The New York Times: Many Say High Deductibles Make Their Health Law Insurance All But Useless
Obama administration officials, urging people to sign up for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act, have trumpeted the low premiums available on the law’s new marketplaces. But for many consumers, the sticker shock is coming not on the front end, when they purchase the plans, but on the back end when they get sick: sky-high deductibles that are leaving some newly insured feeling nearly as vulnerable as they were before they had coverage. (Pear, 11/14)

Elsewhere, residents in Florida, Texas and Georgia are urged to take advantage of open enrollment season -

Kaiser Health News: Obamacare Recruiters Seek Uninsured At Food Fairs And Churches
Their shared goal: Increase the number of Americans buying health plans. It won’t be easy. About 1.3 million Floridians signed up for individual coverage during the 2015 open enrollment on the online marketplace created by the Affordable Care Act. That was tops in the country – even higher than in California and Texas, which have more people. Like most states, Florida’s uninsured rate has fallen sharply – to 15 percent from 22 percent in 2013, according to Gallup. (Galewitz, 11/16)

Georgia Health News: HHS Chief Urges Atlantans To Enroll In Exchange
U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell visited Atlanta on Friday to support efforts to sign up more people during the health insurance exchange’s open enrollment period. Burwell, at an enrollment assistance center, noted that Atlanta is in a challenge competition with 19 other cities to sign up the most uninsured people into the exchanges, which were created under the Affordable Care Act. (Miller, 11/13)

The Dallas Morning News: What To Know As Affordable Care Act Coverage Deadlines Approach
As deadlines approach for Texans to buy, renew or switch health plans offered through the Affordable Care Act’s state marketplace, consumers need to know about changes in prices, insurance product offerings and fines for those who forgo coverage. (Garrett, 11/15)

And in New York, three insurers agree to automatically enroll customers of the failed co-op who do not choose an alternate plan -

Politico New York: Three Insurers Agree To Take Health Republic Customers
Three insurers — Excellus BlueCross BlueShield, MVP Health Care and Fidelis Care — have agreed automatically to enroll customers from Health Republic Insurance of New York, the insolvent co-op that was ordered to wind down on Nov. 30, leaving its 200,000 beneficiaries without health insurance for December. The three companies have agreed to take those customers who do not choose their own plan by the end of the month and have agreed to credit any deductible and out-of-pocket payments Health Republic customers have made during 2015, the Cuomo administration announced Friday. (Goldberg, 11/13)

The Associated Press: Clinton Goes After Sanders On Taxes, Health Care
Fresh from the second Democratic presidential debate, Hillary Rodham Clinton suggested Sunday that Bernie Sanders would raise middle-class taxes and “scrap” President Barack Obama’s health care law, in an escalating critique of the Vermont senator. (Thomas, 11/15)

The Washington Post: Clinton Faces Sharp Attacks On Wall Street Ties, Iraq Vote At Second Democratic Debate
During the debate. Clinton attacked two key policy Sanders policy proposals – one to make public colleges tuition-free, and another to give all Americans government-run health insurance – as impractical or unfair, in a part of the second Democratic debate seemingly aimed at moderate voters. ... Clinton also criticized Sanders’s plan, which he calls “Medicare for All,” for essentially eliminating President Obama’s health-care law. But Clinton took an unusual tactic: she said Sanders’ plan did not build the federal government up enough. It would leave some decisions to the state governments, which might be run by Republicans. (Fahrenthold, 11/14)

STAT News: Clinton Shows Vulnerability On Drug Costs In Debate
Hillary Clinton’s response to a question about her drug costs plan in Saturday’s presidential debate is likely to invite more scrutiny of a key part of that plan: her cap on out-of-pocket expenses. During the Democratic presidential debate in Des Moines, Clinton was asked about her proposal to limit out-of-pocket expenses to $250 per month, part of a broader plan to put the brakes on rising prescription drug costs. The critical question: wouldn’t that simply translate into higher insurance premiums for consumers? (Robbins, 11/14)

The Washington Post: Sanders Pushes Family Leave Plan, Says Workers Can Afford $1.39-A-Week Tax Increase To Pay For It
Presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders highlighted his support Sunday for a plan to provide three months of paid leave after a family has a child and challenged Democratic front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton to embrace the same legislation. (Wagner, 11/15)

