The Washington Post: House Votes To Protect Health-Care Law As Democrats Put GOP On Record
In the first health-care vote since Democrats seized the House majority, the chamber on Wednesday gave itself the power to intervene legally after a federal judge ruled that the Affordable Care Act was unconstitutional. Wednesday’s vote was largely symbolic — Democrats voted last week to authorize legal action as part of a broader rules package — but it was the first time that lawmakers were presented with a discrete measure dealing with what was a dominant issue in the Nov. 6 midterm elections. (DeBonis, 1/9)

The Hill: Dems Hit GOP On Health Care With Additional ObamaCare Lawsuit Vote 
Democrats framed Wednesday's vote as proof that Republicans don't want to safeguard protections for people with pre-existing conditions — one of the law’s most popular provisions. “If you support coverage for pre-existing conditions, you will support this measure to try to protect it. It’s that simple,” said Rules Committee Chairman Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) before the vote. (Hellmann, 1/9)

CQ: House Adopts Resolution On Health Care Lawsuit
Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer told reporters on Tuesday that the vote was an opportunity for Republicans who say they support the health law’s protections for pre-existing conditions to demonstrate that. “They ought to vote for Title III so they can defend what they say they are for," the Maryland Democrat said. Republicans argued the vote was repetitive and “meaningless.” (McIntire, 1/9)

NPR: House Democrats Look To Hearings And Courts To Protect Affordable Care Act
In her first speech as speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi made it clear that she knows that health care is key to why voters sent Democrats to Congress. "In the past two years the American people have spoken," Pelosi told members of Congress and their families who were gathered Thursday in the House chamber for the opening day of the session. "Tens of thousands of public events were held, hundreds of thousands of people turned out, millions of calls were made, countless families, even sick little children — our little lobbyists, our little lobbyists — bravely came forward to tell their stories and they made a big difference," said Pelosi, a California Democrat. What is the Democrats' mandate? (Kodjak, 1/9)

Meanwhile, a look at the Democrats who will take over powerful positions on House committees —

Politico: Veteran House Dems Poised To Get Seats On Exclusive Committees
Three former Democratic House members who were again elected in 2018 appear to have the inside track to gain seats on highly sought-after House committees. Newly-elected Democratic Reps. Ed Case of Hawaii and Ann Kirkpatrick of Arizona are being considered for spots on House Appropriations, and Steven Horsford of Nevada is being considered for Ways and Means. All three are on the final slates for the committees but their assignments will not be finalized until the entire caucus votes in the coming days. (Barron-Lopez, Caygle and Bresnahan, 1/9)

The Associated Press: Routine Food Inspections Halted By US Government Shutdown
Routine food inspections aren't getting done because of the partial government shutdown, but checks of the riskiest foods are expected to resume next week, the Food and Drug Administration said Wednesday. The agency said it's working to bring back about 150 employees to inspect riskier foods such as cheese, infant formula and produce. FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said the agency can't make the case that "a routine inspection of a Nabisco cracker facility" is necessary during the shutdown, however. (Choi, 1/9)

The New York Times: Government Shutdown Curtails F.D.A. Food Inspections
F.D.A. inspectors normally examine operations at about 160 domestic manufacturing and food processing plants each week. Nearly one-third of them are considered to be at high risk of causing food-borne illnesses. Food-borne diseases in the United States send about 128,000 people to the hospital each year, and kill 3,000, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Domestic meat and poultry are still being inspected by staff at the Agriculture Department, but they are going without pay. The F.D.A. oversees about 80 percent of the nation’s food supply, as well as most overseas imports. (Kaplan, 1/9)

Bloomberg: 2019 Government Shutdown Puts FDA Food Inspections At Risk 
Gottlieb said the agency is working to continue high-risk food inspections. “There’s discussion today that we’ve ‘stopped’ high risk food surveillance inspections,” he tweeted. “Fact: We’re working to continue those inspections.” He also said in an earlier tweet Wednesday the agency’s limited food safety inspections would be focused on products like seafood, soft cheeses and unpasteurized juice that are more susceptible to food safety risks, compared to more routine inspections. (Shanker, 1/9)

CQ: FDA Says 'High-Risk' Food Inspections Will Continue
He said the high-risk products include seafood, custard-filled bakery products, soft cheeses and unpasteurized juices, but that the risk determination depended on a variety of factors. “We assess risk based on an overall, cross-cutting risk profile. The primary factors contributing to a facility’s risk profile include: the type of food, the manufacturing process, and the compliance history of the facility,” he said. (Siddons, 1/9)

