Politico: The Selling Of Obamacare 2.0
The second year of Obamacare enrollment starts Saturday, and the administration is launching a much more precise strategy that uses targeted digital ads, aims at specific demographics and leverages social media, according to senior administration officials who briefed Politico. (Kenen, 11/13)

Politico Pro: The New, Improved Language Of Obamacare
Obamacare has a language all its own. But few Americans are fluent. A year ago the law’s supporters were discussing “navigators,” “advanced premium tax credits” and “qualifying life events” — not a vocabulary that primed people to want to hear more. (Villacorta, 11/12)

CBS News: Will Healthcare.gov Work When Open Enrollment Begins Saturday?
Will Healthcare.gov work when open enrollment begins on Saturday? That's the question on the minds of Americans who will be logging on to buy health insurance on the government's website. ... In an interview with CBS News National Correspondent Wyatt Andrews, [CEO Kevin] Counihan was confident about the website's functionality, saying, "This is not last year. This is not last year." (11/13)

Connecticut Mirror: Four Things To Watch During Obamacare Open Enrollment
The second enrollment period for private health insurance under Obamacare begins Saturday and runs through Feb. 15. With that will come a barrage of ads aimed at getting people to sign up, thousands of customers facing decisions about their plans, and lots of eyes on how well things are going at a key time for one of the country’s most controversial laws. (Becker, 11/13)

California Healthline: What The Insiders Will Be Watching During The ACA's Second Open Enrollment Period
The ACA and the open enrollment period are about more than just numbers. With that in mind, California Healthline spoke with several insiders to find out what other issues they'll be paying attention to during the second enrollment period. (Wilson, 11/12)

USA Today: Feds, States Add Help For Health Care Open Enrollment
The federal and state health insurance exchanges open for business Saturday amid guarded optimism that the seemingly successful window-shopping period on HealthCare.gov earlier this week suggests things will go better than last year's torturous roll-out. The federal HealthCare.gov site will have 1,000 more people at its call center. More insurance assistants, known as navigators, have been added in many states. (O'Donnell and Unger, 11/12)

And a new site to compare doctors launches on Monday, giving consumers more tools to choose the right plans for them --

USA Today: New Doctors Site Rates For Experience, Quality
The first comprehensive physician rating and comparison database launches Monday in time for open enrollment on federal and state health exchanges, as well as for many employer-provided plans. The new version of the website Healthgrades.com uses about 500 million claims from federal and private sources and patient reviews to rate and rank doctors based on their experience, complication rates at the hospitals where they practice and patient satisfaction. (O'Donnell, 11/12)

CQ Healthbeat: State Health Exchanges Emphasize Individual Help In Year Two
Directors of leading state insurance exchanges painted an upbeat picture of their upcoming open enrollment periods, saying Wednesday they’ve hired more customer service representatives, added storefront sites to provide personal assistance, tweaked websites to more easily connect visitors to insurance agents and made it easier for uninsured people to window shop for a plan. Peter Lee, executive director of Covered California, drew a sharp contrast to the gloomy atmosphere surrounding the health law’s coverage expansion emanating from Washington. (Reichard, 11/12)

The Associated Press: Audit Faults Minnesota Public Health Care Programs
Minnesota's Department of Human Services fails to adequately verify the eligibility of people who enroll in public health care programs through MNsure, the state's health insurance exchange, the state's legislative auditor reported Wednesday. The nonpartisan Office of the Legislative Auditor found several instances where the department paid for benefits to people enrolled in Medical Assistance and MinnesotaCare who weren't eligible because their incomes were too high or other errors and suggested that the problem is widespread. (Karnowski, 11/12)

Minnesota Star Tribune: Report: Lax Screening Of MNsure Enrollees Cost Taxpayers Money
The audit looked at a sample of 193 people who enrolled in the programs between October 2013 and April 2014, and found that nearly 17 percent received wrong answers about the benefits they should receive. The report stoked partisan debate during a hearing near the State Capitol, where MNsure officials reported progress in preparing the health exchange website for open enrollment that starts Saturday. “We certainly found evidence that these errors were costing taxpayers money,” Cecile Ferkul, the deputy legislative auditor, said in an interview. (Snowbeck, 11/12)