The Wall Street Journal: Lawmakers, Candidates Target High Drug Prices
Lawmakers and the Obama administration are ratcheting up efforts to target pharmaceutical companies over high-priced drugs, a sign that legislators are trying to bridge partisan differences to tackle a key driver of rising health care costs. Some specialty drugs can now run $100,000 or more a year, and the issue has been amplified by several high-profile cases in which makers boosted prices dramatically and rapidly. (Armour, 11/15)

The Associated Press: Presidential Politics Complicates Life In The Senate
In the presidential campaign, Sens. Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz are rising in the polls. Back in the Senate, their ambitions can sometimes cause a nuisance for fellow lawmakers, including vulnerable Republicans up for re-election next year. The latest example: Rubio and Cruz are pushing for the Senate to go farther than the House when it takes up legislation to repeal President Barack Obama's health care law. They want to make good on promises to repeal "Obamacare" in its entirety, rather than a more targeted repeal approved recently by the House. (Werner, 11/14)

The Associated Press: Carson Sometimes Deviates From GOP Health Care Thought
Ben Carson lambastes “Obamacare” as much as the next Republican presidential candidate, but the neurosurgeon-turned-politician has a history of health care ideas that puts him outside mainstream conservative thought on the issue. Private insurance companies, he has said, should be little more than “non-profit service organizations,” with government capping their profit margins. Meanwhile, the federal government could offer catastrophic care coverage akin to the National Flood Insurance Program, paid for with taxes on insurers’ profits. (Barrow, 11/16)

The Associated Press: Justices Agree To Hear First Abortion Case Since 2007
The Supreme Court is giving an election-year hearing to a dispute over state regulation of abortion clinics in the court's first abortion case in eight years. The justices said Friday they will hear arguments, probably in March, over a Texas law that would leave about 10 abortion clinics open across the state. A decision should come by late June, four months before the presidential election. (Sherman, 11/15)

The Texas Tribune: Supreme Court To Take Up Challenge To Texas Abortion Law
Setting up what could be a landmark decision, the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday agreed to take up a legal challenge to Texas’ 2013 abortion law, which could shut down about half of the state’s 19 remaining abortion clinics. The high court's decision could spell out how far states can go in restricting abortion. The Texas restrictions, passed as part of House Bill 2, would require abortion facilities meet hospital-like ambulatory surgical center standards, including minimum sizes for rooms and doorways, pipelines for anesthesia, and other modifications. A separate provision, which has already gone into effect, requires doctors who perform the procedure to have admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles of an abortion clinic. (Ura, 11/13)

NBC News: Texas Abortion Law Is About Politics, Medical Groups Say
The Supreme Court said last week it would take on the biggest challenge to abortion rights in a quarter century, agreeing to hear a challenge against a Texas law that put strict requirements on abortion providers in the name of protecting women's health. The 2013 law requires abortion clinics to meet the same medical standards as standalone surgery centers, and forces doctors who provide abortions to have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals. (Fox, 11/16)

NPR: Supreme Court Agrees To Hear Texas Abortion Law Case
The Supreme Court has agreed to hear a challenge to a Texas law that requires abortion providers to have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital and requires abortion clinics to have the facilities of an outpatient surgical center. (Totenberg, 11/13)

The Washington Post: Supreme Court Takes Up Major Challenge To Abortion Restrictions
The Supreme Court on Friday decided to hear its first major abortion controversy in nearly a decade, agreeing to determine how far states may go in regulating the procedure without violating a woman’s constitutional rights. (Barnes, 11/13)

CNN: Supreme Court To Hear Major Abortion Case
The Supreme Court announced Friday that it will hear a challenge to key parts of Texas' 2013 abortion law that supporters of abortion rights say is one of the strictest in the nation. (De Vogue, 11/13)

The Wall Street Journal: Supreme Court to Review Texas Abortion Law
The abortion case joins a series of divisive social issues on the court’s docket likely to inject the justices into the debate surrounding the 2016 presidential election. Last week, the Supreme Court accepted an appeal on contraceptive-coverage regulations under the Affordable Care Act, and in December the court will hear argument on affirmative action in university admissions. The issues in recent years have divided the court 5-4 between conservatives and liberals, with maverick conservative Justice Anthony Kennedy typically casting the deciding vote. (Bravin, 11/13)

