The Associated Press: Inside Washington: Health Law Tax Passed Along To States
The Health Insurance Providers Fee was aimed at insurance companies. The thinking went: Because insurers would gain a windfall of customers, they ought to help pay for the expansion of coverage. Insurers say they have raised prices for individuals and small businesses to cover the new tax. As it turns out, they are raising their prices to state Medicaid programs, too. The federal government issued guidance in October requiring states to build the tax into what they pay for-profit Medicaid health plans that serve low-income people. The first year's tax was due to the IRS in September, and state governments are now settling up with insurance companies. (5/18)

Reuters: Grandfathered Retiree Health Plans Can Set Limits, Judge Rules
Retiree-only healthcare plans "grandfathered in" from before the passage of the Affordable Care Act can still impose lifetime coverage limits, a U.S. judge has ruled, dismissing a lawsuit by the widow of a former United Parcel Service of America Inc employee who faces a medical bill of more than $578,000. (Pierson, 5/15)

The Fiscal Times: States Lose $721B If SCOTUS Rules Against Obamacare
Next month, the Supreme Court will decide whether Obamacare enrollees in states that did not set up their own exchanges will continue to have access to federal subsidies. If the Court rules against the administration in the high-stakes case of King v. Burwell, an estimated 9.8 million could become uninsured in states that rely on the federal exchange, Healthcare.gov, says a new study from the Urban Institute and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (Ehley, 5/17).

In Massachusetts, the developer of the state exchange's failed Connector website is under investigation. And Colorado's exchange board approved a new fee for those who bought insurance through the marketplace, plus another that hits a broader swath of insured -

The Boston Globe: AG Maura Healey Continues Probe Of Connector Software Developer
Attorney General Maura Healey is investigating the performance of CGI, the Canadian software developer that built the failed website for the Massachusetts Health Connector, continuing a review started by her predecessor. (Freyer, 5/18)

Health News Colorado: Exchange Board Votes To Scoop Up Millions From Two Higher Fees
Despite fury from lawmakers the day before, Colorado’s health exchange board voted on Thursday to collect millions of additional dollars from all Colorado health insurance customers, even those who have nothing to do with the exchange. (Kerwin McCrimmon, 5/15)

PolitiFact Florida/Tampa Bay Times: Medicaid Expansion Would Help Many Of The Same People That LIP Helps
Speaking to reporters, [Gov. Rick] Scott said he doesn't share the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' position that growing Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act is a better solution than renewing the current LIP fund. The LIP program, which mostly helps cover hospital costs for uninsured and underinsured patient visits, is set to expire June 30. "The families that are covered through the Low Income Pool is a different group of individuals than are covered by Obamacare," Scott said. We decided to check if Scott was right about those being two different sets of potential patients. ... The ruling: The Low Income Pool compensates hospitals for treating the uninsured. Medicaid expansion would directly affect many uninsured. Health care experts told us there is plenty of overlap between the two groups. We rate the statement Mostly False. (Gillin, 5/17)

Winston-Salem Journal: Hospital Association Unveils Medicaid Reform Proposal
The N.C. Hospital Association is wading into the debate about state Medicaid reform, predictably encouraging a provider-led format to address the risk involved in the $14 billion program. At the request of legislative leaders, the advocacy group Thursday offered recommendations and submitted a draft bill. The proposed legislation likely would require being inserted into an existing bill, potentially the state budget, to move forward this session. ... The association’s proposal would attempt to “modernize and stabilize” the program through a “whole person” strategy of coordinating physical, behavioral, dental, pharmacy and long-term health services. (Craver, 5/17)

Also, Politico examines the political backlash as Medicaid expansion enrollment grows.

