The Washington Post: Voters Have Big Health-Care Worries, But Not The Ones Democrats Are Talking About
Medicare-for-all. Medicare for all who want it. Health care as a form of freedom. As they campaign, most of the 23 Democratic candidates for president are trumpeting bold ideas to achieve the party’s long-held dream of ushering in health coverage for every American. The problem is that many voters are not focused on such lofty goals. They want something simpler — to pay less for their own health care. (Goldstein, 6/21)

The New York Times: ‘Medicare For All’ Vs. ‘Public Option’: The 2020 Field Is Split, Our Survey Shows
“Medicare for all” is the hottest idea in the Democratic presidential race for overhauling the nation’s health care system, and it is a phrase quite likely to be heard repeatedly at the first debates this week. But despite all the buzz, it turns out that the concept is dividing the 2020 field. A new survey of the Democratic candidates by The New York Times finds that many of them prefer less sweeping changes than the Medicare for All Act, the single-payer bill introduced by Senator Bernie Sanders and supported by Senator Elizabeth Warren and several other presidential hopefuls. A majority of candidates in the survey — including former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., the leader in early polls — said they would rather add a “public option” in the health care system that would compete with private plans. (Gabriel and Goodnough, 6/23)

The New York Times: How The Democratic Candidates Responded To A Health Care Policy Survey
The New York Times asked all 23 Democratic presidential candidates for their views on the best ways to improve the health care system. We received responses from 19 of them. The first three questions asked whether the candidates supported three possible routes for changing how Americans receive health insurance: by creating a “Medicare for all” system that would eliminate private insurance; by providing a choice between a “public option” health care plan run by the government and private insurance; or by making more modest changes to the Affordable Care Act. (6/23)

Politico: 2020 Candidates Views On The Issues: A Voter’s Guide
The most comprehensive guide anywhere to the issues shaping the 2020 Democratic presidential primary. Search by candidate, issue or category. (6/24)

Politico: Democratic Group's Poll Shows Trump Vulnerable With His Base On Health Care
The Democratic research group American Bridge is preparing a $50 million campaign to win over a slice of President Donald Trump’s base, and new polling has convinced the organization that Trump is vulnerable on pocketbook issues, especially health care, among white working-class voters. The battleground-state polling is a new step in American Bridge’s plans to target Trump voters in small towns and rural areas with ads linking local events to unpopular Trump policies. (Bland, 6/24)

And here's what to watch for at this week's debates —

CNBC: Business Issues To Watch In 2020 Democratic Primary Debates In Miami
Business has dominated the early policy discussions in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary. Expect more talk about candidates’ plans for corporate America when 20 hopefuls square off over two nights in the first Democratic debates this week. In the race’s early days, Democrats have pledged to overhaul chunks of the U.S. economy from health care to technology and agriculture. They have promised to roll back at least parts of the GOP corporate tax cuts. (Pramuk, 6/23)

Miami Herald: Republicans Target Medicare For All Before Democratic Debates
A GOP-aligned group is launching a massive ad campaign targeting single-payer health care, a national effort designed to undercut the proposed program’s popularity as it gains some support within the Democratic Party. One Nation, a non-profit political advocacy group, will make an initial $4 million investment in the campaign, which is slated to begin Friday and will air heavily around next week’s first Democratic presidential primary debates in Miami. (Roarty, 6/20)

The Associated Press: 2020 Democrats Strongly Defend Abortion Rights At Forum
Twenty Democratic presidential candidates attending a Planned Parenthood forum on Saturday vowed to defend abortion rights under nearly any circumstance while largely ignoring nuances around the issue that have already roiled their party heading into the 2020 election. The event sponsored by Planned Parenthood Action Fund — the group’s political arm — was the first of the election season centered on abortion. It came on the sidelines of the South Carolina Democratic Party’s state convention, a pivotal gathering of the party faithful in the South’s first primary state. (Weissert, 6/22)

The Wall Street Journal: Democratic Candidates Unite In Support For Abortion Rights
In total, 20 of the 23 Democratic candidates spoke at the Planned Parenthood Action Fund’s “We Decide: 2020 Election Membership Forum.” Montana Gov. Steve Bullock, Miramar, Fla., Mayor Wayne Messam and Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard didn’t attend the Planned Parenthood event. The event was held just over two weeks after Mr. Biden—who leads the Democratic field in nationwide and state polls—reversed his long-held support for the measure, after Democratic candidates and groups like Planned Parenthood Action Fund criticized him. (Collins, 6/22)

The Hill: 2020 Democrats Vow To Expand Abortion Access At Planned Parenthood Event
The forum, hosted by Planned Parenthood in South Carolina, presented candidates with an opportunity to stand out on an issue that’s driven the Democratic primary so far. But the forum also highlighted differences between candidates, with some, like Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Kirsten Gillibrand (N.Y.) vowing to go further than others to protect and expand abortion access. (6/22)

NPR: Listen: Democratic Presidential Candidates Talk Abortion In South Carolina
Twenty Democrats running for the 2020 presidential nomination are addressing a forum on abortion rights in South Carolina. (6/23)

The Washington Examiner: Elizabeth Warren Warns Anti-Abortion Backers: 'You're Not Going To Lock Women Back In The Kitchen'
Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren suggested that abortion restrictions and anti-abortion politicians were motivated by a desire to return to a period when women could not participate in the workforce. "It is not 1952," the Massachusetts senator said on Saturday about her work in the upper chamber to expand abortion rights. "You're not going to lock women back in the kitchen. You are not going to tell us what to do." (Leonard, 6/22)

The Washington Post: Biden Defends Record On Abortion At Planned Parenthood Forum
A military veteran from West Virginia rose from the audience, her voice quivering as she relayed to former vice president Joe Biden that she’d been sexually assaulted multiple times and had had three abortions. Now an activist, Peshka Calloway told Biden that she had been able to use Medicaid to pay for her abortions, but today, women in similar situations cannot because West Virginia last year adopted a law stricter than the federal ban on funding for abortions, known as the Hyde Amendment. The Post typically does not identify victims of sexual assault but is naming her because she spoke in a public forum. (Itkowitz and Davies, 6/22)

The Hill: Biden Talks About Abortion At Planned Parenthood Event, Without Saying The Word 'Abortion'
Former vice president Joe Biden stumbled to explain how he would expand and protect abortion access during a Planned Parenthood event Saturday, instead skating around the issue and failing to say the word "abortion" even once. Biden, who has been criticized on his abortion record by Democrats and activists, used euphemisms to refer to abortion access, including “reproductive rights,” “access to choice” and “access to the Supreme Court decisions.” (Hellmann, 6/22)

Politico: Biden's Stands On Abortion Remain A Mystery After Hyde Flap
Joe Biden’s recent flip on federal funding for abortions has activists on both sides wondering: What does he believe now when it comes to reproductive rights? For decades, the former vice president opposed late-term and so-called partial birth abortions, lamenting that one ban enacted in the 1990s did not go far enough. He supported Republican presidents’ prohibitions on funding for groups that promote abortions overseas, and backed legislation that would have allowed states to overturn Roe v. Wade. He even fought unsuccessfully to widen religious groups’ exemptions from the Affordable Care Act’s mandate for birth control coverage. (Ollstein, 6/21)

