The New York Times: Billionaires Only? Warren Errs In Saying Whom Her Health Plan Would Tax
When Senator Elizabeth Warren laid out her plan for “Medicare for all” on Friday, she said she would raise taxes on the top 1 percent of households to help pay for it. The middle class, she said, would not pay “one penny” more. On Saturday night, Ms. Warren presented an even narrower description of who would face higher taxes under her plan. She told reporters that billionaires would be the only people to see their taxes go up — a misstatement of what she had proposed a day earlier. “It doesn’t raise taxes on anybody but billionaires,” Ms. Warren told reporters in Dubuque, Iowa, when asked what income bracket she defined as “middle class.” (Kaplan, 11/3)

The New York Times: Elizabeth Warren’s ‘Medicare For All’ Math
The Warren plan includes several key assumptions, including starkly lower prescription drug prices, minimal administrative spending and health care costs that grow at a significantly slower pace. Warren backers describe these cuts as ambitious and assertive, contending that the American health system — which has the highest prices in the developed world — could weather the change. Other health care experts call the ideas unrealistic, given the revenue that American doctors, hospitals and drug companies have become accustomed to earning. The key question in this debate is, how quickly can the United States tamp down its sky-high health care prices? (Sanger-Katz and Kliff, 11/1)

The New York Times: Warren Health Plan Tightens Democrats’ Embrace Of Tax Increases
Three years after President Trump rode a wave of populist anger into office, some of his top Democratic challengers are calling for a fundamental reordering of American capitalism, arguing that voters will embrace bold plans to reverse decades of rising inequality by raising taxes on corporations and the rich. The $20.5 trillion proposal for “Medicare for all” released by Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts on Friday is the most prominent example of how a party that once bet on centrist economic policies to win elections is moving toward far more ambitious efforts to redistribute wealth and expand the government’s role in the economy. (Tankersley, 11/2)

Boston Globe: Five Takeaways From Elizabeth Warren’s Medicare For All Plan
Moving every single American to a new health care plan is a massive endeavor, so much so that Warren says she’ll release an entirely separate plan that deals with how to handle the transition. The transition has become a sticking point in the Democratic primary, with moderates like former vice president Joe Biden using the lengthy time period (Sanders’ plan says it would take four years) as a reason to oppose it altogether. (Prignano, 11/1)

Vox: Elizabeth Warren’s Plan To Pay For Medicare-For-All, Explained
There’s wide variation in the quality of insurance employers purchase, and this plan has the consequence, at the outset, of punishing employers who purchased better insurance for their employees — now they’re paying more than stingier competitors, but without any recruiting benefit. Over time, Warren says she’ll adjust all employers to the same level, though the details of how that will work are sparse.There’s an even worse inequity for employers with fewer than 50 employees. They’re not required under law to provide health insurance, but a bit over half do. Warren’s plan says that small businesses “would be exempt from the Employer Medicare Contribution unless they are already paying for employee health care today.” (Klein, 11/1)

Bloomberg: Elizabeth Warren Finally Says How She'll Pay for Medicare for All
She’d bring in $2.3 trillion through stricter foreign tax compliance, instituting a country-by-country minimum tax on foreign earnings of 35% -- equal to a restored top corporate tax rate for U.S. firms -- and forbidding deferrals of those payments. She’d raise $400 billion by legalizing undocumented immigrants and requiring them to pay taxes. And she’d find $800 billion by scrapping the Overseas Contingency Operations fund, an accounting gimmick used by both parties to count unspent defense money as savings. (Kapur, 11/1)

Reuters: Warren's Big Healthcare Plan Relies On Big Assumptions
"The plan makes a lot of assumptions about how seamlessly this could be enacted and implemented," said Larry Levitt, a health policy expert at Kaiser Family Foundation, adding that there was no precedent for such a large overhaul. Not only would medical businesses large and small resist decisions by the government to pay less for drugs and services, the plan could paradoxically underfund an expanded health insurance bureaucracy, said Linda Blumberg, an economist at the Urban Institute's Health Policy Center. (Lange and Becker, 11/1)

The Washington Post: How Elizabeth Warren’s Medicare-For-All Plan Would Work
Warren's plan adopts virtually in its entirety the vision for American health care set out by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in his Medicare-for-all legislation. It would place all Americans on a single government insurer, virtually eradicating more than 150 million private health insurance plans, while levying more than $15 trillion in new taxes on businesses and the rich to fund a generous and universal benefits package. Warren, who criticized “single-payer” as recently as 2012, had already embraced this part of Medicare-for-all in her 2020 presidential election bid. But unlike Sanders, she has now specified exactly how she envisions to pay for such a radical shift -- a move that could both earn her praise for precision but also open her up to new lines of attack. (Stein, 11/1)

The Associated Press: Biden Defends His 'Vision' Against Warren's Indirect Attacks
Bristling at Elizabeth Warren's suggestions that he's a milquetoast moderate with small ideas, presidential candidate Joe Biden countered Saturday that he offers a "bold" vision for the country and warned that Democratic primary voters should not get distracted by the party's increasingly tense battle over ideological labels. It was a departure from Biden's usual campaign speech and signaled perhaps a new phase of Democrats' search for a nominee to take on President Donald Trump, with Warren, the leading progressive candidate, and Biden, the top choice for most moderates and establishment liberals, ratcheting up the intensity three months ahead of the Iowa caucuses. (Barrow, 11/2)

Boston Globe: Now Facing A Two-Front Battle On Medicare For All, Elizabeth Warren Hits Back
Warren holds a slim lead here in the first caucus state, according to a recent New York Times/Siena College poll. But as the biggest weekend of Iowa’s fall campaign season drew to a close, it was clear she will have to fight a two-front battle to hold onto that lead, with Sanders showing a new willingness to knock her from the left and Biden and Buttigieg laying into her from their more moderate positions. (Bidgood, 11/3)

The Associated Press: How Warren And Sanders Pay For Medicare For All
Here's a look at Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren's proposals to pay for Medicare for All and how they compare to financing options identified by Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. Both are running to be the Democratic presidential nominee in 2020. (11/1)

The Washington Post: Sanders, Warren, Seek To Clarify Their Differences
Sanders said his approach to funding Medicare-for-all, which includes raising taxes on middle-class families, is “far more progressive” than Warren’s method, a stinging comment calculated to solidify his role as the only pure progressive in the race. Sanders took issue specifically with Warren’s proposal that businesses would redirect their current health-care payments to the Medicare program, which Sanders said would hurt job growth. (Janes, Sullivan and Stanley-Becker, 11/3)

The Hill: Sanders Calls His 'Medicare For All' Funding Plan 'More Progressive' Than Warren's 
“I think that that would probably have a very negative impact on creating those jobs, or providing wages, increased wages and benefits for those workers,” Sanders told ABC. “So I think we have a better way, which is a 7.5% payroll tax, which is far more I think progressive, because it’ll not impact employers of low wage workers but hit significantly employers of upper income people.” (Frazin, 11/3)

Reuters: Warren's Medicare For All Plan Attacked, Parodied By Republicans, Democrats And 'SNL' Show
Another Democratic presidential contender, South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, said the plan's elimination of private insurance was too inflexible. "This my way or the highway idea, that either you're for kicking everybody off their private plans in four years or you're for business as usual, it's just not true," Buttigieg said on ABC's "This Week" on Sunday. (Timmons, 11/3)

The Hill: Buttigieg Knocks Warren On 'My Way Or The Highway' Health Care Plan 
“The way I would do it, you get to keep your private plan if you want to,” he added. Buttigieg supports a “Medicare for all who want it” plan while Warren supports “Medicare for All.” The Massachusetts senator unveiled the details of her plan last week. Asked on Sunday about Medicare for All, which is also supported by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Buttigieg said he thinks it “could very well be the long-run destination.” (Frazin, 11/3)

Bloomberg: Nancy Pelosi Says She’s ‘Not A Big Fan’ Of Medicare For All
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said “health care for all,” rather than the Medicare for All proposal embraced by some leading Democratic presidential contenders, would be the wisest policy for the party as it seeks to defeat President Donald Trump in 2020. Pelosi, who helped push the Affordable Care Act through Congress in 2010, said in a Bloomberg Television interview Friday that Medicare for All would cost too much and that it’s clear many Americans don’t want to lose their private health insurance plans. (Litvan, 11/1)

