The Wall Street Journal: Senate GOP Plans Health-Care Vote Next Week
Senate GOP leaders have set a timeline to vote next week on legislation to repeal large chunks of the Affordable Care Act, even though they don’t yet appear to have secured enough support to pass it. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) is intent on keeping pressure on Senate Republicans to move quickly on the bill rolling back and replacing much of the 2010 health law, lawmakers and GOP aides said. The push for a quick vote before the weeklong July 4 recess could backfire, however, as some conservative and centrist Republicans have expressed concern about the emerging shape of the legislation. (Armour and Peterson, 6/19)

Politico: Sources: Senate GOP Prepares For Obamacare Repeal Vote Next Week
Senate Republicans are preparing to vote on Obamacare repeal next week, according to multiple sources familiar with the negotiations, potentially leaving rank-and-file lawmakers with no more than a week to review legislation that would affect millions of Americans and one-sixth of the U.S. economy. Senators are expected to see the text of the bill as soon as the end of this week, those sources said, provided this week's work goes smoothly. The timeline could change based on the response from individual senators toward the proposal at party meetings, but Republicans are increasingly optimistic they can hold a vote next week if this week's lunch talks go well. (Everett and Haberkorn, 6/19)

The Hill: A Frantic Scramble Before Possible Healthcare Vote Next Week
McConnell is walking a tightrope in seeking to win over centrists and conservatives for a Senate version of the House-passed American Health Care Act — which is being negotiated entirely behind closed doors. (Bolton, 6/20)

The Hill: Senate GOP Leader: Health Vote Expected Next Week 
"I believe we’re going to vote before the Fourth of July recess on a healthcare plan, a repeal and replacement of ObamaCare," Barrasso, a member of GOP leadership, said on Fox News. "Every Republican is trying to get to yes," Barrasso said while noting, "There are some differences of opinion on specific details of this." (Sullivan, 6/19)

Roll Call: Senate Obamacare Repeal Vote Possible Next Week
The full text of the bill to overhaul the U.S. health care system is expected to be released this week, lobbyists say, and a full report from the Congressional Budget Office could come early next week. That analysis is required for a Senate vote in order to ensure that the legislation complies with the fast-track budget procedure known as reconciliation that the GOP is using to advance the bill. (Williams, 6/19)

The New York Times: The Senate Is Close To A Health Care Bill, But Do Republicans Have The Votes?
The 52 Republican senators have been meeting several times a week behind closed doors to develop a bill to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. At least 50 of them must be on board for the bill to pass, and they could try as soon as next week. (Andrews and Park, 6/19)

Boston Globe: Susan Collins Won’t Back Down On Health Care, And That’s A Problem For Mitch McConnell 
Collins and several other key moderates are exerting outsized influence on the debate — and they show little sign of backing down... The predicament is so thorny that McConnell is keeping the deliberations under a deep wrap of secrecy, hoping to delay a public split over specific aspects of the legislation that could ruin the negotiations. (McGrane, 6/19)

The New York Times: Senate Democrats Try To Gum Up Works Over Affordable Care Act Repeal
Democrats vowed on Monday to slow work in the Senate to a crawl to protest the secrecy surrounding the Republican effort to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, as Republican leaders raced to prepare a bill for a vote as soon as next week. Without the votes to stop the majority party from passing a bill, Democrats can only draw attention to the way Republicans are creating their bill — behind closed doors without a single hearing or public bill-drafting session. (Kaplan and Pear, 6/19)

The Associated Press: Dems' Motions, Speeches Knock GOP Health Bill For Secrecy
They threatened to slow the Senate's work with procedural motions. They forced the chamber's top Republican to swat aside reasonable sounding requests, like holding committee hearings. And they delivered speech after speech after speech. Democrats used all those tools Monday evening to try drawing attention to the Senate GOP's secretive effort to craft a bill scuttling President Barack Obama's health care law and push it through the chamber by next week's end. Their largely symbolic effort was likely to have little or no impact on how Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell handles the measure. (Fram, 6/19)

USA Today: Democrats To Slow-Walk Senate Business Over Health Care Bill
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York said Democrats will object to requests for “unanimous consent” to set aside rules and expedite proceedings. The procedural move is a tactic the minority party can use to draw out the legislative process for days, forcing Republicans to jump through procedural hurdles to get anything done. The goal, he said, is to refer the GOP health care bill to a committee where it can be debated and amended publicly. Republicans are writing their bill “under the cover of darkness because they’re ashamed of it,” he said. (Gaudiano, 6/19)

Politico: Democrats To Halt Senate Business Over Obamacare Repeal
Holding the floor on Monday evening won’t change the timing of a health care vote. And Democrats are unlikely to be able to force the House bill to committee or delay it. But it will force Republicans to answer for what Democrats say is a rushed process and bad policy. Some Senate Democrats also are preparing to block lengthy committee hearings beginning on Tuesday, although Democratic leaders have not announced or confirmed that decision. Any senator can block a hearing from extending past the first two hours of the Senate's day. But when partisan tensions are high, the hearing requests are sometimes denied to make a point. (Haberkorn, 6/19)

Roll Call: Schumer Wants All-Senate Gathering On Health Care
Left-leaning interest groups and critics of the House-passed health care bill (HR 1628) are pressuring Democrats to be bolder in their opposition to the measure. (Raman, 6/16)

Politico: Some Dems Reluctant To Shut Down Senate Committees Over Obamacare
Even as Senate Democrats began a Monday night talk-a-thon designed to spotlight the GOP’s still-secret Obamacare repeal plan, some of their own questioned the party's other potential procedural tactic to block committees from meeting this week. The skepticism within the caucus underscores the risk facing Senate Democrats as they launch an all-out battle against a Republican health care bill they have had zero power to influence. (Schor and Kim, 6/19)

