Politico: Trump’s Health Care Brain Trust Says No Thanks
President Donald Trump promised a new plan to replace Obamacare. But the four Senate Republicans he tapped for the job aren’t jumping at the opportunity. Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) says any new plan has to come from the White House — and that he had no warning Trump planned to make him part of the health policy group. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) won't say more than he and colleagues are “working on health care thoughts.” John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), when asked about the Republican plan, turned the question back on the opposition, saying, “Democrats want to go to the complete government takeover of health care.” (Cancryn and Ollstein, 4/8)

The Hill: Mulvaney: Trump Admin To Release ObamaCare Replacement Plan 'Fairly Shortly'
The Trump administration will release a health care plan to replace the Affordable Care Act “fairly shortly,” acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney said Sunday. Administration officials and White House aides, including Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Seema Verma and Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex Azar, met for a Saturday summit at Camp David to discuss possible proposals, according to CNN. (Budryk, 4/7)

And in other health law news —

The Washington Post: Kansas Lawmakers Pass Bill To Allow Farm Bureau Health Plan
Republican lawmakers in Kansas pressed ahead Friday with allowing the state Farm Bureau to offer health coverage to members that doesn’t satisfy the Affordable Care Act, a state-level effort to circumvent an Obama-era law that President Donald Trump wants to replace. The Kansas House approved an insurance bill on an 84-39 vote that includes provisions to exempt health coverage offered by the Farm Bureau from state insurance regulation, anticipating that the nonprofit group could offer lower-cost products to thousands of individuals and families. The Senate approved the bill Thursday on a 28-12 vote, so it goes next to Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly. (Hanna, 4/6)

The New York Times: Hunger And An ‘Abandoned’ Hospital: Puerto Rico Waits As Washington Bickers
A newborn’s cries rarely echo anymore though the hallways of what passes as a hospital on the ravaged island of Vieques, off the coast of Puerto Rico. “We miss it,” said Dennisse Bermúdez Colón, a nurse. Hurricane Maria closed the island’s only labor and delivery room, forcing expectant mothers to travel, usually by sea, to the big island eight miles away to have their babies. Just a few emergency births have taken place in an old storm shelter converted into a provisional clinic. (Mazzei, 4/7)

Politico: House Dems Look To End Months-Old Stalemate Over Disaster Funds
With a disaster relief bill deadlocked in the Senate, House Democrats are prepared to move ahead with their own package that includes billions of dollars in aid for the rain-swollen Midwest. The Democrats’ revised bill would add $2.5 billion for heartland states reeling from catastrophic floods, an overture to Republicans after months of partisan bickering. (Ferris and Bresnahan, 4/7)

Reuters: U.S. Government Says It Could Take Two Years To Identify Families Separated At Border
It could take the U.S. government up to two years to identify potentially thousands of additional children separated from their parents by the authorities at the southern border, the government said in a court filing. The filing late on Friday outlined for the first time the Trump administration's plan for identifying which family members might have been separated by assessing thousands of records using a combination of data analysis, statistical science, and manual review. (Cooke and Torbati, 4/6)

The New York Times: U.S. Says It Could Take 2 Years To Identify Up To Thousands Of Separated Immigrant Families
These families were separated before the administration unveiled its “zero-tolerance” immigration policy in the spring of 2018, when nearly all adults entering the country illegally were prosecuted and any children accompanying them were put into shelters or foster care. To identify these families, the government said it would apply a statistical analysis to about 47,000 children who were referred to the Office of Refugee Resettlement and subsequently discharged, according to the court filing. From there, the government said it would manually review the case records of the children who appeared to have the highest probability of being part of the separated families. (Jacobs, 4/6)

In other immigration news —

The Hill: Man With Flu Symptoms Dies In Immigration Detention Center, ICE Says
A Mexican man who was exhibiting flu-like symptoms died in an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention center this week, immigration officials said Friday. Abel Reyes-Clemente, 54, died at the Florence Service Processing Center in Arizona two days after he was treated for flu symptoms, officials said in a news release. (Frazin, 4/6)

The Hill: Dem Reps Say They Were Denied Access To Immigrant Detention Center 
Florida Democratic Congresswomen Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Donna Shalala and Debbie Mucarsel-Powell said they were denied access to a facility holding unaccompanied immigrant children. The members of Congress said in a joint statement from their offices that they were told they would be "denied entry to the refugee resettlement facility in Homestead, [Fla.]," which they planned to visit Monday, "despite a new law mandating Congressional access there, and a recent announcement of plans to massively expand beds at the site amid lingering concerns over inadequate staffing, space and other services there." (Frazin, 4/6)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: CDC Awards Georgia State University Grant For Migrant Health Research
The Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has awarded Georgia State University a $3.75 million grant to address the health and health disparities affecting America’s refugee and migrant communities. The grant falls under the agency’s Prevention Research Center funding cycle, which announced public health prevention research funding for 25 academic institutions across the country. (Pirani, 4/5)

