Orlando Sentinel: House Kills Senate's Health Care Expansion
A plan to offer 800,000 Floridians health care using Medicaid funds flat-lined Friday when the Republican-controlled House overwhelmingly voted down the bill, likely killing the issue for perhaps years to come. The dramatic 72-41 vote came after a debate lasting nearly seven hours, one of the longest in House history. Opponents objected to the bill because it relied too much on federal funds and would expand coverage to what they called "single, able-bodied adults." (Rohrer, 6/8)

Tampa Bay Times: House Eschews 'Entitlements' For Health Care But All But 12 Accept Taxpayer-Paid Health Insurance
One of the chief arguments Florida House Republicans made Friday when they rejected the Senate plan to help 600,000 working poor get health insurance is that it would create a taxpayer-funded entitlement and would be hard to repeal. What they didn’t mention during the debate is that they are entitled to a very generous health insurance package that costs $22,000 a year — with premiums mostly covered by Florida taxpayers. And, over the years, they have rejected any attempts by Gov. Rick Scott to reduce the benefit. (Klas, 6/6)

The New York Times: Health Care Expansion Is Rejected In Florida
The vote in the House was 72 to 41 against the measure, with all 37 Democrats and four Republicans voting yes. It was a far different outcome from the one in the Senate, which solidly backed the plan in a 33-to-3 vote on Wednesday. The Florida Health Insurance Affordability Exchange would have used more than $18 billion over 10 years in federal funds to expand the pool of low-income Floridians eligible for health insurance and help them buy it from private providers. Instead, House Republicans, using their 81-to-39 majority and an almost uniform opposition to using federal dollars to broaden the pool of patients covered under Medicaid, criticized the new plan, calling it nothing more than Medicaid expansion under another name. (Madigan, 6/5)

The Associated Press: House Votes Down Medicaid Expansion Compromise 72 - 41
The vote came on the fifth day of a special session that was required after the House and Senate failed to pass a budget during their regular 60-day session. The two chambers were divided over health care, including whether to expand health care coverage. During the regular session, the House never voted on the Senate proposal. That changed after an emotionally charged debate that fell along party lines as legislators either called it disastrous or life-saving. The final vote was divided, although four Republicans voted with the Democrats. (Fineout and Kennedy, 6/6)

The Miami Herald: Coverage Expansion Likely Solution For Hospitals, Lobby Group Says
Medicaid expansion is the likeliest long-term solution for hospitals in Florida, Texas and the 19 other states that have resisted broadening coverage under the government healthcare program, the incoming president of the nation’s most influential hospital lobbying group, the American Hospital Association, said Friday. Noting that only six states adopted Medicaid when the program first launched in January 1966 — all states joined by 1982 — Rick Pollack, who will become AHA president in 2016, said the forward march of healthcare reform will make coverage expansion unavoidable if hospitals are going to thrive. Included in that reform is a scheduled reduction of government payments to hospitals that care for large numbers of uninsured patients. (Chang, 6/5)

The issue also continues to boil in Alaska.

Alaska Dispatch News: Legal Opinions Say Alaska Lawmakers’ Effort To Stop Medicaid Expansion Likely Unconstitutional
Attempts by legislative leaders to use the budget to stop Gov. Bill Walker from accepting federal Medicaid expansion are likely unconstitutional and can’t block unilateral action by Walker to bring the program to the state with or without the Legislature’s agreement, new legal opinions say. ... To block Walker, the Legislature included provisions in the operating budget aimed at preventing him from acting unilaterally to take the $130 million in federal money for the program. But two legal opinions, one from the Alaska Department of Law, which serves as Walker's attorney, and one from the Legislature's own attorney, have concluded that language is “likely unconstitutional” and can’t be enforced. (Forgey, 6/7)

The Associated Press: Insurers Ask Pennsylvania Regulators For Big Rate Increases
A national upswing of health insurance rates is coming to Pennsylvania, and that could mean bigger-than-expected cost increases next year for at least a couple hundred thousand Pennsylvanians who bought insurance in the marketplace created by the 2010 federal health care law. Last week's deadline to file paperwork with the state Department of Insurance showed that some insurers selling plans on the marketplace want rate increases of almost 10 percent — or well above that — in one or more of their plans. (Levy, 6/7)