Bloomberg: Democrats Try To Revive Fight Against Republican Health Bill
"If Republicans won’t relent and debate their health-care bill in the open for the American people to see, then they shouldn’t expect business as usual in the Senate," said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York. (Litvan and Dennis, 6/19)

The Hill: Dems Threaten To Gum Up Senate Over 'Secret' ObamaCare Bill
Democrats are expected to make a series of unanimous consent requests on Monday evening on the House-passed ObamaCare repeal and replacement bill, including trying to send it to a Senate committee and "forcing Republicans to publicly defend their 'no hearings strategy,' " according to the senior Senate Democratic aide. They have hounded Republicans over their legislation, which is still being hashed out in a series of closed-door meetings. (Carney, 6/19)

Morning Consult: Democrats Aim To Stymie Senate GOP’s Health Care Efforts
Senate Democrats have used the same procedural tactic to slow confirmation votes for several of President Donald Trump’s nominations, though they were unable to block them entirely. Objecting to unanimous consent forces Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to go through the cloture process, extending debate on any matter at hand for as many 30 hours. (Reid, 6/19)

Roll Call: Senate Democrats Can’t Slow GOP Health Care Bill Once It’s Written
[O]nce Republicans finalize amendment language for the measure that houses the GOP plan to revamp the nation’s health insurance system, there will not be much debate at all. Schumer and his Democratic colleagues have begun to throw the kitchen sink to drive attention to the secretive nature of the GOP negotiations on the health care bill. (Lesniewski, 6/20)

The CT Mirror: Dems — Including CT’s Senators — Plan To Disrupt Senate Over Health Care Plan 
Democrats, with the help of Connecticut’s senators, plan to jam up the Senate this week to bring attention to Republican attempts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care act. Beginning Monday evening, the Democrats will use Senate procedures to try to block business both on and off the Senate floor. They say Republicans are using Senate procedures to keep the crafting of their health care bill from the public. (Radelat and Beaudoin, 6/19)

The Washington Post: Senate Democrats Intensify Criticism Of Emerging GOP Health Bill
Senate Democrats ramped up opposition Monday to the emerging Republican health-care bill, launching a series of mostly symbolic moves including speeches that went late into the evening and a push to slow other Senate business to a crawl. The aim, Democrats said, was to draw attention to the secretive process Republican leaders are using to craft their bill and argue that the GOP proposals would hurt Americans. The Democrats lack the power to prevent a vote and they don’t have the numbers to defeat a bill without Republican defections. So they are focusing this week on nonbinding protests. (Sullivan, 6/19)

The Hill: Dems Step Up Attacks On GOP ObamaCare Bill
Senate Democrats are stepping up their attacks on the GOP's push to repeal and replace ObamaCare as the legislative battle enters a critical two-week stretch. Democrats can’t block a healthcare bill on their own, but are threatening to shut down the Senate in retaliation for Republicans negotiating their legislation in a string of closed-door GOP-only meetings. The move, they hope, will put Republicans on the defense as they look to force a vote as soon as next week, when lawmakers will leave for the July 4th recess. (Carney, 6/19)

The Hill: Franken Accuses Trump Of Flip-Flopping On House Healthcare Bill
Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) became the latest Democratic senator to use President Trump's own words against him on Monday evening.  "It went from great to mean. In the Rose Garden it was 'great.' Now just a few weeks later that same great bill is 'mean,'" Franken said from the Senate floor.  Several Democratic senators have referenced Trump's comments made to Senate Republicans during a closed-door meeting last week, during which he knocked the House bill and urged senators to be more generous.  (Carney, 6/19)

Denver Post: Diana DeGette Lambastes GOP Health Care Bill, Trump Budget Cuts As Bad For Colorado Kids
U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette on Monday called for a stop to the “hyperpartisan” politics she says are fueling the GOP health care bill that — along with President Donald Trump’s proposed budget cuts — would slash money from programs that help more than half a million Colorado children...Her comments come as the U.S. Senate is working on its version of the U.S. House-passed American Health Care Act, Republicans’ response to the president’s promise to repeal and replace Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act. Congressional Democrats have lambasted their GOP counterparts for not holding hearings on the bill, which Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, has said he hopes to have passed before the Senate’s July 4 recess. (Paul, 6/19)

New Hampshire Union Leader: NH Senators Opposing 'Trumpcare' Bill Before Its Release 
U.S. Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-NH, said Monday that Senate Republican leaders are working on an Obamacare replacement plan behind closed doors because they know the emerging “Trumpcare” bill will be widely unpopular. "What we’re concerned about is we’re hearing we may not see this secret bill until they put it on the floor for a final vote," she said. Hassan and U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-NH, were at opposite ends of the state to promote the Affordable Care Act and Medicaid expansion in the fight against the opioid and heroin epidemic. Shaheen visited Frisbie Memorial Hospital in Rochester. Hassan toured Serenity Place with its director, Stephanie Bergeron, and Manchester Fire Chief Daniel Goonan. (Tuohy, 6/19)

The Washington Post Fact Checker: Pelosi’s Claim That An Estimated 1.8 Million Jobs Will Be Lost Through AHCA
Recently attacking the American Health Care Act, the House GOP replacement for Obamacare, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi made a new assertion – that it would cost 1.8 million jobs. She seemed to be turning a standard GOP attack line on its head – that the Affordable Care Act was a job killer. In 2010, Pelosi also famously once predicted that Obamacare would “create 4 million jobs, 400,000 jobs almost immediately.” She was citing an optimistic study at the time, and economists will argue forever whether the law spurred employment or was a drag on it. But recent research indicates that, contrary to the spin by both sides, the ACA had minimal effect on employment, hours of work and compensation. (Kessler, 6/20)