The Associated Press: Watchdog To Examine Medicare Chief’s Publicity Spending
A government watchdog said Friday it will review costly outside contracts to handle public relations for Medicare chief Seema Verma, whose agency oversees health insurance programs covering more than 100 million Americans. Responding to a request by congressional Democrats, the Health and Human Services inspector general’s office said it will examine Verma’s public relations contracts at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, known as CMS. (Alonso-Zaldivar, 4/5)

Modern Healthcare: Medicare ACOs Could Lose Bonuses Due To Quality Measure Change
Accountable care organizations in the Medicare Shared Savings Program claim they may lose out on some of their bonuses after the CMS made unexpected changes to a smoking cessation measure. Medicare ACOs were recently surprised to see during 2018 quality reporting for the CMS program that substantial changes had been made to ACO-17, a preventive measure used to screen patients for tobacco use and provide a cessation intervention for those who smoke. (Castellucci, 4/5)

Modern Healthcare: CMS Expands Medicare Advantage Telehealth Benefits
The CMS finalized a rule on Friday that would give Medicare Advantage plans more flexibility to offer additional telehealth services to seniors as part of their basic benefits package starting in 2020. The rule, proposed in October 2018, allows seniors to use telehealth services in their homes, rather than being required to go to a healthcare facility. (Livingston, 4/5)

Modern Healthcare: MedPAC Finds Low-Volume, Rural Dialysis Centers Are Underpaid
Medicare's payment adjustment to rural and low-volume dialysis facilities needs to be updated to better target facilities that are struggling, according to a new analysis from a key Medicare panel. The analysis released Friday during a meeting of the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission found that low-volume and rural facilities had lower Medicare payment margins than high-volume and urban facilities. (King, 4/5)

Modern Healthcare: N.C. Reference-Based Pricing Plan Hits Roadblock
The North Carolina treasurer's plan to tie hospital and physician payments for state employee health services to a percentage of Medicare stalled in the state House of Representatives, which could spell doom for the proposal. The state's House passed a bill this week that would halt the treasurer's plan. If the Senate also passes the bill blocking the reference-pricing model from going into effect, the treasurer and the board of trustees that governs the North Carolina State Health Plan will be kicked back to the drawing board to grapple with a health plan set to run out of money in the next five years. (Livingston, 4/5)

The Wall Street Journal: Federal Judge To Hold Hearings On Decision To Allow CVS-Aetna Merger
A federal judge on Friday said he wants to hear in court from witnesses who object to the Justice Department’s decision last year to approve CVS Health Corp.’s nearly $70 billion acquisition of Aetna Inc.—a highly unusual move that threatens to shake up the already-consummated deal. U.S. District Judge Richard Leon in Washington, D.C., is reviewing a department settlement last fall that allowed the merger after the companies agreed to sell off assets related to Medicare drug coverage. “This is a matter of great consequence to a lot of people,” Judge Leon said during a brief court hearing. Health care “is a high priority issue for tens of millions of families,” he added. (Kendall, 4/5)

The Hill: Federal Judge To Hear Witness Testimony In Review Of Aetna And CVS Merger DOJ Approval 
Leon reportedly inquired in court whether the settlement sufficiently protected industry competition. A CVS lawyer argued that judges had never called for witnesses in such hearings. Leon reportedly said he foresaw a weeklong May hearing on the matter. The American Medical Association and consumer rights groups reportedly said they wanted to testify. The Justice Department and CVS would also be permitted to present witnesses. (Frazin, 4/5)

Stat: Protestors Slam FDA With Claims It Did Too Little On Opioids
Activists on Friday delivered a parting gift to Scott Gottlieb, the outgoing Food and Drug Administration commissioner, at the entrance of a federal building here: an 800-pound, supersized heroin spoon stamped with the FDA’s logo. The group urged FDA to stop approving “dangerous” opioids and to instead encourage the development of more drugs to treat addiction. Many protesters decried the November approval of Dsuvia, a mega-potent pain drug, and urged the Trump administration to nominate an FDA commissioner who would take a different tack than Gottlieb on opioid approvals. (Facher, 4/5)

Politico: California Tests If Addiction Treatment Can Be Incorporated Into Primary Care
California had just weeks to get a program that used medication to treat opioid use disorder up and running after receiving $90 million in federal grants in 2017. So officials found a model that was already working in Vermont, and supersized it to fit the sprawling state. The scaling up of the "Hub and Spoke" system, particularly in rural areas, has presented challenges but also delivered results in locales like this Gold Rush-era city east of Sacramento — and dovetailed with existing efforts to expand medication-assisted treatment to give the state a two-pronged approach to confronting the opioid epidemic. (Colliver, 4/5)

Miami Herald: Florida Keys Sues Purdue Pharma, Others, Over Opioid Crisis
Monroe County filed a lawsuit in federal court this week against several pharmaceutical companies, including Purdue Pharma, and national drug stores, including CVS, Walgreens and Walmart, over the manufacturing, marketing and selling of opioids, which have “created a public health crisis and nuisance” nationwide and in the Florida Keys, according to the complaint. The lawsuit accuses the drug makers of deceptively and massively marketing powerful pain medications like oxycodone and fentanyl as carrying low risks of addiction and being safe for the treatment of chronic ailments like back pain and arthritis. (Goodhue, 4/5)