The Washington Post: How Nonprofit Hospitals Overcharge The (Under And) Uninsured
A lot of people who don’t have health insurance worry about getting hit with huge bills if they go to the hospital. Most consumers probably don’t realize that many hospitals are supposed to let you know if you qualify for free or reduced-price care--and charge you fairly, even if you don’t have insurance. But a recent study found that less than half of nonprofit hospitals surveyed were telling patients they could be eligible for charity care. (Sun, 11/13)

USA Today/The (Wilmington, Del.) News Journal: More Doctors Offering Direct-Pay Health Care
Nationally, more health care providers are embracing the direct-pay, or "concierge medicine," model. A Physicians' Foundation 2014 survey found 7 percent of doctors run a direct-pay practice and another 13 percent plan to transition to some form of direct-pay model. (Rini, 11/16)

NBC News: Workers Shoulder Bigger Portion Of Health Care Costs, Study Finds
The runaway train of rising health-care costs has slowed, but you're forgiven if you haven't noticed: New research shows that employees are contributing a record amount toward their coverage, a trend that experts say is likely to continue as high-deductible plans and stingier benefits become more commonplace. (White, 11/13)

Bloomberg: Fading Obamacare Gains Put Drag On 16% Hospital Muni-Bond Rally
For municipal-bond buyers, the boost from Obamacare is waning. Quarterly results from U.S. hospital chains such as HCA Holdings Inc. -- which make more frequent disclosures than non-profit competitors -- suggest financial gains from the federal law are growing more limited, according to Barclays Plc. That provides an early look at a trend that may also affect non-profit hospitals, whose municipal bonds have rallied, delivering 16 percent returns in the past two years as the providers were stuck with fewer unpaid bills. (Braun, 11/13)

The Associated Press: Spending On Drugs Tops Health-Care Concerns
Medicare spending on breakthrough medications for hepatitis C will nearly double this year, passing $9 billion, according to new government figures. That’s raising insurance costs for all beneficiaries, whether or not they have the liver-wasting viral disease. The price of drugs is the public’s top health-care concern in opinion polls, and the 2016 presidential candidates are increasingly paying attention. The federal Department of Health and Human Services will hold a public forum next week to examine the high cost of new drugs for difficult diseases. (Alonso-Zaldivar, 11/13)

Reuters: Heart Drugs Often Unavailable Or Unaffordable
Cardiovascular disease drugs are often unavailable or unaffordable in many communities around the world, particularly in poorer countries, a recent study suggests. Four types of medicines are recommended to help prevent deaths from cardiovascular disease: aspirin, beta blockers to control heart rhythm and lower high blood pressure (like atenolol or metoprolol, for example), drugs such as ACE inhibitors to relax blood vessels and improve blood flow (like captopril or enalapril, for instance) and statins to lower cholesterol (such as simvastatin or atorvastatin, or others). (Rapaport, 11/13)

The New York Times: A Tax-Cutting Move That Pfizer Can Hardly Resist
Give Pfizer, the giant drug maker, points for boldness and persistence: The company has bravely put “tax inversions” back in the headlines. Pfizer, which already holds roughly $140 billion overseas and is quite skillful at minimizing its taxes, is considering a deal that could move its legal tax headquarters from New York to Dublin, where it could save bundles more. (Sommer, 11/14)

Politico Pro: Tech, Drug Companies Unite On Trade Secrets Bill As Patent Reform Stalls
After battling each other to a standstill on patent reform, some tech giants and drug companies are joining together for another intellectual property priority: getting Congress to pass trade secrets legislation. (Tummarello, 11/16)

The Wall Street Journal: AstraZeneca’s Lung-Cancer Drug Tagrisso Gets FDA’s Approval
AstraZeneca PLC on Friday said it won approval in the U.S. for a potential lung-cancer treatment, after an unusually quick development process that took just 2½ years. The drug, called Tagrisso, which the company had labeled as AZD9291 during development, is the first drug for a subset of lung-cancer patients whose tumors have spread and developed a treatment-resistant mutation, called T790M. (Roland, 11/13)

The Associated Press: Takeover Fever Spreads In Healthcare Industry
Almost 1 in 4 dollars in takeovers this year involved a company in healthcare, and the size of those deals is immense. The total value of healthcare mergers and acquisitions in the United States has more than tripled compared with five years ago, according to the data firm Dealogic. Even in the face of rising interest rates, which would make deal-making more expensive, business insiders see few reasons why momentum in the healthcare sector will ease any time soon. (Murphy, 11/15)