The Washington Post: SNL Tackles Elizabeth Warren’s Medicare-For-All Plan In Cold Open
Kate McKinnon reprised her role as the Democratic presidential contender from Massachusetts, pacing back and forth on the stage in black pants, a black shirt and a bright red cardigan a la Warren. The setting was a mock town hall in Iowa, which hosted a fall fundraising dinner for the Democratic candidates on Friday and where Warren has recently emerged as the candidate to beat. With sleeves rolled up and brimming with energy, McKinnon’s Warren started by introducing herself — “Look at me, I’m in my natural habitat: a public school on a weekend” — then offered to “pour one out” for former Rep. Beto O’Rourke of Texas, who left the race Friday. (Hawkins, 11/3)

WBUR: Voters Weigh In As Elizabeth Warren Takes Health Care Plan On Campaign Trail
Sen. Elizabeth Warren released a plan to pay for "Medicare for All" without raising taxes on the middle class, and now she's on the campaign trail talking about it. (Khalid, 11/2)

CQ: 2020 Election Issues: Health Care
Health care remains at the top of voters’ priorities going into the 2020 presidential election, with Democrats hopeful they can replicate their 2018 strategy that helped win control of the House. Republicans are optimistic they will be able to benefit from Democratic Party divisions over “Medicare for All” government-run care and whether the party should embrace a single-payer health plan as a means of reaching universal coverage. (McIntire, 11/4)

CQ: Seven Major Issues Will Be Prominent In Voters' Minds In 2020
Democrats believe that health care will be a winner and most years, they’d be right. In most polls, health care and medical costs typically rate at the top of the list, and the party rode that issue to big wins in 2018. But the message has become muddied since then, when candidates mostly pledged to fight Republican efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Now, there is an all-out war within the party pitting liberals pushing sweeping “Medicare for All” proposals and moderates urging more piecemeal solutions like the public option. Republicans believe they can exploit these rifts by arguing that Democratic proposals would lead to higher taxes, while workers could lose benefits from employers. (Miller, 11/4)

NPR: Open Enrollment Is Here: 6 Tips For Choosing A Health Insurance Plan
It's the season to roll up your sleeves, gather your documents, and pick a health insurance plan for 2020. For those shopping for their own plans, HealthCare.gov and the other state exchanges are open for enrollment as of November 1. Despite the rhetoric about the implosion of the Affordable Care Act, the individual mandate going away, and other attempts to hobble the law, the marketplaces are still alive and well. And many people are eligible for subsidies to bring their costs down. (Simmons-Duffin, 11/1)

The Associated Press: Widespread Glitches Occur On 1st Day Of 'Obamacare' Sign-Ups
Trump administration officials say they're working to resolve problems with HealthCare.gov following reports of widespread technical glitches on the first day of "Obamacare" sign-ups. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said in a statement Friday that it's aware that some consumers trying to sign up for health insurance have received error messages from the online system. The agency said its "highest priority" is to fix the issues quickly to provide a "seamless consumer experience." (11/1)

Bloomberg: Obamacare Premiums Stable for 2020 — But Still Pricey
The Affordable Care Act marketplaces in most states open Nov. 1, and overall prices for 2020 are largely stable compared to steep annual hikes that occurred in recent years. But stable doesn’t mean cheap. The price of coverage continues to stretch the limit of what many people who don’t receive federal subsidies are willing to pay. A typical premium on Healthcare.gov for a 27-year-old for a mid-level plan is $388 per month, or $1,520 for a family of four, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the agency that administers the ACA markets. (Tozzi, 11/1)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Some Basics On Affordable Care Act Marketplaces For Open Enrollment
The open-enrollment period ends on Dec. 15, and for most people, this is the only chance they will have to get coverage if they buy health insurance on their own as opposed to getting it through an employer, Medicare or Medicaid. Here's a quick overview. (Boulton, 11/1)

And in other state insurance news —

Colorado Sun: Colorado’s Reinsurance Program Has Been Lauded As A Way To Reduce Health Care Costs. Here’s The Fine Print.
For months, Gov. Jared Polis and state health officials have been talking about how Colorado’s new reinsurance program is going to lower insurance prices across the state for people who purchase coverage on their own. But, as open enrollment kicks off Friday, two new analyses show that tens of thousands of people could end up paying more for their coverage next year as a result of the reinsurance program unless they shop around for a new plan — and some might still pay more even if they do. (Ingold, 11/1)

The Star Tribune: Minnesota Trade Groups Offering New Health Plans 
Courts have stymied a push by the Trump administration to make it easier for employers to band together and offer association health plans, yet there are signs the coverage is growing nonetheless. This fall, trade groups in Minnesota for credit unions, homebuilders and nonprofits are pushing new health plans to their members, saying the new structure could provide long-term stability, savings and choice in health insurance options. (Snowbeck, 11/2)

The Associated Press: US Judge Blocks Trump's Health Insurance Rule For Immigrants
A federal judge in Portland, Oregon, on Saturday put on hold a Trump administration rule requiring immigrants prove they will have health insurance or can pay for medical care before they can get visas. U.S. District Judge Michael Simon granted a temporary restraining order that prevents the rule from going into effect Sunday. It's not clear when he will rule on the merits of the case. (11/2)

Reuters: Judge Blocks Trump Rule Requiring Prospective Immigrants Have Health Insurance
Judge Michael Simon in U.S. District Court in Portland, Oregon, granted a 28-day temporary restraining order that prevents the rule from taking effect on Nov. 3. The legal challenge against it will continue. In an 18-page order, Simon said the potential damage to would-be immigrants and their families justified a nationwide block. “Facing a likely risk of being separated from their family members and a delay in obtaining a visa to which family members would otherwise be entitled is irreparable harm,” he wrote. (11/2)

The Oregonian: Federal Judge In Oregon Temporarily Bars President Trump From Restricting Visas For Immigrants Without Health Insurance 
Simon granted temporary relief in the public’s interest, saying it appeared the new mandate conflicts with the Immigration and Nationality Act and related federal health care law, and is “arbitrary and capricious.’’ He scheduled a hearing for Nov. 22 to consider whether to grant a preliminary injunction in the case. (Bernstein, 11/2)

The Washington Post: Judge Temporarily Blocks Trump Order Requiring Would-Be Immigrants To Prove They Have Health Insurance
President Trump’s October proclamation required that prospective immigrants demonstrate they could obtain health insurance within 30 days of arriving in the United States — a demand that immigration and health experts said would be particularly onerous for low-income immigrants who may not already have lined up jobs with health insurance or may be unable to pay for “reasonably foreseeable medical costs,” as the rule states. Experts warned that the policy would favor the wealthy and prevent many U.S. citizens from bringing family members into the country. (Abutaleb, Stein and Epstein, 11/3)

The Wall Street Journal: Judge Blocks Trump Administration’s Health-Care Requirement For New Immigrants
Immigrant advocates said the policy would effectively ban poor immigrants. President Trump issued the order using the same authority as his executive order blocking citizens of several Muslim-majority nations from entering the U.S. Mr. Trump has frequently criticized the nation’s legal immigration system, which allots most visas to family members of U.S. citizens and awards 50,000 green cards each year to foreigners in countries with low numbers of immigrants in the U.S., many of them in Africa and Asia. (Hackman, 11/3)

The Hill: White House Slams Court Decision Blocking Migrant Insurance Rule 
The White House on Sunday blasted a recent federal court decision to temporarily block the Trump administration's new policy requiring migrants who want certain visas to have health insurance or prove they can pay health care costs. "We strongly disagree with the district court’s decision to impose a nationwide injunction against the President’s policy on a preliminary, emergency basis over the weekend without even affording the government an opportunity to provide a written defense," White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham said in a statement. (Frazin, 11/3)

The New York Times: Adoption Groups Could Turn Away L.G.B.T. Families Under Proposed Rule
A proposed rule by the Trump administration would allow foster care and adoption agencies to deny their services to L.G.B.T. families on faith-based grounds. The proposal would have “enormous” effects and touch the lives of a large number of people, Denise Brogan-Kator, chief policy officer at Family Equality, an advocacy organization for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender families, said on Saturday. (Taylor, 11/2)

The Associated Press: Rule Would Let Faith-Based Groups Exclude LGBT Parents
The Trump administration on Friday proposed a rule that would allow faith-based foster care and adoption agencies to continue getting taxpayer funding even if they exclude LGBT families and others from their services based on religious beliefs. The announcement generated a sharp backlash from some Democratic lawmakers and LGBT advocacy groups. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said the Trump administration was working overtime to "implement cruel and discriminatory policies, and wasting taxpayer dollars in its obsessive pursuit." (11/1)