In other news —

KQED: Meth Mania: From Biker Gangs To The Psych Ward, How Speed Came Of Age In California
While the country's attention has been focused on prescription opioids and heroin overdoses, methamphetamine has been making a comeback. The drug's history is rooted in California — biker gangs like the Hells Angels manufactured and distributed it up and down Interstate 5 in the 1980s. (Dembosky, 4/5)

The New York Times: In A Poor Kenyan Community, Cheap Antibiotics Fuel Deadly Drug-Resistant Infections
Four days after her toddler’s health took a turn for the worse, his tiny body racked by fever, diarrhea and vomiting, Sharon Mbone decided it was time to try yet another medicine. With no money to see a doctor, she carried him to the local pharmacy stall, a corrugated shack near her home in Kibera, a sprawling impoverished community here in Nairobi. The shop’s owner, John Otieno, listened as she described her 22-month-old son’s symptoms and rattled off the pharmacological buffet of medicines he had dispensed to her over the previous two weeks. None of them, including four types of antibiotics, were working, she said in despair. (Jacobs and Richtel, 4/7)

The New York Times: A Mysterious Infection, Spanning The Globe In A Climate Of Secrecy
Last May, an elderly man was admitted to the Brooklyn branch of Mount Sinai Hospital for abdominal surgery. A blood test revealed that he was infected with a newly discovered germ as deadly as it was mysterious. Doctors swiftly isolated him in the intensive care unit. The germ, a fungus called Candida auris, preys on people with weakened immune systems, and it is quietly spreading across the globe. Over the last five years, it has hit a neonatal unit in Venezuela, swept through a hospital in Spain, forced a prestigious British medical center to shut down its intensive care unit, and taken root in India, Pakistan and South Africa. (Richtel and Jacobs, 4/6)

The New York Times: What You Need To Know About Candida Auris
A mysterious and dangerous fungal infection called Candida auris has emerged around the world. It is resistant to many antifungal medications, placing it among a growing number of germs that have evolved defenses against common medicines. Here are some basic facts about it. (Richtel, 4/6)

The Washington Post: E. Coli Outbreak Affects More Than 70 People In Five States
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday it has yet to determine the source of an E. coli outbreak that has infected 72 people in five states — an admission one expert in food-borne illness called “perplexing,” considering how many have become sick. The recent spate of sickness, which began March 2, is directly linked to a strain of E. coli known as “O103,″ according to the CDC. Eight people have been hospitalized as a result of the outbreak, however, no deaths have been reported. The patients’ ages range from 1 to 74 with a median age of 17. (Brice-Saddler, 4/5)

The Washington Post: For CBD Food Craze, Regulations And Restrictions Are All Over The Map
At Joshua Hudson’s smoothie shop, a bohemian outpost called Twisted Smoothie in a small strip mall here, customers can add a 15 mg or 30 mg shot of cannabidiol, or CBD, to their blended drinks for a few extra dollars. They also can get a minilecture from Hudson on the virtues of the cannabis extract, found in both hemp and marijuana, which he and other fans claim can ease a range of health problems without making users high. “It makes everybody better,” said Hudson from behind the counter. He takes CBD before important meetings and first dates to calm his nerves, he said. “I tell people, ‘CBD — it’s a natural Tylenol and Xanax mixed together.’ ” (Quinton, 4/7)

NPR: Spring Allergies? Sublingual Immunotherapy Tablets Might Help
Sneezing, runny nose, congestion, or irritated eyes? Yes, we hear you: The misery of seasonal allergies is real. A lot of us find temporary relief with over-the-counter medications, but these don't treat the cause. As we head into grass pollen season over the next few months, here's an option to consider: Many allergists now prescribe immunotherapy tablets to some of their patients with grass allergies, that work in the same way as allergy shots. (Aubrey, 4/8)

The New York Times: The Latest In Military Strategy: Mindfulness
As commander of the coalition forces in Iraq, Maj. Gen. Walter Piatt juggled ruthless pursuit of enemies and delicate diplomacy with tribal leaders, using a trove of modern weaponry and streams of tech-generated data. But his best decisions, he said, relied on a tool as ancient as it is powerful. Maj. Gen. Piatt often began daily operations by breathing deliberately, slack-jawed, staring steadily at a palm tree. Mindfulness — the practice of using breathing techniques, similar to those in meditation, to gain focus and reduce distraction — is inching into the military in the United States and those of a handful of other nations. (Richtel, 4/5)

The Washington Post: Poor Diets Responsible For More Deaths Globally Than Any Other Risk Factor, Including Smoking, Study Says
Too much salt — and not enough whole grains, fruits and vegetables — may be shaving years off our lives, a new analysis suggests. In a study published Wednesday in the journal Lancet, researchers looked at people’s eating habits across 195 countries to estimate how much poor diets contribute to mortality. Their findings? That 11 million people die each year around the world because, at least in part, of certain foods or lack thereof, according to the study. (Bever, 4/5)

