The Hill: McConnell: Obama Needs To Be ‘Realistic’
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) called Friday for President Obama to focus on “realistic” reforms in his State of the Union address that have a chance of passing the GOP-controlled House and Senate. ... “There’s much we can get accomplished for the American people, if the president’s willing to work with us,” McConnell said. “We’ll be looking for signs of that in the speech he delivers.” ... But he acknowledged that Republicans and Democrats remain far apart on many issues, such as healthcare reform. “We’ve got some distance to cover,” he said. (Bolton, 1/16)

Fox News: Republicans Start Small On Obamacare, Cross Fingers For Court Intervention
Republican leaders have yet to spell out their strategy for tackling Obamacare now that they control Congress, and so far have pursued a piecemeal approach -- but are crossing their fingers that a looming Supreme Court case will give them an opening to unravel the law. (Weber, 1/17)

The Associated Press: Plan To Use Budget Process On Health Care Law Divides GOP
Republicans running Congress have promised to use every weapon in their arsenal to take down President Barack Obama's health care law. But now some are questioning whether to use the congressional budget process to derail the 2010 law or save the special step for more traditional purposes like cutting spending or overhauling the tax code. A potentially divisive debate between tea party forces and GOP pragmatists looms. (1/20)

Politico: Hershey's Chocolate Fog
Washington’s Republican majority has plenty of challenges in the months ahead. Department of Homeland Security funding. Highway bills. The debt ceiling. Health care policy. Agreeing on a budget. Republicans never expected to solve all their problems here, but the Congress of Tomorrow retreat offered little in the way of what will actually come tomorrow, next week, next month or next year. When Chief Deputy Whip Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) was asked what he got out of this retreat, he paused and smiled for about 10 seconds, then said: “There’s far more consensus on matters of budget, health care and immigration than is perceived. Our members understand the consequences of what we’re doing and that we have to lead.” Asked what those broad ideas will look like in D.C., McHenry smiled again and said, “We’ll shape that.” (Sherman and Everett, 1/16)

The Hill: New GOP Senator: ‘Tide Rising’ Against Obamacare
In the homestretch of the GOP’s battle against Obamacare, Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) said he is seeing a groundswell of angry voters that is helping advance the party’s chances of a full repeal. “There is a tide rising,” Cassidy repeated three times in an interview with The Hill on Friday. Fresh off the campaign trail, the newly-elected senator said he is seeing “all these angry people” amplify their calls for repeal as they start seeing the effects of Obamacare. (Ferris, 1/18)

In other news from Capitol Hill -

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Federal Funding For Children's Health Insurance In Serious Jeopardy
Millions of children could find themselves without health insurance if Congress can’t cut a deal on funding for a popular federal program later this year. Funding for the Children’s Health Insurance Program, or CHIP, expires in late September. Should it end, Americans age 18 and under would face few — and expensive — options to remain insured. (Shapiro, 1/19)

The New York Times: In Year 2 Of Affordable Care Act, Premiums Diverge Widely
At first glance, Colorado would seem to be one of the federal health law’s clearest success stories, offering nearly 200 plans and average premiums nearly unchanged in the coming year. But zoom in closer, and it is clear that a kind of pricing pandemonium is underway, one that offers a case study of the ambitions and limits of the Affordable Care Act during this second year of enrollment. (Abelson and Armendariz, 1/19)

KHN also examined the most expensive and cheapest premium areas: Alaska Health Plan Premiums, Highest In Nation, Are Triple Those In Phoenix (Rau, 1/15)

Politico Pro: Mandate Figures In Final Stretch Of Obamacare Messaging
Obamacare’s individual mandate is beginning to creep into outreach about signing up for health insurance this year. ... Focusing on the mandate poses a conundrum. It remains one of the most unpopular parts of the Affordable Care Act; many Republicans want to do away with it. Yet surveys show that it has gotten people, especially younger adults, to sign up for health insurance. (Pradhan, 1/16)