The Washington Post: Proposed HHS Rule Would Strip Obama-Era Protections For LGBTQ Individuals
The draft says HHS will remove language introduced during the Obama administration that “no person otherwise eligible will be excluded from participation in, denied the benefits of, or subjected to discrimination” based on a long list of characteristics including race, age, gender identity and sexual orientation. In its place, the agency would guarantee protections required by federal statute. The Civil Rights Act of 1964, Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990 and others provide protections for everything on the Obama-era list except for sexual orientation and gender identity. Efforts to get Congress to add these protections over the years have stalled. The most recent attempt, the Equality Act, passed the Democratic-controlled House in May but has not moved in the Republican-controlled Senate. (Cha, 11/1)

CQ: HHS Backs Away From Obama-Era Sexual Orientation Protections
Conservative groups celebrated it as a win for protecting religious freedom, and the Trump administration said that the proposal follows civil rights laws enacted by Congress and Supreme Court decisions. “These require that the federal government not infringe on religious freedom in its operation of HHS grant programs and address the impact of regulatory actions on small entities,” HHS said in a statement. (Siddons and Raman, 11/1)

In other news —

Tampa Bay Times: Tampa Will Ask Federal Appeals Court To Reinstate Ban On Conversion Therapy
The city of Tampa isn’t ready to give up trying to outlaw so-called conversion therapy, a controversial and discredited treatment promoted by some religious groups as a way to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity. City attorneys on Friday filed a notice of appeal in federal court, a first step toward asking an appellate court to overturn a U.S. district judge’s decision on Oct. 4 to strike down a citywide ban of the practice. (O'Donnell, 11/2)

The Associated Press: Trump Picks Cancer Specialist From Texas Hospital To Run FDA
President Donald Trump on Friday picked a cancer specialist and hospital executive to lead the Food and Drug Administration. If confirmed, Dr. Stephen Hahn of the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston would inherit a raft of high-profile public health issues, including leading the government's response to the problem of underage vaping and the prescription opioid epidemic. (Perrone, 11/1)

The New York Times: Trump To Nominate Stephen Hahn, Cancer Researcher, To Head F.D.A.
If he is confirmed by the Senate, Dr. Hahn would fill the vacancy left by Dr. Scott Gottlieb, who stepped down as commissioner in April. In doing so, he passed over the acting commissioner, Dr. Norman E. Sharpless, who had the support of previous commissioners and an array of patient groups. The Department of Health and Human Services said Friday that Dr. Sharpless would be returning to his role as director of the National Cancer Institute, which he previously held before taking over as acting commissioner. Dr. Brett Giroir, the assistant secretary for health, will fulfill the duties of acting commissioner while Dr. Hahn goes through the confirmation process. (Thomas, 11/1)

Stat: Trump Nominates MD Anderson’s Stephen Hahn To Lead FDA
It is not immediately clear when the Senate will take up Hahn’s nomination. If confirmed, Hahn would become the fourth agency leader in seven months. Ned Sharpless, the former National Cancer Institute head, has led the FDA in an acting capacity since Scott Gottlieb’s departure in April. (Facher, 11/1)

The Washington Post: Trump Nominates Oncologist Stephen Hahn Of MD Anderson For FDA Commissioner
The movement on Hahn’s nomination is occurring at a critical time for the agency, which is at the center of a debate about banning almost all flavors in e-cigarettes — an action intended to stem sharp increases in youth vaping. Trump announced plans for a broad ban in September, but the agency has not yet issued its final policy. Recently, two people familiar with the discussions said the White House is considering excluding menthol and possibly mint from the ban because of concerns about political backlash from vaping supporters. (McGinley, 11/1)

Politico: Trump Bets On Washington Outsider To Lead FDA Amid Political Battles
“Whether Dr. Hahn aggressively tackles e-cigarettes will be one of the defining issues for which he is known,” said Matthew Myers, President of the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids. “What he does and whether he succeeds in stemming the youth e-cigarette epidemic will inevitably be his legacy.” As part of his campaign pledge to lower drug prices, Trump at the same time is trying to open the door to importing cheaper drugs from Canada, an arduous undertaking that's raised a string of FDA-related safety concerns. And though the FDA doesn’t set drug prices, its polices could influence which drugs reach the market and how much competition they face. (Cancryn and Owermohle, 11/1)

Modern Healthcare: FDA's Acting Commissioner Dr. Ned Sharpless Returns To NCI
Azar said in a statement that under Sharpless' leadership, the FDA has forged ahead in its work to protect the public health. "Dr. Sharpless's willingness to step into the role of acting commissioner, and to lead the team at FDA with a steady hand, ensured that the agency did not miss a beat in advancing its vital mission," he said. "With Dr. Sharpless at the helm, the FDA has executed on its core responsibilities while also making progress on key priorities, such as lowering the price of prescription drugs and tackling the growing epidemic of youth use of tobacco products." (Bannow, 11/1)

Meanwhile, back at Hahn's hospital —

The New York Times: Scientists With Links To China May Be Stealing Biomedical Research, U.S. Says
The scientist at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston was hardly discreet. “Here is the bones and meet of what you want,” he wrote in a misspelled email to researchers in China. Attached was a confidential research proposal, according to administrators at the center. The scientist had access to the document only because he had been asked to review it for the National Institutes of Health — and the center had examined his email because federal officials had asked them to investigate him. (Kolata, 11/4)

Politico: Trump Threatens To End Federal Aid To California In Tweets Slamming Gov. Gavin Newsom
Just days after Gov. Gavin Newsom praised the federal government for its response to catastrophic wildfires and power outages affecting millions, President Donald Trump on Sunday slammed the California Democrat — and threatened to cut off future federal funding to the fire-battered state. Trump, in a spate of postings on Twitter, lambasted what he called Newsom’s “terrible job” regarding the state’s forest management practices, saying that the governor should stop listening to environmentalist “bosses” and “clean” the forest floors. (Marinucci, 11/3)

San Francisco Chronicle: Trump Tweets California Gov. Gavin Newsom: 'Get Your Act Together'
"The Governor of California, @GavinNewsom, has done a terrible job of forest management. I told him from the first day we met that he must 'clean' his forest floors regardless of what his bosses, the environmentalists, DEMAND of him. Must also do burns and cut fire stoppers....." Trump tweeted. "Every year, as the fire’s rage & California burns, it is the same thing-and then he comes to the Federal Government for $$$ help. No more," the tweet continues. "Get your act together Governor. You don’t see close to the level of burn in other states..." Dowd, 11/3)

Los Angeles Times: As Wildfires Burn Across California, President Trump Lashes Out At The State On Twitter
The missives drew a combination of incredulity and anger from many Californians, in part because the vast majority of the acres consumed by fire since early October were grasslands and chaparral, far from the forest. Residents also remarked on the president’s failure to express sympathy for the thousands of people displaced from their homes in recent weeks.The online fracas did little to illuminate the realities of forest or water policy in California. (Rainey, 11/3)

The Washington Post: Trump On California Wildfires: Gov. Gavin Newsom Responds To Criticism, Threat To Cut Aide
Newsom later responded with his own tweet: “You don’t believe in climate change. You are excused from this conversation.” The governor’s criticism was a jab at Trump’s long-standing refusal to acknowledge the impact of climate change or the man-made factors that accelerate it. (Bellware, 11/3)

Newsweek: Congress Members Hit Donald Trump After He Threatens California During Wildfires: Raking Leaves Is As Effective As Your Phone's Spellcheck
Congressional representatives have rushed to the defense of California Governor Gavin Newsom after President Donald Trump threatened to pull federal funding from the state, which has been hit by devastating fires. California wildfires have burned tens of thousands of acres over recent weeks, with more than 72 percent of fires being contained as of Saturday. (Walker, 11/4)

CBS News: Trump In Another War Of Words Over Wildfires With California Governor Gavin Newsom
Loyola Law School professor Jessica Levinson told CBS L.A., "It seems that President Trump as shown a misunderstanding of what has caused our fires. Certainly, these are not by and large forest fires and Governor Newsom correctly explained that actually, you need to look at climate change to understand why we have this uptick in fires." California has always had fire seasons. … This isn't just something that happened with climate change but it is certainly contributing to it," she added. "If you want to know who is right, ask the scientists. Don't ask the politicians. What do the scientists say? Climate changes has in real and specific ways contributed to what we are experiencing now." (11/4)