CNN: Abortion Rights Are Getting Stronger In Blue States This Year
The red-state drive to ban or severely limit access to abortion this year has sparked the opposite reaction in Democratic-led states, where lawmakers are cementing abortion rights and making it more accessible. Driving the moves on both sides is the rightward shift of the US Supreme Court, which is fanning fears on the left that the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that made abortion legal in the US could be gutted or overturned altogether. (Luhby, 6/22)

CNN: Wisconsin Governor Vetoes 4 Bills Restricting Abortion
Wisconsin Democratic Gov. Tony Evers vetoed a slew of bills restricting abortion on Friday, blocking measures that would have impeded abortion access by implicating doctors and cutting federal Planned Parenthood funding. "Everyone should have access to quality, affordable healthcare, and that includes reproductive healthcare," Evers said in a statement Friday. "Politicians shouldn't be in the business of interfering with decisions made between patients and their healthcare providers." (Kelly, 6/21)

The Hill: Wisconsin Governor Vetoes Abortion Restrictions
The move comes after the GOP-led Wisconsin Senate and State Assembly passed four measures that would further restrict abortions. The measures included the so-called "born alive" legislation, which requires health care providers to give care to babies who survive abortion attempts. If it became law, the "born alive" bill would reportedly enforce criminal penalties on doctors who did not provide necessary medical care to babies who survived abortion attempts. (Wise, 6/23)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Gov. Evers Vetoes 'Born Alive' Legislation And Other Abortion Measures
Republicans said they had hoped Evers would adopt the measures and held a public ceremony Thursday to send the bills to him in hopes that it would draw attention to the legislation. One bill would have required lifetime prison sentences for doctors if they did not provide medical care to babies who were born after attempted abortions. (Marley and Beck, 6/21)

Los Angeles Times: Georgia's Abortion Ban Forces Political Reckoning Among TV And Film Workers
Zombies lurk beyond the train tracks. They have been here for years, working under lights, swatting mosquitoes, bringing eerie charm to streets of gothic homes and magnolia. Tourists come from as far away as Japan to glimpse the set of “The Walking Dead,” which has become a neighbor in this town of Bible school classes and soft-serve ice cream. The show, like many film and TV productions, was drawn to Georgia over the last decade by big tax breaks. Legislators were welcoming and the locals, including those in Senoia, adjusted to shooting schedules and the generally liberal inclinations of thousands of set designers, prop masters, actors, makeup artists and others who descended from California, New York and other film states. (Fleishman, 6/23)

Columbus Dispatch: New Abortion Laws Drive Increase In Activism On Both Sides Of Issue
New and stringent rules limiting abortion in Ohio and a handful of other states — plus the renewed prospect that Roe v. Wade could be overturned — have revived an urgency and activism about an issue that has simmered at a low boil for years. It has spurred Isabella Guinigundo, at age 17, to plan a rally in her township near Cincinnati to oppose Ohio House Bill 182, which would bar insurers in the state from covering abortions and limit coverage of certain types of birth control. The bill is being debated in the aftermath of the enactment of an Ohio law banning abortion after the detection of a fetal heartbeat, typically around six weeks into pregnancy. (Candisky and Wehrman, 6/23)

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: With Ohio 'Heartbeat Bill,' Pittsburgh Abortion Clinics Expect To See Increase In Patients
Even though Gov. Tom Wolf has vowed to veto any anti-abortion bills that hit his desk, Pennsylvania clinics and patients seeking an abortion likely will still be affected by laws in neighboring states if and when they go into effect. The so-called “heartbeat bill” that is set to take effect July 11 in Ohio, makes illegal any abortion procedure once a fetal heartbeat can be detected, which could be as early as six weeks into the pregnancy. The Ohio law makes exceptions for pregnancies that would endanger the health of the patient, but not in cases of rape or incest. (Klick, 6/23)

The Detroit News: Protesters At Rally: Abortion Bans Are 'going Back In History'
A few days after two separate anti-abortion ballot initiatives gained preliminary approvals from a state panel, protesters took to the Capitol steps with calls to preserve abortion in Michigan and threats to challenge Republican lawmakers who support the bans. (6/22)

The Associated Press: No Charges In Kentucky Anti-Abortion Activist Assault Case
A Kentucky grand jury has declined to indict a Louisville woman accused of attacking an 82-year-old anti-abortion protester while leaving a women's clinic. Court records show a grand jury decided against an assault charge on Thursday for 32-year-old Janaya Alyce Gregory, who is accused of knocking Donna Durning down outside Kentucky's only abortion clinic in April. The longtime anti-abortion activist was hospitalized with a broken femur and cut to her head. (6/21)

Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton speaks out about the Trump administration's family planning rule changes —

The Hill: Hillary Clinton Slams Title X 'Gag Rule': 'It's Up To All Of Us To Fight Back'
Hillary Clinton told activists to "fight back" on Friday after a federal judge ruled that the Trump administration could bar Title X providers from offering abortion services. Clinton tweeted Friday morning that the move was part of a widespread GOP effort to roll back abortion rights across the country and warned that it would extend to all reproductive health care, not just abortion. (Bowden, 6/21)

Reuters: Missouri Orders Lone Abortion Clinic To Close; Judge Keeps It Open For Now
Missouri health officials on Friday refused to renew the license of the state's only abortion clinic, but the facility will remain open for now as a judge left in place an injunction blocking its closure. At a brief state circuit court hearing on Friday, Judge Michael Stelzer said it might be days before the court would come to a decision on whether the state could shut its only abortion clinic, which is operated by women's healthcare and abortion provider Planned Parenthood. (Langellier, 6/21)

The Washington Post: The Fate Of The Last Abortion Clinic In Missouri Rests With A Judge After State Denies License
In a news conference Friday, health department director Randall Williams said the agency denied the clinic’s application because they have corrected only four of the 30 deficiencies that inspectors identified. He again cited concerns over multiple “failed abortions," which required additional procedures, and a patient who suffered life-threatening complications. The issues have been central to the state’s case against Planned Parenthood. (Thebault, 6/21)

The Hill: Missouri's Only Planned Parenthood Clinic Loses Bid For License, Will Stay Open For Now
But the St. Louis clinic will stay open, at least temporarily, under a preliminary injunction issued by Judge Michael Stelzer last month. Planned Parenthood sued the state in May for making the renewal of its abortion license conditional on interviews with the clinic's doctors as part of an investigation. Planned Parenthood said the doctors were residents, not employees of the clinic and could not be compelled to do interviews. (Hellmann, 6/21)

The Wall Street Journal: Missouri Health Department Declines To Renew License For State's Last Abortion Clinic
Earlier this month, Circuit Judge Michael Stelzer set a June 21 deadline for the state’s health department to decide whether to renew the clinic’s license. With the department’s decision Friday, the judge must now weigh next steps. At the hearing, Judge Stelzer said he would issue at least one more order on the case, taking into account the state’s decision not to renew the license. “I can’t imagine that injunction can stand for too long,” said Rigel Oliveri, a professor at the University of Missouri School of Law. “That’s a tough spot for the court to be in, ordering a medical facility to be open when it’s been ordered to be closed for patient safety reasons.” (Calfas, 6/21)