Politico: Skyrocketing Medicaid Signups Stir State Expansion Fights
Medicaid enrollment under Obamacare is skyrocketing past expectations, giving some GOP governors who oppose the program’s expansion under the health law an “I told you so” moment. More than 12 million people have signed up for Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act since January 2014, and in some states that embraced that piece of the law, enrollment is hundreds of thousands beyond initial projections. Seven states have seen particularly big surges, with their overruns totaling nearly 1.4 million low-income adults. (Pradhan, 5/18)

Military Times: VA Mismanagement, Malpractice Detailed In Reports
More than 120 previously unpublished investigations by the Veterans Affairs Department's inspector general, dating as far back as 2006, reveal problems at VA medical centers nationwide ranging from medical malpractice and patient safety concerns to mismanagement, infighting and corruption. VA Assistant Inspector General John Daigh posted the reports on the VA inspector general's website in April after receiving criticism that his office failed to disclose results of an investigation into the Tomah Wisconsin VA Medical Center charging that a psychiatrist prescribed dangerous amounts of painkillers and other medications to patients, resulting in at least one death. (Kime, 5/17)

The Washington Post: VA’s Ability To Increase Health Professionals Is ‘Seriously Fractured’
Agency understaffing was a key flaw exposed during last year’s scandal over the cover-up of long patient wait times at the Department of Veterans Affairs. It has too few health-care employees to timely serve the wounded warriors and others among its clientele. (Davidson, 5/17)

ABC News: Ohio Gov. John Kasich Virtually Certain To Run For President, Sources Say
As a Republican elected twice as governor of the critical battleground state of Ohio, [John] Kasich is a potentially formidable candidate. But he has also angered conservative Republicans with his decision to accept an expansion of the Medicaid program under Obamacare. He has also supported the Common Core educational standards, something derided by some conservatives as "Obamacore." (Karl, 5/17)

The Washington Post: It Turns Out Ted Cruz Does Not Get His Insurance Through Obamacare
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) wants to kill Obamacare, but he admitted that he might have to sign up for it after his wife took a leave from her job and its benefits. As it turns out, Cruz never signed up for Obamacare. He purchased his family's health insurance off the open market. (Zezima, 5/16)

The Associated Press: Lightly Regulated Stem-Cell Clinics A 'Wild West' In Medical World?
The number of stem-cell clinics across the United States has surged from a handful in 2010 to more than 170 today, according to figures compiled by The Associated Press. Many of the clinics are linked in large, for-profit chains. New businesses continue to open; doctors looking to get into the field need only take a weekend seminar offered by a training company. (Perrone, 5/17)

The Associated Press: Stem Cells Still Uncharted Territory In Sports
Blame it on a lack of study and still-evolving knowledge about what stem cells can and can’t do. Blame hype that typically accompanies every new method that attempts to quicken recovery from serious injury. Players and agents are paying attention. (Graves, 5/18)

The Philadelphia Inquirer: New Shingles Vaccine Puts Patients In Quandary
Public-health experts cheered last month when a pivotal study showed GlaxoSmithKline's experimental shingles vaccine is much more effective than the established Merck vaccine. In the long run, the prospect of a better shingles shot could improve vaccination rates among people 60 and older, currently a disappointing 24 percent. But in the short run, the good news creates a bit of a quandary: Should older adults who want protection wait, probably a few years, for approval of the new vaccine, and hope the herpes zoster virus doesn't rear its excruciating rash in the meantime? (McCullough, 5/17)

The Washington Post: New Test Could Sharply Reduce Risky, Costly Lung Cancer Biopsies
When a suspicious lesion shows up in the lungs on a CT scan, the first thing your doctor wants to know is whether it's cancerous. A specialist will pass a long, thin bronchoscope into your airway in the hope of grabbing a few cells of the growth so they can be examined under a microscope. But some of these lesions or nodules are deep in the small branches of the lungs, out of reach of the bronchoscope, which is about the diameter of a pen. ... But now, according to a study published Sunday in the New England Journal of Medicine, there appears to be a new, much less invasive way of determining whether a growth is malignant. (Bernstein, 5/17)

The Seattle Times: 'Breakthrough' Drug Trials Give New Hope On Cystic Fibrosis
Two large clinical trials co-led by a Seattle researcher find that a new drug may help nearly half of people with cystic fibrosis — and reduce the leading cause of death from the disease. Paige Ellens, 17, of Lynden, is among the first to benefit. (Aleccia, 5/17)