The New York Times: After Merger, Two Competing Drugs And Billion-Dollar Questions
The investing world is riddled with conflicts of interest that can surprise even the most sophisticated investor. Learning that lesson the hard way are holders of an instrument issued in 2011 when Sanofi, the giant French pharmaceutical company, took over Genzyme, a biotech concern based in Cambridge, Mass. (Morgenson, 11/13)

In other news, a generic-drug maker's takeover offer is rejected and the U.S. Treasury could be a "key hurdle" in any deal between Pfizer and Allergan -

The Wall Street Journal: Mylan Loses Hostile Bid For Perrigo
Mylan NV suffered defeat Friday in a landmark hostile takeover bid, dealing a blow to the generic-drug maker and casting doubt on a pharmaceutical sector that has driven a surge in global deal making. Perrigo Co. shareholders rejected Mylan’s $26 billion takeover offer, the companies said Friday. (Hoffman and Mattioli, 11/13)

The Wall Street Journal: What Treasury Could Do To Block An Allergan-Pfizer Deal
Amid speculation that the U.S. Treasury would cast a skeptical eye on any deal that Pfizer Inc. and Allergan PLC might reach that would move Pfizer’s headquarters outside the U.S., Citigroup Inc. analyst Liav Abraham is weighing in on what exactly the Treasury could do to block a deal. ... Ms. Abraham said it wouldn’t be a surprise if Treasury sought to block such a deal “given the high political sensitivity surrounding the redomicile of Pfizer to a lower tax jurisdiction.” (Farrell, 11/13)

The Wall Street Journal: FDA Completes Long-Awaited Food-Safety Rules
The regulations issued Friday moved the government closer to implementing a law passed by Congress in 2010, which marked the biggest overhaul of federal food-safety oversight in 70 years. The regulations follow a wave of deadly outbreaks in the past decade that have been traced to produce—such as tainted spinach, cantaloupe and caramel apples—and are aimed at creating a food-safety system that will be less reactive and better at preventing contamination. (Newman, 11/13)

The Associated Press: Goal Of New Produce Safety Rules: Prevent Illness Outbreaks
The majority of farmers and food manufacturers already follow good safety practices, but the rules are intended to give greater focus on prevention in a system that has been largely reactive after large outbreaks. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that 48 million people — or 1 in 6 people in the United States — are sickened each year from foodborne diseases, and an estimated 3,000 people die. (Jalonick, 11/14)

In other news from the FDA -

Los Angeles Times: FDA Orders Recall Of 2,800 Scope-Washing Machines, Citing Infection Risk
Amid an ongoing investigation into superbug outbreaks nationwide, U.S. regulators have ordered a Pennsylvania company to recall its scope-cleaning machines used at UCLA and more than 1,000 other hospitals and clinics. The Food and Drug Administration said Friday that it ordered the recall because Custom Ultrasonics had continued to violate federal law and those lapses could result in an increased risk of infection for patients. (Terhune, 11/13)

Kaiser Health News: A Sick Newborn, A Loving Family And A Litany Of Wrenching Choices
Decisions about how much care to offer very sick family members are always challenging, but they can be particularly wrenching for parents like the Shamiyehs, who face harrowing choices at what’s supposed to be a wonderful time — the beginning of a life. As doctors and families consider how far to push medical care, a chasm can open between the parents’ hopes and what providers consider realistic. (Gold, 11/16)

The Associated Press: Rare TB Case Shows Diagnosing, Treating Children Is Tough
When a 2-year-old returned sick from a visit to India, U.S. doctors suspected tuberculosis even though standard tests said no. It would take three months to confirm she had an extreme form of the disease — a saga that highlights the desperate need for better ways to fight TB in youngsters in countries that can’t afford such creative care. Drug-resistant tuberculosis is a global health threat, and it’s particularly challenging for young children who are harder even to diagnose, much less treat. (Neergaard, 11/16)

The Washington Post: Autism Cases In U.S. Jump To 1 In 45: Who Gets The Diagnosis, In 8 Simple Charts
The number of autism cases in the United States appeared to jump dramatically in 2014 according to new estimates released Friday, but researchers said that changes in the format of the questionnaire likely affected the numbers. (Cha, 11/14)