The Associated Press: What Do 2020 Democrats Say About California Fires? Not Much.
California Democrats hoped they would finally bask in the attention of presidential candidates when they moved their primary to the front of the calendar. But as the state battles the twin disasters of wildfires and mass power outages, White House hopefuls are nowhere to be found. In a field of nearly 20 candidates, no one has traveled to California to visit residents displaced from their homes or commend first responders who have worked around the clock. (Ronayne, 11/1)

Los Angeles Times: California Wildfires Are Mostly Under Control, But Fire Risk Remains High
The California wildfires that scorched thousands of acres and prompted mass evacuations across the state in recent weeks are largely under control, but experts warn that hot and dry conditions will continue to elevate fire risk throughout the week. The Maria fire, which broke out atop South Mountain just south of Santa Paula in Ventura County on Thursday night and spread to nearly 10,000 acres, was 70% contained as of Sunday evening, according to the Ventura County Fire Department. All mandatory evacuation orders were lifted Saturday. (Newberry, 11/3)

KQED: Even With Evacuation Order Lifted, Two Major Santa Rosa Hospitals Won’t Reopen For Several More Days
Over next several days, specialized cleaning teams at Sutter Santa Rosa Regional Hospital will be scouring the walls, floors and ceilings, as well as washing the linens, sterilizing the cafeteria and “air-scrubbing” the operating rooms. Although the Kincade Fire that threatened the city didn’t ultimately reach the hospital, the toxic smoke that engulfed the area left microscopic particles on surfaces and in the air, requiring the facility to undergo a massive cleaning operation before it can begin re-admitting patients. (Dembosky, 11/1)

Modern Healthcare: CMS Moves Forward With Site-Neutral Payments, Slashes 340B Payments
The CMS on Friday will move forward with site-neutral payments for doctor's visits, even though a federal judge ruled against the policy earlier this year. The Trump administration will roll out the payments under the Outpatient Prospective Payment System, which will pay doctors the same amount for a basic visit whether it takes place in a hospital outpatient facility or a regular doctors' office. The CMS estimates that the change will cut copays for people on Medicare and slash federal spending by $800 million in 2020. Outpatient clinics are more expensive than physicians' offices, and shifting visits to a lower cost setting could save money. (Brady, 11/1)

In related news from CMS —

Modern Healthcare: CMS Is Changing How It Pays Doctors To Coordinate Care
The CMS on Friday finalized rules that modify how physicians get paid for evaluation and management services and changes how the agency determines the financial rewards that doctors receive for improving healthcare quality and lowering costs. The final physician fee schedule rule updates E/M codes for every specialty in 2020, but the CMS targeted its changes to encourage primary care physicians and other clinicians to spend more time coordinating care for their patients. (Brady, 11/1)

Modern Healthcare: New CMS Skilled-Nursing Pay Model Likely Dampened October Hiring
Skilled-nursing facilities shed an estimated 1,300 jobs in October, likely the effect of a new CMS payment model that's prompted some providers to lay off workers. Hiring in the sector had already been weak in recent months—preliminary numbers showed skilled nursing added just 1,100 jobs in September. But the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics' latest preliminary employment figures, released Friday, shows that the CMS' new patient-driven payment model is likely having a negative effect on hiring in the skilled nursing sector. (Bannow, 11/1)

Modern Healthcare: CMS Finalizes Home Health Pay, Kidney Care Rules
The Trump administration on Thursday finalized a 1.3% pay bump next year for home health agencies and created a new home infusion therapy benefit. The $250 million raise is the same as initially proposed in July. Separately, the CMS increased payments for home health agencies participating in the Patient-Driven Groupings Model. They will receive 4% more in their 30-day payments than earlier suggested. (Livingston, 10/31)

NPR: Proposed Work Requirements For Medicaid In Montana Worry Seasonal Workers
People on Medicaid who work rural seasonal jobs in Montana are wondering about the future of their access to health coverage. Montana recently passed a law that, if it gains federal approval and goes into effect as planned in January, would require many Medicaid recipients to prove they work a set number of hours each month. Kate Clyatt is one of those seasonal workers. She's 28 and works as a ranch hand in the unincorporated community of Helmville, Mont., where there's a saloon, rodeo grounds, two churches, a K-8 public school and a post office. In the sweeping ranchland surrounded by mountains, there are also a lot of cows. (Cates-Carney, 11/3)

North Carolina Health News: In Medicaid Transformation, Questions Persist 
As the state health department races to roll out an ambitious plan that would tie Medicaid payments to patient health outcomes, at least one regional provider has expressed concerns about the implication of the so-called transformation. The state health department plans to move 1.6 million Medicaid recipients to the pay-for-value system on Feb. 1, but a protracted budget dispute between Gov. Roy Cooper and the General Assembly, largely over Medicaid expansion, may delay that timeline. At a meeting earlier this month, lawmakers said a July 1 start date may be more feasible even as Health and Human Services Sec. Mandy Cohen warned that such a delay would be costly. (Engel-Smith, 11/4)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Kemp Plan Could Lead To Limited Expansion Of Medicaid In Georgia
After months of planning and fraught political debate, Gov. Brian Kemp is set to detail a proposal that may pave the way for a limited Medicaid expansion that could add thousands of residents to the state’s rolls. The governor has long ruled out a full expansion of the state’s Medicaid program under the Affordable Care Act, something he campaigned against during the 2018 race. (Bluestein and Hart, 11/2)

Kaiser Health News: Return To Sender: A Single Undeliverable Letter Can Mean Losing Medicaid
Forty-two boxes of returned mail lined a wall of the El Paso County Department of Human Services office on a recent fall morning. There used to be three times as many. Every week, the U.S. Postal Service brings anywhere from four to 15 trays to the office, each containing more than 250 letters that it could not deliver to county residents enrolled in Medicaid or other public assistance programs. This plays out the same way in counties across the state. Colorado estimates about 15% of the 12 million letters from public assistance programs to 1.3 million members statewide are returned — some 1.8 million pieces of undelivered mail each year. (Hawryluk, 11/4)

Boston Globe: State Ballot Initiative Would Boost Funding For Financially Ailing Nursing Homes
A new group called the Massachusetts Senior Coalition said it has collected about 122,000 signatures across the state to force a referendum next year on a proposal to substantially boost Medicaid funding for the state’s financially struggling nursing homes. The state budget approved by lawmakers in July bumped up nursing home funding from MassHealth, the state Medicaid program, by $50 million, to a total of $415.4 million. (Weisman, 11/3)

ProPublica: How One Employer Stuck A New Mom With A $898,984 Bill For Her Premature Baby
Lauren Bard opened the hospital bill this month and her body went numb. In bold block letters it said, “AMOUNT DUE: $898,984.57.” Last fall, Bard’s daughter, Sadie, had arrived about three months prematurely; and as a nurse herself, Bard knew the costs for Sadie’s care would be high. But she’d assumed the bulk would be covered by the organization that owned the hospital where she worked: Dignity Health, whose marketing motto is “Hello humankindness.” She would be wrong. (Allen, 11/4)

The Associated Press: One Big Step: Google Buys Fitbit For $2.1 Billion
Google, the company that helped make it fun to just sit around surfing the web, is jumping into the fitness-tracker business with both feet, buying Fitbit for about $2.1 billion. The deal could put Google in direct competition with Apple and Samsung in the highly competitive market for smartwatches and other wearable electronics. But it also raises questions about privacy and Google's dominance in the tech industry. (O'Brien, 11/1)

The New York Times: Google To Buy Fitbit For $2.1 Billion
The acquisition is likely to face regulatory scrutiny from agencies already investigating Google for antitrust concerns, because Fitbit collects sensitive information from users through the device. In an effort to head off that potentially thorny point, Google said it would not use health data gleaned from Fitbit devices in its core advertising business. “You will always be in control of your data, and we will remain transparent about the data we collect and why,” Fitbit’s chief executive, James Park, said in an email to his company’s customers on Friday morning. “We never sell your personal information, and Fitbit health and wellness data will not be used for Google ads.” (Wakabayashi and Satariano, 11/1)