NPR: Missouri Abortion Provider Denied License Renewal By State Officials
A spokeswoman for the St. Louis facility said the license issue would impact only part of the clinic, meaning that even if abortion services were to end, other gynecological and reproductive health services would continue. Critics of the state's decision not to renew the license say top officials in Missouri are using the state regulatory process as a means of pursuing an anti-abortion-access political agenda. (Allyn, 6/21)

USA Today: Exclusive: 'The VA Is Two-Faced.' Whistleblowers Say Managers Are Trying To Silence Them On Veteran Care
Three Veterans Affairs health care professionals who reported patient care issues say the agency continues to try to silence them, jeopardizing veterans and undercutting a key Trump promise of whistleblower protection. They work at different sites – in the Phoenix area, Baltimore, and Iowa City, Iowa – yet the VA response has been similar. All were stripped of assigned patient-care and oversight duties, and they suspect VA managers are retaliating against them for speaking out, and sidelining them to prevent them from discovering or disclosing any more problems with veteran health care. (Slack, 6/22)

The Hill: VA Employees Say Agency Is Actively Retaliating Against Whistleblowers
"The VA is two-faced: What it says it does and what it actually does are two entirely different things," Mitchell told USA Today. "Whistleblowers who are brave enough to report problems serve as a vital safety net for veterans. If people can’t identify problems, veterans will suffer and die. That’s what it boils down to." "As a physician, nurse, and basically as a human being, I will not back down if someone’s health or safety is being threatened," she added in the interview. (Bowden, 6/22)

The New York Times: Veterans Agency To Offer New Depression Drug, Despite Cost And Safety Concerns
Confronted by a rising rate of suicides in some groups of veterans., the Department of Veterans Affairs on Friday decided to approve the use of a new and costly depression drug, despite concerns among doctors and other experts about the drug’s effectiveness. The decision to endorse the drug — called Spravato, and manufactured by Janssen, a unit of Johnson & Johnson — came days after President Trump offered to negotiate a deal between the drug maker and the agency. Johnson & Johnson reportedly was working with associates at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club, and the company has been supporting V.A. suicide-prevention efforts. (Carey and Steinhauer, 6/21)

Center For Public Integrity: Controversial J&J Drug Pushed By Trump Is Nixed From VA's Pharmacy List
A Department of Veterans Affairs panel has pushed back against efforts to rush a controversial anti-depression drug into use for its patients, voting not to include the drug, Spravato, on its list of drugs available through prescription at its pharmacies. The VA had been racing to get Spravato ready for patients after President Trump, according to VA sources, urged the agency to buy the Johnson & Johnson drug for treatment-resistant depression. But psychiatrists and medical researchers, including some at the VA, have raised questions about the drug’s effectiveness and safety. (Cary, 6/21)

Stat: VA Declines Broad Coverage For New J&J Depression Drug Touted By Trump
Many experts have embraced the medication, which is known as esketamine and is being sold by Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) under the brand name Spravato, as a critical option for patients in dire need of new treatments — particularly because it might work faster than existing antidepressants. But it has faced pushback since its approval in March, with some watchdog groups citing effectiveness and safety concerns. (Facher and Silverman, 6/21)

The New York Times: New Sex Drug For Women To Improve Low Libido Is Approved By The F.D.A.
The Food and Drug Administration has approved a new drug to treat low sexual drive in women, the only one besides Addyi, which entered the market in 2015. The drug, to be called Vyleesi, will be sold by AMAG Pharmaceuticals and is intended to be used 45 minutes before sex, via an auto-injector pen that is administered in the thigh or abdomen. (Thomas, 6/21)

The Associated Press: Waltham-Based Amag’s Sex-Drive Drug For Women Gets FDA Approval
The medication OK’d Friday by the Food and Drug Administration is only the second approved to increase sexual desire in a women, a market drug makers have been trying to cultivate since the blockbuster success of Viagra for men in the late 1990s. The other drug is a daily pill. (Perrone, 6/21)

The Washington Post: A New ‘Female Viagra’ Approved By FDA Despite Skepticism 
“There are women who, for no known reason, have reduced sexual desire that causes marked distress, and who can benefit from safe and effective pharmacologic treatment,” Hylton Joffe, director of the FDA Center for Drug Evaluation and Research’s Division of Bone, Reproductive and Urologic Products, said in a statement. “Today’s approval provides women with another treatment option for this condition. As part of the FDA’s commitment to protect and advance the health of women, we’ll continue to support the development of safe and effective treatments for female sexual dysfunction.” (Cha and McGinley, 6/21)

Reuters: FDA Approves Drug For Loss Of Sexual Desire In Women
Addyi was approved under intense pressure from advocacy groups despite a review by scientists at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that deemed it minimally effective and possibly unsafe. Vyleesi, which does not restrict alcohol use, is seen as having several advantages over Addyi, including tolerable side effects, rapid-acting nature and not having to take it every day, according to analysts. (Joseph, 6/21)

CNBC: FDA Approves Injection That Would Boost Women's Sex Drive
Unlike Viagra, which directs blood flow to men’s genitals, Palatin said Vyleesi works by activating pathways in the brain that are involved in the body’s sexual responses. The drug is self-administered through an auto-injector 45 minutes before having sex. (Turner, 6/21)

Stat: FDA Approves Controversial Women's Libido Drug
Vyleesi’s demonstrated increases in reported desire, measured on a five-point scale, are small. But AMAG Pharmaceuticals, the drug’s manufacturer, contends that even a seemingly marginal improvement can make a major difference for women with HSDD. The drug’s most common side effect is nausea, which affected 40% of women in clinical trials, and the FDA advises women against taking more than one dose within 24 hours or more than eight doses per month. (Garde, 6/21)

Bloomberg: New Women Libido Drug Vyleesi Poised For FDA Approval
In clinical trials, the FDA said about 25% of patients treated with Vyleesi benefited from an increase in sexual desire score, compared with about 17% who took a placebo. About 40% of patients in clinical trials experienced nausea, most commonly in those who used the drug, and 13% needed medications to treat the side effect, the FDA said in a statement. “There was no difference between treatment groups in the change from the start of the study to end of the study in the number of satisfying sexual events,” according to the FDA statement. (Edney and Koons, 6/21)

The Hill: FDA Approves Drug To Restore Sexual Desire For Women
About one in 10 premenopausal women in the U.S. suffer from hypoactive sexual desire disorder, according to Unblush, a website that offers women information on the condition. (Axelrod, 6/21)

US News & World Report: FDA Approves Second Drug To Help Women With Low Libido
One expert in female sexual health said it remains to be seen how widely Vyleesi will be used. "Female sexual dysfunction is more complicated in some ways than male sexual dysfunction, so it's more difficult to treat," Dr. Nicole Cirino, co-director of the Menopause and Sexual Therapy Clinic at Oregon Health and Science University's Center for Women's Health, told CNN. She had no role in Vyleesi's development. (Mundell, 6/22)