The Wall Street Journal: New York State Website Gets A Reboot
New York state has revamped its long-outdated website, ny.gov, with an emphasis on making it more user-friendly. The new site features bright blue and gold boxes in place of the old dark navy background and long, confusing menu lists have been eliminated. (Wilson, 11/12)

The Associated Press: New York Health Exchange Premiums To Rise
Deductibles and co-payments will be flat but premiums will rise about 4.5 percent for individuals and families during the second year of New York's health exchange, according to state officials. Meanwhile, a nonprofit group's survey showed general satisfaction among those who got insurance the first year, though nearly one-fourth reported some difficulty getting accepted by doctors as a new patient. (11/12)

The Baltimore Sun: Maryland Health Exchange Ready For Signups, Officials Say
Maryland's health insurance exchange has been tested and is ready for consumers to begin buying policies Saturday during the first enrollment fair of the season, according to Isabel FitzGerald, the state's information technology secretary brought in to ready the online portal. "The only thing left to do is go live on the 15th," she told the exchange board Wednesday during its last scheduled meeting before the new website's launch. (Cohn, 11/12)

Bloomberg: Obamacare’s Army Of Workers Learns To Cope With Setbacks
The questions kept coming up across Michigan as soon as the Supreme Court said it would take up a case that could reshape Obamacare by ending insurance subsidies in many states. Dizzy Warren, director of Michigan’s biggest health-care enrollment group, dealt with it in her presentation to health-care advocates last week in Detroit, then again on yesterday’s conference call with 57 workers: What do we do now? Her answer? “Keep calm and keep enrolling,” she said. (Wayne, 11/13)

The Wall Street Journal: Surprises Lurk For People Re-Enrolling On Healthcare.gov
In a twist, an influx of lower-priced health plans on HealthCare.gov could lead many Americans to pay more for coverage next year thanks to smaller insurance tax credits. A handful of insurers in 14 states are offering aggressively low premiums on the federal insurance enrollment site, which reopens Saturday, in a bid to undercut big rivals who snapped up customers last year. (Radnofsky, 11/13)

Fox News: What's Next For Obamacare?
Now that the midterm elections – featuring ObamaCare as a key issue – are over, the big question is what’s next for the president’s health care plan. (Angle, 11/12)

The Associated Press: Four Americans: How The Health Law Affected Them
More than 7 million people have signed up for private health insurance under the system introduced last year for those who were uninsured or had policies considered substandard. What happened to them since has varied greatly. Many have been happy with their new insurance, according to polls. Others are encountering a variety of snags — high premiums, telephone runarounds or difficulty getting care. Together their experiences provide a glimpse of how the largest social program launched since Medicare has worked out for the people involved. (11/13)

The Hill: Donations Drop For ObamaCare Enrollment
The nonprofit group charged with bringing uninsured Americans into ObamaCare's exchanges raised $7 million less to support its efforts this year than during the buildup to the healthcare law's rollout in 2013. Enroll America announced that it has $20 million to spend on outreach for the 2015 sign-up period beginning Saturday. The group touted more than $27 million in fundraising at this time last year. (Viebeck, 11/12)

Other reports take a look at small businesses' attitudes toward the health law as well as how the overhaul is impacting rural hospitals -

The Associated Press: Less Angst Over Health Care At Small Businesses
Small business owners are less angst-ridden about health care than you might think. Health care costs are in second place among owners' major concerns in a survey released Thursday by Bank of America. Seventy-two percent cited health care costs as a big concern, down from 74 percent in a similar survey in the spring. The No. 1 concern was the effectiveness of government leaders, cited by 74 percent versus 75 percent in the spring. (Rosenberg, 11/13)