The Arizona Republic: Health Insurers Seek Rate Increases Of Up To 27 Percent
Next year, tens of thousands of Arizona residents who buy their own health insurance may need to brace for double-digit rate increases, which insurance companies say reflect the higher medical expenses of their customers. (Alltucker, 6/5)

The Hill: Hawaii To Shutter State Health Insurance Exchange
Hawaii will abandon its state-based health insurance exchange and transition to the federal marketplace, known as HealthCare.gov, the state announced Friday. Gov. David Ige (D) announced Hawaii Health Connector, a private nonprofit, would be shut down because it “has been unable to generate sufficient revenues to sustain operations.” (Shabad, 6/6)

The Huffington Post: Hawaii Pulls The Plug On Embattled Health Insurance Exchange
Hawaii's health insurance exchange announced on Friday that it will be shutting down, and its nearly 40,000 enrollees will be transitioned to the federal Obamacare marketplace, Healthcare.gov. The private, nonprofit Hawaii Health Connector, which has been embattled from its inception, has not generated “sufficient revenues to sustain operations,” according to the office of Hawaii Gov. David Ige (D). (Fox, 6/6)

In other health law news, 100 percent of eligible Floridians signed up for Obamacare in some zip codes, and the Austin Statesman parses the facts about Obamacare insurance cards -

The Miami Herald: South Florida Sign Ups Nearly All Eligible Consumers In Obamacare
The long reach of South Florida’s Obamacare enrollment efforts can be quantified in one number: 100. That’s the estimated percentage of eligible people who signed up for health coverage in the country’s top-performing ZIP codes. One hundred percent. A report released last week by the Kaiser Family Foundation estimated each ZIP code’s eligible population of consumers who could sign up for coverage and compared it to those who did enroll for 2015. In the nation’s top 10 ZIP codes — all in South Florida — the report found that nearly the entire eligible pool signed up for health insurance. Across the state, the average was 64 percent. (Herrera, 6/5)

Austin Statesman: PolitiFact: No Scarlet ‘S’ on Texas Health Care Cards
MSNBC host Al Sharpton accused Texas Republicans of trying to slap a “scarlet letter” on people who use private health insurance under Obamacare. “The Texas Senate just approved a bill to put a special label on the insurance cards of anyone who bought a plan through Obamacare,” Sharpton said on his “PoliticsNation” show last month. “But if those labels weren’t absurd enough, anyone who receives financial assistance for insurance would have a letter ‘S’ on the cards, too. ‘S’ for subsidy.”(Greenberg, 6/7)

Kaiser Health News: What’s At Stake When The Supreme Court Rules On Health Plan Subsidies
Later this month, the Supreme Court is expected to rule on King v. Burwell, a case challenging the validity of federal tax subsidies helping millions of Americans buy health insurance if they don’t get it through an employer. If the court rules against the Obama administration, those subsidies could be cut off for people in the approximately three dozen states using healthcare.gov, the federal exchange website. Here are answers to some frequently asked questions about the case. (Rovner and Carey, 6/8)

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Stakes Are High As Supreme Court Nears Key Obamacare Decision
Before the month ends, the U.S. Supreme Court will decide whether millions of Americans will be able to keep government subsidies used to purchase health insurance. It’s unclear how the court will rule, but the high-stakes case has already ignited a flurry of doomsday predictions and political posturing in the event the subsidies are struck down. Republicans, who control Congress, have put forward a few proposals that would protect the subsidies in some form but only by repealing major tenets of the Affordable Care Act, President Barack Obama’s signature health law. But some health experts and advocacy groups say these proposals would do little to limit the fallout if the subsidies are struck down. They also don’t like the idea of making significant changes to Obama’s law. (Shapiro, 6/7)

Politico Pro: Report Pegs $49B Cost Of 10 ‘Breakthrough’ Drugs
Just 10 new “breakthrough” drugs could cost government health programs more than $49 billion over a decade, according to a new Avalere report commissioned by America’s Health Insurance Plans. (Karlin, 6/8)