The Washington Post: ‘We Are Convinced The Machine Can Do Better Than Human Anesthesiologists’
I wrote recently about Sedasys, a machine that automates anesthesia. ... But Sedasys, in development for 15 years, is no longer on the true cutting edge of what’s possible with automated anesthesia. A machine with the clunky name of iControl-RP is. It's an experimental device that pushes the boundaries of how much responsibility is turned over to technology. (Frankel, 5/15)

Burlington (Vt.) Free Press: Health Care Reform Shrinks To $3.2M
The House and Senate approved a dramatically-reduced compromise health care reform bill late Saturday. ... The compromise health care reform plan continues $760,000 in cost-sharing subsidies for low-income Vermonters, [Rep. Bill] Lippert said. The health care committees had wanted to expand the subsidies to middle-income residents with high deductibles and copay amounts, but that provision was removed from the bill due to the revenue limitations. ... About $940,000 will help stabilize Medicaid reimbursements to health care providers. ... Some $1 million is earmarked for the state's Blueprint for Health managed care system. The bill also provides $300,000 in educational loan repayments for physicians, the cost of which is split between state and federal sources. ... The bill added three new positions to the Green Mountain Care Board to start setting rates for health care providers and pursuing an all-payer model. (Achen, 5/16)

Vermont Public Radio: Democrats Declare Victory In Montpelier; Republicans, Progressives Not Impressed
A showdown over taxes between the Democratic governor and lawmakers from his own party finally ended Saturday afternoon when a grand bargain eliminated the prospect of a veto, and paved the way for the fall of the gavel on the 2015 legislative session. ... The tax deal struck Saturday is perhaps most notable for the revenue mechanism it does not include. Shumlin back in January unveiled a $90 million payroll tax he said would rectify structural shortcomings in a troubled Medicaid program. Shumlin said low reimbursement rates for the government insurance programs were restricting low-income patients’ access to care, while simultaneously inflating insurance plans sold by private carriers. The payroll tax plan never gained any traction, however, and the various funding alternatives considered by lawmakers, including a 2-cent per-ounce tax on sugary beverages, also fell flat. (Hirschfeld, 5/16)

VT Digger: Lawmakers Reach Late-Stage Deal To 'Keep The Lights’ On For Health Care Reform
Lawmakers and the governor reached a deal to pass a health care package that, as one senator put it, will “keep the lights on” for health care reform. The package contains $3.2 million in new state health care spending, which is eligible for roughly another $3 million in federal match. The money will be used to level-fund exchange subsidies for out-of-pocket costs, target increases to Medicaid rates and invest in initiatives to strengthen the primary care system. (True, 5/17)

The Associated Press: Audit Questions Medicaid Billing By 335 California Dentists
A California dentist who treats children under Medicaid billed for more than 1,000 services a day for almost 100 days in 2012. Another provided 33 procedures — including multiple stainless steel crowns and baby root canals — to a 4-year-old during a visit. Another received an extremely high payment per child — $699 compared with a statewide average payment of $166 per child. (Chang, 5/18)

Los Angeles Times: Doctor With Revoked License Continues To Sell Unproven Stem Cell Treatments
Last fall, two decades after Malibu psychiatrist William Rader began selling unproven stem cell treatments to desperate patients with incurable conditions, California authorities permanently revoked his medical license for negligence, false or misleading advertising and professional misconduct. "His dishonesty permeates every aspect of his business and practices," the medical board wrote in a scathing 39-page decision. (Zarembo, 5/16)

Los Angeles Times: Doctor Convicted In Prescription Drug Sting
A southern California pain-management doctor who was featured in a 2012 Times investigation of patient overdose deaths was convicted Thursday of illegally prescribing narcotics and other commonly abused drugs. Dr. John Dimowo was convicted of seven counts of illegally writing prescriptions for Vicodin, Xanax and Adderall to undercover agents who pretended to be patients and had no legitimate need for the drugs. (Glover, 5/15)