CNN: Low Sexual Desire Disorder: FDA Approves Vyleesi, An Injection For Women
Bremelanotide is not the first drug to be approved for this purpose. The drug flibanserin, sold as Addyi by Sprout Pharmaceuticals, was approved in August 2015. However, in the wake of both fanfare and controversy, the drug has not been not widely used, in part because women couldn't take it with alcohol and health care providers had to be specially certified to prescribe it. "Based on our data, we don't have an interaction with alcohol, so we don't believe there will be a restriction," Dr. Julie Krop, chief medical officer of AMAG Pharmaceuticals, said of Vyleesi. (Nedelman, 6/21)

The Washington Post: Migrant Detainees Aren't Entitled To Toothbrushes, Soap, Government Argues
The government went to federal court this week to argue that it shouldn’t be required to give detained migrant children toothbrushes, soap, towels, showers or even half a night’s sleep inside Border Patrol detention facilities. The position bewildered a panel of three judges in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit on Tuesday, who questioned whether government lawyers sincerely believed they could describe the temporary detention facilities as “safe and sanitary” if children weren’t provided adequate toiletries and sleeping conditions. One circuit judge said it struck him as “inconceivable." (Flynn, 6/21)

The Associated Press: Detained Immigrant Children Aren't Guaranteed Soap, Toothbrushes, Trump Administration Says
Sarah Fabian, senior litigation counsel for the Department of Justice, told a three-judge panel at the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco that the agreement doesn't list items that must be provided in border facilities. "There's fair reason to find those things may be part of safe and sanitary," she told the panel during an exchange over the conditions in facilities for immigrant children caught crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. (6/21)

Axios: Texas Republican Says Conditions In Migrant Detention Centers Are Worst He's Ever Seen
Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Tex.) said on CBS' "Face the Nation" Sunday that the conditions of migrant detention centers in his state are the "worst" he's ever seen them, and called on Congress to pass humanitarian aid to "take care of these children." (Perano, 6/23)

NBC News: Pence Says 'Of Course' Migrant Children Should Have Access To Soap, Toothbrushes
Vice President Mike Pence said Sunday that "of course" the Trump administration believes migrant children being held at detention facilities should have access to soap, toothbrushes and other basic amenities, comments that come just days after the administration went to court to argue against having to provide the children with such things. "Of course we do," Pence told CNN's "State of the Union" on Sunday. "My point is it's all a part of the appropriations process. Congress needs to provide additional support to deal with the crisis at our southern border." (Smith, 6/23)

USA Today: Trump Again Falsely Says Obama Started Family Separation Policy
When questioned by interviewers about migrant children detained at the southern border, President Donald Trump has tried to steer the blame toward the previous administration, saying former President Barack Obama initiated the policy of separating those children from their caregivers, even though fact checkers have consistently found that claim to be false. During an interview on NBC's "Meet the Press," which aired Sunday, Trump told host Chuck Todd that he "inherited separation from President Obama" and that "I was the one that ended it." (Cummings, 6/23)

And in other related news —

The New York Times: ‘Stop Repeating History’: Plan To Keep Migrant Children At Former Internment Camp Draws Outrage
For Satsuki Ina, who was born in a Japanese-American internment camp during World War II, the news that the United States would detain undocumented migrant children at this Army base in Oklahoma felt like an unwelcome wallop from the past. The base, Fort Sill, Okla., once held 700 Japanese-Americans who lived in tents in desertlike heat, surrounded by barbed wire and guards. They were among the more than 100,000 residents of Japanese ancestry who were rounded up by the government during the war and placed in detention camps around the country. (Fenwick, 6/22)

The Washington Post: Viewing Chain-Link 'Cages' At U.S. Border, Central American Officials Pledge More Immigration Cooperation
The chain-link fence holding pens of the Border Patrol’s largest processing center was stuffed with more than 2,000 people when the first ladies of the Northern Triangle arrived here Thursday for a visit. The converted former warehouse that migrants and some U.S. agents deride as the “dog pound” for its “cages” had been set up as an overflow holding site during the Obama administration, and it is far beyond its capacity now. At the entrance, the delegation of Central American officials and U.S. Homeland Security leaders were warned about respiratory illnesses inside, but they turned down offers for masks and entered. (Miroff, 6/21)

The Baltimore Sun: 'People Are Really, Really Afraid': Mass-Deportation Threat Strikes Fear Into Baltimore Immigrants
The Rev. Bruce Lewandowski was unlocking the doors of Sacred Heart of Mary Church for the first services early Sunday morning when he noticed a family of immigrants in a van outside. The pastor greeted them: “You're here early for church.” Lewandowski said they replied, “‘We stayed here all night. We slept in our van because we don't know where to go.’” (Campbell, 6/23)

Kaiser Health News: Non-English Speakers Would Be Disadvantaged By Trump Administration Plan To Ease Language Rules On Health Notices
A federal regulation demands that certain health care organizations provide patients who have limited English skills a written notice of free translation services. But the Trump administration wants to ease those regulations and also no longer require that directions be given to patients on how they can report discrimination they experience.The changes could save $3.16 billion over five years for the health care industry, according to the administration. (Heredia Rodriguez, 6/24)

Modern Healthcare: Conservative Legal Expert Calls Surprise Bill Proposals Unconstitutional
A prominent conservative legal expert is warning that congressional moves to regulate surprise out-of-network billing by physicians are unconstitutional and could be challenged in court. In a new legal brief, Paul Clement, a former Republican solicitor general who led the unsuccessful effort to overturn the Affordable Care Act in 2012, said bipartisan congressional proposals to cap out-of-network rates would violate the takings clause of the Fifth Amendment as well as the First Amendment right to freely associate. (Meyer, 6/21)

In other news from Capitol Hill —

The Hill: Key Trump Proposal To Lower Drug Prices Takes Step Forward
One of President Trump’s major proposals to lower drug prices took a step forward on Friday. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) sent to the White House for review a proposal to lower certain drug prices in Medicare by linking them to the lower prices paid in other countries, an idea called the international pricing index. (Sullivan, 6/21)

The Washington Post: ‘Urgent Needs From Head To Toe’: This Clinic Had Two Days To Fix A Lifetime Of Needs
They were told to arrive early if they wanted to see a doctor, so Lisa and Stevie Crider left their apartment in rural Tennessee almost 24 hours before the temporary medical clinic was scheduled to open. They packed a plastic bag with what had become their daily essentials after 21 years of marriage: An ice pack for his recurring chest pain. Tylenol for her swollen feet. Peroxide for the abscess in his mouth. Gatorade for her low blood sugar and chronic dehydration. They took a bus into the center of Cleveland, Tenn., a manufacturing town of 42,000, and slept for a few hours at a budget motel. (Saslow, 6/22)

Meanwhile —

Nashville Tennessean: Ballad Health Merger Leaves Patients In Rural Appalachia With Few Options
Molly Worley is an angry grandma.For weeks she has stubbornly occupied a folding lawn chair on a grassy median outside Holston Valley Medical Center, sheltered from sweltering Appalachian summer sun by a thin tarp and flanked by a rotating crew staging a round-the-clock protest since May 1. Behind them is the state-of-the-art neonatal intensive care unit where Worley's newborn grandson spent his first weeks of life treated for opioid exposure. In the same building is a Level I trauma center to respond to the most critical emergencies. (Wadhwani, 6/23)