The Wall Street Journal: FDA Queues Up Review Of Anti-Cholesterol Drugs
A Food and Drug Administration advisory panel this week considers experimental cholesterol-lowering drugs whose approval could pave the way for blockbuster medicines with potentially billions of dollars in sales. The panel is evaluating evolocumab from Amgen Inc. and alirocumab from Sanofi SA and partner Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc., new LDL-lowering agents that would be the first major additions to the coronary heart-disease medicine chest since statin pills were first prescribed in the late 1980s. (Rockoff, 6/6)

Kaiser Health News: Bill To Speed FDA Approvals Includes Rewards For Drugs Designed For Kids
Advocates for children with rare diseases are watching closely a congressional effort to streamline the nation’s drug approval process because the bill includes a provision extending a federal program that rewards companies making remedies for these young patients. (Gillespie, 6/8)

The New York Times: Painkillers Resist Abuse, But Experts Still Worry
The pill was OxyContin, a painkiller that its manufacturer, Purdue Pharma, says deters abuse by being difficult to chew or liquefy into forms that give addicts stronger highs, orally or through injection. Since adding these features to its original and widely abused OxyContin in 2010, the company has likened the pill to a virtual seatbelt to restrain the nation’s epidemic of prescription drug abuse. But as thousands of addicts still find ways to abuse OxyContin and similar painkillers, called abuse-deterrent formulations, some experts caution that the protections are misunderstood and could mislead both users and prescribers into thinking that the underlying medications are less addictive. (Schwarz, 6/6)

Modern Healthcare: Health Care Job Boom Continues In May
The healthcare industry added 46,800 jobs in May, nearly matching April's largest monthly increase this year. The U.S. economy overall added 280,000 jobs—meaning about 1 in 6 were in healthcare—and the unemployment rate was unchanged at 5.5%. (Sandler, 6/5)

Modern Healthcare: Quality And Control, Not Choice, Is What Insurance Customers Want
Health insurers are trying to figure out what makes consumers tick as the market increasingly becomes a direct-to-consumer business. But new surveys suggest that some of the previous ideas have been misguided. The backlash against restrictive health maintenance organizations in the 1990s gave rise to the idea that what consumers want is choice, said Jean-Pierre Stephan, a managing director at Accenture. But many people would be willing to accept a narrower, coordinated-care network as long as they still have control over their medical information, a survey from the consulting firm found. (Kutscher, 6/5)

Reuters: Big U.S. Data Breaches Offer Treasure Trove For Hackers
A massive breach of U.S. federal computer networks disclosed this week is the latest in a flood of attacks by suspected Chinese hackers aimed at grabbing personal data, industrial secrets and weapons plans from government and private computers. The Obama administration on Thursday disclosed the breach of computer systems at the Office of Personnel Management and said the records of up to 4 million current and former federal employees may have been compromised. (Shalal, 6/7)

Bloomberg: U.S. Government Data Hack Linked To Anthem Breach
The personal data of as many as four million U.S. government workers has been stolen by hackers, in a breach that is linked to an earlier theft of information from health-care companies directed out of China. Bloomberg’s Michael Riley reports on “Bloomberg Surveillance.” (6/5)

The New York Times: States Confront Wide Budget Gaps Even After Years of Recovery
Many of the legislatures that are struggling with budgets can point to external forces, including slow economic recoveries and rising health care costs, for their woes. “This is very different from past recovery periods, where you had fairly robust revenue growth at the state level,” said Scott D. Pattison, executive director of the National Association of State Budget Officers. “We’re not seeing enough revenue growth to solve some of the problems that we’re seeing.” (Bosman, 6/7)

The Washington Post: How Did Arizona And Nevada, Neighbors Under GOP Control, End Up On Such Wildly Different Paths This Year?
On Monday, Nevada passed its largest tax increase ever — $1.1 billion — in order to raise money for the state’s struggling schools. Local papers heaped praise on Gov. Brian Sandoval (R ) for pulling off this unlikely feat, which took months of coaxing his recalcitrant Republican colleagues. Arizona made history of a different kind last month. Propelled by his campaign-trail pledge to reduce taxes every year he is in office, Gov. Doug Ducey (R ) led his legislature into passing one of the state’s stingiest budgets in the past 30 years. The hundreds of millions in cuts come at the expense of Arizona’s colleges, Medicaid and the poor. (Guo, 6/5)