The Hill: Senate GOP Considers Deeper Medicaid Cuts Than House Bill 
A leading option in the Senate's ObamaCare repeal-and-replace debate is to make even deeper cuts to Medicaid spending than the bill passed by the House, according to lobbyists and aides. The proposal would start out the growth rate for a new cap on Medicaid spending at the same levels as the House bill, but then drop to a lower growth rate that would cut spending more, known as CPI-U, starting in 2025, the sources said. (Sullivan, 6/19)

CNN: Moderates May Lose A Major Fight On Medicaid
While the idea might help convince conservatives like Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas or Mike Lee of Utah to view a final proposal more favorably, it could be problematic for moderates like Portman or Sen. Dean Heller of Nevada, who faces re-election in 2018. A spokesman told CNN Portman remains opposed to dropping the growth rate below the level of the House bill, which along with ending Medicaid expansion would reduce spending on the program by $800 billion over 10 years. Several other more moderate members of the conference have voiced concern over the idea. (Mattingly and Fox, 6/19)

The Hill: Hospital Group Warns Of Serious Harm From Medicaid Cuts 
The American Hospital Association warned Senate Republicans Monday against including large cuts to Medicaid in its healthcare bill. "Medicaid serves our most vulnerable populations, including Americans with chronic conditions such as cancer, the elderly and disabled individuals in need of long-term services and support, and already pays providers significantly less than the cost of providing care," the AHA wrote in a letter Monday. The House healthcare bill's proposed $834 billion in Medicaid cuts would have "serious negative consequences for communities across America," AHA said.  (Hellmann, 6/19)

Texas Tribune: Ted Cruz On Health Care Overhaul: "Of Course I'll Compromise"
Five years ago, Ted Cruz was running for an open U.S. Senate seat in Texas. One of his biggest talking points: repealing President Obama's 2010 health care law... Yet as U.S. Senate Republicans hash out how to unwind Obamacare behind closed doors, the world is not so black and white anymore for the junior senator from Texas, who is playing a central role in those negotiations that are virtually certain not to lead to a measure that repeals every word of Obamacare. (Livingston, 6/19)

The Hill: RSC Warns Senate: Healthcare Changes May 'Jeopardize' Bill 
The Republican Study Committee (RSC) is sending up a warning flare to Senate Republicans over changes to the ObamaCare repeal-and-replace bill, warning that the alterations “may jeopardize final passage in the House.” The RSC, which the largest bloc of conservatives in Congress, has drafted a letter to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) raising “serious concerns” with the direction of the Senate’s healthcare legislation. (Roubein, 6/19)

CQ Roll Call: Senate GOP Staff Departures Undermine Health And Tax Agenda
Key Republican staffers are departing Capitol Hill now that the GOP controls Congress and the White House, raising questions about how the party will advance its ambitious agenda to overhaul the U.S. tax code and health care system. Senior personnel for the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee have departed and lobbyists say others are preparing to leave the Senate Finance Committee. A handful of health policy staffers for members on those panels have also left for jobs off Capitol Hill and a key individual on the Senate Budget Committee was recently nominated for a senior post at the State Department. (Williams, 6/19)

Marketplace: On Health Care, Consumer Groups Have No Seat At The Table
The Senate is working to get its own version of the American Health Care Act ready before it goes on recess July 3. Only a small group of senators is working on it, without the input of many other people. This has been frustrating for some consumer groups, who say they’ve been locked out. (Ben-Achour, 6/19)

The New York Times: C.B.O. Head, Who Prizes Nonpartisanship, Finds Work Under G.O.P. Attack
When much of Washington was glued to the testimony of former F.B.I. director James B. Comey this month, Keith Hall, the head of the Congressional Budget Office, was one of the few who averted their eyes from televisions. For Mr. Hall, avoiding political spectacles — anything politically partisan, really — has become second nature. On his commute to Capitol Hill, he tunes out the buzz of partisan chatter on talk radio. At home, cable news is a no-no. And because friends sometimes try to talk to him about politics, he has become a master in the art of the dodge. But the noise may soon be impossible to ignore. (Rappeport, 6/19)

Sacramento Bee: California Is Worried About Losing Health Care 
A new statewide poll found that Golden State supporters of the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, outnumber opponents by more than 2 to 1. About two-thirds of Californians say they support the law, including 45 percent who do so strongly, while just 26 percent say they’re against it, according to the poll released late Monday by UC Berkeley’s Institute of Governmental Studies and done for the California Health Care Foundation. (Cadelago, 6/19)

San Jose Mercury News: Poll: Californians Fear Losing Coverage In Obamacare Reform
As the Republican-led U.S. Senate prepares to vote — possibly by next week — to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, a new poll shows that 56 percent of Californians worry that they or someone in their family will lose health insurance coverage if the law, commonly called Obamacare, is dismantled. The poll, by UC Berkeley’s Institute of Governmental Studies, comes at a time when a record number of Golden State residents — 65 percent — now support the Affordable Care Act, said Mark DiCamillo, who directs the Berkeley IGS poll. (Seipel, 6/19)

The Wall Street Journal: Insurer Reverses ACA Exit Plan In One Of Two Washington State Counties
Washington state will have an insurer offering Affordable Care Act plans next year in one of two counties that earlier appeared poised to have no coverage through the health law’s online marketplace. Separately, Medica, a nonprofit insurer, said Monday it made a regulatory filing signaling that it will offer marketplace plans throughout the state of Iowa next year. Iowa had appeared at risk of having no exchange insurers in most, or even all, of its counties in 2018. Medica, which had earlier said it was considering pulling out of Iowa’s marketplace, said in a statement it was seeking an average rate increase of 43.5%. (Wilde Mathews, 6/19)

Seattle Times: Health-Plan Rates In Washington State’s Individual Market Could Go Up An Average Of 22% 
Health-insurance rates in Washington’s individual market would increase an average of 22 percent next year based on filings under review by state officials — sparking a new round of partisan finger-pointing. The increases are almost twice the 13.5 percent increase insurers proposed this past year for 2017. Consumer options also would decrease next year for the 300,000 Washingtonians who buy their health coverage in the marketplace for individuals. This year 13 insurers offered 154 plans in Washington’s individual market and nine companies sold plans inside the state exchange created under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as Obamacare. (Young, 6/19)

