The Washington Post: Clinton, Sanders Asked About Abortion At Fox News Town Hall — Some Say Too Late
For more than a generation, the Democratic Party has been the party of choice. With the Republican field tripping over itself to prove its anti-abortion bona fides, there seems no need to ask Hillary Clinton and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders what they think about the procedure, or what limits, if any, should be imposed on the women who seek abortions and the doctors who provide them. Not in the minds of some. For months now, as seven Democratic debates have passed without a question about abortion, those who want Sanders and Clinton to clarify their positions on Roe v. Wade, Planned Parenthood and the right to choose have been complaining about unasked questions. Hashtag: #AskAboutAbortion. (Moyer, 3/8)

The New York Times: Bernie Sanders And Hillary Clinton Draw Sharp Questions At Fox News Forum
The night after a testy Democratic debate, Senator Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton had the chance to confront another adversary: Fox News. ... Pressed on his budget-busting plans for universal health care, Mr. Sanders reiterated his belief that health care is a right for all people. “Excuse me, where does that right come from, in your mind?” Mr. Baier asked. “Being a human being,” Mr. Sanders replied, “being a human being.” (Chozick, 3/7)

Meanwhile, Bill Clinton, in North Carolina, focuses on Sanders' health care plan —

The New York Times: Bill Clinton Has Tough Words For Bernie Sanders In North Carolina
As Hillary Clinton focused on Bernie Sanders in Michigan on Monday, her husband, former President Bill Clinton, had some tough words for Mr. Sanders in North Carolina. If Mr. Clinton’s line of attack was familiar – that Mr. Sanders dismisses all critics as being part of “the establishment” – the former president added some sharp language at a small rally here at Elon University law school. He argued that Mr. Sanders was ducking arguments over his health care plan, then kicked his speech up a notch as he accused Mr. Sanders of resorting to name-calling with his tirades against the “establishment.” “That’s killing America, that kind of politics,” Mr. Clinton said after describing Mr. Sanders’s rejection of skeptical reports by liberal economists on his Medicare-for-all plan. (Healy, 3/7)

And on the Republican side of the 2016 race, the candidates tout health savings accounts —

Modern Healthcare: Trump, Cruz And Rubio Push HSAs As Key Part Of Post-ACA Coverage, But Details Are Scarce
The leading Republican presidential candidates say health savings accounts should figure prominently in replacing the Affordable Care Act. That would require significant changes to HSAs and to healthcare more broadly. Even then, higher income Americans would benefit most. ... Joe Antos, a health policy expert at the American Enterprise Institute, a right-of-center think tank, said for HSAs to be a bigger factor in the healthcare system, there would need to be far more transparency in pricing. (Muchmore, 3/7)

New Hampshire Public Radio: N.H.'s Medicaid Expansion Could Face Hurdle Around Work Requirements
On Wednesday the House will take up one of this session’s most significant pieces of legislation – whether to continue the state’s Medicaid expansion program another two years. One of the biggest hurdles supporters of the bill have to overcome on the floor this week relies on the measure’s work requirements. Under the current proposal, Medicaid recipients would be required to work or volunteer a total of 30 hours a week to receive benefits. Several other states have tried such requirements, but the federal government rejected them. (Sutherland, 3/7)

New Hampshire Union Leader: Future Of Medicaid Divides NH Business Community
The New Hampshire business community is divided over the future of Medicaid in the state, as the House prepares for a key vote this week on the health insurance program for low-income families and individuals. The statewide Business and Industry Association on Monday urged lawmakers to continue the Medicaid expansion launched two years ago, while a coalition of conservative business owners called the program “corporate welfare” for the hospitals and insurance companies. (Solomon, 3/7)

WMUR (Manchester, N.H.): Hassan Says Medicaid Expansion, Other Bills Will Help Fight Heroin Crisis
This week, house lawmakers will vote on a measure governor Maggie Hassan calls critical in the war on addiction in New Hampshire: the expansion of Medicaid. (McElveen, 3/7)

The Associated Press: Arkansas Panel Backs Medicaid Plan, Split Over Managed Care
A legislative panel on Monday endorsed Gov. Asa Hutchinson's plan to keep Arkansas' hybrid Medicaid expansion, but it deadlocked on his proposal to have private companies manage some of the state's services for the mentally ill and developmentally disabled. The Health Reform Legislative Task Force recommended lawmakers consider Hutchinson's proposal to keep and rework the state's "private option," which uses federal funds to purchase private insurance for low-income residents. Hutchinson, a Republican, has proposed renaming the program "Arkansas Works" and adding new restrictions on its eligibility and benefits. (DeMillo, 3/7)