The Connecticut Mirror: 5 Things You May Have Missed In The New State Budget
Connecticut’s hospitals, which already have seen a 2011 provider tax arrangement turn sour, have been bracing for another tax increase since February. But even that deal turned worse just days before the budget was adopted. (Phaneuf and Levin Becker, 6/8)

The New York Times: Hospitals Back Providers Applying For New York State Marijuana Licenses
New York’s new medical marijuana program has drawn the interest of several major hospitals, which have formed alliances with aspiring growers to try to make the drug accessible to their patients. Friday was the deadline for companies to apply to become one of up to five licensed medical marijuana producers and distributors in the state. The State Health Department said on Friday that it was not yet able to release the number or names of the companies that had applied. But one hospital group, North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System, with a heavy presence in and east of New York City, announced that it had applied for a license in partnership with Silverpeak Apothecary, a medical marijuana company based in Colorado, where marijuana has been legalized for medical and recreational use. (Hartocollis,6/5)

The Wall Street Journal: Companies Rush To Meet Deadline For Pot Licenses
North Shore-LIJ Health System, a Long Island operator of 19 hospitals in the state, said on Friday that it is one of the applicants for New York’s new medical-marijuana licenses, lending institutional credibility to a business that has previously had more interest from smaller entrepreneurs. “There’s a lot of perceptual baggage for marijuana,” said Kevin Tracey, president and chief executive of the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research, the research arm of North Shore-LIJ. “But I think when you put on your health-care-delivery hat, and it’s effective and not dangerous, why wouldn’t a good health-care system want to understand it?” (Ramey, 6/5)

The Associated Press: AP Exclusive: Abortions Declining In Nearly All States
Abortions have declined in states where new laws make it harder to have them — but they've also waned in states where abortion rights are protected, an Associated Press survey finds. Nearly everywhere, in red states and blue, abortions are down since 2010. Explanations vary. Abortion-rights advocates attribute it to expanded access to effective contraceptives and a drop in unintended pregnancies. Some foes of abortion say there has been a shift in societal attitudes, with more women choosing to carry their pregnancies to term. ... Nationwide, the AP survey showed a decrease in abortions of about 12 percent since 2010. One major factor has been a decline in the teen pregnancy rate, which in 2010 reached its lowest level in decades. There's been no official update since then, but the teen birth rate has continued to drop, which experts say signals a similar trend for teen pregnancies. (Crary, 6/7)

The Associated Press: State-By-State Trends In Annual Number Of Abortions
The Associated Press has collected the latest annual numbers of abortions from health departments in all 45 states that compile such data on a comprehensive basis. This table shows the results, comparing the most recent numbers — mostly from 2013 or 2014 — to 2010, the year before legislative efforts intensified of efforts in many states to enact new restrictions affecting access to abortion. (6/7)

The Chicago Tribune: Abortion Numbers Fall In Illinois, Mirroring National Trend
The annual number of abortions in Illinois is continuing to fall, reflecting a national trend and reaching the lowest point in a decades-long decline. The latest figures show that there were 40,750 surgical abortions performed in Illinois in 2013, which is 2.6 percent fewer than the 41,859 performed in 2010, Illinois Department of Public Health data show. The numbers do not include abortions induced by prescription-only pills containing the drug mifepristone, also known as RU-486. (6/7)

Los Angeles Times: Blue Shield Faces More Heat Over Nonprofit Status, $1.2-Billion Deal
Health insurance giant Blue Shield of California is facing more questions over its loss of tax-exempt status as it tries to win state approval of a $1.2-billion acquisition. A former Blue Shield executive is accusing the San Francisco insurer of giving contradictory answers to state officials about its corporate structure. And consumer advocates are calling on Blue Shield to disclose details of a state audit that examined the company's taxpayer subsidy. (Terhune, 6/5)