The Washington Post: FDA Food Inspections, Reduced By Shutdown Furloughs, Put 'Food Supply At Risk'
Food inspections are just one of the public health and safety efforts that have been cut or curtailed during the shutdown, now deep into its third week. The federal government also keeps airplanes from colliding, inspects pharmaceutical drugs, pursues criminals and defends against possible terrorist and cyberattacks. It is a 24-7-365 effort to make Americans safer.But a shutdown upends the calculus of risk management as agencies including the FBI, Coast Guard, Secret Service, FDA, Federal Aviation Administration and Agriculture Department face drastically reduced resources. (McGinley and Achenbach, 1/9)

Stat: Shutdown Has Aimmune Waiting On FDA On Multiple Fronts
Aimmune Therapeutics CEO Jayson Dallas would be enjoying his time at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference a lot more this week if the U.S. government were open for business. Instead, in between meetings with investors and other health care folks, Dallas is being forced to monitor D.C. gridlock because his company’s experimental treatment to protect people against peanut allergy is in FDA limbo. Aimmune purposefully submitted its marketing application and transferred the user fee money needed to pay for the review to the FDA on Dec. 21, Dallas said. (Feuerstein, 1/9)

Reuters: U.S. Government Says Shutdown May Slow Resolution Of CVS/Aetna Court Process
The Justice Department has said in a court filing that a partial government shutdown could delay its response to comments on pharmacy chain CVS Health Corp's purchase of health insurer Aetna, a necessary step in a court giving final approval to the deal. Judge Richard Leon of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia has been reviewing a consent decree reached by the government and the companies in October to allow their $69 billion merger. The deal has closed, although Judge Leon has required that some aspects of integration be halted during the review process. (1/9)

The Washington Post: How Food Stamps, Housing Subsidies And Other Programs For Americans In Need Will Be Hit By Shutdown
The waterlogged ceiling of Betty Gay’s rural Kentucky home sags so low that she hits her head on the light fixture. She’s only 5-foot-1. When it rains, the retired nurse’s aide covers her bathroom floor with buckets and towels. Mold festers on the damp walls. Gay, 70, was counting on a $20,000 loan from the Agriculture Department this winter to patch the hole in the roof of the ranch-style Mount Sterling home she’s lived in for 30 years. But the money is on hold. (Jan and Wan, 1/9)

The New York Times: Shutdown Means E.P.A. Pollution Inspectors Aren’t On The Job
The two-week-old shutdown has halted one of the federal government’s most important public health activities, the inspections of chemical factories, power plants, oil refineries, water treatment plants, and thousands of other industrial sites for pollution violations. The Environmental Protection Agency has furloughed most of its roughly 600 pollution inspectors and other workers who monitor compliance with environmental laws. (Davenport, 1/9)

Reuters: Trump Storms Out Of Talks On Shutdown, Bemoans 'Total Waste Of Time'
U.S. President Donald Trump stormed out of talks with Democratic congressional leaders on Wednesday over funding for a border wall with Mexico and reopening the government, complaining the meeting at the White House was "a total waste of time." On the 19th day of a partial government shutdown caused by the dispute over the wall, a short meeting that included Trump, House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer ended in acrimony with no sign of a resolution. (Zengerle, 1/10)

The Associated Press: California's Top Lawyer Offers Look Inside Trump Offensive
[California Attorney General Xavier] Becerra has been among the most aggressive of the Democratic state attorneys general who have battled Trump in court. Since former Gov. Jerry Brown appointed him to the job two years ago, Becerra has taken on the Trump administration in nearly 100 briefs and other legal actions, including 45 lawsuits filed mostly over immigration, the environment and health care and often joined by other attorneys general. He has notched some significant victories, though many of the cases are still pending in court. But his office's operation against the Trump administration — who works on the cases, how much it costs and how the office approaches potential suits — has largely remained opaque. (Thanawala, 1/10)

The Associated Press: A Look At California's Key Lawsuits Against Trump
Becerra sued the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in October 2017 over rules that allowed more employers to opt out of providing women with no-cost birth control. A judge blocked the rules, and an appeals court in December upheld that decision. The administration has revised the rules, prompting another, ongoing court battle. (1/10)

