette confirmed reports to the Union Leader from anonymous staff members of an incident late Friday and into early Saturday morning. (Solomon, 3/12)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Teenage JUULing Is Taking Over School Bathrooms
Over the last year, JUUL has become ubiquitous on college and high school campuses. ...The device is designed to be an alternative to combustible tobacco products, like cigarettes, and includes flavored JUUL “pods” that range from “Virginia Tobacco” to “Crème Brulee.” (Hatcher, 3/12)

Kaiser Health News: Oregon Medical Students Face Tough Test: Talking About Dying
The distraught wife paced the exam room, anxious for someone to come and tell her about her husband. She’d brought him to the emergency department that afternoon when he complained about chest discomfort. Sophia Hayes, 27, a fourth-year medical student at the Oregon Health & Science University, entered with a quiet knock, took a seat and asked the wife to sit, too. Softly and slowly, Hayes explained the unthinkable: The woman’s husband had had a heart attack. His heart stopped. The intensive care team spent 45 minutes trying to save him. (Aleccia, 3/13)