San Jose Mercury News: Obamacare Recipients, For First Time, Reporting To IRS
It's tax season, and for the first time Obamacare is showing up on tax forms. And it's leading to confusion and angst over new rules and their impact on taxpayers' pocketbooks. (Seipel, 1/18)

Related KHN coverage: Most Marketplace Customers Have New Filing Requirements This Tax Season (Andrews, 1/13)

And in other health care law news --

The Associated Press: New Privacy Concerns Over Government's Health Care Website
A little-known side to the government's health insurance website is prompting renewed concerns about privacy, just as the White House is calling for stronger cybersecurity protections for consumers. It works like this: When you apply for coverage on HealthCare.gov, dozens of data companies may be able to tell that you are on the site. Some can even glean details such as your age, income, ZIP code, whether you smoke or if you are pregnant. (Alonso-Zaldivar and Gillum, 1/20)

Fox News: Administration Lawyers Argue Hobby Lobby Ruling On Birth Control Doesn’t Apply To Religious Groups
The Obama administration says faith-based nonprofits should comply with ObamaCare’s birth-control mandate because they have more leeway than the corporations that won a Supreme Court ruling on the issue last year. (1/18)

The Baltimore Sun: Evergreen Health Co-Op Aims To Compete with Health Care Giants
Dr. Peter Beilenson thought fighting the intractable rates of drug use and sexually transmitted diseases in Baltimore was tough. Then the former city health commissioner took on health insurance. "It's the hardest job I've had," said Beilenson, founder and CEO of Evergreen Health Cooperative, a nonprofit insurer created under the federal Affordable Care Act to offer "patient-centered" care and bring cost-curbing competition to the market. ... Fierce competition from big insurers is the biggest hurdle to the co-ops' success, executives and observers say .... But there are a host of other potential stumbling blocks, including name recognition and funding. (Cohn, 1/17)

Arizona Republic: Obamacare, Private Markets Fuel Health Insurance Growth
After a sluggish start to federal health-care law sign-ups last year, Arizona is among the fastest-growing states in Affordable Care Act enrollment this year. More than 160,000 Arizona residents signed up for new health insurance coverage or re-enrolled in existing plans through the federal marketplace as of Jan. 9, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (Alltucker, 1/19)

The Associated Press: Colorado Reports 171,000 Covered Under ACA
Colorado's health exchange on Monday reported selling private health plans to 121,000 people two-thirds of the way through this year's open enrollment period. In a joint statement, Connect for Health Colorado and the state's health agency said that about 50,000 people had received coverage through the Affordable Care Act's Medicaid expansion or other pre-existing government programs, bringing the total of Coloradans covered since Nov. 15 to 171,000. (1/19)

Politico: Medicare Chief Leaving
The departure of one of the Obama administration’s top Obamacare officials will leave a key federal agency without a confirmed leader just as the Supreme Court takes up a case that carries huge risks for the law. (Haberkorn and Norman, 1/16)

The New York Times: Official Who Led Medicare Through Insurance Shakeup Is Resigning
Ms. Tavenner, who was partly responsible for the disastrous debut of the online insurance exchange in October 2013, had given no public indications that she would be stepping down. She joined the administration in February 2010, a few weeks before President Obama signed the Affordable Care Act. She was a senior official at the Medicare agency, which insures one in three Americans and has an annual budget of more than $800 billion, before she was confirmed by the Senate in May 2013 as administrator. (Pear, 1/16)

Los Angeles Times: Head Of Federal Agency Overseeing Medicare And Medicaid Steps Down
Though one of the most senior officials involved in the botched rollout of the HealthCare.gov website in 2013, Tavenner never drew as much fire as her boss at the time, former Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, who resigned last year. The agency has been widely credited this year with overseeing a far smoother enrollment period under the federal health law, as millions of Americans have been signing up for health coverage since November. (Levey, 1/16)