Politico Pro: Courts Set To Weigh Fate Of Trump Contraception Rule
Federal courts on opposite ends of the country will weigh requests this week to indefinitely delay a Trump administration rule allowing virtually any employer to refuse to cover workers' birth control by citing religious or moral objections. The revised rule, due to take effect on Monday, marks the administration's second attempt to expand a workaround to Obamacare's contraception mandate. (Ollstein, 1/10)

The Associated Press: Experimental App Might Spot Drug Overdoses In Time To Help
Too often people die of an opioid overdose because no one's around to notice they're in trouble. Now scientists are creating a smartphone app that beams sound waves to measure breathing — and summon help if it stops. The app is still experimental. But in a novel test, the "Second Chance" app detected early signs of overdose in the critical minutes after people injected heroin or other illegal drugs, researchers reported Wednesday. (Neergaard, 1/9)

The Hill: House Dems Call On Leadership To Prioritize Opioid Epidemic 
More than 60 House Democrats are urging leadership to make the opioid crisis a top priority in the new Congress. The Democrats said Congress should dedicate more funding and staff to addressing the crisis, which killed 47,600 people in 2017.  ... Congress passed a massive bill last session increasing access to treatment and recovery, but Democrats and some Republicans wanted more funding for the crisis. (Hellmann, 1/9)

The Associated Press: Judge Dismisses Opioid Crisis Lawsuits Against Drugmakers
A Connecticut judge has dismissed lawsuits against Purdue Pharma and two dozen other drug companies brought by 37 cities and towns in the state, which blame them for the opioid crisis and seek to recoup millions of dollars spent on emergency response and other services. Judge Thomas Moukawsher in Hartford Superior Court ruled Tuesday that the lawsuits were not allowed because they were not government enforcement actions, such as those filed under consumer protection and public health laws. Instead, the judge said the lawsuits were filed as "ordinary civil cases" seeking money damages for the "indirect harm" from the opioid crisis. (1/9)

The Associated Press: Scientists Seek Ways To Finally Take A Real Measure Of Pain
There's no stethoscope for pain. Now, U.S. health officials are pushing for development of a pain meter, the first objective way to measure it. The National Institutes of Health stresses the goal isn't a lie detector for pain, but to spur better treatment. A device that peeks into patients' eyes is among the approaches in early-stage studies. The theory is that patterns of pupil reactions could signal pain, and what drug might help. (1/10)

MPR: U Of M Study Warns A Dangerous Opioid Combination Is Becoming More Common
A study from the University of Minnesota has found that doctors are increasing simultaneous prescriptions of benzodiazepines and opioids, a combination that may amplify the risk of overdose death. Benzodiazepines are usually prescribed for anxiety or insomnia, while opioids are used as a powerful painkiller. Both drugs suppress a patient's respiratory system, to deadly effect if misused. (Collins, 1/9)

Austin American-Statesman: Bills Pushing For More Opioid Safety A 'No-Brainer,' Lawmaker Says
A Houston lawmaker has filed the 86th Legislature’s first three bills aimed at tackling the state’s opioid crisis, including one that would require pharmacists to put a red cap on all prescription opioids warning patients of their risks. Another bill would require a label on the medications in all capital letters to warn that the drugs can cause addiction and death; a third would require pharmacists to verbally go over the risks with patients and get a signed acknowledgement before they are dispensed. (Huber, 1/9)

Reuters: Multistate E.Coli Infection Outbreak Appears To Be Over: CDC
The multistate outbreak of E. coli infections linked to romaine lettuce from the Central Coastal growing regions in northern and central California appears to be over, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said on Wednesday. (1/9)

The Hill: Romaine Lettuce E-Coli Outbreak Is Over, CDC Says 
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said there have been 62 cases across 16 states and the District of Columbia since the disease was first reported in October. There were no deaths, but 25 people were hospitalized, including two people who developed a type of kidney failure. (Weixel, 1/9)

CNN: How Does Someone In A Vegetative State Have A Baby?
News of a woman in a vegetative state for more than a decade giving birth to a boy on December 29 has stirred emotions nationwide. The rare medical event raises many questions, including: How can a woman who is unconscious give birth?" It is very rare," said Dr. Deborah Feldman, who has heard about "maybe two or three cases" in the past two decades. Feldman, director for maternal fetal medicine at Hartford HealthCare Medical Group, treated a woman 20 years ago who had a stroke that rendered her brain-dead during her second trimester and who went on to have the baby. Feldman has read about, but has no direct knowledge of, the Arizona case. (Scutti, 1/9)