The Washington Post: Dissecting Brains To Find Signs Of Mental Illness
About noon most days, the Lieber Institute for Brain Development in East Baltimore gets a case — that is, a brain. It arrives in an inconspicuous red cooler. Almost immediately, resident neuropathologist Rahul Bharadwaj gets to work, carefully inspecting it for any abnormalities, such as tumors or lesions. Often, the brains come from the Maryland Medical Examiner’s Office, just a 15-minute drive across town. On other days, they are flown in — packed on dry ice — from around the country. (Mullin, 4/6)

The Associated Press: Smoking Pot Vs. Tobacco: What Science Says About Lighting Up
As more states make it legal to smoke marijuana, some government officials, researchers and others worry what that might mean for one of the country’s biggest public health successes : curbing cigarette smoking. Though there are notable differences in health research findings on tobacco and marijuana, the juxtaposition strikes some as jarring after generations of Americans have gotten the message that smoking endangers their health. (Peltz, 4/7)

Tampa Bay Times: If Smoking Is Bad, How Can Smoking Medical Marijuana Be Good? We Asked Doctors.
When Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Legislature made it legal last month to smoke medical marijuana, they did it in the name of better health — the idea that thousands of Floridians would gain relief from a variety of illnesses. Yet it seemed to run counter to everything modern medicine says about smoking. Isn’t it really bad for you? (Griffin, 4/5)

NPR: Prenatal Expanded Carrier Screening Tests Can Be Difficult To Interpret
It wasn't hard for Shara Watkins to get pregnant. It was hard for her to stay pregnant. In 2016, she was devastated by two miscarriages. With the help of several medications, she successfully carried a child last year. Shara and her husband, Robert, were elated when she reached her second trimester, the phase when the highest risk of miscarriage subsides. Unfortunately the San Mateo, Calif., couple's struggles continued. (McClurg, 4/8)

Austin Statesman: Is It Time For Whooping Cough Vaccine To Get An Update? CDC Exploring
Last month, folks at the State Capitol got a letter that employees might have been exposed to pertussis and the Texas Department of State Health Services was investigating. ...While pertussis and other diseases we currently vaccinate for are not evolving as rapidly as the flu, they can evolve and we can start seeing a different version emerging. (Villalpando, 4/5)

The New York Times: Dealing With Aggression In Children
Behavior problems in children, especially aggression and defiance, don’t get a great deal of sympathy, said Dave Anderson, a psychologist who is senior director of national programs at the Child Mind Institute in New York City. “For a child to get better requires just as much empathy and scaffolding as for a child who might be depressed, but behavioral issues inspire nowhere near as much empathy.” There is a persistent belief that these behaviors reflect poor parenting, he said, but in fact, there is often a strong biological component to behavioral issues, and the responses which come naturally to most parents faced with these behaviors may not have the desired results. (Klass, 4/8)

The New York Times: France Is First To Ban Breast Implants Linked To Rare Cancer
France has banned several types of textured breast implants that have been linked to a rare form of cancer. The ban, which covers macro-textured and polyurethane implants, took effect on Friday. It was announced this week by France’s National Agency for Safety of Medicines and Health Products, or ANSM, in a letter to manufacturers. (Meheut, 4/5)

Columbus Dispatch: Ohio State Study: At-Home HPV Tests Could Boost Early Cancer Detection
Leaders of an Ohio State University pilot study sent self-testing kits to 103 women between the ages of 30 and 65 in rural Appalachia who had not received a Pap test in at least three years. Of those, 78 percent completed the tests at home and mailed the kits back.That’s great news for efforts to screen for the virus, which is known as HPV. (Burger, 4/7)

The Washington Post: For Hospital Patients, Bedside Tablets And Apps Are Providing Some Control Over Care
Shannon Olson got more sleep than she expected during her daughter Emilia’s hospital stay in January. Emilia, 2½ , was hospitalized for 10 days at the Geisinger Janet Weis Children’s Hospital in Danville, Pa., to treat an infected cyst on her face. Olson slept in Emilia’s room and had planned to wait up for the nurses’ last rounds. Instead, she went to sleep before the late rounds, and each morning logged into an app on the tablet Geisinger offers each patient. The app provided access to Emilia’s hospital chart. “It made it so much easier knowing that all of Emilia’s updated chart information was available to me on the tablet,” Olson said. (Kritz, 4/7)

The Wall Street Journal: Amazon Wants You To Use Alexa To Track Health Care
Amazon.com Inc. is positioning Alexa, its artificial-intelligence assistant, to track consumers’ prescriptions and relay personal health information, in a bid to insert the technology into everyday health care. Seattle-based Amazon says Alexa can now transfer sensitive, personal health information using software that meets health-privacy requirements under federal law. Five companies, including insurer Cigna Corp. , diabetes-management company Livongo Health Inc. and major hospital systems, said they developed new Alexa features for consumers using the federal protocol. (Evans, 4/7)

The New York Times: Can Technology Stop The Duane Reade-Ization Of New York?
Four years ago, Eric Kinariwala woke up with a throbbing headache from a sinus infection. So he did what most New Yorkers do. He called his doctor, got a prescription for a Z-Pak, and walked to the Duane Reade near his apartment on the Lower East Side. When he got there, the elevator to the basement pharmacy was broken, and 40 people were in line ahead of him, he said. After waiting for an hour, the pharmacist told him they were out of stock. His phone had died, so he couldn’t ask his doctor to send the prescription elsewhere. “It was so miserable,” said Mr. Kinariwala, 36, who left the drugstore that day without antibiotics. “I’m a pinball in the middle of this thing.” (Lokting, 4/5)