The Washington Post: CMS Administrator Marilyn Tavenner Is Stepping Down
Marilyn Tavenner, a key Obama administration health official overseeing the country's largest health insurance programs, announced Friday that she's resigning from her position as administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services next month. (Milman, 1/16)

The Wall Street Journal: Top Health Official Marilyn Tavenner To Step Down
Ms. Tavenner became the first permanent head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in more than six years when she was confirmed in 2013—after working more than a year in an acting capacity. She continued to enjoy Republican support through the rollout of the health law’s insurance exchanges. Andy Slavitt, a former top executive at UnitedHealth Group who is now the second-highest-ranking official in the agency, will take over as acting administrator, agency officials said. (Radofsky, 1/16)

The Chicago Tribune: Medicare Chief Steps Down With 'Sadness And Mixed Emotions'
Medicare's top administrator unexpectedly resigned Friday, becoming the latest casualty in the turmoil over the president's health care law, which is still struggling for acceptance even as millions benefit from expanded coverage. Marilyn Tavenner's departure underscores the uncertainty overshadowing President Barack Obama's health care law nearly five years after its party-line passage by a then-Democratic-led Congress. The Supreme Court will hear a challenge to the legality of the law's financial subsidies this spring, and a new Republican Congress is preparing more repeal votes. (1/16)

Fox News: Marilyn Tavenner, Official Who Oversaw HealthCare.gov, To Step Down
Marilyn Tavenner, the head of the federal agency that oversaw the rocky HealthCare.gov rollout, announced Friday she was stepping down from her post. (1/16)

Meanwhile, in other Medicare news -

Bloomberg: Aetna Medicare Customers Can Switch Plans After Error
The Obama administration is investigating whether Aetna Inc. misled elderly and disabled people about which pharmacies would fill prescriptions in Medicare drug plans the health insurer sold them. Those customers will be able to quit their coverage and choose a new plan this year as a result, the federal government said. The Hartford, Connecticut-based insurer provided incorrect information about its pharmacy network on Medicare’s website, on its own site and by telephone during the program’s 2015 enrollment period, which ended Dec. 7, Raymond Thorn, a spokesman for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said in an e-mail. (Wayne, 1/16)

Los Angeles Times: California Nurses Call Off Strike Against Kaiser
The California Nurses Assn. announced Saturday that it has called off plans for a strike next week against Kaiser Permanente after reaching a tentative contract agreement for 18,000 of its members in Northern and Central California. The tentative agreement, which will be put to a vote of union members this month, includes a 14% pay increase over three years, the hiring of hundreds of registered nurses, additional workplace protections and increased employer contribution to 410 (k) retirement plans, the union said in a statement. (Ceasar, 1/17)

The Sacramento Bee: California Nurses Call Off Kaiser Strike
The California Nurses Association has called off a strike this week against health giant Kaiser Permanente after settling a number of sticking points in contract talks on behalf of 18,000 registered nurses at 86 Kaiser hospitals and clinics in northern and central California, including Sacramento. (Sangree, 1/19)

Meanwhile, mental health workers for Kaiser Permanente did go on strike last week -

NPR: Calif. Strike Highlights Larger Issues With Mental Health System
This past week, more than 2,000 mental health workers for the HMO health care giant Kaiser Permanente in California went on strike. The strike was organized by the National Union of Healthcare Workers. The union says Kaiser Permanente patients have been the victims of "chronic failure to provide its members with timely, quality mental health care." On Thursday, about 150 Kaiser Permanente employees picketed the Woodland Hills Medical Center in the San Fernando Valley. One of them was therapist Deborah Silverman. In her eyes, the biggest problem at Kaiser right now is understaffing. (1/18)

Minneapolis Star-Tribune: New Americans Struggle With Health Inequities
A report released last week by MN Community Measurement went beyond the prior comparisons of whites, blacks, Hispanics and other minority groups, and instead looked at health outcomes for patients based on their national origins and preferred languages. (Olson, 1/17)