The Associated Press: State, Counties Grapple With Long-term Care As State Ages
Whether protesting budget cuts to Meals on Wheels or fighting for higher reimbursement rates for nursing homes, advocates for New Hampshire's aging residents have found themselves on the defensive as lawmakers craft the next state budget. The short-term budget battles illuminate a broader issue: What kind of long-term care will best serve New Hampshire's rapidly aging population, and who will pay for it? (Ronayne, 6/6)

Los Angeles Times: Bill Would Limit Efforts To Recoup Medi-Cal Costs From Patients' Estates
The state's Medi-Cal program has long looked to the estates and heirs of deceased Californians to recoup public money spent on their healthcare in the last years of life. But the practice — including suing survivors and filing liens against the homes of poor families — is coming under attack in Sacramento. (Pfeifer, 6/5)

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Support Builds For New Medical Training Campus In Springfield, Mo.
A plan to bring a physician training campus to Springfield is getting more support from university and hospital officials, who say the campus will help alleviate a critical shortage of medical personnel in southwest Missouri. Planning for the University of Missouri School of Medicine's new Springfield Clinical campus began nearly a decade ago but has gained momentum recently as the University of Missouri, Missouri State University and Springfield leaders lobbied state government to fund the campus and a new occupational therapy program. (6/7)

The Denver Post: Colorado Researcher's Black-Market Drug Site A Window On Opioid Abuse
Name your poison — illicit prescription painkillers, heroin — and Dr. Richard Dart at Denver Health can tell you what it costs on the black market. Or, thanks to him, you can look it up yourself. Dart, director of the Rocky Mountain Poison and Drug Center, co-founded a website called StreetRx that allows buyers and sellers to anonymously report what price a pill of oxycodone, tramadol — or whatever — is going for in Denver or Chicago or New York. (Draper, 6/8)

The Associated Press: American Samoa Dialysis Clinic Reopens After 2-Day Closure
American Samoa's only dialysis clinic has reopened after a product recall forced it to close for two days. LBJ Medical Center said the clinic reopened at 4 p.m. Friday and began treating patients who require dialysis. The clinic shut down Wednesday after the hospital learned of a recall of a solution used in its machines. A fresh supply arrived to the island around 2 p.m. Friday. The clinic had been scheduled to reopen at 1 a.m. Saturday. (Sagapolutele, 6/6)

The Wall Street Journal's Law Blog: Alabama High Court: Only Licensed Dentists Can Whiten Teeth
Alabama’s highest court on Friday upheld a state law that makes it a crime for non-dentists there to provide teeth-whitening services. The court ruled against two teeth-whitening specialists, Keith Westphal and Joyce Osborn Wilson, both of whom were barred from operating teeth-whitening businesses in Alabama because they weren’t licensed dentists. They claimed in court that excluding them from the teeth-whitening industry violated their due-process rights guaranteed by the state’s constitution. (Gershman, 6/5)

USA Today: Fla. Hospital Probed Over Babies' Deaths After Heart Surgery
Federal regulators announced Friday that they are investigating a Florida hospital over the deaths of several infants who had heart surgery in the past four years. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services began the probe after a CNN report about the deaths at St. Mary's Medical Center in West Palm Beach, which is owned by Tenet Healthcare. Most of the babies were Medicaid patients. (Winter, 6/7)

CNN: CNN Report On High Mortality Rate For Babies At Florida Hospital Leads To Inquiry
The Federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has launched an investigation into deaths of babies following open heart surgeries at St. Mary's Medical Center in Florida. The investigation came in response to a CNN story this week that showed between 2011 to 2013, the West Palm Beach hospital had a 12.5% mortality rate for open heart surgery, three times the national average. "We take these allegations very seriously. CMS is actively investigating these complaints," Aaron Albright, a spokesman for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, wrote in an email. The agency is investigating because most of the patients who had heart surgery at St. Mary's were Medicaid patients. (Cohen and Bonifield, 6/5)

The Belleville News-Democrat: 2 Deaths Under Investigation At Cahokia Nursing Home
Two families are questioning why their loved ones died at Cahokia Nursing and Rehabilitation Center. The Illinois Department of Public Health and the Illinois State Police are investigating their deaths, and two top officials at the facility — the administrator and director of nursing — have resigned. Fred Jones of Centreville believes his cousin John Brown Jr., 76, would still be alive if he had received proper care while at the facility. (Forsythe, 6/6)