NPR: Preventable Colon Cancer Deaths Cost The Economy $6.4 Billion
Almost 20 percent of the people in low-income communities who die of colon cancer could have been saved with early screening. And those premature deaths take a toll on communities that can least bear it. Lower-income communities in the United States face $6.4 billion in lost wages and productivity because of premature deaths due to colon cancer, according to researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Shute, 11/13)

The Associated Press: Federal Regulators: Psychiatric Hospital Harming Patients
Federal regulators plan to cut millions in Medicare and Medicaid funding for Washington state’s largest psychiatric hospital after a recent inspection found “multi-system wide failures” have caused serious harm to patients and placed the health and safety of all patients at risk. (Bellisle, 11/13)

Reuters: Involving Residents In Surgery Tied To Slightly Better Outcomes
Having surgeons-in-training participate in operations does not endanger patients, a new analysis of U.S. data concludes. The study, which looked at results from all surgical specialties, found that procedures involving trainees – known as surgical residents – tended to have similar complications and slightly lower mortality rates, compared to when senior surgeons worked alone. (Doyle, 11/13)

NPR: More Women Than Men Are Obese In America, And Gap Is Widening
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has crunched new numbers on America's obesity epidemic. What do they tell us? As a nation, we seem to be stuck. The overall prevalence of obesity in the three-year period ending 2014 was just over 36 percent. This mean that about 1 in 3 adults in the U.S. is obese. (Aubrey, 11/13)

The New York Times: Feeling Woozy? It May Be Cyber Sickness
A peculiar side effect of the 21st century is something called digital motion sickness or cybersickness. Increasingly common, according to medical and media experts, it causes a person to feel woozy, as if on a boat in a churning sea, from viewing moving digital content. (Murphy, 11/14)

Reuters: Diabetes Experts Tell G20 To Tax Sugar To Save Lives And Money
Diabetes experts called on world leaders on Thursday to use sugar taxes to fight obesity, arguing such a move would save lives and slash healthcare budgets. Ahead of a meeting of G20 leaders this weekend, the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) wants the dual epidemics of obesity and diabetes to be placed on the global agenda alongside major geopolitical and financial issues. (Hirschler, 11/13)

Reuters: Texas Tries To Stitch A Safety Net Without Planned Parenthood
Four years after cutting off funding for Planned Parenthood, the state of Texas says it has been able to rebuild its safety net, in what could be a model for Republicans in Congress who hope to defund the nation's largest family planning provider at the national level. Independent health experts dispute the claim, saying Texas still has a long way to go before it can provide the level of service it did when Planned Parenthood was an integral part of its family planning efforts. According to figures provided to Reuters by Texas health officials, the state's retooled family-planning programs reached 317,393 women in the 2014 fiscal year, nearly as many as the 320,044 the state served in fiscal 2010, before it cut off funding to Planned Parenthood. (Sullivan, 11/13)

The Texas Tribune: Is Texas Denying Health Coverage To Foster Youth?
Mary Christine Reed, director of the Texas Foster Youth Justice Project, says she has evidence that state officials are routinely denying health coverage to young adults who should be entitled to it. Often, Reed says, state employees wrongfully tell former foster care youth they are ineligible. (Walters, 11/14)

STAT News: Curbing Doctors' Prescribing Power To Tackle The Opioid Crisis
A bold plan to tackle the opioid crisis in Massachusetts is fueling a debate over how far to go to stop the flow of potent painkillers that bring relief to some ailing patients but pave a path to addiction for others. The legislative proposal from Republican Governor Charlie Baker would restrict doctors’ power to prescribe painkillers — while giving them new authority to force drug addicts into immediate treatment. (Robbins, 11/13)

The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel: State Lab To Track Speed Of Newborn Screening
The Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene will regularly post on its website how quickly hospitals are sending newborn screening samples to the state lab after the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel discovered information published by the Wisconsin Hospital Association is incomplete. (Gabler, 11/13)

The Washington Post: A Lieutenant Governor Shows Medical Expertise In Bid For Higher Office In Va.
[Ralph] Northam — a pediatric neurologist who also happens to be Virginia’s lieutenant governor and the Democrats’ leading contender for governor in 2017 — has a calming bedside manner, one that carries over into politics. (Vozzella, 11/14)