Arkansas Online: Task Force: Sustain Reach Of Medicaid
In a 10-2 vote, a state legislative task force on Monday expressed support for continuing health coverage for more than 267,000 low-income Arkansans under the state’s expanded Medicaid program, but it split on whether the state should turn to managed-care companies to reduce the cost of caring for the disabled and mentally ill. Eight members of the Health Care Reform Legislative Task Force voted in favor of the managed-care proposal, supported by Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson, while seven members voted to recommend an alternate proposal supported by opponents of managed care. (Davis, 3/8)

KUAR (Little Rock, Ark.): Legislators Give Go Ahead To Arkansas Governor's Medicaid Expansion Plan
More detailed legislation embodying what Gov. Asa Hutchinson has lined out for his Arkansas Works program is expected for a task force vote on March 29 now that the concept has been approved. It then would head to a special session April 6th requiring a majority vote on enabling legislation followed by the fiscal session April 13th requiring a three-fourths vote for funding. The continuation of Medicaid expansion has been predicated on federal officials approving several waivers from the Hutchinson administration to add new restrictions to coverage and on eliminating $835 million in five years from the traditional, non-expanded Medicaid population. (Kauffman, 3/7)

Topeka (Kan.) Capital-Journal: Poll Finds Kansans Support Budget-Neutral Medicaid Expansion
Kansans overwhelmingly support expanding a budget-neutral Medicaid proposal, a poll released Monday said, but the chairman of the House health committee challenged the “budget-neutral” aspect of the KanCare Bridge to a Healthy Kansas Program. The legislation, proposed in House Bill 2633 and Senate Bill 371, has been promoted by the Kansas Hospital Association and other proponents of KanCare expansion as budget neutral, with the potential to generate revenue for the state. (Chilson, 3/7)

The New York Times: Retail Health Clinics Result In Higher Spending, Survey Finds
Insurers and employers are eager to have workers explore new ways of getting care, like visiting a clinic at a drugstore when they have a sore throat. The care they receive not only is more convenient, but also costs much less than a visit to the emergency room or a doctor’s office. But a new study published on Monday in Health Affairs, a policy journal, casts fresh doubt on whether these popular retail clinics will save money. Researchers concluded that the clinics led to slightly higher spending because people used them for minor medical conditions they would typically have treated on their own. (Abelson, 3/7)

Marketplace: Retail Clinics Aren't Saving Money As Initially Hoped
We’ve said it once and we’ll say it again, there’s a ton of money to be made if you can figure how to lower overall healthcare spending. Enter so-called minute clinics, the nearly 2,000 retail health care offices you find in big box stories and pharmacies. (Gorenstein, 3/7)

Kaiser Health News: Retail Clinics Add Convenience But Also Hike Costs, Study Finds
Retail clinics, long seen as an antidote to more expensive doctor offices and emergency rooms, may actually boost medical spending by leading consumers to get more care, a new study shows. Rather than substituting for a physician office visit or trip to the hospital, 58 percent of retail clinic visits for minor conditions represented a new use of medical services, according to the study published Monday in the journal Health Affairs. Those additional visits led to a modest increase in overall health care spending of $14 per person per year. (Terhune, 3/8)

NPR: Can't Get In To See Your Doctor? Many Patients Turn To Urgent Care
Though the majority of Americans have a primary care doctor, a large number also seek treatment at urgent care centers, statistics show. For many people, the centers have become a bridge between the primary care doctor's office and the hospital emergency room. Urgent care is not meant for life-threatening emergencies, such as a heart attack, stroke or major trauma, doctors say. But it is designed to treat problems considered serious enough to be seen that day — conditions like a cut finger, a sprained ankle or severe sore throat. (Neighmond, 3/7)

The New York Times: Unplanned Pregnancies Hit Lowest Level In 30 Years
The rate of unintended pregnancy in the United States has declined to its lowest level in the last three decades. The level in 2008 was 54 per 1,000 women and girls aged 15 to 44. By 2011, it was 45 per 1,000. Of the 6.1 million pregnancies in 2011, 2.8 million were unintended. A recent analysis in The New England Journal of Medicine found variations in rates of unintended pregnancy by income, race, ethnicity, education and age. But there were declines, some quite large, in almost every demographic group. (Bakalar, 3/7)

