State Highlights: N.Y. State Assembly Backs Universal Health Coverage; Ohio Bill Would Let Doctors Prescribe STD Meds To Patients’ Partners Without Exams

The Associated Press: NY Assembly Votes For Universal Health Coverage
The New York Assembly voted 89-47 on Wednesday for legislation to establish publicly funded universal health coverage in a so-called single payer system. All New Yorkers could enroll. Backers said it would extend coverage to the uninsured and reduce rising costs by taking insurance companies and their costs out of the mix. (Virtanen, 5/27)

The Associated Press: Ohio Bill Would Allow Patients To Get STD Meds For Partners
A bill in Ohio seeks to expand access to treatment for certain sexually transmitted diseases by allowing doctors to prescribe medication to their patients' partners without examining them. Licensed health professionals in Ohio must first see patients before prescribing them antibiotics. But legislation before state lawmakers would create a limited exception for partners of patients who have been diagnosed with chlamydia, trichomoniasis or gonorrhea. The aim is to reduce infections. (5/27)

NPR: Supreme Court Says Locals Can Make Pill-Makers Pay For Drug Disposal
Many of us have old prescription drugs sitting around in medicine cabinets — so what's the best way to get rid of them? Some folks simply toss old pills in the garbage, or down the toilet. Both of those options can lead to medications in the ocean, bays or rivers. Three years ago Alameda County, across the bay from San Francisco, became the first county in the nation to require pharmaceutical manufacturers to pay for safe disposal of prescription drugs. Drug companies sued and lost in lower courts. Tuesday the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear the case, meaning that drug makers will now need to pay for collection and disposal of unused drugs. (Shafer, 5/27)

Tampa Bay Times: House Offers Up Health Care Bills Aimed At Cutting Costs But They Could Also Ignite Turf Battles
After spending the last legislative session knocking down Senate proposals for expanding health care coverage while offering no alternative of their own, Florida House Republicans filed a series of bills Wednesday that attempt to take a rifle-shot approach to lowering the spiraling costs of health care in Florida. Many of the proposals are not new, and some have been passed by key committees in the state Senate, but all embrace the belief of many House leaders that the state must inject free-market competition into the health care marketplace to lower costs of health care before expanding access to the uninsured. Opponents, however, claim that many of the proposals just unleash turf battles within the health care industry that will not suppress costs. (Klas, 5/27)

Kaiser Health News: Asthma Visits Rising Among Kids In California ERs
Children in California increasingly are flocking to emergency rooms for treatment of asthma, despite millions of dollars spent on programs to control the disease. Statewide, the rates of ER visits for asthma symptoms rose by about 18 percent for California children ages 5 to 17 and by 6 percent for children under 5 between 2005 and 2012, according to a Kaiser Health News analysis of the latest available rates by county. (Ostrov, 5/28)

The Miami Herald: Florida Pledges To Protect Inmates With Mental Illness
Inmates with mental illnesses who were once confined around the clock to a cell block filled with feces, rotten food and insects — and sometimes allegedly beaten, tortured and starved by staff — should be treated more humanely under a landmark lawsuit settlement reached this week between the Florida Department of Corrections and a statewide disability advocacy group. The agreement could have far-reaching impact. It requires the state to overhaul the way it treats inmates with mental disorders at Dade Correctional Institution, which has the largest mental health facility in the state prison system. (Brown, 5/27)

The Associated Press: Budget Committee Approves Long-Term Care Changes
Republicans who control the [Wisconsin] Legislature's budget committee adopted most of Gov. Scott Walker's plan Wednesday to expand the Family Care program and incorporate elements of the IRIS program into it, pushing aside pleas from minority Democrats and advocates for the disabled to leave both programs alone. The GOP lawmakers tweaked Walker's plan in places, adding language that guarantees enrollees would still have a say in developing their care plans and would keep receiving state stipends to cover services they need just as IRIS provides. (Richmond, 5/27)

The Detroit Free Press: New Law Aims To Make Breast Cancer Testing More Effective
Women with dense breast tissue — the sort that can hide potentially deadly tumors from routine mammograms — must be notified in writing and encouraged to consider additional tests under a new state law that is effective Monday. While mammograms remain the gold standard for detecting breast tumors, they're less reliable in almost half of women with dense breast tissue. Dense or fibrous tissue shows up as splotches of white on a mammogram — so do tumors. (Erb, 5/28)

The Chicago Tribune: Illinois House Approves Heroin Treatment Measure
The Illinois House on Wednesday overwhelmingly pushed through a sweeping measure aimed at curbing heroin use and preventing overdose deaths by expanding specialized drug courts that focus on treatment. The measure also would require police departments and fire houses to stock opioid antidotes that could be used to counteract heroin overdoses. In addition, the state's Medicaid health care program for the poor would have to cover the cost of drug treatment programs. (Hellmann, 5/27)

Los Angeles Times: Pentagon Mistakenly Sends Live Anthrax To As Many As Nine States
The Army mistakenly sent live anthrax samples from a testing facility in Utah to commercial laboratories in as many as nine states, including California, as part of an effort to improve field testing for biological threats. Pentagon officials said the accidental transfer of the potentially deadly biological agent Bacillus anthracis, better known as anthrax, had not caused any known infections. (Hennigan,5/27)

Kaiser Health News: A Top Medical School Revamps Requirements — To Lure English Majors
You can’t tell by looking which med students at Mount Sinai were traditional pre-meds in college and which weren’t. And that’s exactly the point. Most of the class majored in biology or chemistry or some other “hard” science; crammed for the MCAT (the Medical College Admission Test) and did well at both. But a growing percentage came through Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai’s “Hu-Med” program, which stands for Humanities in Medicine. They majored in things like English, history or medieval studies. And they didn’t even take the MCAT because Mount Sinai guaranteed them admission after their sophomore year of college. (Rovner, 5/27)

The Associated Press: CO Aims To Reduce Diabetes, Costs For Medicaid Clients
Colorado health officials are launching a diabetes prevention campaign for people covered by Medicaid, a state and federal health care program for low-income residents. The state Department of Public Health and Environment said Wednesday the program aims to reduce diabetes rates and health care costs by teaching people how to manage or avoid the condition. (5/27)