The Des Moines Register: Little Help For Refugee Depression, PTSD
As many as 40 percent of refugees have post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety or depression, according to Carly Ross, director of the U.S. Committee of Refugees and Immigrants field office in Des Moines. Like the Bhutanese, the Sudanese and Somalis who have come to Iowa, refugees from Burma have typically suffered severe trauma. Many ethnic Burmese minorities are also timid, fearful of authority and persecution and don't acknowledge communication problems, those who work with refugees say. (Rood, 6/7)

North Carolina Health News: Harmful Or Harmless? New Studies Light Up Debate On E-Cigarettes
When e-cigarettes hit the market in 2007, they were embraced as an effective and safe strategy for smokers to break their addictions to traditional cigarettes. Since then, they’ve grown in popularity among all age groups. But research has revealed mixed success in helping to quit. And now North Carolina researcher are questioning their safety. (Howell, 6/8)

The New York Times: Florida’s Foolish Medicaid Lawsuit
In a suit filed in Federal District Court on April 28, Florida charged that the Obama administration had threatened to cut off federal funding for a separate program that reimburses hospitals for charity care unless the state expanded its Medicaid program. [Gov. Rick] Scott said this was an effort to “force our state further into Obamacare.” This was a preposterous allegation. ... Mr. Scott’s disingenuous argument illustrates the lengths that some Republican leaders will go to avoid being blamed for not protecting their poor and uninsured citizens by expanding Medicaid. (6/8)

Bloomberg: Supreme Court Win Could Boomerang On Republicans
The Supreme Court could make June the cruelest month for Republicans. The court will hand down two decisions fraught with political implications. One will decide whether same-sex marriage is protected by the Constitution, and the other whether to throw out a central piece of the Affordable Care Act, the federal subsidies for about 8 million Americans. ... even Obamacare haters know they would have a problem if they were removed. "We can't just ignore those people," acknowledges Alabama Republican Senator Richard Shelby. ... With Obamacare a third rail for many conservatives, Republicans are struggling to find a response. (Albert R. Hunt, 6/7)

The Midland (Mich.) Daily News: Health Care Costs On The Rise
Before the Affordable Care Act became law in March 2010, the Midland Daily News wrote a number of editorials, issuing caution and skepticism about Obamacare. Would it really lower health costs? Would Americans be able to keep their doctor, as President Obama had promised? Would it negatively impact the economy, and place a heavy financial burden on small businesses? Those were just some of the questions that we asked. Now, there’s this recent news item: Health insurers seek big premium hikes for Obamacare plans in 2016. (6/7)

The Washington Post: Our Rural Hospitals Aren’t Healthy
As we discuss government’s role in health care in this country, one problem increasingly stands outneeding immediate attention: the state of medical care in our rural areas, including in Virginia. Rural hospitals play a unique role in the communities they serve. They are not just crucial to the well-being and health-care needs of local residents; they also are among the leading economic drivers in their regions. According to the Virginia Hospital and Healthcare Association (VHHA), in 82 percent of Virginia’s rural counties, health care is among the top five largest employers . (State Rep. Patrick Hope, 6/5)

Los Angeles Times: California Takes A Swipe At 'Surprise' Medical Bills
The nastiest jolt that many insured hospital patients receive after a test or surgery is a surprise bill from a doctor they never asked for and may not even have met. But it can be hundreds or thousands of dollars -- the "out-of-network" rate for a doctor performing a service at a hospital that, in every other respect, is an in-network institution. This week, California legislators took steps to eradicate the surprise, which typically involves the specialties of pathology, anesthesiology and radiology. A measure passed by the state Assembly would forbid ancillary providers from charging patients more than the in-network rate for their specialty, if they delivered service at an in-network hospital. It's now headed for the Senate, but as written, it's opposed by the California Medical Assn. and some other provider groups, so hang on tight. (Michael Hiltzik, 6/5)