USA Today: Rural Hospitals In Critical Condition
Since the beginning of 2010, 43 rural hospitals — with a total of more than 1,500 beds — have closed, according to data from the North Carolina Rural Health Research Program. The pace of closures has quickened: from 3 in 2010 to 13 in 2013, and 12 already this year. Georgia alone has lost five rural hospitals since 2012, and at least six more are teetering on the brink of collapse. Each of the state's closed hospitals served about 10,000 people — a lot for remaining area hospitals to absorb. The Affordable Care Act was designed to improve access to health care for all Americans and will give them another chance at getting health insurance during open enrollment starting this Saturday. But critics say the ACA is also accelerating the demise of rural outposts that cater to many of society's most vulnerable. These hospitals treat some of the sickest and poorest patients — those least aware of how to stay healthy. Hospital officials contend that the law's penalties for having to re-admit patients soon after they're released are impossible to avoid and create a crushing burden (O'Donnell and Unger, 11/12)

The Wall Street Journal: Appeals Court Cancels Arguments On Health Law Subsidies
A federal appeals court on Wednesday canceled December arguments over health insurance tax credits under the Affordable Care Act, following the Supreme Court’s Nov. 7 decision to review the issue itself. The Supreme Court last week accepted an appeal in a separate lawsuit from Virginia, King v. Burwell, that challenged the subsidies and made it likely the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit would halt work on the case it was reviewing. Arguments in the Virginia case will be held in early 2015 with a decision before July. The D.C. Circuit said it would pick up review of its case, Halbig v. Burwell, after the Supreme Court rules in the Virginia case. (Bravin, 11/12)

The Associated Press: ObamaCare Case Pulled From Appeals Court Schedule
A federal appeals court on Wednesday delayed plans to handle a challenge to the Obama administration's health care law because the Supreme Court is stepping into a separate case covering the same legal ground. On Wednesday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit decided not to move forward with an Obamacare case that was to have been argued on Dec. 17. It will be held back until the Supreme Court rules on its case, probably in late June. (11/12)

Also, the Fiscal Times examines what would happen if the High Court rules against the Obama administration -

The Fiscal Times: Here’s What Might Happen If SCOTUS Rules Against Obamacare
If the Court rules in favor of King, 4.6 million people will lose access to the subsidies that make their health coverage affordable. Similarly, the employer mandate would take a hit in those states as well. (Ehley, 11/12)

The Des Moines Register: Medicaid Expansion Slashes Hospitals' Uninsured Rates
The number of hospitalized Iowans lacking health insurance dropped by nearly half in the first six months of the year, mainly because the state decided to expand its Medicaid program, hospital leaders said Wednesday. The Iowa Hospital Association said about 4,445 patients lacking health insurance were hospitalized in Iowa from January through June of 2014. That was a 46 percent decline from the 8,181 uninsured patients hospitalized during the same period in 2013. (Leys, 11/12)

Quad City Times: Hospital Group Study: Iowa's Medicaid Expansion Is Working
A survey of Iowa hospitals has shown substantial savings that are being credited mainly to the state's expanded Medicaid program, findings that are mirrored by Quad-City hospitals. The Iowa Hospital Association surveyed 101 hospitals across the state from January through June of this year and made comparisons with the number of patients seeking care who had or did not have health insurance coverage. ... At Trinity Bettendorf, the rate is more like 50 percent, Greg Pagliuzza, the chief financial officer for UnityPoint Health Trinity, said Wednesday. The reductions in Iowa are due to Medicaid expansion through the Iowa Health and Wellness Plan, which resulted from passage of the Affordable Care Act, commonly called Obamacare. (Baker, 11/12)

California Healthline: Medi-Cal Enrollment Jumps To 11.3 Million
The state Medi-Cal system has taken on 2.7 million more Californians since October 2013. That's an increase of 31% from the 8.6 million previously enrolled. The jump brings the current number of Californians in the Medi-Cal program to 11.3 million -- roughly 30% of the state's population. Medi-Cal is California's Medicaid program. (Gorn, 11/12)