The Pioneer Press: On Health Care, Lawmakers Reach Deal With Little Contention, Few Major Changes
For months, the single biggest difference between Republicans and Democrats at the Minnesota Capitol was health and human services. More than a billion dollars separated the two major proposals, to say nothing of controversial ideas: repealing MinnesotaCare, a deep purge of public program rolls, making MNsure a state agency and huge differences in nursing home funding. (Montgomery, 5/17)

California Healthline: Governor Plans To Put Federal Children's Health Money Into General Fund
Gov. Jerry Brown's May budget revision released on Thursday included about $381 million in health care revenue that wasn't in the previous January budget proposal. Health care advocates wondered which programs might be funded by the new federal money, but the governor has proposed absorbing it into the general fund. (Gorn, 4/15)

The Associated Press: NY Report Shows State Revenue Up $11.4B Last Year
New York received $48.6 billion in federal grants used primarily for Medicaid, homeland security and storm relief, public welfare and education. (5/17)

Los Angeles Times: L.A. County Slow To Probe Nursing Home Complaints, State Statistics Show
Statistics released this week on investigations of complaints of abuse, neglect and poor conditions at California nursing homes and other health facilities show Los Angeles County lagging behind other areas of the state. Los Angeles County is the only county that handles such investigations itself. Elsewhere, the program is run by the state's Department of Public Health. The county's responsibilities will probably be scaled back under a new contract with the state beginning in July. That agreement is expected to provide more money for investigations — but not as much as county officials say they would need to do all the work currently required. (Sewell, 5/16)

USA Today: Indiana Community's HIV Outbreak A Warning To Rural America
This small, close-knit community is a picture of rural America, with stubble-filled cornfields and a Main Street lined by churches, shops and sidewalks. It's also the unlikely epicenter of the largest outbreak of HIV, the AIDS virus, in Indiana's history — and a warning to the rest of the nation. Public health experts say rural places everywhere contain the raw ingredients that led to Austin's tragedy. Many struggle with poverty, addiction and doctor shortages, and they lag behind urban areas in HIV-related funding, services and awareness. And the same lack of anonymity that gives rural towns their charm foments a strong stigma that discourages testing and treatment. (Ungar and Kenning, 5/17)

The News Service Of Florida: Florida Leaders Look To Pass Mental Health Reform -- In 2016
As they reviewed legislative issues affecting children, lawmakers and state agency heads said this week they will push again in 2016 for two key bills that died in the abrupt end to this spring’s regular session. An overhaul of the state’s mental-health system and an upgrade of early-learning programs topped a list of legislative priorities atWednesday’s meeting of the Florida Children and Youth Cabinet in Stuart. (Menzel, 5/15)

The Sacramento Bee: Critics Want Nonprofit Hospitals To Account For Tax Breaks
It’s been a long-running criticism made by health care unions against nonprofit hospitals: They don’t give enough in return for their hefty tax breaks. The debate fired up again last week as hundreds of members of the California Nurses Association marched at the state Capitol to promote the union’s legislative agenda, including a recent bill to toughen reporting requirements by nonprofit hospitals on how much community benefit they provide to support their tax-exempt status. (Sangree, 5/17)

Las Vegas Review Journal: Bill With ‘Zero’ Chance Proposes Privatizing Provision Of Medicaid Services
The elderly, the blind and the physically disabled. Thousands of people in these groups in Clark and Washoe counties face major changes in the way assistive services are provided to them should Assembly Bill 310 — sponsored by Nevada Assembly Majority Leader Paul Anderson, R-Las Vegas — become law. The proposed changes in the bill that would privatize the provision of services have raised concerns among advocates for those who would be affected, but Anderson said last week the bill isn’t going anywhere. However, the proposed legislation remains alive in the Assembly Ways and Means Committee and has been declared exempt, meaning it’s not subject to deadlines that can quash other bills. (Amaro, 5/17)

The Associated Press: NC Health Mandates Get Rosier Views At General Assembly
Though their party complains often about health insurance coverage mandates from Washington, Republicans in North Carolina's legislature are OK with adding more requirements upon state-regulated insurance companies. (Robertson, 5/17)