The Associated Press: Comatose Woman Who Had Baby Is Hospitalized, Police Say
An Arizona woman in a vegetative state who had a baby after she was sexually assaulted at a long-term care facility is recovering at a hospital along with her child, authorities said Wednesday as they ramped up the search for a suspect in a case that's made shockwaves. (Tang, 1/9)

The Washington Post: Study: Bullying Rates At Virginia Middle Schools Were Higher In Trump Country After His Election
In spring 2017, not long after President Trump took office, bullying rates among Virginia middle school students were 18 percent higher in places where voters had chosen Trump over Hillary Clinton, a study says. There were no meaningful differences in bullying and teasing rates between Democratic and Republican localities before the 2016 election. But a statewide sample of more than 155,000 seventh- and eighth-grade students across Virginia’s 132 school districts suggested a correlation between voter preference and the rise in bullying after Trump was inaugurated. (Strauss, 1/9)

Concord Monitor: Riverbend To Set Up 24/7 Mental Health Psychiatric Facility In Concord
Concord will host the state’s first 24-hour mental health treatment center, after the Executive Council greenlit a $4.4 million contract that officials say could help ease a years-long backlog of psychiatric patients in emergency departments. The new contract with Riverbend Community Mental Health, approved by the council on Wednesday, will allow the mental health provider to set up a round-the-clock destination for those in mental or behavioral health crises to get treatment. (DeWitt, 1/9)

New Hampshire Public Radio: N.H. Awards $4.4 Million Contract For New Behavioral Health Crisis Center
The Executive Council has approved a $4.4 million contract to fund a new behavioral health crisis treatment center. The contract, awarded to Riverbend Community Health, will fund a 24/7 crisis center in Concord. (Moon, 1/9)

Austin American-Statesman: Many Workking To Shed Stigma Of Mental Illness
Lake Travis area community members have committed to tackling mental health by equipping the public with tools and resources about how to help someone who is struggling from depression, anxiety and suicidal thoughts. Local therapist Sarah Cortez said that every day, 3,000 minors attempt suicide in the country and four out of five of them showed clear warning signs. Out of those 3,000, she said, 20 percent sought mental health care. (Moreno-Lozano, 1/10)

Dallas Morning News: DeSoto Psych Hospital Seeks Feds' Oversight After Inspections Found Underage Sex, Medication Issues 
A DeSoto psychiatric hospital, which the feds say put patients in “immediate jeopardy” of harm, will continue to receive Medicare funds for at least another month as it seeks a last-ditch special arrangement with the federal government. The feds used the rare arrangement — known as a systems improvement agreement — in the past to bring Parkland Memorial Hospital and other facilities back into compliance. (Chiquillo, 1/9)

New Orleans Times-Picayune: Orleans School Board To Spend $1.3 Million On Mental Health Services 
Starting this year, the Orleans Parish School Board plans to pay $1.3 million to a local mental health day treatment program to expand mental health services to children in grades 9-12, according to a district spokeswoman Tuesday (Jan. 8). The OPSB announced last Friday that it signed a contract to work with the Center for Resilience, previously known as the New Orleans Therapeutic Day Program, to provide these services. The center teaches students with behavioral health disabilities whose needs aren’t met by traditional schools. The center and the OPSB also plan to explore the feasibility of launching a residential group home for students. (Nobles, 1/9)

Stat: With Search For Alzheimer's Drugs Failing, Tech Firms Offer Solutions 
The drug industry’s foundering search for an Alzheimer’s cure is fueling a parallel quest by technology companies to help patients and family caregivers cope with the disease by using virtual reality software, robotics, and novel communication tools. Several companies engaged in the effort gathered here on Wednesday to deliver a unified message: Waiting for pharma to deliver a miracle is a recipe for financial Armageddon, as the cost of treating Alzheimer’s is expected to quadruple, to more than $1 trillion in the U.S. by 2030, if no breakthrough treatments reach the market. (Ross, 1/10)

The Wall Street Journal: How Fertility Rates Vary Around The Country
The birthrate in America has been declining, but some places are more fertile than others, according to a new look at federal data that reveals significant variation in fertility rates around the country. Only South Dakota’s and Utah’s fertility rates reached the level needed to sustain the current population. The number of babies born in 2017, around 3.85 million, was the lowest since 1987. In order for the country’s population to essentially replace itself, researchers say that 2,100 babies should be born for every 1,000 women. In 2017, the total fertility rate—an estimate of the total number of children a woman will eventually have in her lifetime—was 1,765 births per 1,000 women, well below what is known as the replacement level. (Abbott, 1/10)