The Texas Tribune: Perry-Appointed Board Backs Health Coverage Expansion
A board of medical professionals appointed by Gov. Rick Perry said Wednesday that the state should provide health coverage to low-income Texans under the Affordable Care Act — a move the Republican-led Legislature has opposed. The 15-member Texas Institute of Health Care Quality and Efficiency recommended that the state’s health commissioner be authorized to negotiate a Texas-specific agreement with the federal government to expand health coverage to the poor, “using available federal funds.” (Walters, 11/12)

In other Medicaid news, a government report says more should be done to ensure poor kids get guaranteed health care -

Kaiser Health News: Millions Of Medicaid Kids Missing Regular Checkups
Millions of low-income children are failing to get the free preventive exams and screenings guaranteed by Medicaid and the Obama administration is not doing enough to fix the problem, according to a federal watchdog report. The report, released Thursday by the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General (OIG), says the administration has boosted rates of participation but needs to do more to ensure that children get the regular wellness exams, dental checkups and vision and hearing tests. The report notes that 63 percent of children on Medicaid received at least one medical screening in 2013, up from 56 percent in 2006, but still far below the department’s 80 percent goal. (Galewitz, 11/13)

The Washington Post: GOP’s Anti-Obamacare Push Gains New Momentum In Wake Of Gruber Video
The Republican Party’s ardent campaign against President Obama’s health-care law gained new momentum Wednesday as lawmakers reacted angrily to assertions by an architect of the policy that it was crafted in a deliberately deceptive way in order to pass Congress. On both sides of the Capitol, leading conservatives said they may call economist Jonathan Gruber to testify about his remarks, which were made last year and surfaced this week in a video on social media. (Costa and DelReal, 11/12)

CNN: Third Video Emerges Of Obamacare Architect Insulting Voters
A third video emerged Wednesday of MIT economist Jonathan Gruber, one of the architects of the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, insulting voters and suggesting their ignorance was exploited by those pushing passage of the health care law. (Tapper, 11/12)

Fox News: Yet Another Video Shows Obamacare Architect Disparaging Voter Intelligence
Yet another video has surfaced of ObamaCare architect Jonathan Gruber crediting the passage of the health care bill in part to American voters’ lack of intelligence. (11/13)

The Wall Street Journal: GOP-Led Senate Budget Committee Could Sidestep Key Decisions
Sen. Jeff Sessions, expected to be the next chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, said he likely would defer key decisions on spending and taxes to other panels next year. Instead, the Alabama Republican said his goal will be to unify the GOP majority around specific spending and tax targets and then allow other congressional committees to design policies to meet those targets. ... That would be a significant break from the past few years, when House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R., Wis.) proposed sweeping changes to a number of programs, including Medicare and Medicaid, as a way to meet budget targets. (Paletta, 11/12)

The Washington Post: Parties Head Back To Capitol To Begin Carving Up Spoils, Remains From Midterms
The most significant fights inside each caucus might be the battles for top committee posts. Rep. Paul Ryan (Wis.), ending an eight-year run as the leading Republican on the Budget Committee, is the strong favorite to win the chairmanship of the Ways and Means Committee, given his considerable clout after his 2012 stint as vice-presidential nominee, but first he must secure the votes over Rep. Kevin Brady (Tex.), who has more seniority on the panel. (Kane, 11/12)

The Wall Street Journal: Who Will Run CBO Next?
The term of current CBO Director Douglas Elmendorf, put in office by congressional Democrats, expires in early January. Though he has won plaudits from Republican lawmakers, they could decide they want an economist with conservative credentials to run the budget shop. CBO’s role can’t be overstated. It analyzes and scores congressional proposals, including tax, spending and health-care plans, and it is supposed to offer an unbiased view on both the costs and benefits of particular policies. If Republicans want to rewrite the tax code, or rework Medicaid, CBO’s rulings on the matter could be paramount. (Paletta, 11/12)