(Hampton Roads, Va.) Daily Press: Numbers Drop In Virginia Medicare/Medicaid Pilot Program
The number of people opting out of the state's managed-health care pilot program for "dual eligibles" — those who qualify for both Medicare and Medicaid — has been so large in its first year the savings is expected to be far less than the $44 million that had been projected. More than 40 percent of the 66,000 eligible statewide to enroll in Commonwealth Coordinated Care, a three-year pilot program that launched last March, have either opted out or disenrolled from the program. (Salasky, 5/17)

North Carolina Health News: NC Enacts Prescribing Requirement For 'Biosimilar' Drugs
Patients know that when their doctor recommends a brand name pill, a generic alternative might save them a lot of money. But many newer specialty drugs don’t come in a pill: medications such as Enbrel for arthritis or Avastin for cancer are members of a new class of drugs called “biologics,” usually administered by injection. They’re expensive and don’t have cheaper generic alternatives. With a unanimous vote in the Senate today, North Carolina becomes one of a handful of states that have passed laws creating extra physician notification when a pharmacist dispenses a interchangeable biosimilar to a patient. (Hoban, 5/15)

The New York Times: Cuomo To Offer New Measures To Improve Conditions In The Nail Salon Industry
Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo is expected to introduce on Monday two new measures in the State Legislature that would give regulators greater authority to punish nail salons that mistreat workers and make it easier for manicurists to acquire licenses. The legislation follows emergency rule changes ordered by Mr. Cuomo, a Democrat, last week in response to a New York Times investigation that uncovered the widespread exploitation of nail salon workers, many of whom experience serious health problems linked to the chemicals they work with regularly. The changes will subject salons in New York to some of the strictest health regulations in the country. (Maslin Nir, 5/17)

The Associated Press: Legal Battle Over Brain-Damaged Baby Prompts Maine Bill
Lawmakers in Maine are considering changes to the state's policies regarding life-sustaining treatment for minors after an 18-year-old mother went to court last year to fight a state-imposed do-not-resuscitate order on her brain-damaged daughter. Legislators are examining a bill that would prevent the state from withholding life-sustaining treatment for a child in its custody unless the parent's rights have been officially terminated. Supporters say that will protect parental sovereignty and clarify a legal grey area that drew national attention last year when Virginia Trask sued the state after a child welfare agency won a judge's approval to make medical decisions on behalf of her daughter. (Durkin, 5/17)

North Carolina Health News: Networking To Meet Critical Needs In The Mountains
In the far-west counties of the state, finding services for special-needs kids is a chore. The Family Support Network is up for the challenge. (Sisk, 5/18)

NPR: Baltimore Health Commissioner: 'Public Health Is Tied To Everything'
We're going to hear some ideas now from someone who's working on that long-term project, Leana Wen. She is an emergency physician, and four months ago she became Baltimore's health commissioner. In the days since the unrest, she's been talking a lot about the role of public health in addressing the city's ills. First on her agenda - reaching the people she sees as the most vulnerable. (Cornish, 5/15)

The Philadelphia Inquirer: Addressing Rural Area Drug Addiction Key To Reducing Spread Of Hep C
Every year, hepatitis C kills significantly more Americans than HIV. Yet the liver-attacking virus doesn't get nearly the popular respect, or trigger the same fears. That understated reputation will be both a help and a hindrance as the public health community tries to control the spread of the virus. New cases of hepatitis C rose 150 percent between 2010 and 2013 nationwide, and even more in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. (Sapatkin, 5/17)

Kaiser Health News: Paramedics Steer Non-Emergency Patients Away From ERs
Paramedic Ryan Ramsdell pulled up to a single-story house not far from Reno’s towering hotels and casinos in a nondescript Ford Explorer. No ambulance, no flashing lights. He wasn’t there to rush 68-year-old Earl Mayes to the emergency room. His job was to keep Mayes out of the ER. Mayes, who has congestive heart failure and chronic lung disease, greeted Ramsdell and told him that his heart was fluttering more than usual. "I had an up-and-down night," he said. (Gorman, 5/18)