North Carolina Health News: Latino Newborns May Be At Risk Due To Immigration Law Fears
Regulations that give local law-enforcement officers the authority to act on federal immigration laws could have a chilling effect on the use of health care services within Hispanic communities. (Howell, 1/19)

Reuters: Pennsylvania To Pay U.S. $48.8M Over Benefits To Aliens
Pennsylvania has agreed to pay $48.83 million to settle U.S. government claims it violated federal law by providing benefits to ineligible aliens under Medicaid and two other federal programs from 2004 to 2010. In a statement on Friday, the U.S. Department of Justice said the commonwealth provided improper benefits under Medicaid, the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as food stamps. (1/16)

The Associated Press: Fight Threatens Thousands Of Californians' Health Coverage
A contract dispute between health insurance provider Blue Shield of California and the Sutter Health network of doctors and hospitals is threatening to force nearly 280,000 consumers in Northern and Central California to find new doctors. Blue Shield notified more than 139,000 customers last week that they should be prepared to leave the Sutter Health network. (1/19)

San Francisco Chronicle: Blue Shield Warns Clients It May End Coverage With Sutter Health
A tense contract dispute between Blue Shield of California and the Sutter Health network of doctors and hospitals may leave nearly 280,000 Northern and Central California consumers searching for someplace else to get health care. (Colliver, 1/19)

WBUR: Trying To Turn Up Heat On Health Cost Control In Mass.
In 2012, Massachusetts became the first state in the country to set a goal to cut health care spending. In 2013, the state beat the goal. Spending grew 2.3 percent, well below the gross state product (GSP), 3.6 percent. Now, at the start of 2015, the state’s largest employer group says good, time to set a more aggressive goal. (Bebinger, 1/16)

The Kansas Health Institute News Service: Brownback Budget Includes Medicaid Changes, Tobacco Tax Increase
Gov. Sam Brownback’s administration outlined a sweeping budget plan Friday that includes changes to Medicaid and increases in the state’s tobacco and alcohol taxes. Budget Director Shawn Sullivan said closing a $650 million budget gap will require new tax revenue and slowed expenses in the state’s “three major cost drivers”: public schools, public employee pensions and Medicaid. (Marso, 1/16)

The Sacramento Bee: Hepatitis C Drug’s High Cost Hits California Budget
Last year, after the Food and Drug Administration approved a breakthrough new drug for hepatitis C, health officials around the country warned of dire consequences for state budgets. The drug is expensive – about $1,000 a pill, or $84,000 for a regular course of treatment – and many people it could help receive publicly funded care. In California last week, Gov. Jerry Brown’s administration quantified the impact: Tucked inside Brown’s annual spending plan was $300 million for the cost of new hepatitis C drugs, including Sovaldi, the drug approved in December 2013. (Siders, 1/16)

Los Angeles Times: How Safe Is Your Hospital? A Look At California Ratings
A detailed look at performance data shows many California hospitals continue to struggle with medical errors and injuries to patients — despite industrywide efforts to remedy those problems. ... Since 2012, Leapfrog has been analyzing information it collects as well as data reported to Medicare to issue hospital scores in California and nationwide. The percentage of A-rated hospitals in California reached 43% late last year — the seventh-highest rate among states nationwide. That was up from 40% two years ago. (Terhune, 1/17)

Health News Florida: Florida Hospitals Could Lose $1.3B
Florida’s safety-net hospitals stand to lose 15 percent of the money it receives from Medicaid next year, if state and federal officials don’t renew an agreement to cover care for poor state residents. An independent report released Thursday shows that the ending of the so-called Low-Income Pool funding would result in an immediate $1.3 billion in federal Medicaid money. A total of 124 Florida hospitals would be affected, according the Agency for Health Care Administration. (Shedden, 1/16)