Bloomberg: Maybe You Don't Need Long-Term Care Insurance After All
The biggest threat to a retiree's nest egg isn't a stock market crash. It's a long illness requiring round-the-clock care. The statistics behind that scenario -- $81,000 a year for a nursing home, $184,000 for 24-hour home care -- are what sells long-term care insurance policies. But while past research suggested that many more people needed the coverage than bought it, a new study suggests that most people should just skip it. The study, by Boston College's Center for Retirement Research, focused on singles, who now make up the majority of Americans. Long-term care insurance makes financial sense only for the richest 20 to 30 percent of unmarried people, it finds. For the rest, it makes more sense to go without. If they need care, spending down their assets and then letting Medicaid pick up the tab is the most practical solution. (Steverman, 11/12)

The Wall Street Journal: UnitedHealth Creates Office Of CEO
UnitedHealth Group Inc. announced an executive shuffle that elevates two key leaders, positioning them for a race to succeed current Chief Executive Stephen J. Hemsley . The parent of the biggest U.S. health insurer said that, effective immediately, it would form a new Office of the Chief Executive, which, in addition to Mr. Hemsley, will include David S. Wichmann as president and Larry C. Renfro as vice chairman, as well as executives focusing on legal matters and human resources. (Wilde Mathews, 11/12)

Health News Florida: WellCare Questions Medicare Ratings
Medicare Advantage plans that draw a lot of their enrollment from the poor side of town say they're at a disadvantage on the government's five-star ratings scale, which commands respect and governs pay. One company pressing the issue is WellCare Health Plans, based in Tampa. Its Medicare Advantage plans are rated at 3 or 3 1/2 stars, below the 4-star minimum required for plans to qualify for bonus payments. Plans' premium and bonus payments are kept confidential, but other media report that the bonuses amount to a few hundred dollars per member. (Gentry, 11/11)

The Wall Street Journal's Pharmalot: Pharma Trade Group Head Causes A Stir With A Remark About Patents
File this under ‘Nothing like getting off to a good start.’ Last week, Stefan Oschmann, the chief executive officer at Merck KGgA, was elected president of the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association, a trade group for drug makers that is based in Europe. ... on the same day that his appointment was announced, Oschmann appeared at a health care conference last week in New York, where he said something that upset patient advocacy groups. What was that? “There is zero evidence that intellectual property is a hindrance to access to medicines,” Oschmann remarked, according to a Tweet by the Eli Lilly LLY +0.06% Twitter account. (Silverman, 11/12)

Politico: Ebola Money Fight An Early Lame-Duck Test
The White House is seeking $6.18 billion to cope with the crisis — an early post-election test of whether the two political parties can work together on a health issue that has known no ideology. And Wednesday’s hearing before the Senate Appropriations Committee amounted to a full court press to quickly attach the emergency funds to a year-end spending bill to keep the government funded through September 2015. (Rogers, 11/12)

Politico: DoD To Deploy Fewer Troops In Ebola Fight
The Pentagon is sending about 1,000 fewer troops to fight Ebola in West Africa than it previously planned, officials said Wednesday. The military is now on track to deploy about only 3,000 troops, down from the previous estimate of 4,000 or more, said Maj. Gen. Gary Volesky, commander of the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), who was among the U.S. officials who briefed reporters at the Pentagon via satellite. (Ewing, 11/12)

The Associated Press: Missouri Abortion Clinic Inspections Bill Returns
A Missouri lawmaker is trying again to require health inspections of abortion clinics. State Sen. Wayne Wallingford has submitted legislation that would mandate the Department of Health and Senior Services conduct annual health inspections of certain abortion clinics. The bill is scheduled to be introduced during the General Assembly session that begins in January. (11/13)

The Denver Post: Colorado Hands Out $975,000 In Pot Funds For School Nurses, Counselors
After taking applications for about a month from school districts looking to hire health workers with funds from marijuana revenue, the state on Wednesday awarded more than $975,000 of grants. The legislature set aside $2.5 million from marijuana tax revenue for schools to hire more health professionals including nurses, counselors, social workers and psychologists. (Robles, 11/13)