The Washington Post: How D.C. Pot Legalization Has Become ‘The Dealer-Protection Act Of 2015’
Not long ago, a man who had covertly dealt pot in the nation’s capital for three decades approached a young political operative at a birthday party in a downtown Washington steakhouse. He was about to test a fresh marketing strategy to take advantage of the District’s peculiar new marijuana law, which allows people to possess and privately consume the drug but provides them no way to legally buy it for recreational use. Those contradictions have created a surge in demand and new opportunities for illicit pot purveyors. (Cox, 5/17)

The Associated Press: States Saying 'No' To Cities Seeking To Regulate Businesses
In the past five years, roughly a dozen states have enacted laws barring local governments from requiring businesses to provide paid sick leave to employees. The number of states banning local minimum wages has grown to 15. And while oil-rich states such as Texas and Oklahoma are pursuing bills banning local restrictions on drilling, other states where agriculture is big business have been banning local limitations on the types of seeds sown for crops. It seems no issue is too small for businesses to take to capitol halls. (5/18)

USA Today: GMO Food Bans Pander To Ignorance: Our View
Americans love conspiracy theories: The 1969 moon landing actually occurred on a Hollywood set. Fluoride in drinking water was a communist plot. Paul McCartney is dead. Elvis is alive. Most of these kooky notions are harmless, but some are not, especially when people ignore overwhelming scientific consensus in favor of discredited theories or simple fear-mongering. For example, increasing numbers of parents refuse to vaccinate their kids, which opens the door for renewed outbreaks of dangerous diseases. ... despite overwhelming scientific evidence to the contrary, most Americans believe that food altered by genetically modified organisms — GMOs — is harmful. Based on the misinformation, companies are beginning to ban food that contains GMOs. (5/17)

USA Today: Chipotle Makes A Sound Decision: Opposing View
Since when do the mainstream news media, in a country that worships at the altar of capitalism and the free market, launch a coordinated attack against a company for selling a product consumers want? When that company dares to cross the powerful biotech industry. How else to explain the unprecedented negative coverage of Chipotle, merely because the successful restaurant chain will eliminate GMO foods? (Ronnie Cummins, 5/17)

The Wall Street Journal: Bad Drug Trip In Alameda
The pharmaceutical and biotech lobbies are asking the Court to hear PhRMA v. Alameda, which challenges a drug take-back ordinance that the county enacted in 2012. A speculative fear among California greens is that traces of unused medicines that are thrown out or flushed are contaminating the water supply. The Alameda program requires all drug makers to fund and operate a county-wide disposal program, wherever they are headquartered in the world, as long as their products find their way into Alameda through interstate commerce. (5/17)

Bloomberg View: The Antibiotic Arms Race
Antibiotics face a worthy, endlessly adaptive enemy: bacteria. The more we use each drug, the less effective it becomes. That means that we need a constant flow of new antibiotics. And we're not getting them, in part because the market for developing these vital drugs is broken. ... If a company develops an exciting new antibiotic, infectious disease specialists will hold onto it as long as possible, using older generics whenever possible and bringing out your new drug only when everything else has failed. By the time they're ready to use it more broadly, the drug will be off patent, and the company that developed it won't make any money off of it. As health policy, this is absolutely the right thing to do; it stretches out the time we get to use an effective antibiotic, and saves costs to boot. But as drug development policy, it's disastrous. (Megan McArdle, 5/14)

The New York Times: Stemming The Tide Of Fake Medicines
A flood of fraudulent medicines sold mostly in the developing world is threatening the health of hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people in those nations and consumers in more advanced nations as well. International organizations, national drug regulators and the drug industry itself have been struggling for years to curb sales of phony or poorly prepared medicines. But articles in a special issue of the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, published online last month, show that efforts to control this problem have had only modest success over the past decade. (5/18)

Los Angeles Times: Can The Government Reduce Poverty While Also Slashing The Budget?
important but often neglected debate broke out in Washington last week: Which political party can do more for the nation's poor? ... At least in theory, there's still room for deal-making here. A few creative Republicans have been willing to consider cutting taxes on the working poor at the cost of modestly higher taxes on some of the affluent. A few creative Democrats have been willing to consider trimming the growth of Social Security and Medicare to free up funds for the truly needy. (Doyle McManus, 5/16)