Politico: Agriculture Department Buries Studies Showing Dangers Of Climate Change
The Trump administration has refused to publicize dozens of government-funded studies that carry warnings about the effects of climate change, defying a longstanding practice of touting such findings by the Agriculture Department’s acclaimed in-house scientists. The studies range from a groundbreaking discovery that rice loses vitamins in a carbon-rich environment — a potentially serious health concern for the 600 million people world-wide whose diet consists mostly of rice — to a finding that climate change could exacerbate allergy seasons to a warning to farmers about the reduction in quality of grasses important for raising cattle. (Bottemiller Evich, 6/23)

The Associated Press: Medical Groups Warn Climate Change Is A 'Health Emergency'
As Democratic presidential hopefuls prepare for their first 2020 primary debate this week, 74 medical and public health groups aligned on Monday to push for a series of consensus commitments to combat climate change, bluntly defined by the organizations as "a health emergency." The new climate change agenda released by the groups, including the American Medical Association and the American Heart Association, comes amid early jostling among Democratic candidates over whose environmental platform is more progressive. (Schor, 6/24)

The Associated Press: Nebraska Slowly Rolls Out Voter-Approved Medicaid Expansion 
Marti Poll knows she should see a doctor. Sometimes she has a severe tightness in her chest. She also has chronic sinus and ear infections. But she can't afford the medical bills, so she simply waits and hopes the pain will subside. She thought her wait might end soon after voters approved a Medicaid expansion that would allow people like her who earn too much money to qualify for the health care program but who can't afford to buy insurance on their own. (6/23)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: State To Reinstate Medicaid Benefits To Georgians Who Lost Them
The state Department of Community Health will reinstate the Medicaid benefits of 17,000 poor elderly or disabled people it cut off in a mass disenrollment this month. State officials still believe they properly notified most of those people it was time to renew, and that those beneficiaries simply did not respond. (Hart, 6/21)

CBS News: What Makes The AR-15 Style Rifle The Weapon Of Choice For Mass Shooters?
The mass shooting this past April at a California synagogue has something in common with the deadliest massacres: the AR-15 semiautomatic rifle. Variations of the AR-15 were used to kill at two New Zealand mosques, a Pittsburgh synagogue, Texas church, a Las Vegas concert, Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida and Sandy Hook Elementary School. The AR-15 style rifle is the most popular rifle in America. There are well over 11 million and they are rarely used in crime. Handguns kill far more people.   But as we first reported last November, the AR-15 is the choice of our worst mass murderers. AR-15 ammunition travels three times the speed of sound. And tonight we're going to slow that down, so you can see why the AR-15's high velocity ammo is the fear of every American emergency room. (Pelley, 6/23)

Stat: Officials Say They Lack Authority To Halt 'CRISPR Babies' Plan In Russia
Two influential leaders in science for the first time publicly condemned a Russian biologist who said he plans to produce gene-edited babies but conceded that it was beyond their organizations’ authority to halt him from doing so. In separate interviews with STAT over the weekend, Margaret Hamburg, co-chair of an international advisory committee on human genome-editing, and Victor Dzau, president of the U.S. National Academy of Medicine, said they were deeply concerned by the plans outlined by Russian scientist Denis Rebrikov. (Berke, 6/24)

NPR: 'Sober Curious'? Taking A Break From Booze Is Trendy And Helps Health
According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, 86 percent of adults over 18 report having had an alcoholic drink or drinks at some point in their lifetime, and 56 percent say they've had alcohol in the past month. Still, abstaining from alcohol — on a short-term basis or longer term — is becoming more common. "Not everybody wants to get wasted when they go to the bar," says Forte. Sometimes, being there is just about wanting to be social and fit in. (Fulton and Aubrey, 6/23)

The Associated Press: 'Michael Jackson Drug' Still Prompts Curiosity From Patients
It remains the most widely used anesthetic in U.S. hospitals, but many patients still remember propofol as the drug that killed Michael Jackson. Most are no longer afraid of it, doctors say, though many still ask if they will get "the Michael Jackson drug" before an operation. And most of them will. (6/22)

The New York Times: For Vitiligo Patients, New Treatments Offer Hope
Stella Pavlides has vitiligo. It’s an autoimmune condition in which the body attacks the cells, called melanocytes, that give skin its color. She was 22 years old and studying to be a court reporter when she first developed unsightly white patches on her hands and feet, then around her mouth, eyes, arms, legs and groin. “People say vitiligo doesn’t kill you, but it kills your spirit,” she told me. “Kids get stared at, spit on, beaten up.” Although the condition is most obvious and often most emotionally and socially devastating when it afflicts dark-skinned people, Ms. Pavlides said her disorder was painfully apparent on her light tawny Greek skin. (Brody, 6/24)

The New York Times: The ‘Euphoria’ Teenagers Are Wild. But Most Real Teenagers Are Tame.
Teenage dramas have typically presented a soapy view of high school, with more sex, drugs and wild behavior than in real life. But HBO’s new series “Euphoria” portrays a youth bacchanal that’s a stretch even for Hollywood. The show suggests that our modern society, with its smartphone dating apps, internet pornography and designer drugs, has made teenage life more extreme and dangerous than ever before. Actually, nearly the opposite is true. (Sanger-Katz and Aaron E. Carroll, 6/23)

Stat: Patients With Feared Superbug Shed Large Amounts Of It From Their Skin
New research on a frightening new superbug confirms what scientists have both suspected and feared: Some hospitalized patients who carry the fungus shed large amounts of it from their skin, contaminating the environment in which they are being treated and leaving enough of it to infect others later on. The bug, called Candida auris, is highly resistant to many existing antifungal drugs. It’s also resistant to regular cleaning methods, making hospital outbreaks incredibly difficult to stop. (Branswell, 6/24)

CNN: Cancer Vaccine Being Tested In Dogs
If you ask most experts in the cancer community, creating a wide-ranging vaccine that prevents tumors like we prevent infectious diseases is damn near impossible. The idea may be tantalizing, but study after study over the last several decades has taught doctors that cancer is personal. Everyone's looks different on a molecular level. And each tumor is an agile, devious adversary that mutates as it grows to outwit the human immune system. (Lord and Smith, 6/21)

Bloomberg: CBD Marijuana Information: Wonder Drug Or Snake Oil?
Wonder drug or modern-day snake oil? Appearing in stores and online in the form of body lotions, capsules, tinctures, edible gummies and bottled water, CBD has exploded in popularity as a way to reap the supposed health benefits of marijuana without the high that comes with it. All this is in spite of the paucity of evidence of its merits so far. (Moore, 6/23)

CNN: Heart Disease Can Have Long-Term Impact On The Brain, Study Says
Patients who receive a diagnosis of coronary heart disease are at higher risk for cognitive decline later on, a new study shows. The study, published Monday in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, found that scores on cognitive tests -- including verbal memory and orientation of time -- dropped faster after patients received such a diagnosis than they did leading up to it. (Nedelman, 6/17)