WBUR: Mass. Town Considers First-In-The-Nation Ban On All Tobacco Sales
A town in north-central Massachusetts is considering banning the sale of all tobacco products — the first such sweeping measure in the country. The proposal has Westminster businesses up in arms, while the town’s health board says it’s concerned about the effects of smoking and minors having access to tobacco products. (Enwemeka, 11/12)

Sacramento Bee: Nurses Strike Is Part Of Larger Labor Push
A strike during the past two days by 18,000 nurses at Kaiser Permanente facilities in northern and central California, including three major Sacramento-area hospitals, was the latest salvo by a powerful union that says it is intent on improving the lot of nurses nationwide. (Sangree, 11/12)

Sacramento Bee: New Law Requires California Schools To Stock Epinephrine Injectors For Allergic Children
Now, with the passage of a new law in September, all schools in California will be required to stock at least one injector that is prescribed to the school or district, rather than a specific person, and to train at least one staff member on how to use it. (Caiola, 11/12)

The Texas Tribune: Site To Inform Low-Income Women About Health Services
Low-income Texas women seeking services like breast and cervical cancer screenings and mental health treatment now have a reliable place to learn about the steps they need to take, Texas Health and Human Services Commissioner Kyle Janek said Wednesday as he unveiled a new state website. Called healthytexaswomen.org, visitors to the web portal choose the service they are seeking and are directed to a list of programs, including Medicaid, the Texas Women's Health Program and others, that provide the services. Women can click on external links to the programs and services to find clinics or doctors near them. (Blanchard, 11/12)

The Oregonian: By The Numbers: Who Uses Oregon's Death With Dignity Law
Oregon's first-in-the-nation Death with Dignity law turned 20 this month, establishing a substantial record of who dies and why. As of last year, 1,173 Oregonians have qualified for lethal prescriptions, and 752 patients have used them to end their lives. The typical participant was white, well-educated, over 65 years old and suffering from terminal cancer. (Harbarger, 11/12)

The Associated Press: NY Lawmakers Probe Care For Mentally Ill Inmates
New York lawmakers examining mental illness among inmates in the state's prisons and jails were set to hear from authorities and advocates following reports of afflicted prisoners getting inadequate care, including an ex-Marine who died alone in an overheated cell at New York City's Rikers Island. The joint hearing by the Assembly committees on correction and mental health called for testimony about troubled inmates' status statewide and prison alternatives, treatment, recidivism and efforts to help them recover. (Virtanen, 11/13)

Los Angeles Times: In Push To Keep Mentally Ill Out Of Jail, County To Expand Crisis Centers
At the urging of Dist. Atty. Jackie Lacey and others lobbying to keep mentally ill people from being locked up in county jails, Los Angeles County supervisors voted Wednesday to fund several programs for people undergoing psychiatric crises. The supervisors voted to use $40.9 million in state funding for opening three new 24-hour psychiatric urgent care centers, where police can bring people undergoing mental health crises instead of taking them to overcrowded emergency rooms or jail. (Sewell, 11/12)

North Carolina Health News: New State Cancer Plan: Many Goals, Fewer Resources
In North Carolina, about 90,000 people will be diagnosed with cancer this coming year and about 19,000 will die from the disease. In 2009, cancer became the leading cause of death in North Carolina for people under 65, surpassing deaths from heart disease. Now state officials are working on a new plan, unveiled late last week, to reduce the burden of cancer. The plan – which received input from cancer patients, survivors and advocates, as well as legislators – is a broad document that is as yet without a lot of specifics. Ruth Petersen, chief of the Chronic Disease and Injury Section of the state’s Department of Health and Human Services, admitted that the current political and reimbursement environment makes getting preventive services, treatment and follow-up care to all the people diagnosed with cancer challenging. (Hoban, 11/13)