Stat: Google To Acquire Fitbit For $2.1 Billion In Major Health Tech Deal 
In recent months, Fitbit has been aggressively building out a health business, a division within the company known as Fitbit Health Solutions. Over a year ago, the company launched Fitbit Care, an offering aimed at employers and health plans that pay Fitbit to monitor and coach people with chronic conditions including obesity, diabetes, and hypertension. Those enterprise customers can choose various plans at escalating prices, paying more to have Fitbit’s network of human coaches involved in helping people manage their conditions. (Thielking and Robbins, 11/1)

Stat: 5 Burning Questions About Google’s Fitbit Acquisition — And Its Implications For Health And Privacy
Google parent company Alphabet’s move to buy Fitbit, announced Friday, comes with big questions for the growing push in health and medicine to make use of data collected from smartwatches and fitness trackers. ...This isn’t Google’s first foray into wearables technology. The company’s Verily unit, which is focused on health care, had previously worked with something known as the “study watch,” which was used in clinical trials. In January, that device received clearance from the Food and Drug Administration to be used to take electrocardiograms. (Robbins and Herper, 11/1)

In other health industry news —

Reuters: Healthineers Forecasts Growth On Demand For Hospital Equipment
Siemens Healthineers said it expected strong growth to continue next year, as the German maker of medical imaging machines and diagnostic equipment reported better than expected fourth-quarter sales on Monday. Healthineers' shares jumped 8% in early morning trade to its highest level on record. (11/4)

The New York Times: China Effectively Bans Online Sales Of E-Cigarettes
China issued its starkest warning yet over electronic cigarettes, calling on the industry on Friday to stop selling and advertising the products online. Citing health concerns for minors, a Chinese regulator and the state tobacco monopoly jointly urged manufacturers and sellers to shut down websites related to the marketing and sale of e-cigarettes, in what could amount to an effective ban. (Chen and Stevenson, 11/1)

The Associated Press: San Francisco: Mayor Has Easy Reelection; Vaping On Ballot
After a bruising fight last year to become San Francisco's mayor, London Breed faces token opposition on Tuesday's ballot as she struggles to find solutions to the city's homelessness crisis, drug epidemic and a housing shortfall that have put the politically liberal city in the national spotlight. The former president of the Board of Supervisors and San Francisco native narrowly won a special June 2018 election to fill the seat left vacant by the sudden death of Mayor Ed Lee. (Har, 11/3)

Bloomberg: Vaping’s Role As Gateway To Teen Smoking Questioned In Study 
Vaping might not be the gateway to teen smoking that many had feared, according to a study. Using e-cigarettes doesn’t raise the likelihood a teenager would smoke, according to a study by U.S. researchers. Smoking can be entirely attributable to other factors affecting adolescents’ inclination toward cigarettes, such as parental education, peer smoking, anxiety and other substance abuse. E-cigarette sales have been hit amid a regulatory crackdown in the U.S. amid concerns that producers like Juul Labs Inc. have been marketing to underage smokers. (Gretler, 11/4)

Kaiser Health News: Cigarettes Vs. Vaping: That’s The ‘Wrong Comparison,’ Says Inhalation Researcher
Ilona Jaspers initially approached the outbreak of vaping-related illnesses with a clinical curiosity. As an inhalation toxicologist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Jaspers has for nearly 20 years studied the health effects of many substances that can be inhaled. Seven of those years involved researching e-cigarettes. She had been following cases of patients with symptoms similar to those seen in the outbreak through academic articles since 2016. (Heredia Rodriguez, 11/4)

Politico Pro: POLITICO-Harvard Poll: Despite Vaping Crisis, Americans View E-Cigarettes As Far More Dangerous Than Marijuana
Americans now think marijuana is much less harmful than alcohol, tobacco or e-cigarettes, according to new polling results from POLITICO and Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health released Monday. Just 1 in 5 Americans believe marijuana is very harmful to people who use it. Twice as many said the same about alcohol, 52 percent characterized e-cigarettes as very harmful and 80 percent said tobacco cigarettes are very harmful. (Fertig, 11/4)

State House News Service: Memo Challenges DPH Authority In Vape Sales Ban Case
The group representing medical marijuana patients who intervened in the challenge to Gov. Charlie Baker's temporary vape sales ban filed a memo Thursday arguing that the Cannabis Control Commission, not the Department of Public Health, is the only state agency that can regulate marijuana products. The group's premise is that the 2017 law that created the CCC "transferred authority to regulate all legal marijuana" from DPH to the CCC and that the Legislature was clear in its law that the CCC was to be the lead regulatory body. (Young, 11/1)

The New York Times: These Machines Can Put You In Jail. Don’t Trust Them.
A million Americans a year are arrested for drunken driving, and most stops begin the same way: flashing blue lights in the rearview mirror, then a battery of tests that might include standing on one foot or reciting the alphabet. What matters most, though, happens next. By the side of the road or at the police station, the drivers blow into a miniature science lab that estimates the concentration of alcohol in their blood. If the level is 0.08 or higher, they are all but certain to be convicted of a crime. (Cowley and Silver-Greenberg, 11/3)

The New York Times: From The First Drunken Driving Case To Modern Challenges
Read the documents The Times gathered to understand breath-testing machines, and the problems that have caused tens of thousands of tests to be thrown out. (Cowley and Silver-Greenberg, 11/3)

The Washington Post: School Lunches Have Become More Nutritious Despite Many Challenges, A Look At Eight Elementary Schools Shows
For as long as public schools have been feeding kids lunch, grown-ups have been arguing about it. Everything from what goes on the plate to who should pay the bill to whether ketchup is a vegetable has prompted heated debate. But far from the halls of Congress, where the National School Lunch Program is as much a political issue as an educational concern, cafeteria staff grapple with very different challenges: making cauliflower and beets appealing to 8-year-olds; putting whole grains, a healthy entree, a vegetable and fresh fruit on a plate for a couple of bucks; hiring good workers when the starting wage may be less than the pay at a big-box store. (Levine and Rogers, 10/28)

PBS NewsHour: How A Proposed Rule Change Could Affect Free Lunch For Some Kids In Need
For years, the Trump administration has prioritized efforts to scale back food stamp benefits to combat alleged fraud and abuse, despite a “historic high” in pay accuracy, according to the federal government’s own assessment. But after tremendous public pushback, the Trump administration reopened the comment period for a proposed rule that could alter categorical eligibility for food stamp benefits and cut off aid for an estimated 3 million Americans. (Santhanam, 10/31)

St. Louis Public Radio: 1 In 6 Missouri Children Go Hungry Every Day, USDA Report Finds
A recent report from the United States Department of Agriculture shows Missouri has improved hunger levels throughout the state. Compared to one year ago, levels are down almost one full percentage point. However, 11.7% is the national average of food insecurity, and Missouri sits at 12%. (Driscoll, 11/3)

And in other news from schools —

The Washington Post: ‘Hit Them In Their Heart’: These Parents Lost Kids To Hazing. They’re Trying To Make Sure It Doesn’t Happen Again.
The auditorium at the College of New Jersey was filled with hundreds of fraternity and sorority members, on a night during Greek Week. The event had sounded all too familiar to many: Go hear some adults tell you about the dangers of hazing. Again. But their chatter had died away and their phones were in their pockets as Evelyn and Jim Piazza showed them photos of their tall, grinning son and told them how, after a gantlet of drinks and a headfirst fall down a flight of stairs at his Pennsylvania State University fraternity house, Tim Piazza was put in an ambulance, alone. (Svrluga, 11/3)

The Associated Press: Health Officials Disclose Another Romaine Outbreak, Now Over
U.S. health officials disclosed another food poisoning outbreak linked to romaine lettuce, but they said it appears to be over. The disclosure late Thursday comes after the produce industry said it was stepping up safety measures following a series of outbreaks , including one last year that sickened more than 200 people and killed five. It's not clear why romaine keeps sickening people, but experts note the difficulty of eliminating risk posed by raw vegetables grown in open fields. (11/1)

The Washington Post: The FDA Learned Of An E. Coli Outbreak In September. Six Weeks Later, The Agency Finally Announced It.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention notified the FDA of the outbreak in mid-September and suspected leafy greens were the culprit on Sept. 19, according to Brian Katzowitz, a health communication specialist at the CDC. Both agencies determined romaine was the likely cause on Oct. 2. Asked why the agencies waited until Halloween to make a public announcement, Katzowitz told The Washington Post that “there are a few variables to consider when posting an outbreak, but the CDC generally posts outbreak warnings when there is something actionable for consumers to do.” (Brice-Saddler, 11/1)