The Washington Post: Kidney Stone Season Arrives With Summer Temperatures
With temperatures heating up, thoughts turn to beach days, cooling drinks and much-awaited vacations. For urologists, however, the coming of summer signals something else: kidney stones. It’s true: Kidney stones have been associated with warmer weather in the United States and worldwide. And kidney stone season may be getting even longer with the effects of climate change and global warming — especially in already warm climates. This is caused, at least in part, from dehydration due to increased temperatures, and is even more true during summer months. (Rosario-Santiago, 6/22)

The Wall Street Journal: Shots Go On A Health Kick
The newcomer in the beverage case probably won’t quench your thirst and may not even taste that great. And that is part of the appeal, makers say. They are called wellness shots, typically packaged in petite 2-ounce bottles and touting benefits such as a spark of energy or a boost to the immune system. With sharp-flavored ingredients such as garlic, habanero pepper and apple-cider vinegar, fans say they offer a quick pick-me-up—but have to be gulped down quickly. (Chaker, 6/23)

The Washington Post: How To Get Rid Of Lice.
I recently attempted a technically demanding, “around the world” braid on my kindergartner’s head. On my sloppy and meandering approach to the South Pole, I discovered a loathsome sight that scuttled my circumnavigation — a smattering of small, brownish casings stuck onto hairs. I tried to convince myself that I was looking at sand. She’s always covered in sand! (Sanders, 6/23)

The Washington Post: False Confessions And How They Happen
If you were under interrogation, would you confess to a crime you didn’t commit? It’s more common than you might think. According to the National Registry of Exonerations, 27 percent of people in the registry who were accused of homicide gave false confessions, and 81 percent of people with mental illness or intellectual disabilities did the same when they were accused of homicide. (Blakemore, 6/23)

The Washington Post: 'I Was Just Clawing At Myself': The Medical Mystery Of A Woman's Unrelenting Itchiness
Leslie Lavender knew that the outfit she wore to her younger daughter’s wedding in April 2017 was unusual for the mother of the bride. But dark pants and a long-sleeved top, she decided, were the best way to hide the damage caused by an incessant itch impervious to antihistamines, dietary changes and special creams. “I was just clawing at myself,” recalled Lavender, then 60, who lives in Stockton Springs, a tiny town 110 miles north of Portland, Maine. (Boodman, 6/22)

Reuters: U.S. Psychoanalysts Apologize For Labeling Homosexuality An Illness
The American Psychoanalytic Association (APsaA) apologized on Friday for previously treating homosexuality as a mental illness, saying its past errors contributed to discrimination and trauma for LGBTQ people. It may be the first U.S. medical or mental health organization to issue such an apology. Although psychiatrists declassified homosexuality as a disorder in 1973 and psychoanalysts came around nearly 20 years later, the APsaA says it is unaware of any related professional group that had apologized. (6/21)

The Washington Post: How Parents Can Help Dismantle Transphobic And Homophobic School Climates
Back in the early and mid-2000s I taught sex education at an after-school program in New York City. One day we invited in some teens who were part of a local LGBTQ youth group to talk about their organization. During that conversation, it became clear that those students had experienced tremendous amounts of hostility. And, unfortunately, that seemed completely normal to all the young people in the room. (Friedrichs, 6/21)

The Washington Post: Transgender Women Killed In Prince George's
After Ashanti Carmon was found shot dead in Prince George’s County in late March, it was the D.C. transgender advocacy community that organized a candlelight vigil, gathering a crowd under falling rain to mourn the slain transgender woman. When another transgender woman, Zoe Spears, was found gunned down recently just blocks away from where Carmon was killed in the town of Fairmount Heights , LGBTQ advocates from the District again stepped in to call attention to the homicides. (Schmidt, 6/22)

Bloomberg: Electronic Health Records At 26 Hospitals Hit By Two-Hour Outage
Hospital operator Universal Health Services Inc. said electronic health records at 26 facilities were affected by technical problems at a data center run by Cerner Corp., an information technology company. Universal, which manages more than 350 health-care facilities in the U.S. and U.K., declined to specify the technical issues or say how many patient records were affected. The problem lasted for less than two hours and the affected hospitals have returned to normal operations, said Eric Goodwin, chief information officer of the King of Prussia, Pennsylvania-based company. (Ward, 6/21)

Stat: This Period-Tracking App Wants To Help Scientists Study Fertility
The popular period-tracking app Clue is opening up its database of information to a host of researchers around the world, in an apparent effort to bolster its reputation as a science- and research-based product. Clue, which is based in Berlin, will not only let researchers examine information about its users’ cycles, pain, emotions, and medication use — it will actually pay them a few thousand dollars. (Sheridan, 6/24)

Boston Globe: Losing Money And Struggling To Find Workers, A Nursing Home Operator Feels The Squeeze 
Thirty nursing homes have shuttered in the past 18 months — and 214 since 2000 — a little noticed 35 percent shrinkage that has uprooted many of the state’s most vulnerable residents. After a state court appointed a receiver to manage the shutdown of the five South Coast homes operated by Skyline Healthcare, residents were moved with little notice — or choice about their destination. (Weisman, 6/23)

The CT Mirror: Nearly Half CT's Nursing Homes Rate Above Average For Staffing
With tougher standards, 48 percent of the state’s nursing homes —104 facilities— received a four- or five-star rating for staffing, data from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) show. Thirty-nine nursing homes (19 percent) earned a one- or two-star rating for staffing levels. (Rosner, 6/23)

Cleveland Plain Dealer: Amid Growth Of Assisted Living, Some Renew Calls For Federal Oversight
The number of assisted-living centers in the United States has jumped more than 150 percent in the past 20 years, fueled by an increase of residents with cognitive issues, a willingness of facilities to take more frail patients, and families who wish to avoid nursing homes. But while the centers’ clientele has changed dramatically, there have been few efforts to systemically re-evaluate staffing or training guidelines necessary to properly serve residents. (Canglia, 6/23)

The Associated Press: WWII Veteran's Nursing Home Choking Death In Ann Arbor To Be Reopened
Police have reopened the investigation into the 2015 death of a World War II veteran at a Michigan nursing home. Walter Jarnot, 89, died in September 2015 after he choked while eating at the Glacier Hills nursing home in Ann Arbor. Charles Jarnot said the nursing home told him his father died of natural causes. But the death certificate indicates that he died of asphyxiation. (6/23)

The Oregonian: Kicked To The Curb: How The State Failed Fragile Mentally Ill Oregonians
Mary’s guardian all but predicted the suicide attempt. Mary, 67, had lived for six years at a locked facility in Medford, where she received close supervision from trained staff for her schizoaffective disorder. But last year, the state of Oregon said Mary no longer needed such intensive care and must move out. The guardian worried Mary, who had a long history of suicide attempts, would fall apart without safeguards. She pleaded with health officials to keep a close watch over Mary, whose full name is not being published to maintain her privacy. (Zarkhin, 6/22)