The Wall Street Journal's Washington Wire: How Will Senate Republicans Use ‘Reconciliation’?
In Washington, “reconciliation” allows a budget road map to pass with a simple majority vote in both chambers. This is most important in the Senate, where otherwise 60 votes are required to cut off debate on legislative proposals. Democrats used reconciliation to pass the Affordable Care Act in 2010 over stiff Republican opposition. Now that the Republicans have won control of the Senate, they will soon be in a position to return the favor. As long as a topic requires spending money or changing taxes, it can be included in reconciliation legislation. A key question is how many of the far-reaching proposals likely to come out of the House–such as repeal of the Affordable Care Act, changing Medicare to a premium-support system, changing Medicaid to block grants, or fundamental tax reform–would Senate Republicans want to push through in the reconciliation process. (Robert Litan, 11/12)

The New York Times' The Upshot: The Jonathan Gruber Controversy And Washington’s Dirty Little Secret
But here’s the dirty little secret: Mr. Gruber was exposing something sordid yet completely commonplace about how Congress makes policy of all types: Legislators frequently game policy to fit the sometimes arbitrary conventions by which the Congressional Budget Office evaluates laws and the public debates them. In the case of the Affordable Care Act, that meant structuring the law so that the money Americans must pay the Internal Revenue Service if they fail to obtain health insurance under the law’s mandate is a penalty, not a tax. (Neil Irwin, 11/12)

The Fiscal Times: MIT Prof Proves Obamacare Was Built By Elites For 'Stupid People'
Critics of the Affordable Care Act have long called the law and its fiscal projections inaccurate, deceptive, and completely unrealistic. The staggered structure of revenues and outlays were designed to get the Congressional Budget Office to deliver a deficit-neutral verdict on the bill just long enough to gain passage, even though every year in which outlays and income take place produced deficit spending even under the rosiest projections. (Edward Morrissey, 11/13)

The Washington Post: Will Obamacare Separate Scalia From His Principles?
Republican leaders in the House and Senate have made clear that they’ll deploy every weapon in the legislative arsenal to repeal the Affordable Care Act. They’ll try to chip away at the taxes that support it and abolish the mandates that make its insurance markets work. They might even stand on their heads and stop breathing if that would do the trick. ... It’s something else again if another part of the conservative power structure does a lot of the dirty work in undermining the law before Congress has to. I refer here to the hyper-activist conservative justices on our Supreme Court. (E.J. Dionne Jr., 11/12)

Los Angeles Times: History Gives Clues To Chief Justice Roberts' Thinking On New Obamacare Case
The Supreme Court's surprising decision last week to hear a new challenge to the Affordable Care Act has once again focused attention on Chief Justice John Roberts, who cast the deciding vote in a 2012 decision that saved Obamacare from being declared unconstitutional. Many court watchers expect that he will once again be the swing vote in deciding a case crucial to the healthcare law, this one involving questions about who qualifies for subsidies under the law. But Roberts' vote in a recent voting rights case suggests he might not step in to save the health law this time. (Richard L. Hasen, 11/12)

The New York Times: Law In The Raw
Nearly a week has gone by since the Supreme Court’s unexpected decision to enlist in the latest effort to destroy the Affordable Care Act, and the shock remains unabated. “This is Bush v. Gore all over again,” one friend said as we struggled to absorb the news last Friday afternoon. “No,” I replied. “It’s worse.” (Linda Greenhouse, 11/12)

Los Angeles Times: How The Rise Of Catholic Hospitals Is Jeopardizing Women's Healthcare
Via Nina Martin of ProPublica comes word that America's Catholic bishops are moving toward tightening religious restrictions on physicians and nonsectarian hospitals that join with them in mergers and partnerships. This can't be good news for anyone concerned about the state of women's healthcare. That's where medical practice and Catholic doctrine are most frequently in conflict. And it's happening as Catholic hospitals are playing a more influential role in the American healthcare system. (Michael Hiltzik, 11/12)

