State Highlights: La. Budget Shortfall Looms Over Services, Medical Training; Colorado’s Battle Over Universal Health Care

The Associated Press: Senators Hear About Health Care Cuts Proposed For Next Year
While the House steered more dollars to Louisiana's safety net hospitals, health care services remain short of the financing needed in next year's budget to keep from shuttering services and threatening medical training, state senators were told Sunday. (DeSlatte, 5/16)

The Denver Post: Hospitals, Doctors Differ On Universal Health Care In Colorado
The campaign to establish the nation's first universal health care system in Colorado may be a longshot, but insurance companies and hospitals aren't taking chances. A single donor, Anthem Inc., has kicked in $500,000 to defeat the Amendment 69 initiative, or more than three times the amount given by all proponents combined. In a classic clash, an upstart band of universal health care advocates has run up against a powerful alliance of health care businesses. (Olinger, 5/14)

The Detroit Free Press: EPA: Are Detroit Water Controls Adequate?
A federal drinking water expert late last year raised serious concerns about Detroit’s water system, voicing worries that the city might not be doing as much as it coud to prevent lead from leaching out of old service pipes. In an e-mail written to colleagues at the Environmental Protection Agency last December, Michael Schock — a drinking water expert who is part of the EPA’s effort to address the lead crisis in Flint — said he found it “interesting” that lead levels in Flint didn’t drop more quickly after switching back to the Detroit water system, which had years before begun using phosphates as corrosion control to protect pipes. (Spangler and Egan, 5/14)

The Associated Press: Bid To Raise California Tobacco Tax Nears November Ballot
A well-financed campaign whose backers include billionaire environmentalist Tom Steyer, medical groups and organized labor has collected enough signatures for a ballot measure to raise California's cigarette tax by $2 per pack, officials said. The Save Lives California coalition scheduled a news conference Monday at the San Diego County Registrar of Voters office to submit the first signatures in a campaign to nearly triple California's cigarette tax to $2.87 a pack. If enough signatures are verified, the measure would appear on an increasingly crowded Nov. 8 ballot. (5/16)

The San Jose Mercury News: Will Doctors Choose To Prescribe Lethal Drugs Under California's New Aid-In-Dying Law?
After 23 years of passionate debate over the issue, California's controversial right-to-die law becomes a reality next month, when doctors will finally be allowed to legally prescribe lethal drugs to terminally ill patients who want to end their lives. (Seipel, 5/13)

The Chicago Tribune: Dozens Of Walgreens Health Clinics To Temporarily Close Ahead Of Advocate Takeover
In a transition to new ownership, 56 of Walgreens' in-store health clinics in the Chicago area will close Sunday for three days. Downers Grove-based Advocate Health Care, the largest hospital chain in Illinois, acquired the clinics in its first foray into the growing trend of retail health care. Advocate will hold grand opening events Wednesday at select Walgreens locations. (Sachdev, 5/14)

The Detroit Free Press: How Heart Screening May Have Saved Adrian College Wrestler’s Life
His heart was enlarged and starting to harden. But Clarence Kennedy had no symptoms. His EKG was normal, and he felt fine. Kennedy, 19, had passed countless physicals over the years, while playing different sports. Which is why he was fortunate that he decided to wrestle at Adrian College. It probably saved his life. (Seidel, 5/14)

The Miami Herald: Hialeah Cosmetic Surgery Clinic Has Ties To Previous Deaths, Debilitating Injuries
The Hialeah cosmetic surgery clinic where a 29-year-old woman from West Virginia suffered fatal complications on Thursday uses physicians who have maimed patients repeatedly and then discharged them to recover in hotels and even horse stables with no medical attention, according to state records. Doctors affiliated with the clinic lure out-of-town patients, mostly women, with the promise of cheap plastic surgery. But the results have been gruesome, with at least two deaths and numerous patients rushed to local hospitals with debilitating injuries and infections. (Chang and Vasquez, 5/14)

The Des Moines Register: Central Iowa Dentist Agrees Not To Practice Amid Drug Investigation
A central Iowa dentist recently agreed not to practice his profession while federal agents investigate his prescriptions of addictive drugs. (Leys, 5/13)