The Washington Post: Telemedicine Tied To More Antibiotics For Kids, Study Finds
Sniffling, sore-throated kids seen via telemedicine visits were far more likely to be prescribed antibiotics than those who went to a doctor’s office or clinic, according to a new study. Many of those prescriptions disregarded medical guidelines, raising the risk they could cause side effects or contribute to the rise of antibiotic-resistant germs. “I understand the desire for care that’s more convenient and timely,” said the study’s lead author, Dr. Kristin Ray of the University of Pittsburgh. “But we want to make sure that we don’t sacrifice quality or safety or effectiveness in the process.” (Stobbe, 4/8)

NPR: Hospital Closure Makes It Harder For A Town To Attract Retirees
When a rural community loses its hospital, health care becomes harder to come by in an instant. But a hospital closure also shocks a small town's economy. It shuts down one of its largest employers. It scares off heavy industry that needs an emergency room nearby. And in one Tennessee town, a lost hospital means lost hope of attracting more retirees. Seniors, and their retirement accounts, have been viewed as potential saviors for many rural economies trying to make up for lost jobs. (Farmer, 4/7)

Kansas City Star: What One Kansas Town Did About Losing Its Hospital
Nearly 90 rural hospitals across the country have closed their doors since 2010; another 355 are considered at risk for shuttering, beset by low patient volume, staffing issues or inadequate Medicare reimbursements. Fort Scott joins Independence, Oswego and Horton as Kansas communities where residents like Metcalf feel vulnerable and on-edge. (Korte, 4/6)

San Francisco Chronicle: Doctors Demand UCSF Break Ties With Catholic Hospitals Over Abortion, Trans Care
More than 1,500 doctors and hospital staff have signed a petition opposing the partnership between UCSF and Catholic Dignity Health, as San Francisco’s public medical center expects to expand its affiliation with the faith-based organization. Some of the Catholic hospitals require UCSF doctors to sign a document that declares certain medical procedures, including sterilization, “intrinsically evil.” (Asimov, 4/6)

Boston Globe: Patients Can Get Paid To Shop For Health Care. But There Are Drawbacks
The price of common medical services can vary sharply from one hospital or clinic to the next, and often without measurable differences in quality. So in an effort to tackle growing costs, many employers and insurers are now paying patients to shop around. (Dayal McCluskey, 4/5)

The Washington Post: D.C. Hospital Reports Norovirus Outbreak In Three Young Patients
A children’s hospital in the District has reported an outbreak of norovirus, saying three of its patients showed signs of the illness last week and have tested positive. Officials with the HSC Pediatric Center, formerly the Hospital for Sick Children, said they have been working closely with the D.C. Health Department to contain the spread of the virus, which produces symptoms commonly associated with stomach flu. (St. George, 4/7)

Sacramento Bee: Cheaper And More Accessible Health Care Sought By CA Bills
Twenty-two bills before the Legislature this year aim to make health care more affordable and accessible. It seems almost certain that some of them will pass. But even though all the bills are heading in the same direction, there are competing visions of what a health care expansion should look like in 2019. (Finch, Bollag and Caiola, 4/8)

Denver Post: Colorado Health Care: 8 Ways Lawmakers Want To Make It Cheaper
It seems like every state senator and representative is trying to pass a health care bill this session. Republicans, Democrats and the new governor all put lowering medical costs toward the top of their to-do lists in 2019, and the result of that has been dozens of bills — some of them overlapping — that seek to lower the cost of health care in different ways. “It looks like total scattershot,” said Rep. Dylan Roberts, a Democrat from Eagle who is behind several major health care bills this session. (Staver, 4/6)

Pioneer Press: Republicans And Democrats Want To ‘Fix Health Care.’ Will Disagreements Over How, Stymie Their Work?
If you take Minnesota political leaders at their word, they’re committed to making health care more accessible and affordable. ... Lawmakers spent the past week detailing their various health care policy and spending proposals as they moved through committees and floor votes. And when it comes to the way Republicans and Democrats want to make health care more accessible and affordable, they remain far apart. (Magan, 4/7)

The Oregonian: Oregon Democrats Want To Bring Back Double Health Insurance For State, School Workers 
Gov. Kate Brown and Democrats in the Oregon Legislature are looking at undoing one of the anticipated cost-saving initiatives they passed two years ago: ending double health insurance for couples who both work for the state or a school district. Chastened by blowback from public employees, the governor and Democratic lawmakers now say it might have been a mistake to pass that and some other cost-trimming health insurance changes. Those changes were predicted to save $178 million per biennium starting in 2019 and more in future budgets. (Borrud, 4/5)

Wyoming Public Radio: Wyoming Lawmakers Are Ready To Battle Over Health Care
President Trump is now backing a lawsuit that would invalidate the entire Affordable Care Act, and that's promising to make health care a major election issue next year. Wyoming Republicans are fine with that, even though they have failed to repeal and replace when they controlled both chambers of Congress. (Laslo, 4/5)