The Hill: Washington State Down To One Bare ObamaCare County 
Premera Blue Cross intends to sell plans in a Washington state county that previously looked like it would not have an ObamaCare plan, leaving just one county in the state without an insurer in 2018. Earlier this month, insurance companies filed their rates and their intentions to sell health plans on Washington’s ObamaCare market. When the results came in, two counties were bare. (Roubein, 6/19)

The Associated Press: Medica Weighs Staying In Iowa's Health Exchange Next Year
Iowa's last health care insurer to sell policies to individuals statewide through the federal Affordable Care Act said Monday it needs to know more about how the state's insurance market will function next year before making a final promise to stay. Minnesota-based Medica has preliminary plans to sell insurance in Iowa next year in the individual market and expects to make an announcement soon, spokesman Larry Bussey said. (Pitt, 6/19)

Iowa Public Radio: One Affordable Care Act Insurer Intends To Stay In Iowa 
It’s likely Medica will be the only company selling individual ACA-compliant health insurance statewide in Iowa. It’s proposing to increase rates by an average of 43.5 percent. "When you find yourself as the only ones between people getting access to care and people not getting access to care, your view of the situation becomes very different," Medica Vice President Geoff Bartsh said in a written statement. (Sostaric, 6/19)

Des Moines Register: Medica Intends To Stay In Iowa's Health-Insurance Market, At 43% Higher Price
Even after Monday's announcement, Medica still could pull out of the Iowa market, as many experts feared. That could leave no options for up to 72,000 Iowans who now buy their own insurance instead of obtaining it via an employer or government program, such as Medicare or Medicaid. (Leys, 6/19)

Chicago Tribune: Blue Cross Working To Return To Illinois Obamacare Exchange Next Year 
Illinois' largest health insurer, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois, is taking steps to return to the Obamacare exchange next year despite uncertainty over the fate of the health care law. The news comes as some insurers in other parts of the country pull out of the marketplace for 2018. In Illinois, insurers have until Wednesday to file proposed rates with the Illinois Department of Insurance. Colleen Miller, a spokeswoman for Blue Cross, confirmed Monday the insurer is submitting rates and plans for next year. (Schencker, 6/19)

The Washington Post: Trump ‘Simply Does Not Care’ About HIV/AIDS, Say 6 Experts Who Just Quit His Advisory Council
The first hints of an uncertain future for the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS came last year, when Donald Trump's presidential campaign refused to meet with advocates for people living with HIV, said Scott Schoettes, a member of the council since 2014. That unease was magnified on Inauguration Day in January, when an official White House website for the Office of National AIDS Policy vanished, Schoettes said. “I started to think, was it going to be useful or wise or would it be possible to work with this administration?” Schoettes told The Washington Post. “Still, I made a decision to stick it out and see what we could do.” (Wang, 6/19)

The Hill: Six Resign From Presidential HIV/AIDS Council Because Trump 'Doesn't Care' 
Six members of the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS have angrily resigned, saying that President Trump doesn’t care about HIV. Scott Schoettes, Lucy Bradley-Springer, Gina Brown, Ulysses Burley III, Michelle Ogle and Grissel Granados publicly announced their resignations in a joint letter published in Newsweek titled, “Trump doesn’t care about HIV. We’re outta here.” (Thomsen, 6/17)

The New York Times: A Dire Weekly Total For The U.S.: 25 Children Killed By Guns
Gunshots are the second leading cause of injury-related death in children, exceeded only by car accidents. In a typical week in the United States, 25 children die from bullet wounds. Between 2012 and 2014, an average of 1,297 children under age 18 died each year from firearm injuries. Aside from deaths in the course of law enforcement and other circumstances, there were an average of 693 homicides, 493 suicides and 82 unintentional deaths annually. (Bakalar, 6/19)

Los Angeles Times: Guns Kill Nearly 1,300 Children In The U.S. Each Year And Send Thousands More To Hospitals
The number of child fatalities related to guns is far higher in the U.S. than in any other high-income country. Another study has reckoned that the U.S. accounts for 91% of all the firearms-related deaths of children under 14 in the world’s 23 richest countries. (Healy, 6/19)

The New York Times: From Opioid Epidemic’s Front Lines, Filling In The Brutal Back Story
As a county coroner here, Frank Whitelaw has an unusual perspective to share with local students on the opioid crisis. He is the one who examines the bodies. But it is the families of the victims who get to him. “That is the most heart-wrenching part of this job,” he said. “I can deal with bodies all day and all night, to a degree, but when you are talking to the family, you feel that raw anguish. It’s horrible.” (Foderaro, 6/19)

The Washington Post: In Just One Year, Nearly 1.3 Million Americans Needed Hospital Care For Opioid-Related Issues
The coast-to-coast opioid epidemic is swamping hospitals, with government data published Tuesday showing 1.27 million emergency room visits or inpatient stays for opioid-related issues in a single year. The 2014 numbers, the latest available for every state and the District of Columbia, reflect a 64 percent increase for inpatient care and a 99 percent jump for emergency room treatment compared to figures from 2005. Their trajectory likely will keep climbing if the epidemic continues unabated. (Achenbach and Keating, 6/20)

And in other news —

The Associated Press: Few Opioid-Addicted Youth Get Standard Treatment Medication
Only 1 in 4 teens and young adults with opioid addiction receive recommended treatment medication despite having good health insurance, according to a study that suggests doctors are not keeping up with the needs of youth caught up in the worst addiction crisis in U.S. history. "Young people may be dying because they are not getting the treatment they need," said Brendan Saloner, an addiction researcher at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health who wrote an editorial published with the study Monday in JAMA Pediatrics. (6/19)