The New York Times: Artificial Sweeteners, Not Good, Not Bad
Artificial sweeteners offer no health benefits, a large review of studies found. But it found no proof that they do any harm, either. Researchers looked at 35 observational studies and 21 controlled trials of nonsugar sweeteners in children and adults. Some compared intake of sweeteners with no intake; others compared lower with higher intakes. They found no convincing evidence that nonsugar sweeteners had any effect in adults on eating behavior, cancer, cardiovascular disease, kidney disease, mood, behavior or cognition. (Bakalar, 1/9)

Miami Herald: Shingles Vaccine Shortage: Where To Get The Shot
Finding a place to get your first shot of the shingles vaccine, or second required dose, is getting as difficult as scoring “Hamilton” tickets. In South Florida alone, many pharmacy outlets at chains like Publix and Walgreens have reported problems obtaining vaccines and waiting lists are growing. (Cohen, 1/9)

The New York Times: Hormone Replacement Skin Patches Don’t Raise Risk For Blood Clots
Oral hormone replacement therapy, or H.R.T., increases the risk for potentially fatal blood clots. But a study in BMJ found that hormone replacement delivered through the skin by injection or skin patch entails no increased risk for blood clots. British researchers looked at 80,396 women who had blood clots while on various H.R.T. regimens, comparing them with 391,494 controls. (Bakalar, 1/9)

The New York Times: The Death Of The Sick Day
Adam Toren remembers the last time he crawled into bed, pulled the covers over his head and took off sick from work. “My whole family got wracked by the flu around 2006,” said Mr. Toren, a tech entrepreneur and writer. “Hopefully, that was the last time.” Thirteen years later, Mr. Toren, who lives in Phoenix, said he has not missed another day of work from illness, a streak of which he is exceedingly proud. To keep it going, “I monitor my sleep cycles,” he said, laying out the things he believes keep him healthy. “I don’t drink coffee. I drink specialty teas — Gyukuro, a Japanese tea. I take turmeric and resveratrol,” a supplement. (Kurutz, 1/10)

Los Angeles Times: Trump Threatens To Cut Off Disaster Funding For California Fire Victims
President Trump injected new uncertainty into California’s wildfire recovery efforts, tweeting early Wednesday that he has ordered the Federal Emergency Management Agency not to send more disaster funding to state officials “unless they get their act together, which is unlikely.” Neither the White House nor FEMA provided clarification, in response to emails and calls, about whether Trump’s threat was bluster like other tweets he has sent making false assertions while criticizing the state’s fire management, or if he has actually ordered a funding cutoff to thousands of Californians trying to rebuild after the devastating fires late last year. (Wire and Bierman, 1/9)

The Associated Press: Idaho Appeals Ruling Ordering Surgery For Transgender Inmate
Idaho said Wednesday it will appeal a recent court ruling ordering the state to provide gender confirmation surgery to a transgender inmate. The Idaho Department of Correction filed a notice advising U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill that the state will appeal his ruling to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The inmate would be the first in Idaho to get the procedure while in state custody and only the second inmate in the nation to receive the surgery. (1/9)

Boston Globe: A Woman Fleeing A Hospital Is Tased. Is She Protected By Federal Law For The Disabled?
When Athol Police Officer Thomas Cummings found Gray on Main Street, a quarter-mile from the hospital, he called her to come back with him to the facility. Instead, she turned and swore at him. Then she began moving toward him. What happened next is at the heart of a complicated legal question before the US Circuit Court of Appeals, which on Tuesday began to examine what constitutes reasonable force against a person with mental illness and whether a police officer’s tactics for subduing suspects with disabilities can be limited by the Americans with Disabilities Act. (Cramer, 1/10)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: The Jolt: Hints About Health Care And The Legislature Begin To Surface
Late Tuesday, House Speaker David Ralston named a 15-member special committee to implement recommendations for the improvement of rural health care in Georgia that were generated last month by, yes, another House committee. ...Governor-elect Kemp has also hinted that he would pursue a federal waiver – not concerning Medicaid, but in order to stabilize insurance premiums on Georgia’s Affordable Care Act exchange – another reason to have an insurance specialist as a top negotiator. (Galloway, Bluestein and Hallerman, 1/9)