The Washington Post's Plum LIne: Republicans Brace For Glorious Victory Over Obamacare
Nancy Pelosi is now predicting that Republicans will “rue the day” that the Supreme Court guts Obamacare subsidies for millions in three dozen states. “They’re going to then go out and say we’re going to take subsidies away from people who have health care? No, I don’t think so,” says Pelosi. “It would be really bad news for them.” Meanwhile, if anything, Republicans may be moving away from their previously-stated vow to participate in providing a contingency fix to temporarily keep those millions covered. The Hill reports that GOP Rep. Tom Price, the chairman of the House budget committee and a leading conservative, has now come out against any plan to temporarily keep those subsidies going. (Greg Sargent, 5/15)

Los Angeles Times: The California Budget's Shrinking Surplus
Now subtract the money deposited automatically in the rainy day fund, and you're left with an Incredible Shrinking Surplus. Brown has proposed to spend most of what's left on a new tax credit for the poor, more aid for higher education and, potentially, health insurance for immigrants temporarily granted legal status by President Obama. These are all good ideas, yet they leave other glaring needs unmet, such as restoring cuts in Medi-Cal payments that have made it harder for the poor to obtain care. (5/15)

The Washington Post: Md. Dollars For Schools Or Pensions?
As a matter of policy, Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan was absolutely right when he said that lawmakers in Annapolis are trying to “rob the pension fund” on which tens of thousands of current and retired state employees depend or will depend for their income and health coverage. His ability to stop them from doing so may be limited, but that’s not stopping him from trying. (5/17)

Toledo Blade: Medicaid For Mothers
Over the past decade, infant mortality rates in Lucas County and the rest of Ohio have remained heartbreakingly high, especially for African-Americans and poor families. Yet as they prepare to pass a new state budget, many lawmakers want to reduce support for expectant mothers who are Medicaid recipients. That shouldn’t happen. (5/18)

Albuquerque Journal: Revamped System Expands NM Behavioral Health Care
Remember when that $3 million behavioral health audit was so shocking it had to be kept secret from the public that paid for it? And when the targeted 15 agencies lost their Medicaid funding and were reportedly on the brink of shutting down and leaving their tens of thousands of vulnerable New Mexico clients adrift? What a difference a little accountability and a new, and expanded, Medicaid system make. (5/17)

The New York Times: The Case For Black Doctors
In virtually every field of medicine, black patients as a group fare the worst. This was one of my first and most painful lessons as a medical student nearly 20 years ago. The statistics that made my stomach cramp back then are largely the same today: The infant mortality rate in the black population is twice that of whites. Black men are seven times more likely than white men to receive a diagnosis of H.I.V. and more than twice as likely to die of prostate cancer. Black women have nearly double the obesity rate of white women and are 40 percent more likely to die from breast cancer. Black people experience much higher rates of hypertension, diabetes and stroke. The list goes on and on. The usual explanations for these health disparities — poverty, poor access to medical care and unhealthy lifestyle choices, to name a few — are certainly valid, but the longer I’ve practiced medicine, the more I’ve come to appreciate a factor that is less obvious: the dearth of black doctors. (Damon Tweedy, 5/15)

The Philadelphia Inquirer: Does Philadelphia Have Primary Care Deserts?
Over the past two years, one of the top health care priorities in Philadelphia has been getting people signed up for health insurance. That is still a huge, unfinished task, but alongside it we need to make sure we have enough doctors in the right places to deliver care. For health care reform to deliver on its promise, people need good access to primary care. (David Grande, 5/15)

Miami Herald: Blind Man Loses Bluff On ‘Obamacare’
Luis Lang would like you to send him some money. He has taken to GoFundMe (gofundme.com/s78e9w), the crowd-funding website, trying to raise $30,000. Mr. Lang, who is 49 and lives in Fort Mills, S.C., is slowly losing his eyesight to diabetes. Without surgery, he'll go blind. Those grim facts notwithstanding, some may not find Mr. Lang the most sympathetic candidate for charity. (Leonard Pitts, 5/17)