The Washington Post: Science Author Digs Into The Story About A Revolutionary Cancer Treatment Used In Immunotherapy
In 2017, CAR-T therapy made waves as the first gene therapy to be approved by the Food and Drug Administration. In a fascinating article for Undark, Ilana Yurkiewicz, a physician at Stanford University, plunges into the fraught history and future of a cancer treatment that’s as radical as it is risky. Unlike chemotherapy or radiation, which attack cancer directly, CAR-T engineers patients’ immune cells so they can do it themselves. (Blakemore, 11/2)

Bloomberg: Blood Test To Detect Breast Cancer Could Be Five Years Away 
A blood test that may be able to detect breast cancer up to five years before symptoms develop could be available by 2025 if development is fully funded, U.K. researchers said. Doctors at the Centre of Excellence for Autoimmunity in Cancer at the University of Nottingham compared blood samples from 90 patients being treated for breast cancer with the same number from a control group without the disease to measure the body’s immune response to substances produced by tumor cells. They’re now testing samples from 800 patients for nine markers and they expect the accuracy of the test to improve. (Marley, 11/3)

Stat: FDA To Consider New Evidence, Risks Behind Fecal Matter Transplants
On Monday, the Food and Drug Administration will host its first formal discussion about fecal microbiome transplants in years — less than a week after a paper in the New England Journal of Medicine disclosed new details about the first death ever conclusively linked to the procedure, often abbreviated to FMT. The Monday meeting, which will be happening at the FDA’s headquarters in White Oak, Md., will cover the safety and effectiveness of FMT as a treatment for repeated (and potentially fatal infections) of Clostridium difficile bacteria. (Sheridan, 11/1)

Stat: FDA: Zantac Does Not Form A Carcinogen, But Some Pills Should Be Recalled
After running simulated testing, the Food and Drug Administration says it has not found evidence that Zantac and similar heartburn medicines form a possible carcinogen in patient stomachs or small intestines. Nonetheless, the agency also indicated some of the medicines contain higher than acceptable levels of NDMA, and asked manufacturers to voluntarily withdraw those pills. The move marks the first time the FDA has suggested drug makers should recall their heartburn medicines, which are called ranitidines, after opening a probe several weeks ago. (Silverman, 11/1)

CBS News: Life Expectancy For American Men Drops For A Third Year
Life expectancy for American men dropped for a third consecutive year, with the National Center for Health Statistics citing an increase in so-called "deaths of despair," such as the rise in drug overdose deaths. The average lifespan of men in the U.S. dipped to 76.1 years in 2017 (the latest data available), amounting to a four-month decline in life expectancy since 2014. The findings shed additional light on economic research into the sharp increase in recent years in deaths from overdoses and suicides among white men with less education.  (Picchi, 10/31)

NPR: Rashes Can Look Very Different On Different Shades Of Skin
When Ellen Buchanan Weiss' son was about a year old, he broke out in a rash — little bumps that appeared to be hives. So Buchanan Weiss did what a lot of new parents do: She turned to the Internet to find images that matched the rash she was seeing on her little boy. "I'm trying to figure out — would I be paranoid if I went to the doctor at this point? Is that a reasonable thing to do? So I started googling it," says Buchanan Weiss, who lives with her family in Raleigh, N.C. (Prichep, 11/4)

The New York Times: Armed With A New Laptop, He Is On A Path To A Degree
When he was growing up, Warren Williams wanted nothing more than to play baseball and watch “Scooby-Doo.” “I just wanted to be normal, like other kids,” he said. But his health often took the joy out of his childhood. Mr. Williams, 26, was born with H.I.V. One of his earliest memories is from when he was 4: A mass had developed in his chest and he was rushed to a hospital to have open-heart surgery. The doctors gave him a stuffed Barney the dinosaur to keep by his side on the operating table. (Aridi, 11/3)

The Associated Press: Scientists Retract Study Suggesting Mutation Shortens Life
Scientists have retracted a study that appeared to show people may live shortened lives if they carry a DNA mutation that reduces their chance of HIV infection. The study focused on people who carry a specific mutation in both copies of a gene called CCR5. It was published in June in the journal Nature Medicine and covered by news outlets including The Associated Press. (11/1)

The Washington Post: Ali Meyer Records Breast Cancer Diagnosis Live On Facebook For KFOR News
Ali Meyer live-streamed her first mammogram with other women in mind. The veteran journalist was wary of “making herself the center of the story,” she remembers, but she wanted to remind people to schedule their own appointments — so they could catch breast cancer early. Then a nurse came in to say the radiologist would prefer to see Meyer with the camera off. In private, the doctor told Meyer she would need more imaging. At 40 years old, she realized, she might have cancer. (Knowles, 11/2)

NPR: How To Fall Asleep: These Daytime Habits Will Help
If turning back the clock an hour for the end of daylight saving time leaves you feeling jangly, imagine the toll that chronic sleep loss can take on your health. The evidence has piled up. We all need good sleep. And our bodies crave regular routine. Without it, we set up ourselves for increased risk of anxiety, depression, weight gain, even dementia. (Aubrey, 11/3)

Kansas City Star: Parson Won’t Investigate Spreadsheet Of Patients
Missouri Gov. Mike Parson said on Friday he will not call for an investigation into the state’s health department following the revelation that the agency kept a spreadsheet that tracked the menstrual cycles of Planned Parenthood’s abortion patients. Parson, a Republican, has remained largely silent since the spreadsheet’s existence was revealed Tuesday during a state administrative commission hearing in St. Louis. (Kite and Thomas, 11/1)

Kansas City Star: Social Media Campaign Protests Abortion Patient Spreadsheet
An abortion rights advocacy organization has launched a social media campaign to protest the Missouri state health department tracking the periods of the women who sought abortions at Planned Parenthood’s St. Louis clinic. At the urging of NARAL Pro-choice Missouri, people have uploaded photos to Twitter with a period product, like a box of tampons or pads, and added “#TrackThisRandy,” a reference to the health department’s director, Dr. Randall Williams. (Thomas, 11/1)

In other abortion news —

Politico Pro: Abortion Could Decide Kentucky’s Close Governor’s Race
The Kentucky governor’s race was teed up to be about Obamacare — just like the last one, which put Republican Matt Bevin into office. Until it became all about abortion. The unpopular incumbent’s harsh attacks on Democratic challenger Attorney General Andy Beshear’s backing of abortion rights, rare for a Southern gubernatorial candidate, has Democrats worried about their chances slipping away in a race that has grown unexpectedly close. One recent poll found the two men tied — in a state that President Donald Trump carried by a whopping 30 points in 2016. (Pradhan, 11/3)

The Associated Press: Parkland Commission Urges Boost In Mental Health Funding
A commission investigating the Parkland school shooting is calling for improved mental health services, including more funding, to help schoolchildren deal with the stresses in their lives — a strategy the commission hopes will help prevent more violence from erupting at other Florida campuses. The commission released its second report to lawmakers Friday, 10 months after an initial report urged immediate improvements to school safety following killings of 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School last year. (Caina Calvan, 11/1)

Boston Globe: Charlie Baker Eyes A Legacy-Defining Revamp Of Mass. Health Care
Governor Charlie Baker has already hit the radio. His aides are briefing lawmakers. And come Monday, his health secretary will meet with hundreds of grass-roots activists. The one-time health insurance executive has planted himself at the epicenter of a renewed health care debate on Beacon Hill, armed with a litany of ideas about how to retool an industry he knows better than perhaps any other. (Dayal McCluskey and Stout, 11/4)

San Francisco Chronicle: Apple Pledges $2.5 Billion To Help With Housing Crisis
Apple will commit $2.5 billion to fund new homes, aid home buyers and prevent homelessness in California, becoming the latest Bay Area company pledging to combat the housing crisis. Apple’s move, by far the largest such commitment by a tech company to date, follows similar announcements by Google and Facebook. (Narayan, 11/4)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Illinois Leaders Demand Answers About Ambulance Diversion
Two leaders in the Illinois Legislature and a congressman from the state want to know why a handful of Chicago-area hospitals regularly close their doors to ambulances and why state regulators haven't done more to stop it. An investigation by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel revealed that some of the top hospitals in Chicago go on ambulance diversion regularly and the state has been lax in its oversight. (Diedrich and Crowe, 11/4)