In other mental health news —

Modern Healthcare: Health Insurers Lend A Hand To Lonely Patients
Five hundred Facebook friends are no substitute for face-to-face interactions, but many people today are swapping digital connections for tangible ones. That's partly why about a fifth of Americans struggle with feeling lonely, former U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy said Thursday. Speaking at the AHIP Institute & Expo in Nashville, Tenn., Murthy explained that lonely people live shorter lives and are more at risk for chronic illnesses like heart disease, depression, and dementia. (Livingston, 6/21)

KQED: Lack Of Central Leadership Is Complicating Treatment For Mental Illness In California
In California, geography creates significant barriers to people getting early psychosis treatment, as it does for array of other evidence-based mental health treatments. That’s partly because California’s 58 counties have 58 different public mental health programs, each with their own set of covered services. (Wiener, 6/23)

Stateline: Teens Of ‘Anti-Vaxxers’ Can Get Their Own Vaccines, Some States Say
A young man who had just turned 18 showed up at the Virginia office of Drs. Sterling and Karen Ransone earlier this month and asked for the vaccines for meningitis and human papillomavirus.It was his first opportunity to be vaccinated. As a minor, he needed permission from his parents, and they wouldn’t grant it because they didn’t think the vaccines were medically necessary. Now, as a legal adult, he could get the shots on his own. (Ollove, 6/24)

Kansas City Star: Data Bank Of Doctor Discipline Goes Largely Unused In States 
In the United States, the licensing and disciplining of doctors is left up to states. The patchwork of state medical boards sometimes allows physicians to keep practicing in one state even if they have a history of poor care or unethical behavior in another — particularly a problem in metro areas like Kansas City that straddle two states. (Marso, 6/21)

The Wall Street Journal: San Francisco Set To Ban E-Cigarettes
San Francisco is expected to become the first city in the U.S. to ban e-cigarettes this week, a move that will likely pit the city against one of its fastest-growing startups: Juul Labs Inc. The San Francisco Board of Supervisors will hold a final vote on the ordinance, which bans the sale, distribution and manufacturing of e-cigarettes, on Tuesday. The measure will then need to be signed by the mayor, London Breed. (Ansari, 6/23)

The Hill: Georgia Officials Investigating After 54 Kids Sickened At Summer Camp
Georgia Department of Health officials are reportedly investigating after 54 children attending an Atlanta-area summer camp became ill. WSB-TV reported Friday that the Rock Eagle 4-H Center in Putnam County, Ga., was closed for overnight visits this week after dozens of children staying overnight reported signs of a gastrointestinal illness. (Bowden, 6/22)

North Carolina Health News: Funding Increases Likely For NC Personal Assistance Allowance, Community Services
A General Assembly budget likely to emerge early this week will include increases in several areas vital to older people, a Republican budget crafter said Saturday. The conference committee budget is the result of negotiations between members of the state House of Representatives and the state Senate. Budget-writer Rep. Josh Dobson (R-Nebo) said older people and advocates can expect increases in funding for the personal needs allowance for lower-income people in long-term care and in the Home and Community Care Block Grants that fund county-run services such as home-delivered meals, in-home aides, senior centers, and transportation. (Goldsmith, 6/24)

Modern Healthcare: Prominent NYC Hospitals Close On Sale Of Liability Insurer
Three prominent New York City health systems have completed the sale of an insurance company whose reputation was tarnished in 2017 by the revelation that it had secretly funneled hundreds of millions of dollars back to the providers. Montefiore Health System, Mount Sinai Health System and Maimonides Medical Center sold their professional liability insurer, Hospitals Insurance Company, and the assets of its third-party administrator, FOJP Service Corporation, to The Doctors Company for $650 million. (Bannow, 6/21)

Arizona Republic: $2.5M Settlement Against Sham Nonprofits To Be Distributed To Charities
A $2.5 million settlement from a lawsuit against four fraudulent cancer charities will be distributed to cancer centers throughout the country, Attorney General Mark Brnovich announced. ...Of the money collected, only 3% was directed to cancer patients in the United States in the form of “care packages” containing religious DVDs, Moon Pies, clothing and various sundries, according to a news release Thursday from the attorney general. (Moreno, 6/21)

Arizona Republic: Arizona Auditor General: Hundreds Of Delayed School Facilities Board Projects
More than 100 facility repairs at Arizona schools took longer than a year to complete, potentially posing health and safety risks to students, according to a June 2019 audit of the state's School Facilities Board. In the report, the Arizona Auditor General's Office investigated the state's Building Renewal Grant Fund, which is managed by the School Facilities Board. (Altavena, 6/21)

The Baltimore Sun: University System Of Maryland Announces Details Of Adenovirus Outbreak Review
The University System of Maryland outlined some of the questions it will aim to investigate as part of an independent review of a fatal adenovirus outbreak on the College Park campus in 2018. Olivia Paregol, a University of Maryland freshman from Howard County, died Nov. 18 of an illness related to the adenovirus. Forty students were sickened, including 15 treated at hospitals. The board is taking the action at the direction of Gov. Larry Hogan, who ordered an independent look at how the university responded. (Bowie, 6/21)

North Carolina Health News: 2019 Health & Human Services Budget – House & Senate
After 2018’s unusual budget process this year’s budget has unfolded in a more “traditional” way. The House unveiled it’s proposal to spend $5.569 billion on health and human services priorities in early May. The Senate finished it’s work on the budget in early June, asking for a total appropriation of $5.552 billion for the same part of the state’s HHS budget. Some of the big differences in the two budgets include across the board cuts to the Department of Health and Human Services, differences in block grant and nonprofit contractor funding and different earmarks to various lawmakers’ favored projects. (Hoban, 6/24)

Cleveland Plain Dealer: How Ohio Parents Can Search For Safe Child Care Options 
The state of Ohio provides a resource to parents searching for child care, including a searchable database of licensed providers that inspection reports and information about the quality of facilities. A Cleveland 2-year-old’s still-unexplained death Tuesday after her mother picked her up at a home daycare center renewed interest in the topic of daycare safety. (Peters, 6/21)

The Wall Street Journal: Gavin Newsom Proposes Wildfire Fund To Bolster PG&E, Other California Utilities
Gov. Gavin Newsom is proposing a multibillion-dollar wildfire fund to help California’s utilities cover mounting fire-related liability costs that have threatened their financial health. The fund is part of a wider regulatory overhaul the Democratic governor unveiled Friday as he seeks to reach consensus with state lawmakers on fixing the crisis created by the collapse of PG&E Corp., which sought bankruptcy protection in January after its role in sparking wildfires created more than $30 billion in potential liabilities. (Lazo and Blunt, 6/21)

Sacramento Bee: CA Fines Sutter Sacramento In 2017 Overdose Death Of Patient 
Sutter Medical Center in Sacramento has been fined by state regulators over a lethal dose of morphine administered by medical staff, according to a report released this week by the California Department of Public Health. A patient died after he received 166 times the prescribed dosage of morphine on Aug. 28, 2017, regulators said. (Anderson, 6/21)

Los Angeles Times: How A Trip On Magic Mushrooms Helped Decriminalize Psychedelic Plants In A California City
Carlos Plazola locked himself in a bedroom while his cousin stood guard. For five hours, he tripped on magic mushrooms, nibbling the fungi and sipping them in tea. He ingested 5 grams — a heady amount that connoisseurs call the “heroic dose.” It was Plazola’s first time using the mushrooms, which contain the naturally occurring hallucinogen psilocybin. He started having epiphanies, one right after the other, like lightning bolts. (Branson-Potts, 6/22)