Politico Pro: Public Option Hits A Wall In Blue States
This was supposed to be the year blue states created government-run health insurance plans, after health care-fueled midterm election victories. But legislation around the country to craft a so-called public option — a longtime progressive goal — has stalled over political and financial roadblocks, underscoring the challenge of creating coverage expansions even less comprehensive than the "Medicare for All" plan championed by Democratic presidential contenders and progressives in Congress. (Pradhan and Goldberg, 4/7)

Meanwhile, the abortion debate continues to play out in state capitols —

The Washington Post: Florida Abortion Bill Would Require Minors To Obtain Consent
Stephanie Loraine Piñeiro was 17 when she discovered she was pregnant for the second time. She says her parents were livid about her first pregnancy a year earlier, though she never dared tell them she was raped. Her father took her to a clinic for an abortion. On the way home, she says, he threw birth control pills from the clinic out of the car window and ordered her to abstain. A year later, the circumstances were different. She said she became pregnant after having sex with a boyfriend, and was afraid her parents would force her to continue an unwanted pregnancy if she told them. She sought but was denied emergency contraception from a pharmacy. (Rua, 4/7)

Boston Globe: Too Young To Get Married — But Not To End A Pregnancy?
Take two bills now being considered on Beacon Hill: One would impose a new minimum age of 18 to get married. Currently, a child in Massachusetts can get married at any age, with at least one parent’s permission. The other would let a young woman get an abortion at any age. Currently, she can’t do so before 18, unless she has the permission of a parent or a judge. If both bills pass as written, they would seem to send conflicting signals on young women’s autonomy: You’re mature enough to choose an abortion, no matter what your parents say, but you are not mature enough to choose marriage, no matter what your parents say. (Ebbert, 4/6)

St. Louis Public Radio: One In 8 Missouri Seniors Don't Have Enough To Eat, Report Finds
Food insecurity is affecting a significant number of seniors, according to the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services. A recently released report found 12% of Missouri seniors did not have consistent access to food in 2015. (Fentem, 4/5)

The Hill: 95 Percent Of Oregon Parents Who Secure Vaccine Exemptions Use Do-It-Yourself Option, State Data Shows 
An overwhelming majority of parents in Oregon who secure vaccine exemptions for their children do so using the state's do-it-yourself option, according to state data. Data from the Oregon Health Authority shows that of the 31,500 non-medical vaccine exemptions sent in last year, 30,000 were from parents who watched an online education video and printed a do-it-yourself form, according to The Oregonian. (Frazin, 4/6)

Bloomberg: J&J Wins Trial Over California Man's Talc-Cancer Claim 
Johnson & Johnson won the latest trial over claims its iconic baby powder can cause cancer, as a jury in Long Beach, California, rejected a lawsuit brought by a 65-year-old retired teacher who claimed the product was contaminated with asbestos. The J&J victory Friday comes the week after the company settled three cases alleging baby powder caused a rare asbestos-connected cancer. Two, in Oklahoma and California, were settled during trial. The other, in New York, was settled less than two weeks before trial was set to begin. (Fisk and Feeley, 4/5)

The Associated Press: Baltimore’s Embattled Mayor Intends To Return To Work
A spokesman for the embattled mayor of Baltimore says she’ll return from her leave of absence as soon as her health allows. Spokesman James Bentley told The Baltimore Sun on Saturday that Catherine Pugh’s health is improving. It’s unclear when she’ll return. It won’t be Monday. Pugh abruptly took her leave last Monday to recover from pneumonia. Meanwhile, a scandal involving her sale of children’s books to high-profile clients has intensified. (4/7)

The Star Tribune: Medtronic, Blue Cross Sign Glucose Monitor Deal Linked To Patient Outcomes 
Medtronic is striking a first-of-its-kind agreement with Minnesota's largest health plan in which the device maker will pay back the insurer if patients using a specific Medtronic diabetes device don't see their blood sugar levels stay within an acceptable range. The "value-based" arrangement, to be unveiled Monday, is designed to make it easier for Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota members to obtain and use a Guardian Connect continuous glucose monitor from Medtronic. (Carlson, 4/6)

North Carolina Health News: Selling Sex To Meet Daily Needs: Life In Assisted Living On $66 A Month 
Some advocates for these vulnerable people living in North Carolina institutions are pushing the state legislature to boost the money provided to residents, called the personal needs allowance. ... At a March 26 presentation before the General Assembly’s House Committee on Aging, representatives of the Division of Aging and Adult Services said it would cost $5.9 million to increase the personal needs allowance to $70 for more than 20,000 North Carolinians who receive special assistance in adult care homes. It would cost $7.16 million to increase the personal needs allowance from $30 to $70 for about 30,000 residents of nursing homes. (Goldsmith, 4/8)

Texas Tribune: Texas Decreased Special Ed Funding. Now It Might Owe $233 Million.
The U.S. Department of Education has found Texas in violation of a federal statute prohibiting states from reducing their funding for kids with disabilities from year to year, and warned the state that a financial penalty was coming. Now, advocates are concerned that Texas could lose an even bigger chunk of its funding, harming its efforts to overhaul special education for hundreds of thousands of students. (Swaby, 4/5)