Arizona Republic: Arizona Bill Would Classify E-Cigarettes As Tobacco Products
Arizona's existing law forbidding e-cigarette sales to youths is inadequate in curbing what has become a crisis in the state, says the sponsor of a new bill targeting minors' access to vaping products. Surrounded by school and public health officials, state Sen.-elect Heather Carter, R-Cave Creek, on Tuesday announced she would sponsor a bill this legislative session to reclassify e-cigarettes as tobacco products. (Innes, 1/9)

Tampa Bay Times: Johns Hopkins Hires Former Prosecutor To Investigate All Children’s Heart Institute
The Johns Hopkins Medicine Board of Trustees has appointed a former federal prosecutor to lead its investigation into the Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital’s heart surgery unit, the health system announced late Tuesday. F. Joseph Warin, of the global law firm Gibson Dunn, and his team will review the high mortality rates and other problems at the hospital’s Heart Institute and report back to a special committee of the board of trustees by May, the health system said. (McGrory and Bedi, 1/9)

Kansas City Star: Towns, Hospitals Look To Cut Ties With Struggling EmpowerHMS
EmpowerHMS, the North Kansas City-based company that manages their hospital, owes the city thousands in unpaid utility bills. A check written to the city in December bounced, and Paine, the city administrator, can’t get anybody from the company to resolve it. (Marso, 1/10)

The Associated Press: Arkansas Moves Closer Toward Launching Medical Pot Program
An Arkansas panel on Wednesday named 32 companies it intends to license to sell medical marijuana, two years after voters approved its legalization and following a series of delays that have frustrated patients and advocates. The state Medical Marijuana Commission approved the scores from an outside consultant it had hired to evaluate about 200 applications for dispensaries. (1/9)

Baltimore Sun: Use Drones To Deliver Organs For Transplant? Baltimore Surgeon Says It Would Save Precious Time, Money
At a Southern Maryland airfield, Dr. Joseph Scalea watched a drone carrying a kidney in a cardboard cooler fly 3 miles.The test flight, repeated 14 times, was the culmination of three years’ work by the University of Maryland Medical Center transplant surgeon, who sees the unmanned aircraft as the ultimate method for delivering life-saving organs from donors to recipients. (Cohn, 1/10)

Austin American-Statesman: Water Issues Draw Attention In Texas Town Of Rockdale
This month, the Rockdale City Council could vote to raise water rates to replace miles of corroded pipes. But any rate increase would come as Rockdale is trying to fight out of an economic tailspin as medical facilities close, school enrollment dwindles, drug problems persist, and a manufacturing base evaporates. (Price, 1/9)

St. Louis Public Radio: St. Louis Emergency-Room Doctors Raise Concerns Over Rising Rate Of Scooter Injuries
Since electric rental scooters hit the streets of St. Louis last summer, emergency-room doctors have seen dozens of scooter-related injuries, including broken bones and serious head trauma. Rental services Bird and Lime introduced St. Louis to the motorized scooters in August. Doctors at the Washington University School of Medicine started seeing an increase in scooter-related injuries almost immediately. (Farzan and Petrin, 1/10)

The Philadelphia Inquirer: Need Affordable Senior Housing? You May Be Waiting Years As Philly, Nation Grapple With Long Wait Lists.
The new development, called Cantrell Place, had been in the works since 2011 when Montgomery County-based developer Presby’s Inspired Life envisioned the senior housing community. Before finally opening its doors in December, Presby had spent the time drawing up plans, assembling land, and applying for funding over and over again. The 61 one-bedroom units, with space for seniors who make as little as $12,240 and as much as $36,708 annually, had been more than seven years in the making. (McCabe, 1/10)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Smoking In Georgia: The Real Cost Of Being A Smoker
According to WalletHub, the real lifetime cost of smoking per smoker in Georgia is $1,396,882, a yearly cost of $27,390. The Peach State is actually the least costly of all the 50 states (and D.C.), followed by Missouri and North Carolina. (Pirani, 1/9)

The Associated Press: Virginia Firm Says It Has License To Study Medical Marijuana
A research firm in Virginia says it has gotten a federal license to import high-quality extracts of marijuana for medical research. The Virginian-Pilot reported Wednesday that Sanyal Biotechnology will soon embark on a series of critical studies into treatment of various diseases and disorders. (1/10)

The Baltimore Sun: University Of Maryland Medical Center Midtown Campus Upgrades Behavioral Health Care Unit 
Almost a year after an embarrassing patient-dumping incident, the University of Maryland Medical Center Midtown Campus announced an overhaul of its behavioral health unit so it can see more patients arriving in crisis at the Baltimore hospital. The move consolidates services between the midtown campus and the medical center’s nearby downtown campus, with admissions expected to rise at the former and drop at the latter. (Cohn, 1/9)