WBUR: Mass. Policy Outlines Ban Of Some Hemp Products, Including CBD-Infused Foods
Massachusetts regulators have banned the sale of some hemp products, including foods infused with cannabidiol (CBD) and dietary supplements. The restrictions were outlined in a recent policy statement from the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources (MDAR). (Enwemeka, 6/21)

The Baltimore Sun: Harford Continues To Encourage Parents To Talk To Their Children About Addiction, Mental Health
Harford County government is continuing its addiction prevention campaign this summer with its latest multi-media efforts encouraging parents to talk to their children about substance abuse and mental health. As part of its efforts, the county’s two billboards and 45-second public service announcements in two movie theaters are meant to prompt conversations that can sometimes be difficult, for parents and their children, said Cindy Mumby, a spokesperson for Harford County government. It’s a way to capture the younger generation, she said. (Butler, 6/21)

Bloomberg: Lots Of Health-Care Jobs Isn't Always A Good Sign For Economy
In midsize (and sometimes larger) cities around the U.S., health care is often viewed with pride as a key local industry. Having good hospitals in the neighborhood is a plus, of course, and highly paid medical personnel are also nice for local economies to have around. But very few of these hospitals and medical professionals are attracting patients from faraway cities. Instead, what has been happening is a regional centralization of health care, with rural areas and small towns losing out and health-care activity migrating to population centers. If health care is a really big part of your local economy, it’s often less something to brag about than a sign that there’s not enough else going on in your local economy. (Justin Fox, 6/23)

The Hill: Organ Donation: We Need To Make It Stronger And More Efficient
OPOs were on Capitol Hill recently talking with lawmakers about ways to strengthen the organ donation system through policies focused on: promoting use of organs from more complex donors, improving clinical support, aligning hospital reporting procedures to ensure more meaningful and accurate data and providing OPOs access to donor hospital health records. It was clear from these discussions that we all share the same goal: working to ensure that more lives are saved through donation and transplantation. A strong and successful infrastructure is in place. We must continue to build on it and make the organ donation process even stronger, more efficient, and better able to meet demand. (Diane Brockmeier, 6/21)

Boston Globe: Getting An Accurate Count On Medical Errors
Those numbers are among many reports and studies offering vastly different estimates of medical mistakes nationwide. Not all these studies count hard numbers of actual events as they occur. Some extrapolate totals from ancillary data. Others may vastly undercount incidents, with a reliance on providers to self-report. (6/24)

The New York Times: Don’t Tell Me When I’m Going To Die
Starrett Kreissman, a trim 59-year-old, was hiking with her husband, David Dolan, when the coughing started. She brushed it off, but Mr. Dolan suggested she get checked out. An exam turned up more questions, so her doctor scheduled some scans. On Ms. Kreissman’s 60th birthday, she had an answer: Stage 3 lung cancer. Mr. Dolan recalls that visit to the oncologist as a “wall of words — a half-listened-to recitation of treatment techniques, additional tests, second opinions and alternative perspectives.” (BJ Miller and Shoshana Berger, 6/22)

The Washington Post: Weight Discrimination Is Rampant. Yet In Most Places It’s Still Legal.
The Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa in Atlantic City obsessively monitored the weight of its waitresses, according to 22 of them who sued it in 2008. They would be suspended, for example, if they gained 7 percent more weight than they had when they were hired. But a New Jersey judge threw out the suit, explaining that state law was silent about weight discrimination. The state Supreme Court affirmed the decision three years ago. (Rebecca Puhl, 6/21)

The New York Times: You Are Doing Something Important When You Aren’t Doing Anything
This summer I’m aspiring to be the grasshopper, not the ant. Remember Aesop’s fable? The grasshopper fiddled away the summer months, while the ants toiled to ready their grain stores for winter. When autumn arrived, the ants refused to share food with the hungry grasshopper. The ostensible moral: There’s a time for work and a time for play. (Bonnie Tsui, 6/21)

The Washington Post: Alzheimer's Photo Winner Picked By Bob And Diane Fund
This is Elia. Elia Luciani was born in 1923 in Carrufo, Italy, a small mountain village northeast of Rome. She lived a full life — she had her first child at 16, moved to Canada in the 1950s and worked for 30 years as head of a clothing factory’s sewing department. In her 90s, she was diagnosed with dementia. “This wonderful photo mom took encapsulates her life,” said her son, Tony. “Here she is, taking a self-portrait shot in a dresser mirror, partially hiding her aging face behind a small camera and surrounded by meaningful family photos.” (Laurent, 6/23)

Stat: For Want Of A Form, A Baby's Life Could Be Lost
Doctors and nurses often decry paperwork, and for good reason: Some spend almost half their working hours inputting information into the electronic health record, and many say the constant barrage of paperwork causes frustration and burnout. So I wasn’t surprised when I asked the medical director of a Baltimore clinic when he manages to complete a particular form for his patients and he said, “After the workday,” eyeing the paperwork piling up on his desk. Though I did wonder how long after the workday he meant. The form I asked about is the Maryland Prenatal Risk Assessment (MPRA). It’s one of many that medical providers in the state are required to fill out for their pregnant patients whose care is covered primarily by Medicaid. But in the city of Baltimore, 20% to 30% of those patients never have an MPRA completed for them. (Erin Sherman, 6/24)

The New York Times: The Long, Cruel History Of The Anti-Abortion Crusade
Amid the anti-abortion measures being pushed through state legislatures, consider the mazy history of abortion in the United States. Women, capable of determining and managing their reproductive rights, have been undermined by men in power before. Prior to the 1840s, abortion was widespread and not illegal in our country. (John Irving, 6/23)

The Washington Post: My Terrifying Ordeal: After Getting Bit By A Feral Dog In India, I Needed Rabies Shots
By the time I realized the dog was about to bite me, it was too late. I’d seen the gaunt canine milling around, but feral dogs seemed to congregate on every corner in India, so one more roaming the grounds of Amritsar’s Partition Museum didn’t garner any special attention. At least not until it sunk its incisors into my knee, leaving two bloody puncture marks. It could have been worse, but in a country where rabies kills thousands of people each year, it could have been so much better. (Shannon VanRaes, 6/22)

Los Angeles Times: San Francisco’s E-Cigarette Ban Isn’t Just Bad Policy, It’s Bad For Public Health
Anyone over 21, and with an ID to prove it, can purchase cigarettes, booze and even marijuana in retail establishments across San Francisco. But as soon as next month, one age-restricted product won’t be available for purchase, not even online. That’s because San Francisco officials, in a misguided attempt to curb teen vaping, are moving to ban sales of all electronic tobacco products to anyone within the city until the federal government adopts regulations on them. ... We hope the supervisors will see the light before then. Not only is it bad public policy to outlaw a legal product that’s widely available just outside the city’s borders, but it’s bad public health policy to come down harder on the lesser of two tobacco evils. (6/24)