Des Moines Register: Severely Disabled Iowans Die At State Facility; Staffers Blame Care
Employees at the state institution here have repeatedly warned officials that medical care for 200 of Iowa’s most disabled residents has eroded to a deadly point. Fourteen Glenwood Resource Center residents have died since last June — more than twice the usual rate — according to public records, obituaries and interviews with former and current staff members. Critics, including several former managers, say some of the deaths were unavoidable. But they believe others could have been prevented by more careful monitoring and aggressive treatment of the facility’s fragile patients. (Leys, 4/6)

Denver Post: Inpatient Mental Health Care Arrives At Boulder Community Health
Colorado was recently found to be in the bottom tier of states for mental health care, but Boulder Community Health is now operating one of the most sophisticated and pioneering units in the country for a client base whose needs are seen as increasingly critical to improving national well-being. The $45 million Della Cava Family Medical Pavilion opens for business on Tuesday. Situated at 4801 Riverbend Road, directly east of Boulder Community Health’s main facility at its Foothill campus, hospital officials say the 70,000-square-foot complex houses the most modern mental health care facility in Colorado. (Brennan, 4/6)

San Jose Mercury News: Pregnant Prison Guards Say They Must Choose: Jobs Or Babies
California state correctional officers who become pregnant face a difficult choice, according to a newly filed class action lawsuit. They can keep working and risk their babies’ health, take a leave of absence and lose pay or switch to a different position and risk losing their peace officer certification, which can compromise their future in public safety. (Venteicher, 4/7)

The Philadelphia Inquirer: Health Department Warns Of Possible Hepatitis A Exposure At South Philly Acme
Acme shoppers who ate precut fruit and vegetables from a store in South Philadelphia last month should consider getting vaccinated “as soon as possible” because a worker at the store has “acute” hepatitis A, the city’s Department of Public Health said Saturday. The warning involves the Acme store at 1400 E. Passyunk Ave. and purchases made there between March 17 and 29, the department announced on Twitter. (Hetrick, 4/6)

Boston Globe: In State’s Broken Foster System, Some Kids Can’t Find A Bed For The Night
Children are landing in foster care and mired there for increasingly longer stretches of time as the opioid epidemic continues to splinter families and overwhelm the state’s child protection system. Facing this deluge of need, the Department of Children and Families has been unable to recruit and retain enough foster parents to shelter all the abused and neglected children without a safe home. (Lazar, 4/6)

Kaiser Health News: Mourning Paradise: Collective Trauma In A Town Destroyed
One of the final memories Carol Holcomb has of her pine-shaded neighborhood was the morning sun that reflected red and gold on her trees last Nov. 8. That day, she said, promised to be a beautiful one in the Butte County town of Paradise. So she was surprised to hear what sounded like raindrops tapping her roof a short time later. Holcomb, 56, stepped outside to investigate and saw a chunk of pine bark floating down from the sky. “It was about 3 inches by 2 inches,” she said. “And it was smoking.” (O'Neil, 4/8)

The New York Times: Texas Inmate With Allergies Has Asked For A Cotton Blanket For 10 Years, Lawsuit Says
A Texas inmate who says he is allergic to the synthetic blankets provided by his prison says he has asked for 10 years to be given a cotton blanket instead. The inmate, Calvin E. Weaver, 73, filed a lawsuit against the prison system in May, claiming that its employees violated his civil rights by ignoring his frequent complaints about relentless itchiness and resulting health problems caused by the blanket. (Jacobs, 4/6)

San Jose Mercury News: How The Bay Area Housing Crisis Hurts Region's Youngest Residents
As high prices and a shortage of available housing continue to squeeze local families, issues that once were the purview of adults, such as rent control and just-cause eviction protection, increasingly are entering the vocabulary of Bay Area kids. Children of renters wonder when the rent increase will come that forces them out of their house, away from the friends they’ve grown up with and the places that feel like home. (Kendall, 4/7)

The Hill: Our First Amendment Rights Are Under Assault With The Global Gag Rule
Research shows that without access to basic reproductive health care, women can’t thrive economically. Expanding contraceptive use improves women’s agency, education and labor force participation. Yet across Africa, there is an unmet need for family planning, and low contraceptive use keeps women from achieving their desired family size, limiting women’s economic advancement. (Jonathan Cohen and Kavita N. Ramdas, 4/7)

Los Angeles Times: Why Finland Comes Out On Top On Happiness And More 
When the U.N.’s 2019 World Happiness Report came out last month, Finland ranked on top for the second year in a row. Small Finland — about 75% the size of California with just 5.5 million people — consistently trounces the United States and other developed nations on ratings of life satisfaction, health, safety, governance, community and social progress.As a result, Finland now has a cottage industry in sending its experts across the Atlantic to have their brains picked for quick fixes to America’s problems. But those fixes never really take root because the underlying reason Finns are faring so well is because we have a different mindset about success — one that’s based on equity and community. (Jorma Ollila, 4/7)