New Hampshire Public Radio: Uncertainty Around GOP Health Plan Looms Large At N.H. Drug Treatment Center
Serenity Place CEO Stephanie Bergeron said her team is already stretched thin trying to respond to the growing need for substance abuse treatment — and any changes in funding would have serious consequences for the health of both the facility and the people it helps... Sen. Maggie Hassan toured Serenity Place Monday as part of an effort to call attention to the potential consequences that declining health funding might have on local substance use treatment providers. (McDermott, 6/20)

Boston Globe: Officials Balk At Supervised Drug Injection Facility 
City councilors expressed concern Monday about a supervised injection facility for drug users — an idea floated by a state lawmaker that has so far been panned by local officials... Opponents have decried the facilities as condoning drug use without an equal effort to address the root causes of addiction, while continuing to let the scourge of the opioid epidemic settle in Boston. (Valencia, 6/20)

Cincinnati Enquirer: Which State Has The Most Opioid-Dependent Patients With Private Insurance?
Kentucky doctors diagnosed more cases of opioid addiction for people privately insured than did doctors in any other state in the nation last year, a new report finds. The report, "America's Opioid Epidemic: Data on the Privately Insured Population," gives an indication of how the opioid and heroin epidemic affects people of all different backgrounds. (DeMio, 6/19)

The Washington Post: Baltimore City Running Low On Opioid Overdose Remedy
Baltimore health officials are running low on naloxone, the opioid overdose reversal drug used hundreds of times by bystanders in the past couple of years to save lives. Leana Wen, the city health commissioner, said demand has jumped significantly amid the drug epidemic, and the health department needs funding for more supplies. “We are rationing,” she said. “We’re deciding who is at the highest risk and giving it to them.” (Cohn, 6/19)

Health News Florida: New Florida Law Aims To Stop Fentanyl Dealers, Some Question If It Will Work
Under a newly signed Florida law, Possession of just four grams of the synthetic drug fentanyl can land a person in jail for a minimum of 3 years. Some are pushing back against the mandatory minimum sentence. But others claim it makes sense when one considers that that same amount—just four ounces--is enough to kill a room full of people. (McCarthy, 6/19)

The New York Times: Inspired By War Zones, Balloon Device May Save Civilians From Fatal Blood Loss
A high school senior mowed down by a car with other pedestrians in last month’s Times Square attack was hemorrhaging internally and transfusions could not keep up with the blood loss. Doctors and nurses at NYC Health & Hospitals/Bellevue raced to save the student, Jessica Williams of Dunellen, N.J., who suffered severe injuries to her legs, abdomen and pelvis. But her pulse skyrocketed to 150. Her blood pressure dropped to 40/30. “She was about to go into cardiac arrest,” said Dr. Marko Bukur, a trauma surgeon. (Grady, 6/19)

Stat: Psst, The Human Genome Was Never Completely Sequenced
What insiders know, however, is not well-understood by the rest of us, who take for granted that each A, T, C, and G that makes up the DNA of all 23 pairs of human chromosomes has been completely worked out. When scientists finished the first draft of the human genome, in 2001, and again when they had the final version in 2003, no one lied, exactly. FAQs from the National Institutes of Health refer to the sequence’s “essential completion,” and to the question, “Is the human genome completely sequenced?” they answer, “Yes,” with the caveat — that it’s “as complete as it can be” given available technology. (Begley, 6/20)

Stat: Can Zika Virus Infection Attack The Brains Of Newborns?
Zika infection in the womb can damage a fetal brain. But can the insidious virus also attack the still-developing brains of newborns? The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases said Monday that scientists would try to answer that question by carrying out the first large such study to be funded by the agency. Several hundred infants in Guatemala, where Zika is still circulating, will be examined for at least a year and will be compared with another group of children younger than 5. (Branswell, 6/19)

NPR: Back Pain Got You Down? Yoga Is A Good Alternative To Physical Therapy
If you're tired of popping pain medicine for your lower back pain, yoga may be a good alternative. New research finds that a yoga class designed specifically for back pain can be as safe and effective as physical therapy in easing pain. The yoga protocol was developed by researchers at Boston Medical Center with input from yoga teachers, doctors and physical therapists. (Aubrey, 6/20)

San Jose Mercury News: Facebook's High-Stakes Dilemma Over Suicide Videos
Social media companies such as Facebook and Twitter’s Periscope have made videos simpler for people to share online, but now these companies are in a race against time to respond quickly to posts depicting self harm — before they go viral. Balancing the risks of suicide contagion with free speech, newsworthiness and other factors, these companies’ complex decisions to leave a video up or pull it down can mean the difference between life and death for people attempting suicide. (Wong, 6/19)

Health News Florida: Researcher: Election Stress Can Impact Health
The 2016 presidential election generated a lot of stress. But for those in ethnic and religious groups in the middle of the debate, the stress could be affecting their health. David R. Williams is a Harvard professor of public health who recently published an article on the subject in the New England Journal of Medicine. (Ochoa, 6/19)

NPR: 'Scientist-Patient' And Her Husband Race To Find A Cure For Her Rare Brain Disease
In 2010, Sonia Vallabh watched her mom, Kamni Vallabh, die in a really horrible way. First, her mom's memory started to go, then she lost the ability to reason. Sonia says it was like watching someone get unplugged from the world. By the end, it was as if she was stuck between being awake and asleep. She was confused and uncomfortable all the time. "Even when awake, was she fully or was she really? And when asleep, was she really asleep?" says Sonia. The smart, warm, artistic Kamni – just 51 years old — was disappearing into profound dementia. (Bichell, 6/19)