New Hampshire Public Radio: Military Culture Trainings Seek To Build Trust Between Veterans, Civilian Health Care Providers
All this week we’ve been hearing about programs that help veterans who are struggling with PTSD or TBI. But before these programs can work—veterans who need help actually need to ask for it. But we know that’s a barrier to getting healthcare. A recent survey of New Hampshire veterans indicated many felt ashamed of needing help. And they also felt the providers—most of whom have no military experience—don’t understand what it’s like to be a veteran. The state’s Department of Health and Human Services is trying to fix that. It’s funding classes on military culture for health workers. NHPR's Peter Biello stopped by one of these training sessions in Portsmouth. (Biello, 11/12)

The New York Times: As Lives Lengthen, Costs Mount
But in New York today, they face a challenge of prosperity. The boom in housing prices has left many of them vulnerable, often clinging to apartments that are no longer suitable for their aging bodies. ... One result has been to drive relatively healthy people into nursing homes, where Medicaid picks up the tab for eligible seniors, said Daniel Reingold, president and chief executive of the nonprofit RiverSpring Health, which operates the Hebrew Home at Riverdale in the Bronx. (Leland, 11/13)

WJCT: Four Years Later, Northeast Florida Not Plugged Into Health Information Exhcange
State health officials, doctors and technology experts converged on the University of North Florida campus Thursday to promote Florida’s Health Information Exchange. The exchange allows doctors and hospitals to easily share patient records with each other. The state network is lacking buy-in from some local communities. (Benk, 11/5)

Health News Florida: Fleming Island Senator Wants To Allow Dying Floridians To Use Marijuana
Medical marijuana legalization may be heading back to the ballot in Florida next year. An initiative would allow patients to smoke or ingest cannabis in several forms. At the same time, Sen. Rob Bradley (R-Fleming Island) is pushing a more narrowly tailored proposal aimed at giving relief only to the sickest people. (Polombo, 11/15)

STAT News: FDA Nominee Robert Califf Must Prove His Independence From Industry
As a US Senate committee meets on Tuesday to consider Dr. Robert Califf for the top job at the Food and Drug Administration, an open question remains whether he is biased toward industry. Califf is held in high regard by drug makers and academics alike. A cardiologist by training, he spent years as a professor at the Duke University School of Medicine and is one of the most influential biomedical authors in the world. ... Califf was the founding director of the Duke Clinical Research Institute, which conducts studies for companies. Last year, six drug makers — including Merck and Novartis — partly supported his salary .... No other commissioner in the recent past has held such close ties to pharmaceutical manufacturers. (Ed Silverman, 11/16)

The New York Times: Questions For President Obama’s Nominee To Lead The F.D.A.
President Obama’s nominee to lead the Food and Drug Administration has a long history of close ties to industries the agency regulates. At Dr. Robert Califf’s confirmation hearing on Tuesday, senators will need to ask whether those connections will influence his judgment about the safety or effectiveness of prescription drugs. (11/16)

The Washington Post: Ben Carson The Doctor Saved My Daughter’s Life. Ben Carson The President Might Put Others’ In Jeopardy.
[Ben Carson's] warm, self-assured voice spoke to me, in a campaign robo-call, to tell me everything he is eager to do for the country. ... I wondered if he remembered me: the woman in the hallway outside the operating room at Johns Hopkins Hospital, the one who grabbed his hands and kissed them when he told me the tumor was removed and my 10-year-old daughter would be just fine. ... On his recorded call, he promised to turn his talents toward what ails the United States; from saving the economy to stopping terrorists and — “for heaven’s sake!” — repealing “Obamacare so you can make your own health-care choices.” ... I’ve wanted to talk to him about exactly this for eight years. Because Ben Carson the doctor saved my daughter’s life, but now I worry that Ben Carson the president could put others’ lives in jeopardy. (Bethany Karn, 11/13)

The Hill: We Are All On The Government Dole
November 2015 marks the beginning of the third enrollment for the purchase of health coverage under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), or ObamaCare. Many on the right contend that the ACA represents an unacceptable government intrusion into private markets and that the tax credits, or subsidies, under ObamaCare are yet another government welfare program destined to promote learned helplessness and dependency. Although that line of thinking makes for great political fodder, in reality, we are all recipients of government largesse. Let's begin with employer-sponsored health insurance, the flagship of our voluntary private health insurance system and where about 150 million of us (including members of Congress) get health coverage. (Carolyn Long Engelhard, 11/16)