Modern Healthcare: Pa. High Court Tosses Seven-Year Medical Malpractice Limit
UPMC faces a medical malpractice suit stemming from a liver transplant in 2003 after the Pennsylvania Supreme Court threw out a state law barring malpractice lawsuits after seven years. In a 4-3 decision Thursday, the state ruled that the statute of repose, passed in 2002, unconstitutionally violates the right of access to the courts and lacks any substantial relationship to the legislative goal of controlling malpractice insurance costs and premiums. (Meyer, 11/1)

KCUR: Environmental Group Says Almost All Kansas Tap Water Is Too Contaminated 
The water coming out of your tap might meet legal standards, but that doesn’t mean that it’s safe to drink — at least according to the Environmental Working Group, an environmental advocacy nonprofit. EWG found that nearly all of the 870 water utilities in Kansas tested for at least one contaminate above what it considers safe, though most water utilities in the state meet federal standards, which are different than EWG’s. (Grimmett, 11/1)

Sacramento Bee: How Sacramento Pot Dispensaries Pay Taxes, Without Banking
When the owners of Sacramento’s retail cannabis dispensaries pay their taxes, they walk into City Hall hauling trash bags or backpacks stuffed with cash, sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars in a single trip. This, for obvious reasons, initially raised alarms among everyone involved. Worried about counting so much cash at the first-floor revenue counter at City Hall, staffers allowed the dispensary owners to come behind the glass and get their money counted in a traditionally restricted area. (Clift and Kasler, 11/1)

New Orleans Times-Picayune: Famous Athletes Seek This Tulane Clinic After Their Careers And Want To Know, 'What Is The Cost?'
[Terry] Joseph is one of the more than 600 former professional football players who have cycled through Tulane’s Professional Athlete Care Team (PACT) clinic since it began operations in 2013. The clinic, a cloistered facility on the fourth floor of Tulane Hospital, sees former professional athletes during an exhaustive 2½-day screening process that determines what may ail them after their playing days finish. Its purpose is to diagnose, not treat, the issues it uncovers by developing for these players a comprehensive and intimate understanding of the inner workings of their bodies and minds. (Johnson, 11/2)

Sacramento Bee: 84,000 Kaiser Health Care Workers Vote To Ratify Contract
More than 84,000 health care workers voted to ratify a new four-year collective bargaining contract with Kaiser Permanente, backing an agreement that provides for annual wage increases and certain limitations on outsourcing, the health care giant announced Friday. (Anderson, 11/2)

Modern Healthcare: Kaiser And 84,000 Unionized Employees Ratify Contract
Kaiser Permanente and more than 84,000 workers represented by the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions ratified a four-year contract, the Oakland, Calif.-based integrated health system announced Friday. The agreement builds on the deal between Kaiser and more than 57,000 California employees represented by the SEIU-United Healthcare Workers West completed last month. The remaining 26,000-plus employees are in Colorado, Hawaii, Maryland, Oregon, Virginia, Washington state and Washington, D.C. (Kacik, 11/1)

Sacramento Bee: 25,000 UC Service, Health Care Workers To Strike In November
More than 25,000 service and health care workers at the University of California will stage a one-day walkout on Nov. 13 over concerns about how their employer is outsourcing jobs that should be performed by union-represented workers. Local 3299 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees filed six new unfair labor complaints against the UC in late October alleging that it is violating state laws, UC’s own wage and procurement policies and the terms of collective bargaining agreements. (Anderson, 11/1)

The Associated Press: Inmate Says He Was Told To Wash, Reuse Disposable Catheters
Brad Vanzant uses a wheelchair, has one kidney, and since 2015 has relied on catheters to drain his bladder. He's also an Idaho prison inmate, which means his medical supplies must be approved and provided by the state's private health care contractor, Corizon Health. (11/1)

Boston Globe: College Students Ponder Their Texting Habits In The Wake Of A Young Man’s Suicide
The prosecution of a former Boston College student who is accused of driving her boyfriend to suicide with tens of thousands of sometimes abusive messages highlighted the social challenges many young people face in an age of compulsive communication — how to maintain healthy boundaries when the text exchanges rarely stop, intruding on their time at home, at meals, even when they’re asleep. That can be especially delicate for those in romantic relationships, where constant texting can intensify already heady emotions and increase the pressure to respond quickly, no matter the hour. (Cramer and Tziperman Lotan, 11/3)

Los Angeles Times: L.A. Voided Old Tickets, Warrants. It Won't Help Homeless People
When Los Angeles officials decided to toss out millions of citations and warrants in early October, they hailed it as a boon for homeless people. The purge, they said, would “unclog” the court system and stop the cycle of debt and arrests that has made it harder for the poorest Angelenos to land jobs and housing. But weeks after the announcement by L.A. City Atty. Mike Feuer, L.A. County Dist. Atty. Jackie Lacey and LAPD Chief Michel Moore, it has become clear that their amnesty program is unlikely to end the criminal consequences for low-level offenses by people who live outdoors. (Holland, 11/4)

Iowa Public Radio: Board Recommends Allowing Iowans With PTSD To Qualify For Medical Cannabis
A state board voted Friday to recommend allowing patients with post-traumatic stress disorder to qualify for Iowa’s medical cannabis program, a recommendation that now goes to the Iowa Board of Medicine for final consideration. Four board members, who are also medical professionals, approved this after stating there is not enough scientific evidence supporting use of cannabis to treat PTSD. (Sostaric, 11/1)

Belleville News-Democrat: Legal Marijuana Is Coming To Illinois, But What Will Happen If You Bring It To Missouri?
On Jan. 1, Illinois residents will be allowed to possess any combination of 30 grams of cannabis flower, 5 grams of cannabis concentrate, and 500 milligrams of THC contained in a cannabis-infused product. Non-residents will be able to possess half of those amounts.Illinois’ law also prohibits transporting cannabis across state lines. (Bustos, 11/4)

Boston Globe: Mass. Medical Marijuana Patients Say Baker Lacks Authority To Ban Cannabis Vapes
Massachusetts health officials have no legal authority to ban the sale of regulated marijuana vapes, a group of medical marijuana patients argued in a legal filing this week. Governor Charlie Baker announced an emergency statewide ban on the sale of all vaping products Sept. 24, contending the broad policy was needed to protect public health amid an outbreak of vaping-related lung illnesses that federal authorities now say have sickened nearly 2,000 Americans and killed at least 37, including two in Massachusetts. (Adams, 11/1)

The Wall Street Journal: Warren Has A (Fantasy) Plan
Now we know why Elizabeth Warren took so long to release the financing details of her Medicare-for-All plan. The 20 pages of explanation she released Friday reveal that she is counting on ideas for cost-savings and new revenue that are a fiscal and health-care fantasy. (11/3)

The New York Times: Did Warren Pass The Medicare Test? I Think So
Last week I worried that Elizabeth Warren had painted herself into a corner by endorsing the Sanders Medicare-for-all plan. It was becoming obvious that she couldn’t stay vague about the details, especially how to pay for it; and some studies, even by center-left think tanks, suggested that any plan along these lines would require large tax hikes on the middle class. So what would she come up with? Well, the Warren plan is now out. And I’d say that she passed the test. Experts will argue for months whether she’s being too optimistic — whether her cost estimates are too low and her revenue estimates too high, whether we can really do this without middle-class tax hikes. You might say that time will tell, but it probably won’t: Even if Warren becomes president, and Dems take the Senate too, it’s very unlikely that Medicare for all will happen any time soon. (Paul Krugman, 11/1)

The Washington Post: The Eight Big Problems With Warren’s Medicare-For-All Plan
The plan, as one would expect, was roundly criticized by former vice president Joe Biden’s campaign, which put out a statement that said it “hinges not just on a giant middle class tax hike and the elimination of all private health insurance, but also on a complete revamping of defense, immigration, and overall tax policy all at once in order to pay for it — a hard truth that underscores why candidates need to be straight with the American people about what they’re proposing.” (Jennifer Rubin, 11/1)

Boston Globe: Elizabeth Warren’s Medicare For All: A Complex Idea With Huge Ramifications For Massachusetts
Elizabeth Warren’s plan for funding universal health care is everything you’d expect from the Massachusetts senator: comprehensive, data-driven yet passionately argued, and reliant on the usual bad guys for paying the tab. Wall Street speculators, tax-dodging multinationals, and 1 percenters would cough up nearly half of the $20.5 trillion in new spending that Warren said Friday would be needed over the next decade to switch everyone to her version of a government-run Medicare for All plan. (Larry Edelman, 11/2)