NPR: Half Of People Surveyed Don't Know Where To Find The Defibrillator At Work
Do you know where your workplace's automated external defibrillator is located? About half of all U.S. employees don't, according to the results of an American Heart Association survey. The survey also found that workers in the hospitality and service industry, which includes hotels and restaurants, were less likely to know the location of their workplace's AED. About 66 percent of them didn't know where it was. Workers in schools and other education facilities were the most likely to be able to find it: About 61 percent said they knew the AED's location. (Columbus, 6/19)

The Star Tribune: Meal Sizes, Sugary Drinks Closely Linked To Childhood Obesity
Fulkerson's research started five years ago with a comparison of 160 families, half of whom received training called HOME Plus, which involved 10 monthly family counseling and meal-planning sessions, as well as five telephone calls to help parents set healthy goals... Following up on the study results and figuring out which counseling messages had the greatest impact was critical, Fulkerson said, before some version of the HOME Plus training could be offered clinically to families outside of controlled research. (Olson, 6/19)

Tampa Bay Times: Researchers: Coconut Oil May Not Be As Healthy As You Think 
The substance, often lauded to ease digestion, boost metabolism and promote weight loss overall, has been unveiled by a June 15 American Heart Association report to be anything but heart healthy. In the report, the AHA says that coconut oil is almost made entirely of saturated fat — 82 percent, to be exact. (Putterman, 6/19)

The New York Times: The High-Tech Device That’s Like A Bouncer For Mosquitoes
Dotted around Houston, hidden in overgrown backyards and piles of old tires, are what look like 10 tiny models of Hollywood’s iconic Capitol Records building. They are full of recording gear, but not to capture the vocals of Frank Sinatra or the Beastie Boys. These high-tech devices catch mosquitoes — though not in big batches, like typical traps. They catch them one by one, each in its own compartment, after inspecting each mosquito’s wing beats to be sure it’s a species that researchers want. (McNeil, 6/19)

WBUR: Boston Seeks 4 More Mental Health Clinicians With Budget Request 
Boston Mayor Marty Walsh on Monday upped his fiscal year 2018 budget request, seeking funding for four additional mental health clinicians... According to a statement from Walsh's office, the four new members of the Boston Emergency Services Team would "expand the program's success [citywide] in diverting people from arrest to mental health resources." (Swasey, 6/19)

KCUR: Missouri House Committee Passes Amended Version Of Senate Abortion Bill 
Unsatisfied with the extent of the Senate’s new proposed abortion restrictions, a Missouri House committee restored some provisions Monday, including one that gives the attorney general the ability to enforce any abortion law at any time. Republicans on the House Committee for Children and Families said they added back the provisions, which had been stripped from the bill the Senate passed last week as a means of protecting against Democratic filibusters, because they didn't want to be a rubber stamp for the Senate. (Griffin, 6/20)

ProPublica: In Flint Water Crisis, Could Involuntary Manslaughter Charges Actually Lead To Prison Time? 
Last week, Michigan’s top prosecutor announced that five officials, including the state’s Health Department head Nick Lyon, will face charges of involuntary manslaughter for a death resulting from the Flint water crisis. It’s a move virtually unheard of in modern American history; legal experts couldn’t point to a single case in which government officials were charged in a citizen’s death because they knew about a problem but failed to warn the public. (Buford, 6/19)

The Associated Press: Georgia High Court: State Can't Be Sued Without Its Consent
A challenge to a Georgia law banning most abortions after 20 weeks has led the state's highest court to reaffirm that the state can't be sued without its consent. But the court also said Monday that state officials can be sued as individuals to prevent them from enforcing laws alleged to violate the state Constitution. The ruling came as the Georgia Supreme Court rejected the challenge to a 2012 law that bans doctors from performing abortions five months after an egg is fertilized, except when a fetus has a defect so severe it is unlikely to live. (6/19)

KCUR: New Problems, Same Result: Federal Payments Still Halted For Osawatomie State Hospital 
Safety concerns continue to prevent recertification of Osawatomie State Hospital, although a recent inspection didn’t find any evidence of the patient violence that prompted federal officials to decertify it in late 2015. Staffing shortages and concerns about security and patient safety prompted the initial order. Certain they had addressed those issues, state officials appeared confident the state-run psychiatric hospital would pass muster. But when inspectors visited the facility in May, they discovered new problems with sanitation, infection control and fire safety. (Wingerter, 6/19)

Boston Globe: Families Sue Health Insurers To Cover Wilderness Therapy For Mental Illness 
Now, a growing number of families are challenging insurance companies that refuse to cover wilderness therapy, including a Massachusetts family that sued Harvard Pilgrim Health Care in May for refusing to pay for their son’s therapy at RedCliff Ascent, an outdoor behavioral therapy program in Utah... Lawsuits have been filed in Florida, Kentucky,New York, and Utah, bolstered by federal rules expanding mental health care coverage, and by improvements in the wilderness therapy industry itself, which had been heavily criticized following a series of deaths a decade ago. (Kowalczyk, 6/19)

Chicago Tribune: University Of Chicago Medicine Will Remain In UnitedHealthcare's Network 
University of Chicago Medicine and insurer UnitedHealthcare have reached a contract agreement that will keep the academic medical system and its doctors in the insurer's network. The agreement will spare about 8,000 patients from having to either switch doctors or pay significantly more for care. The new contract agreement comes shortly after patients received letters saying that University of Chicago Medicine and University of Chicago Physicians Group could be out of UnitedHealthcare's network starting June 30. (Schencker, 6/19)

The CT Mirror: Charter Oak Health Center Reaches Agreement Over Whistle-Blower Firings
The U.S. Labor Department has determined the firing of three Charter Oak Health Center employees, who blew the whistle on the facilities’ failure to adequately respond to a tuberculosis exposure, was unlawful. Under a consent order, Charter Oak agreed to pay the three fired employees back pay and “take other corrective action,” the Labor Department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration said Monday. (Radelat, 6/19)