Stat: Taking Care Of Charlie Helped A California Town Reduce Hospital Use 
Project Restoration didn’t just save Charlie’s life. It also transformed Clearlake. In less than a year, its approach yielded a 44% reduction in hospital utilization, an 82% reduction in use of the community response system, and a 45% reduction in hospital costs among the high-use population. The project is freeing up resources, sharing data across agencies, and creating cross-sector teams to address access to affordable housing, transportation, and behavioral health. Project Restoration leveraged its success to secure a $1.6 million grant to develop a center for integrated support services. In partnership with the Camden Coalition’s National Center for Complex Health and Social Needs, the project is extending the concept to more hospitals and stakeholders. (Lauran Hardin and Shelly Trumbo, 4/8)

The Washington Post: José Andres: Neglecting DC Central Kitchen Is One Of The District's Biggest Mistakes
Throughout my time as a cook, an entrepreneur and a nonprofit founder, I have been reminded time and again, from the District to Puerto Rico, of the incredible power of food to bring people together. Twenty-five years ago, I first walked through the doors of D.C. Central Kitchen. I was a young immigrant cook searching for my place in a new city and in the world. I was expecting to find a run-of-the-mill soup kitchen. What I found instead was an engine of change that challenged conventions I didn’t realize needed breaking. Instead of simply preparing meals, this fearless nonprofit was helping unemployed Washingtonians trade homelessness, incarceration and addiction for real careers in the culinary industry that I loved. I was proud to work shoulder to shoulder with them; it taught me the true value of food as an agent of change and made me the proud Washingtonian I am today. (Jose Andres, 4/5)

USA Today: Medicare For All Is The Only Reasonable Way To Fix US Health System
The favorite new “reasonable” plan is “Medicare for America,” a bill from Reps. Jan Schakowsky and Rosa DeLauro that has won the support of big names like Texas presidential hopeful Beto O’Rourke and the Center for American Progress, the left-of-center think tank where the plan originated as “Medicare Extra for All.” It has been extolled in opinion pieces for some of America’s largest newspapers as a “realistic” plan to fix what’s broken in our health care system. (Gerald Friedman, 4/8)

The Washington Post: Depression And Disability Make Exercise Elusive Treatment
I’ve been disabled since I was 24 and have experienced recurring bouts of major depression for most of my life. And like a crow with a carcass, one tends to feed off the other. Because of my impaired mobility — most days I’m confined to bed for 22 hours — it’s often impossible to exercise enough so that my brain releases sufficient endorphins, one of the hormones key to experiencing joy. (Litsa Bremousis, 4/7)

Stat: Value-Based Agreements Could Disrupt How We Pay For Drugs 
On Tuesday, the Senate Finance Committee will hold its second hearing in a series on drug pricing. Led by chairman Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and ranking member Ron Wyden (D-Oregon), this hearing is a follow-up of the widely publicized grilling in February of CEOs and senior executives of seven major pharmaceutical companies. This time around, five executives from major pharmacy benefit mangers (PBMs) will be in the hot seat. (Steve Brozak, 4/8)

The New York Times: Can Doctors Talk Teenagers Out Of Risky Drinking?
I’m a pediatrician, and when I see adolescents in my clinic, I ask them if they are drinking alcohol (among other risky activities). Then I counsel them if they answer in the affirmative. I want young people to be safe. But doctors lack the evidence base — we don’t have enough studies — to know how much of a difference this makes. Here’s why we may want an answer. Excessive drinking is responsible for 88,000 deaths per year in the United States, about one in 10 deaths among working-age adults. The cost in 2010 was almost $250 billion. (Aaron E. Carroll, 4/8)

The Washington Post: Congress Must Step Up To Help Puerto Rico
This week, the Senate failed to pass a disaster funding bill that would have restored adequate food assistance for more than 1 million Puerto Ricans. Why? While Senate Republicans did include the food assistance funding, they blocked other badly needed money for the island’s continuing recovery in the wake of two 2017 hurricanes. Nor did the Senate’s bill include funds that the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam and American Samoa need to avert cuts to their Medicaid programs in coming months. (Javier Balmaceda, 4/5)

The New York Times: Alabama’s Cruel And Unusual Prisons
On Wednesday, the Justice Department put Alabama on notice over the state’s “flagrant disregard” for the constitutional rights of inmates in its prisons. The department said that conditions in the state’s prisons are among the nation’s very worst. “After carefully reviewing the evidence,” department officials wrote in a letter addressed to Gov. Kay Ivey, “we conclude that there is reasonable cause to believe that conditions at Alabama’s prisons violate the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution,” which protects against cruel and unusual forms of punishment. (4/6)

The Washington Post: The Impossible Burger Has Reached Cattle Country. It's A Wake-Up Call To The Meat Industry. 
Missouri Farm Bureau members were likely startled by the recent “Commentary” in their email queues. The farm bureau’s Eric Bohl reported on his visit to a St. Louis-area Burger King, where the fast-food giant is testing a version of the Whopper made entirely from plants. “If I didn’t know what I was eating, I would have no idea it was not beef,” Bohl wrote. (David Von Drehle, 4/5)