Raleigh News & Observer: The Many Agonies Of Our Health Care Nonsystem
Now it’s time to calculate my insurance choice for next year by adding the chances of another emergency to the variables of monthly premiums and individual deductibles while factoring in the complexities of a Health Savings Account and tax ramifications. Is this algebra or geometry? All I know is there ain’t no Pythagorean theorem to solve it. ... A large reason it’s this complicated, costly and exasperating is because we refuse to just cover everyone. ... It’s unfathomable that critics seem unwilling to acknowledge that they are paying for others anyway. They are paying for it in headline-grabbing higher insurance premiums. They are paying for it in $100 IV bags in the ER. They are paying for it in Affordable Care Act subsidies. And they are paying for it when a beloved son leaves $1 million in unpaid medical bills that must be absorbed in 100 hidden ways when a $1,000 colonoscopy might have saved his life had he been able to be insured. (Burgetta Eplin Wheeler, 11/12)

Los Angeles Times: Need Help Paying For Amgen's Repatha? Get Ready To Give Up Your Privacy
For all the talk about new opportunities for consumers to make their own healthcare decisions, much remains out of their control. Nowhere is that more evident than in the prescription drug market, where stratospheric prices can sometimes keep patients from obtaining lifesaving therapies. That's why major drug companies have instituted programs to cover co-pays or other cost-sharing burdens for needy patients. And it's why Amgen Inc. has triggered an uproar among cardiology specialists for imposing unusually onerous preconditions on its program to provide financial help for patients prescribed Repatha, a new drug that treats chronic high LDL cholesterol (that's the "bad" cholesterol). Repatha costs more than $14,000 a year; many of its users are likely to need it all their lives. (Hiltzik, 11/13)

Modern Healthcare: Senate Republicans Face Split Over Repealing The ACA's Medicaid Expansion
Congressional Republicans are facing a slight problem in their drive to send an Obamacare repeal bill to the president's desk that bypasses the Senate filibuster process: Some Senate Republicans from states that have expanded Medicaid under the law don't want to repeal its big Medicaid expansion, according to the Hill newspaper. ... they would be voting to preserve federally subsidized health insurance for poor people while yanking it away from working- and middle-class people who receive premium subsidies for private exchange plans. That's highly problematic for politicians who tout their support for the hard-working middle class. (Harris Meyer, 11/13)

The New York Times: Don’t Let The Aid For 9/11 Responders Expire
In a positive signal from Congress, bipartisan majorities in both houses are on record as approving permanent renewal and financing of the emergency health care and compensation programs needed by thousands of first responders to the 9/11 attacks who are suffering illnesses as a result of their labors at the devastated sites. Unfortunately, just as this filibuster-proof momentum gathers force, two House committees have made moves to crimp the programs with lower funding and an extension of only five years, despite a strong majority view that the programs should not have an end date. (11/14)

Politico: Why the GOP Candidates Are Hooked on Addiction Stories
The GOP’s softening on drug addiction has quickly become one of the most striking themes of the 2016 campaign, even if it gets less attention than illegal immigration or repealing Obamacare. Suddenly, in a crowded and topsy-turvy primary season that seems to be rewarding outsiders who have torn up the political script, a number of Republicans are dispensing with the antiseptic bios and have found that voters are engaging with the messiest episodes of their lives. What’s going on here? This is not a coincidence, or parallel “messaging.” In fact, if you look under the hood, you’ll find this is a convergence of important trends in both political style and demographics that could signal a rewrite of the American playbook on drugs and crime. (Jeff Greenfield, 11/12)

Bloomberg: Treatment Alone Won't Stop Heroin Epidemic
Democratic and Republican politicians seem to agree on one big issue: government policy needs to be reformed to offer alternatives to incarceration for drug offenders. ... As an addiction psychiatrist, I fully agree with the president and others that treatment is far preferable to jail for a drug-involved offender. Of course, the incarceration-to-treatment diversion isn’t a new idea. As early as 1919, cities operated short-lived morphine maintenance clinics that were supported by local police departments to deal with heroin and morphine users. But we know from experience that referral to treatment alone isn’t enough. (Sally L. Satel, 11/13)