Kaiser Health News: Despite A Growing Appetite, Buffet-Style Flat-Fee Clinics Shutter In Seattle
In recent years, a small but growing number of practices embraced a buffet approach to primary care, offering patients unlimited services for a modest flat fee instead of billing them a la carte for every office visit and test. But after a pioneering practice shut its doors earlier this month, some question whether “direct primary care,” as it’s called, can succeed. Many doctors and patients say they like the arrangement. Direct primary care practices typically don’t accept insurance, which frees physicians from treatment preapprovals and claims paperwork. (Andrews, 6/20)

Pioneer Press: Lakeview Hospital Reveals Future Stillwater Location
A concept plan for a future Lakeview Hospital campus at the northeast corner of Minnesota 36 and Manning Avenue in Stillwater shows a 96-bed, three-story hospital overlooking a pond. Lakeview officials unveiled the plan — which also includes an ambulatory (same-day) surgery center, senior housing and a medical-office building — earlier this month at a workshop with the Stillwater City Council. The plan sites the hospital to the north of the 68-acre plot, with parking closer to Minnesota 36. In addition, an extension of Curve Crest Boulevard runs through the site and intersects with Manning. (Divine, 6/19)

San Jose Mercury News: Affordable Housing For Vets, Artists, Homeless
The City Council this week moved forward with three affordable housing projects and a fourth one — slated for East San Jose — is on the way. And in the next couple of weeks, elected leaders will consider allowing churches to house homeless people permanently, and will discuss where to place up to 200 “tiny homes,” micro housing units with a bed and locking door and shared bathrooms and showers. (Giwargis, 6/19)

The Washington Post: Senate Leaders Plan To Rush A Health-Care Bill To A Vote, And There’s Nothing Democrats Can Do About It
When the Republican-led Senate Rules Committee briefly flirted with the idea of restricting television interviews in the hallways of the Capitol last week, it became only the most obvious manifestation of how the party’s leaders were handling the development of a bill to overhaul Obamacare: out of the public eye. While that effort was quickly sidelined after some outcry, the Republican leadership in the Senate was otherwise unfazed in its push to craft a bill that would expose its members to as little negative public attention as possible. No repeat of the town hall meetings that drew angry constituents who yelled at House Republicans and, they clearly hope, no weeks and weeks of swamped office phone lines. (Philip Bump, 6/19)

Los Angeles Times: In Secret Obamacare Repeal Bill, Senate Republicans Plan Even Harsher Cuts To Medicaid Than House GOP
In the all-out quest for ways to strip health coverage from millions of people in order to deliver a huge tax cut to the richest Americans, Senate Republicans have been regarded as more moderate than their House colleagues. But a proposal leaked from the Senate GOP’s closed-door drafting sessions on an Obamacare repeal bill may put that notion to rest: The Senate is contemplating a change in Medicaid that would cut it even more than the $830-billion proposed by the House. That news comes from The Hill, which reported Monday that the Senate is contemplating imposing a lower inflation growth rate on Medicaid, which would be capped in both proposals. The Senate’s idea is to allow Medicaid to grow at the rate of the overall consumer price index (specifically, the CPI for all urban consumers, the most commonly used variant). (Michael Hiltzik, 6/19)

San Antonio Press-Express: Secrecy The Wrong Prescription For Health Care 
After the House passed its repeal and replace effort — the American Health Care Act — without hearings, in secret and without a scoring by the Congressional Budget Office, the legislation moved to the Senate. But there, an all-male committee is crafting a version — you guessed it — without hearings, in secret and accepting no amendments from Democratic senators. (6/19)

WBUR: The Great American Health Care Heist
Last week, more than a dozen patient groups — including the March of Dimes and the American Lung Association — pleaded with McConnell to meet with them. McConnell’s office refused... Unless we wake up and take to the streets, McConnell and his colleagues will do what cynical career politicians have been doing for decades: subvert the will of people in broad daylight and send millions of American families into despair and bankruptcy. (Steve Almond, 6/20)

Forbes: Is Real Medicaid Reform Possible? Two States--Indiana And Rhode Island--Show That It Is
Two states, Rhode Island and Indiana, have been able to make major changes to the traditional Medicaid programs, which allowed them to curb costs and enhance their recipients' quality of care. Patient satisfaction went up sharply. (Steve Forbes, 6/20)

RealClear Health: AHCA's Medicaid Reform Empowers Governors
Much of the public discussion about health care and health insurance reform abounds with misinformation. Medicaid, in particular, has become a political tool, with daily posts and articles about reforms to the program that distort the record for political gain. But there is little mention of the need to empower governors to take ownership of the program. (Francis Rooney, 6/20)

Louisville Courier-Journal: Senate's Health Reform Must Prioritize Addiction Treatment
Kentucky is in the midst of a catastrophic opioid crisis. We see the damage that heroin and other drugs have inflicted on communities across the state. According to a new poll, one in four adults in Kentucky know someone who has misused prescription pain medication and nearly one in five know someone using heroin. In 2015, 1,273 died from a drug overdose, the third highest death rate in the nation. (Mike Barry and Paul Samuels, 6/19)

The Washington Post: How States Like Kansas Punish The Poor For Being Both Too Poor And Not Poor Enough
Obamacare was designed to make it easier for poor Americans to buy insurance. In many states, though, the law has left a hole where less needy households can receive benefits, while millions of Americans living in poverty cannot. They are, in effect, too poor to get help. It is one of several utterly maddening paradoxes in President Barack Obama's health-care overhaul, more formally known as the Affordable Care Act — which, due to GOP opposition, political gridlock and the Supreme Court, has never been fully enacted in the way Democrats intended. (Max Ehrenfreund, 6/19)