Minnesota Public Radio: Nursing Homes Ask For New Funding To Keep Homes Open
Nursing home owners and workers have told Minnesota legislators that they aren't getting enough money from the state to stay open and to keep the best staff in their facilities for years. This year, however, the political climate is different. The state has a $1 billion surplus and Republicans, who control the Minnesota House, campaigned on the issue during the 2014 election. (Richert, 1/20)

The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel: Anthem To Reward Health Care Providers For Quality, Efficiency
When a doctor takes a call or responds to an email from a patient, or when a medical assistant reminds a patient about an overdue exam or unfilled prescription, the medical practice typically doesn't get paid for its time. Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield in Wisconsin is taking a small step to change that. The health insurer is creating contracts that will pay primary care physicians a monthly fee to help cover the time-consuming tasks that keep people healthy. (Boulton, 1/18)

The Associated Press: Company's Struggles Highlight Challenges Of Inmate Care
Corizon Health Inc. is under growing pressure around the country after losing five state prison contracts, downgrades by credit analysts and increased scrutiny of care of inmates held by some of its largest customers, including New York City. But Corizon, whose responsibility for 345,000 inmates at prisons and jails in 27 states makes it the country's biggest for-profit correctional health provider, is just one of many firms using a similar model to vie for the billions of dollars states and counties spend on prisoner care. (Geller, 1/19)

The Washington Post: Virginia Doctor Tries Truck-Stop Medicine To Keep Family Practice Alive
The massive truck stops just off I-81 here offer diesel, hot coffee and “the best dang BBQ in Virginia.” There’s something else, too: a small-town doctor who performs medical exams and drug tests for long-haul drivers, an innovative effort to keep his beloved family practice afloat. At a time when doctors are increasingly giving up private practice, Rob Marsh still operates his medical office in tiny Middlebrook, Va., about 15 miles from Raphine and 50 miles west of Charlottesville. (Svrluga, 1/19)

NPR: After Aurora Shooting, A 'New Way Of Responding' To Mental Crises
It's been two and a half years since the Aurora, Colo. theater shooting in which James Holmes allegedly killed 12 people at a screening of The Dark Knight Rises. Jury selection for the 2012 incident is scheduled to start Tuesday. One of the reasons why it took so long to get to court was the battle over Holmes' psychiatric evaluations. After the shooting, Colorado legislators approved $20 million to change how people going through a mental health crisis can get help. (Hood, 1/19)

The Texas Tribune: Texas Health Official Given Taxpayer-funded Money Resigns
The assistant to Texas Health and Human Services Commission chief Kyle Janek who received a pre-paid MBA at taxpayers' expense resigned on Friday. Casey Haney was Janek's assistant when Janek served as a Texas state senator. He also served as an aide to Jack Stick, the former chief counsel of HHSC who resigned last month following questions about his ties to a $110 million deal for Medicaid fraud software that has since been suspended. (Langford, 1/16)

The Dallas Morning News: Texas Prisons Try Telemedicine To Curb Spending
The high-tech medical consultation, known as telemedicine, uses technology to connect prisoners, who are often housed in remote areas, with medical experts throughout the state. It’s just one way that the Texas Department of Criminal Justice is trying to control spending on prison health care. But while telemedicine has shown some success in curbing spending, it hasn’t been enough to stem rising costs due to an aging prison population. (Yasmin, 1/19)

The Baltimore Sun: Discussion Over 'Death With Dignity' Emerging In Maryland
Dr. Lawrence Egbert wishes the dictionary had a better word to describe what happened to more than a dozen Marylanders as he held their hands and watched their lives end. It wasn't suicide, says the doctor who lost his state medical license last month for his role in some of those deaths. Some lawmakers are proposing to enact a death-with-dignity law like those in place in Washington state and Oregon. And an ailing former Annapolis alderman, who has Parkinson's disease and says he is "ready to go," could provide a very personal side to the General Assembly debate. (Dance and Cox, 1/17)