Health News Florida: Court Digs Into Marijuana Smoking Ban
Newly minted Gov. Ron DeSantis has indicated he may drop the state’s appeal of a court decision that said a Florida law banning patients from smoking medical marijuana is unconstitutional. But on the same day the Republican successor to former Gov. Rick Scott was sworn into office, lawyers for the state tried to persuade a three-judge panel to uphold the smoking prohibition. (Kam, 1/9)

Cleveland Plain Dealer: State Clears Hocking College To Test Ohio Medical Marijuana
State regulators gave Hocking College a certificate of operation for its medical marijuana testing lab Tuesday, and school employees were traveling to Northeast Ohio on Wednesday to pick up the first batch of the drug. In other Ohio Medical Marijuana Control Program news Wednesday, the state announced 13 companies will receive provisional licenses to begin building medical marijuana processing facilities. (Hancock, 1/9)

Health Affairs: Homelessness Contributes To Pregnancy Complications
Homelessness during pregnancy poses significant health risks for mothers and infants. As health care providers increase their emphasis on social determinants of health, it is important to understand how unstable housing contributes to complications during pregnancy. We linked data about emergency shelter enrollees with Massachusetts Medicaid claims for the period January 1, 2008–June 30, 2015 to compare health care use and pregnancy complications for 9,124 women who used emergency shelter with those for 8,757 similar women who did not. Rates of mental illness and substance use disorders were significantly higher among homeless women. (Clark et al, 1/1)

The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation: Medicaid: What To Watch In 2019 From The Administration, Congress, And The States
Medicaid, the provider of health insurance coverage for about one in five Americans and the largest payer for long-term care services in the community and nursing homes, continues to be a key part of health policy debates at the federal and state level. Important Medicaid issues to watch in 2019 include Medicaid expansion developments amid ongoing litigation about the ACA’s constitutionality as well as Medicaid demonstration waiver activities, including those focused on work requirements and other eligibility restrictions. (Rudowitz, Musumeci and Artiga, 1/8)

Pediatrics: An Educational Intervention To Improve HPV Vaccination: A Cluster Randomized Trial
A total of 1596 eligible adolescents were observed during the 7-month trial. One-third of adolescents visited an intervention clinic. Adolescents who attended an intervention clinic were more likely to be younger (11–12 years) than those who attended a control clinic (72.4% vs 49.8%; P < .001). No differences in race or sex were observed. The proportion of adolescents with an observed change in vaccine status was higher for those attending an intervention clinic (64.8%) versus control clinic (50.1%; odds ratio, 1.82; 95% confidence interval, 1.47–2.25; P < .001). Adolescents whose parents watched the video had a 3-times greater odds of receiving a dose of the HPV vaccine (78.0%; odds ratio, 3.07; 95% confidence interval, 1.47–6.42; P = .003). (Dixon et al, 1/1)

JAMA Internal Medicine: Effect Of A Biobehavioral Environmental Approach On Disability Among Low-Income Older Adults: A Randomized Clinical Trial.
In this randomized clinical trial of 300 low-income older adults with disability, participation in a person-directed program resulted in a 30% reduction in disability scores compared with the results achieved in an attention control group. (Szanton et al, 1/7)

Stat: Medicare For All Is About Trade-Offs, Not Rights And Privileges
Is health care a right or a privilege? That question dominates our thinking about U.S. health policy and often shapes critical political choices. Unfortunately, it also prevents an honest discussion about the trade-offs in health coverage. If you believe health care is a right, how do we pay for universal health care? If you view health care as a privilege, what happens to the millions of uninsured Americans? Take the Medicare for All bill (S. 1804) introduced by Sen. Bernie Sanders. Its primary benefit is universal health coverage without any direct cost to individuals. This would be an incredible achievement, especially for the nearly 30 million uninsured individuals in the U.S., whose lack of coverage leads to approximately 45,000 deaths a year. (Andrew Schuette and Peter Boumgarden, 1/10)

Washington Examiner: While Democrats Push Government Healthcare, Canadians Wait Nearly 5 Months For Treatment
Last year, Canadians waited a median of almost 20 weeks to receive specialist treatment after being referred by a general practitioner, according to a new report from The Fraser Institute. In practical terms, that's the equivalent of getting a referral this week and waiting until May for treatment. Such waits are endemic to government-run healthcare systems. (Sally Pipes, 1/9)