The Des Moines Register: On Health Care, Grassley Can Be A Maverick
Early in his political career, Sen. Chuck Grassley was considered by many to be a "maverick." He earned a reputation as an independent thinker who worked across party lines and focused on solving problems. Unfortunately, that Grassley essentially disappeared during the Obama presidency. Rather than a voice of reason, Iowa’s senator joined a chorus of obstructionist Republicans intent on opposing anything proposed by the president. (6/19)

The Columbus Dispatch: Single-Payer System Has Its Faults
Obamacare looks shaky, mostly because Republicans are sabotaging it. This, in turn, has rekindled calls on the left to create a European-­style “single­-payer” system, in which the government directly pays for every American’s health care. California lawmakers, for example, are considering such a plan for their state. (6/20)

Fortune: Where Artificial Intelligence Will Pay Off Most In Health Care
Of all the places where artificial intelligence is gaining a foothold, nowhere is the impact likely to be as great — at least in the near term — as in healthcare. A new report from Accenture Consulting, entitled Artificial Intelligence: Healthcare’s New Nervous System, projects the market for health-related AI to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 40% through 2021—to $6.6 billion, from around $600 million in 2014. (Clifton Leaf, 6/19)

RealClear Health: Rising Chronic Disease Rates Portend Unsustainable Costs
12 percent of Americans suffer from five or more chronic conditions, such as high blood pressure, heart disease, and diabetes. This fraction of the population accounts for 41 percent of total health care spending. That ought to serve as a wake-up call for policymakers. If we don't do more to prevent people from acquiring chronic disease, the resulting health care bills could blow a gaping hole in the federal budget. (Kenneth Thorpe, 6/20)

RealClear Health: Even Though Genetic Information Is Available, Doctors May Be Ignoring Important Clinical Clues
With the availability of home genetic testing kits from companies such as “23andMe” and “Ancestry DNA,” more people will be getting information about their genetic lineage and what races and ethnicities of the world are included in their DNA. ... But there’s a problem, a recent study from the National Institutes of Health found. Many physicians and other providers are uncomfortable discussing race with their patients, and also reticent to connect race or ethnicity to genetics and clinical decision-making, the study suggested. (Greg Hall, 6/19)

Los Angeles Times: Trump's Answer To The Obesity Epidemic: Here, Have A Cookie
The most attention-getting news out of the food industry last week was Amazon’s announcement Friday that it’s buying Whole Foods for nearly $14 billion. But that wasn’t the most important news. The most important news was a largely overlooked announcement from the Trump administration that it’s bowing to the wishes of food companies — and ignoring the pleas of scientific and medical experts — by giving industry players more time to push sugary treats on an increasingly blubbery nation. (David Lazarus, 6/20)

Forbes: If You Need Long-Term Care, It Matters Where You Live
If you or a loved one needs long-term care, where you live matters … a lot. A new report by AARP shows wide variation in the quality of supports and services among states—whether delivered at home or in a nursing facility. While it found important improvements across states, it also identified significant shortcomings, even in the highest-rated states. (Howard Gleckman, 6/16)

The Washington Post: Law Makes VA Treat Some Family Caregivers Better Than Others
The last time Dennis Joyner walked, he was on patrol in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta on June 26, 1969. That’s when he tripped a 105-pound booby trap bomb. He lost both legs above the knees and his left arm below the elbow. “I have been confined to a one arm drive wheelchair for 48 years,” said the 68-year-old Longwood, Fla., resident. “As a former high school athlete, my life changed drastically in how I have to live with the combat injuries I suffered in Vietnam.” He gets lots of help from his wife Donna, “my day-to-day caregiver.” (Joe Davidson, 6/19)

Stat: Bedside Drug Production Will Truly Enable Personalized Medicine
Making medicines tailored to the needs and characteristics of individual patients is the dream for many scientists. This kind of personalized medicine approach would provide treatment with the highest possible effectiveness and safety, and would also save money. But it requires rethinking how we make medications. (Huub Schellekens, 6/19)

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Roe V. Wade Saves Lives
An abortion is a terrible thing. No woman wants to have an abortion. Nevertheless, sometimes abortion can be the necessary choice of two excruciatingly painful options. Before 1973 when the Supreme Court legitimized abortion in the landmark Roe v. Wade decision, the procedure was illegal in most states; desperate women without means had to undergo illegal operations to end an untenable pregnancy. As a result, many were rendered sterile and some died. (Dr. Richard Gulick and Carol Shepley, 6/20)

The Kansas City Star: Is The Ghost Of Anti-Abortion Crusader Phill Kline Going To Haunt Missouri?
Are you ready for the return of Phill Kline? That’s exactly what Missouri could get should the House this week pass a sweeping abortion measure that would, among other things, require annual health inspections of clinics. The bill is the focus of the year’s second special session called by Gov. Eric Greitens. This unnecessary bill does something else, too: The measure carves out a special exception for this one issue when it comes to law enforcement. The legislation gives the attorney general, now Josh Hawley, an ardent abortion opponent who is said to have higher political aspirations, the power to prosecute violations of abortion laws. He could step in whenever local prosecutors opt not to act. (6/19)

The New York Times: Where Are The Rape-Kit Nurses?
If you are an adult victim of sexual assault in Las Vegas, there is only one hospital where you can go to have a rape kit completed. Only two nurses in that hospital have specialized training to do the exam. In a metropolitan area of two million people, in a state with consistently high rates of domestic violence, the limited number of resources for sexual assault survivors seeking to prosecute, although troubling, is not unique. (Brittany Bronson, 6/20)

The Health Care Blog: Trump’s Brain: What’s Going On?
In late May the science and health news site STAT ran a provocative article titled: “Trump wasn’t always so linguistically challenged. What could explain the change?” Not surprisingly, the piece went viral. After all, aren’t most of us wondering whether something is up with the President’s—how shall I say it—state of mind, psychological status, character, personality, and yes, mental health? (Steven Findlay, 6/19)