The Washington Post: After Fatal Shooting At El Paso Hospital, VA Police Highlight Nationwide Security Lapses In VA’s Medical System
After last week’s fatal shooting of a psychologist inside an El Paso Veterans Affairs clinic by an Iraq war veteran, the VA’s police force is renewing its long-running calls for more staff, better training and increased resources — from fixing broken radios and cameras to installing metal detectors and developing clear procedures for how to deal with agitated patients. (Wax-Thibodeaux, 1/17)

The New York Times: A Perilous Year For Abortion Rights
The start of 2015 finds no letup in the attacks on a woman’s constitutionally protected right to make her own childbearing decisions. Republican lawmakers and organizations devoted to dismantling reproductive freedom have succeeded in shrinking the already inadequate number of abortion providers, making it exceedingly difficult, if not impossible, for women — especially young and poor women — to obtain safe and legal abortion services in large swaths Texas and other parts of the country. (1/20)

The New York Times: Hating Good Government
Meanwhile, the news on health reform keeps coming in, and it keeps being more favorable than even the supporters expected. We already knew that the number of Americans without insurance is dropping fast, even as the growth in health care costs moderates. Now we have evidence that the number of Americans experiencing financial distress due to medical expenses is also dropping fast. All this is utterly at odds with dire predictions that reform would lead to declining coverage and soaring costs. So will we see any of the people claiming that Obamacare is doomed to utter failure revising their position? You know the answer. (Paul Krugman, 1/19)

The New York Times' The Upshot: Accountable Care Organizations: Like H.M.O.s, But Different
In pursuit of greater efficiency in the United States health system, public programs and private insurers have begun to pay some hospitals and physicians differently. These new payment models take many forms, but they all impose greater responsibility for cost control and quality improvement on providers and bear some resemblance to failed health care financing arrangements from the 1990s. However, there are some distinctions that could make all the difference. (Austin Frakt, 1/19)

Bloomberg: The Next Big Health-Care Shift Is Coming
The next big shift is coming in U.S. health care, and Republicans are doing their best to speed it up. What's not clear is how carefully they've thought through the consequences. A defining feature of U.S. health-care policy is that most Americans get insurance through their employers. ... But judging by the trend of the past few years, Americans with job-based coverage could soon become a minority. (Christopher Flavelle, 1/19)

Bloomberg: Obama's Lawyers Can Save Obamacare
It turns out that the Department of Justice lawyers who have been arguing the ACA case in the federal courts have scrupulously avoided using the language of purpose. Presumably, they are confident they can get the votes of the four Democratic appointees to the court, who are in principle at least somewhat open to the idea of legislative purpose as relevant to statutory interpretation. To win the case, however, the Department of Justice needs a fifth vote. That vote will have to come from one of the conservatives. And the Department of Justice wants that conservative, whoever it may be, to be able to argue with a straight face that his decision (it has to be a he) depends on the text of the statute and not its purpose. (Noah Feldman, 1/16)

The Philadelphia Inquirer: First Aid For Health Program
The jury-rigged health-care program for the working poor crafted on Gov. Corbett's orders recently cleared a legal hurdle. A federal judge refused to block it despite evidence that Healthy PA, a substitute for Medicare expansion under the federal health-care reform law, needlessly reduces coverage for many of the 600,000 Pennsylvanians affected. But the program faces additional legal and practical challenges. While state officials reported this month that more than 100,000 households had applied to Healthy PA, advocates say these uninsured residents have encountered a maze of confusing and contradictory requirements to obtain the new coverage over the last six weeks. (1/18)