Modern Healthcare: Competition's Self-Destructive Side
Gotcha. That seems to be the game healthcare providers and insurers are playing with consumers when it comes to surprise out-of-network bills. But it's not a promising business strategy. And it threatens to undermine support for the healthcare system's emerging consumer-choice/narrow-network model. A recent survey by the Consumer Reports National Research Center found that 30% of privately insured Americans in the past two years received a surprise medical bill where their health plan paid less than expected. Among those who got one, nearly 1 in 4 received it from a doctor from whom they did not expect a bill. Only 28% of those who received a surprise bill were satisfied with how the issue was resolved. (Harris Meyer, 6/6)

The Chicago Sun-Times: Warning Of Poor Prison Health Care Deserves Closer Look
If an important study involving the well-being of real people falls short, get it right, don’t ignore it. Even if the real people in question barely register on society’s pity meter. Unfortunately, the Illinois Department of Corrections has failed to do just that. The department has reacted far too coolly to a report released last month that concluded medical care in state prisons suffers from treatment delays, irregular follow-up care, disorganized record keeping and other problems. (6/7)

The New York Times: Sneaky Ways To Raise Drug Profits
Two devious tactics by manufacturers of brand-name drugs to delay competition from cheaper generic drugs were appropriately slapped down recently by federal and state officials. That should help consumers, insurers and anyone else who foots the bill for prescription medicines. Generic copies, which can enter the market when patents on a brand-name drug expire, typically cost much less than branded versions and are just as safe and effective. (6/8)

The Washington Post: Sell A Disease To Sell A Drug
Seven years, at least 25 million prescriptions and $9.7 billion in sales too late, the Food and Drug Administration is finally pushing back against the over-prescribing of testosterone. Last month, in response to new FDA rules, testosterone manufacturers released new instructions for doctors making it clear that testosterone is not approved for “low-T” — a marketing term developed by drug companies to describe men with low testosterone levels caused by aging. Companies must now warn doctors about a possible increased risk of heart attack and stroke in men who take these drugs. (Steven Woloshin and Lisa M. Schwartz, 6/7)

The New York Times: Heroin Doesn’t Have To Be A Killer
It's a subject we find hard to talk about, even though it kills more people in America than guns or cars and claims more lives than murder or suicide. I’m talking about drug overdoses, taking close to 44,000 lives a year. These often follow a pipeline from prescription painkillers to heroin — a result, in part, of reckless marketing by pharmaceutical companies and overprescribing by doctors. These days, heroin is out of control, with deaths nearly tripling in three years. (Nicholas Kristof, 6/6)

The New York Times: Finding The Right Balance
In 2010, 13 million Americans reported being injured in a fall, often caused by simple trips on the sidewalk or on the stairs at home. For the over 65s, the figures are worse: One in three in this age group falls every year, resulting in some 250,000 hip fractures and more than 25,000 deaths, usually from traumatic brain injuries. The health care cost of treating these falls is estimated to be $34 billion a year. But if falling is such a common hazard, especially for older people, does that mean falls are inevitable? Is there nothing we can do about it — like improving our sense of balance? (Alex Hutchinson, 6/6)

The New York Times: The Deadly Combination Of Heat And Humidity
The most deadly weather-related disasters aren’t necessarily caused by floods, droughts or hurricanes. They can be caused by heat waves, like the sweltering blanket that’s taken over 2,500 lives in India in recent weeks. ... These heat waves will only become more common as the planet continues to warm. They don’t just affect tropical, developing countries; they’re a threat throughout the world. The July 1995 heat wave in the Midwest caused over 700 deaths in Chicago. The August 2003 heat wave in western Europe led to about 45,000 deaths. The July-August 2010 heat wave in western Russia killed about 54,000 people. (Robert Kopp, Jonathan Buzan and Matthew Huber, 6/6)

Politico: Democrats Shouldn’t Endorse Suicide
As a life-long progressive who is rapidly approaching Medicare age, I am dismayed by the apparent resignation of the political left to the sorry state of dying in America. Just when moral outrage and radical social change are called for, my fellow progressives have embraced physician-assisted suicide as their political response to needless suffering of seriously ill people. This isn’t liberalism; it’s nihilism. (Ira Byock, 6/7)