The Washington Post: What Elizabeth Warren’s New Health-Care Plan Gets Right
Elizabeth Warren just released her health-care plan, and I’m going to do something radical. Instead of directing all your attention to the question of how she’ll pay for it, as 99 percent of the coverage is doing, I’m going to focus on what her plan might mean for — get ready — people’s health care. Don’t get me wrong: The funding is important. But the most important overarching question is what kind of health-care system we want. (Paul Waldman, 11/1)

The New York Times: Elizabeth Warren’s Health Care Albatross
Between the collapse of George W. Bush’s presidency and the rise of Donald Trump, the Republican Party was a more ideological institution than the Democratic Party. Both parties had litmus tests and orthodoxies, but the G.O.P. had more of a “movement” spirit, reflecting the conservatism that had captured it, and ideological enforcers had more influence over its policy debates, more power to decree who counted as a “true conservative” and who was a “Republican In Name Only.” (Ross Douthat, 11/2)

The Washington Post: The Math For Warren’s Health-Care Plan Adds Up If You Accept Its Ludicrous Premise
We need plans, not slogans. That’s the phrase users highlighted the most in Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s (D-Mass.) newly announced Medicare-for-all plan. Which is very on-brand. Andrew Yang may be running with a campaign button reading “Math,” but it’s Warren who has successfully framed herself as the wonk on the debate stage. (Megan McArdle, 11/2)

The New York Times: Warren Goes 1 For 2 On Medicare
Health care will cost the average American person about $11,000 this year. We pay some of those costs directly, through premiums, deductibles and out-of-pocket expenses. Other costs are shrouded, paid through taxes and employer contributions. Either way, the combined total is staggering, easily the world’s highest and more than twice as much per person as in Australia, Britain, Canada, France or Japan. (David Leonhardt, 11/3)

Stat: When Kids In Pain Need Opioids, Doctors Must Walk A Tightrope
As a physician who works in a pediatric emergency department, I see the downsides of trampolines, monkey bars, coffee tables with sharp corners, and even hot soup — all common sources of children’s injuries. No matter what the trauma, many of my patients are in pain. And with all of the publicity around opioids, treating injured children’s pain has become a complicated, and often emotional, issue. Pain can often be eased with acetaminophen or ibuprofen. But broken bones, burns, and other severe injuries that cause excruciating pain usually require something stronger, like an opioid. (Nkeiruka Orajiaka, 11/4)

The New York Times: When ‘Do No Harm’ Means Evacuating Hospitals In California
I must have missed the wildfire evacuation course in medical school. Learning how to move critically ill patients while flames lick the ground just feet away wasn’t part of my residency training. Most physicians never anticipate having to empty their hospitals while smoke fills the halls and the sky glows red. This is becoming our everyday reality in Northern California, where I lead an emergency management team for more than 4 million patients. Just last week, the Kincade fire broke out in Sonoma county. The blaze, fueled by an extreme wind event, rapidly engulfed tens of thousands of acres of land. Nearly 190,000 people were evacuated. (Stephen Parodi, 11/1)

The Washington Post: Trump Made An Empty Promise On Guns — Again 
“WE CANNOT let those killed in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, die in vain. Likewise for those so seriously wounded. We can never forget them, and those many who came before them. Republicans and Democrats must come together and get strong background checks. . . .We must have something good, if not GREAT, come out of these two tragic events!” That tweet from President Trump after back-to-back shootings over the summer killed 31 people raised some hope that action would finally be taken to combat gun violence. But Mr. Trump’s talk about changing gun laws was — as is often the case with him — empty. No action has been taken, none is planned, and that means more lives will be lost and others tragically changed by gun violence. (11/3)

Austin American-Statesman: Vaping Is Not A Safe Alternative, Especially For Young Adults
Vaping — the use of electronic cigarettes to inhale vapors that could contain substances such as nicotine, marijuana or flavoring — is a disconcerting habit gaining popularity across the country, especially among teenagers. From 2017-18, more than 3.6 million kids reported using e-cigarettes, which represents a 78 percent increase in adolescent vaping in one year. Even more frightening: Use among middle school students jumped by 48 percent in the same period. (Danielle Beachler, 11/3)

The Hill: The Prognosis Is Poor For Stopping The Spread Of Sexually Transmitted Diseases
And STD rates will continue to climb dramatically as a result of the renewed assault on the Title X program, the only federal grant program dedicated to funding comprehensive family planning and related sexual health services, such as STD prevention and treatment. ...To put in perspective the far-reaching consequences of attacks on these centers, in 2010 more than half of all chlamydia and gonorrhea infections prevented by publicly funded care were handled by Title X centers. This crippling of Title X is forcing providers to withdraw from the program, leaving many people without needed STD care. Planned Parenthood, an organization specifically targeted by new Title X restrictions, for example, is the only Title X grantee in Utah and the largest grantee in Alaska, Connecticut and Minnesota, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. (Samantha Garbers, 11/3)

The Washington Post: My Family Faces An Impossible Choice: Caring For Our Mom, Or Building Our Future
My final year at medical school began this fall with an unexpected flight home to Colorado. My mother has multiple sclerosis, and my sister, her caregiver for the past three years while I attended school in New Haven, was moving away to start a new job she’d suddenly gotten. There was no one else but me. I postponed my hospital rotation and canceled my board exam. I notified the school registrar, saying I was uncertain of when I could return and resume my studies. (Kristina Brown, 10/31)

The Hill: The Erosion Of Abortion Availability 
The U.S. Supreme Court has not overturned its 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, but lower courts and statehouses are threatening to turn the clock back nearly 50 years on abortion rights. The fate of Missouri’s only remaining abortion provider, a Planned Parenthood clinic in St. Louis, hangs by a thread, awaiting the outcome of a recent arbitration hearing. If it is forced stop performing abortions, Missouri will become the first state without an abortion provider since Roe recognized the right to abortion in America. (Bridget Kelly, 11/2)

The Wall Street Journal: Trump Reverses Obama’s Anti-Religious Decree
Pro-life Americans often get criticized for focusing too much on babies in the womb and not enough on those who’ve been born. Yet countless evangelical Christians devote their lives to foster care, adoption and similar services for vulnerable children. As born-again Christians, we have been adopted by Christ and have a special obligation to those who need a mother and father. But those who want to live out these convictions frequently find themselves stopped by the government. Last week the Trump administration took a major step toward addressing the problem. (Russell Moore, 11/3)

The New York Times: Suicide Has Been Deadlier Than Combat For The Military
Struggling with mental demons, Kayla Williams went to her bathroom and held a gun in her hand, contemplating suicide. It was 2004, and she’d been home for only a few months after serving as an Army sergeant and Arab linguist in the Iraq war. But hers is one story that doesn’t end in tragedy: Ms. Williams held those demons at bay long enough to get help and learn to manage the challenges of marriage to a combat-wounded veteran while writing two books about her experiences. “I’m doing well,” she told me. She is now the director of the Military, Veterans and Society program at the Center for a New American Security. (Carol Giacomo, 11/1)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: State Gets Quick, Sound Result On Ethylene Oxide Emissions
When it comes to necessary government action, achieving results is often neither a fast nor simple process. That realization makes it all the more noteworthy that the state of Georgia achieved in just seven days a pretty comprehensive, yet simple-to-understand legal agreement that should better safeguard people living and working near a plant that uses a carcinogen to sterilize medical instruments. (Andre Jackson, 11/2)

Boston Globe: Move Of DCF Offices Threatens Crucial Family Visits
As reported by the Globe’s Kay Lazar, these office relocations are making it more difficult for hundreds of parents who have lost custody of their children to visit with them. Those family ties, already under great stress, will be stretched to the breaking point, if a mother or father can’t physically touch their own child — not because they don’t want to, but because a DCF office is no longer close to public transportation and they don’t have access to a car. (11/3)

Georgia Health News: The Time Is About To Change, But The Problems Will Remain
First, here’s the reminder: When you go to bed Saturday night, set your clock back one hour. At 2 a.m. Sunday, Georgia will make its annual autumn switch from Daylight Saving Time (DST) to Standard Time. Most of the nation will be doing the same.The “extra” hour means a bit more sleep for many people, so you may feel unusually refreshed on Sunday morning. Still, things may seem slightly off-kilter as the day wears on. (Gerdeen Dyer, 11/2)