The Washington Post: How Gerrymandering Cost Virginia Its Medicaid Expansion
Virginia public opinion supports the idea of Medicaid expansion by a more than 2-to-1 margin, according to a statewide survey. The poll, conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates International for the University of Mary Washington’s Center for Leadership and Media Studies, found overwhelming endorsement of the expansion across the state, ranging from a low of 66 percent support of those who expressed an opinion on the expansion idea in the northwest to 74 percent in Tidewater. But in a state full of gerrymandered legislative districts, delegates and senators who want another term in Richmond must focus on satisfying the more intense, ideologically extreme voters who show up for nomination contests. As a result, most Republican lawmakers are concerned primarily with what GOP voters think. (Stephen J. Farnsworth, 1/16)

Los Angeles Times: Californians Deserve The Right To Die With Dignity
Although 70% of Californians support physician-assisted suicide, it remains illegal in this state. Despite a remarkably successful 20-year-old law in Oregon that set up a process for what that state calls “death with dignity,” the Legislature in California has not introduced a bill on the subject since 2007. Before that, lawmakers tried for three years in a row with virtually identical bills and all failed. Californians should have the ability to determine their personal medical destinies. Then, in October 2014, Brittany Maynard, an articulate young Californian, brought the issue front and center with her anguishing tale: She had moved to Oregon so that she could legally end her life before her aggressive brain cancer could cause debilitating pain and seizures, and rob her of cognitive function. She died in early November by her own hand. (1/19)

The New York Times: After PTSD, More Trauma
Going in for therapy at a Veterans Affairs hospital is a lot like arriving at a large airport in a foreign country. You pass through a maze of confusing signage. Your documents are scrutinized. There are long lines you must stand in and a series of bureaucratic rituals that must be endured before anything resembling a human encounter occurs. In April 2013, after doing a series of intake interviews and sitting on a waiting list for three months, I had my first human encounter with my assigned therapist at the big V.A. hospital in San Diego. Little did I know that the delay in treatment would be less agonizing than the treatment itself. (David J. Morris, 1/17)

The New York Times: Redefining Mental Illness
Two months ago, the British Psychological Association released a remarkable document entitled “Understanding Psychosis and Schizophrenia.” Its authors say that hearing voices and feeling paranoid are common experiences, and are often a reaction to trauma, abuse or deprivation: “Calling them symptoms of mental illness, psychosis or schizophrenia is only one way of thinking about them, with advantages and disadvantages.” ... This is a radically different vision of severe mental illness from the one held by most Americans, and indeed many American psychiatrists. Americans think of schizophrenia as a brain disorder that can be treated only with medication. Yet there is plenty of scientific evidence for the report’s claims. (T. M. Luhrmann, 1/16)

Los Angeles Times: Goodbye To A Trusted Doctor, Hello To The Healthcare Wilderness
I've been lucky for the last 20 years. I could listen silently while friends complained about their medical care. My doctor was never too busy or too brusque. He always made time to listen. I never had to pay concierge fees for what I knew was uncommonly good and thorough care. But my luck ran out last summer when my doctor unexpectedly retired — pushed by some of the forces that are supposed to make patient care better and more accessible for the masses. (Sandy Banks, 1/16)

The Washington Post: Medical Parole Can Save Maryland Money
Tyrone Graham pleaded guilty to murder at age 18. Now 62, Graham suffers serious health problems, in part because of his decades of confinement. He battles renal failure and lung problems and has three weekly dialysis treatments. He takes more than a dozen medications. Yet the Maryland Parole Commission has failed to help. Graham was denied three medical parole requests. Perhaps the reason for these egregious denials is a fear that parolees will commit new crimes. However, relatively few older people on parole. (Larry Bratt, 1/16)

JAMA: Sharing Clinical Trial Data
Responsible sharing of clinical trial data serves this public interest by strengthening the science that is the foundation of safe and effective clinical care. Sharing also fosters sound regulatory decisions, generates new research hypotheses, and increases the scientific knowledge gained from the contributions of clinical trial participants, the efforts of clinical trial investigators, and the resources of clinical trial funders. However, results from about one-third of clinical trials remain unpublished 4 years after trial completion, and much data from trials are never analyzed. (Dr. Bernard Lo, 1/16)