The Washington Post: On Health Care, Democrats Aren’t Messing Around
Health care was one of the key issues that drove the Democratic surge in last November’s elections, and as the new year begins, Democrats both in Congress and at the state level are wasting no time in moving to expand access to health coverage. As the saying goes, elections have consequences, and the consequences on this issue are shaping up to be pretty dramatic. (Paul Waldman, 1/9)

Bloomberg: Google For Health Care: It Knows You Better Than Your Doctor Does
Thanks to a combination of Google, WebMD and the $6,000 deductible on my health insurance, I haven’t been to a doctor to talk about an illness in years. Millions of Americans have similar habits; in fact, one in 20 Google searches are for health-related information. "Dr. Google" may not have an MD or a board certification, but it does have the clinical knowledge of a primary care provider who sees millions of patients a year. (Elaine Ou, 1/9)

New England Journal of Medicine: The Anti-Trans Memo — Abandoning Doctors And Patients 
A proposed redefinition of gender as a “biological, immutable condition determined by a person’s genitalia at birth” would have damaging repercussions for vulnerable communities that have faced discrimination from health care providers, hospitals, insurers, and others. (Jocelyn Samuels and Mara Keisling, 1/10)

The Hill: The Flu Is A Far Greater Threat Than Anything Carried By People Crossing The Southern Border
Influenza will remain a threat to those in and at the border facilities throughout the flu season, but influenza emanating from these border facilities poses no substantial threat to the general public. The U.S. is already experiencing widespread flu activity and, as I have argued before, the disease threat from indigenous and ordinary travel-related infections is far greater than infections carried by people crossing the southern border. Influenza is one of the most important infectious disease threats the we face, and vigilance against it in all settings is warranted. (Amesh Adalja, 1/9)

New England Journal of Medicine: Focusing On Population Health At Scale — Joining Policy And Technology To Improve Health
Research shows that investments outside health care can improve health and fiscal outcomes. But addressing all the factors that affect health will require new ways of thinking, collaboration, and accountability on the part of both health care and government leaders. (Aaron McKethan, Seth A. Berkowitz and Mandy Cohen, 1/10)

Stat: NIH Obstacles Get In The Way Of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis Research
When I first developed myalgic encephalomyelitis in 1994, I had no idea that I would be just as sick 25 years later, or that there would still be limited scientific understanding of the disease and no effective treatments. Nor did I imagine that my career as a lawyer was over, and that I would instead become an advocate for myself and others with ME (sometimes misleadingly called chronic fatigue syndrome, and referred to as ME/CFS by U.S. federal agencies). An estimated 1 million Americans with this condition have been living for decades in the crisis mode of disability and lack of treatment. We have repeatedly pressed the National Institutes of Health to address the problem by increasing research funding; one ME/CFS organization even met with NIH Director Francis Collins in December 2018 to make that point. The response from the NIH is always the same: Researchers should submit more high-quality grant applications. (Jennifer Spotila, 1/10)

The New York Times: You Should Meditate Every Day
It’s the subject of countless books, podcasts, conferences, a million-dollar app war. It’s extolled by C.E.O.s and entertainers and even taught in my kids’ elementary school (again, it’s Northern California). The fad is backed by reams of scientific research showing the benefits of mindfulness for your physical and mental health — how even short-term stints improve your attention span and your ability to focus, your memory, and other cognitive functions. (Farhad Manjoo, 1/9)

Houston Chronicle: No More Obamacare? Six Ways Texas Can Protect Health Care If ACA Goes Down
The ongoing lawsuit led by the Texas attorney general to invalidate the entire Affordable Care Act is misguided and bad for Texas. (Ken Janda, 1/9)

Tallahassee Democrat: Gov. DeSantis, Will You Honor The Right To Quality Health Care?
As we saw and heard, pre-existing conditions were a hot topic during the recent midterm elections. As a Floridian who is burdened with multiple sclerosis, I now find myself a watchdog, waiting to hear from Ron DeSantis, Florida’s new governor, on his action for the 7.8 million Floridians living with pre-existing conditions.Our former congressman — now our governor — voted to limit access to coverage for persons with pre-existing conditions by supporting the House Republican’s American HealthCare Act in 2012. This stance jeopardized insurance coverage with insurance companies for millions of Americans. Now, our governor supports Trumpcare, which repeals patient protections and the Affordable Care Act. (Ashley E. Smith, 1/10)