Los Angeles Times: Jackie Lacey's Ideas For Reducing The Number Of Mentally Ill In L.A.'s Jails
In the ideal world, police responding to a disturbing-the-peace or petty crime call arrive at the scene with the training to discern whether the subject's behavior is due at least in part to a mental health problem. They defuse the situation and turn the subject over to the just-arrived psychiatric evaluation team, or else they take the subject to a crisis center where the intake process is efficient, allowing the officers to go back on patrol while the subject is stabilized, diagnosed and monitored by mental health professionals. ... the gap between the real and the ideal worlds is slowly shrinking, a point brought home Wednesday when Dist. Atty. Jackie Lacey updated the board on her proposed mental health diversion program. (11/12)

The New York Times: Politicians, Teens And Birth Control
Here’s a story of utter irresponsibility: About one-third of American girls become pregnant as teenagers. But it’s not just a story of heedless girls and boys who don’t take precautions. This is also a tale of national irresponsibility and political irresponsibility — of us as a country failing our kids by refusing to invest in comprehensive sex education and birth control because we, too, don’t plan ahead. (Nicholas Kristof, 11/12)

Los Angeles Times: Are Our Low Birthrates And Aging Population Threatening The Economy?
The new demographic reality for the United States, Europe and many countries in Asia and Latin America is an aging population. Governments will face increasing financial pressure as the number of taxpayers shrinks and baby boomers retire. Many see a broad threat to their economies; some countries have begun actively encouraging young people to have more children through tax breaks, subsidized child care, expanded parental leave policies and more. But are birthrates really too low? In a study published this fall in Science, we found that the answer is yes for a few countries, but for many more, higher birthrates would actually lead to lower standards of living. With a few important exceptions, raising birth rates would be ill-advised. (Ronald Lee and Andrew Mason, 11/12)

The Denver Post: Colorado Leads The Way In Support Of Oral Health
It's not every day that you hear a person rave about the work of a dental hygienist. But that's exactly how Paul, a 40-year old roofer, described the hygienist he met at the recent Mission of Mercy free health care clinic in Henderson. Paul's teeth required extensive work just to prepare him to see a dentist who would extract the damaged teeth and fit him for dentures. Colorado is making great progress in caring for the dental health of its citizens. In May 2013, Gov. John Hickenlooper called oral health "a winnable battle for Colorado" when he signed into law a bipartisan bill that provides dental benefits for low income adults through the state's Medicaid program, beginning in 2014. (Fay Donohue and Maureen Hartlaub, 11/11)

The New England Journal of Medicine: Marketing To Physicians In A Digital World
Through the Physician Payments Sunshine Act and the Open Payments website launched in October, the U.S. government is beginning to publicly report industry payments to physicians and academic medical centers. In turn, the proportion of doctors reporting receiving visits from sales representatives has fallen, from 77% in 2008 to 55% in 2013. One possibility, however, is that marketing of drugs and devices to physicians is taking new forms rather than diminishing. Pharmaceutical companies currently spend 25% of their marketing budgets on digital technologies, such as websites and social media. (Christopher Manz, Joseph S. Ross and David Grande, 11/13)

The New England Journal of Medicine: High-Cost Generic Drugs — Implications For Patients And Policymakers
It is well known that new brand-name drugs are often expensive, but U.S. health care is also witnessing a lesser-known but growing and seemingly paradoxical phenomenon: certain older drugs, many of which are generic and not protected by patents or market exclusivity, are now also extremely expensive. (Jonathan D. Alpern, William M. Stauffer and Aaron S. Kesselheim, 11/13)

The New England Journal: Protecting Progress Against Childhood Obesity — The National School Lunch Program
Attempts to roll back the modernization and improvement of school-meal standards threaten future progress in reducing obesity and other chronic diseases that originate in early childhood. After 30 years of escalating prevalence of childhood obesity, recent plateaus suggest that progress has been made on many fronts. Federal improvements to school meals represented a key victory — yet now they are under attack. As pediatricians, we worry that this attack undermines schools' ability to foster health-promoting behaviors and represents a disinvestment in children's health. (Jennifer A. Woo Baidal, and Elsie M. Taveras, 11/13)