The New York Times: Hopeful Start For First Uterus Transplant Surgery In U.S.
Just minutes after the patient’s name was placed on the waiting list for a transplant, details about a matching donor popped up. “I was shocked,” said Dr. Andreas G. Tzakis, the director of solid organ transplantation at the Cleveland Clinic’s hospital in Weston, Fla. “I really considered it an act of God.” Less than 24 hours later, on Feb. 24, the patient, a 26-year-old woman from Texas, became the first in the United States to receive a uterus transplant, in a nine-hour operation here at the Cleveland Clinic. Born without a uterus, she hopes the transplant will enable her to become pregnant and give birth. (Grady, 3/7)

Meanwhile, in Massachusetts women can now compare the quality of mammograms offered, and Connecticut lawmakers discuss a bill to end a tax on tampons —

WBUR: Eva Gets A Mammogram: A Primer On Finding Quality In Mammography
Most women assume a mammogram’s a mammogram — you just get through it. But in fact the quality — as with most things in medicine — does vary. Here, for the first time, you can compare the quality of a mammogram at some of the larger hospitals and medical practices in Greater Boston and Worcester. (Bebinger, 3/7)

The Associated Press: Connecticut Is Latest State To Discuss Ending Tax On Tampons
Connecticut is the latest state to consider ending sales tax on feminine hygiene products like tampons and maxi pads. The General Assembly's Public Health Committee on Monday discussed a bill that would scrap the 6.35 percent sales tax. It would also end sales taxes on cloth and disposable diapers. (3/7)

The Texas Tribune: Texas Disavows Controversial Women's Health Study
Texas health officials have asked a prominent academic journal to take the state's name off a published finding that Texas women lost access to health care services after lawmakers kicked Planned Parenthood out of a family planning program. (Walters, 3/7)

The Houston Chronicle: HHSC Asks That Its Name Be Removed From Planned Parenthood Study
The Texas Health and Human Services Commission is asking that its name be removed from a controversial study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, that found women's health suffered after Planned Parenthood was cut from the state's family-planning program. Texas Health Commissioner Chris Traylor wrote in a Feb. 26 letter that he agreed with Sen. Jane Nelson, R-Flower Mound, who, complained about the study, which she called, and asked why two HHSC employees were on the list of researchers. (Bradshaw, 3/7)

In other news, Planned Parenthood in Utah will ask that a decision blocking its funding be overturned, and Republican lawmakers want the Obama administration to act on a 15-month-old abortion law —

The Associated Press: Utah Planned Parenthood To Challenge Defunding Order
The Utah branch of Planned Parenthood is set to ask a federal appeals court Tuesday to reverse a judge's decision that allowed governor to cut off funding to the organization after the release of secretly recorded videos showing out-of-state employees discussing fetal tissue from abortions. Planned Parenthood contends its employees did nothing wrong, and blocking the money that funds STD and sex education programs would leave thousands of people at risk. The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver has issued an emergency order keeping the federal money flowing, and Planned Parenthood wants to extend it. They argue that U.S. District Judge Clark Waddoups abused his discretion when he allowed the governor's decision to stand. (3/8)

Politico Pro: GOP Growing Impatient Over Possible Abortion Violation
Republicans on Capitol Hill are seeking to force the Obama administration to act on a 15-month-old abortion law investigation that could result in gargantuan fines against the state of California, affecting funding for programs like Medicaid and education. (Haberkorn, 3/7)

The New York Times: Screening For Alzheimer’s Gene Tests The Desire To Know
In the extended Reiswig family, Alzheimer’s disease is not just a random occurrence. It results from a mutated gene that is passed down from parent to child. If you inherit the mutated gene, Alzheimer’s will emerge at around age 50 — with absolute certainty. Your child has a 50-50 chance of suffering the same fate. The revelation came as a shock. And so did the next one: [Brothers, Marty and Matt Reiswig,] learned that there is a blood test that can reveal whether one carries the mutated gene. They could decide to know if they had it. Or not. (Kolata, 3/7)

The Tennessean: Alzheimer's Sparks Struggles For Caregivers
Glenda Mernaugh gives her 87-year-old mother homework. Some mornings it's writing her birth date 10 times. Sometimes it's writing her name. But despite medication and memory exercises, Billy Jean Judd still forgets. (Todd, 3/6)

The Washington Post: You've Never Heard Of The Powerful Doctors Making Decisions About Your Health
They are the most powerful group of doctors no one has ever heard of — 16 physicians who decide which checkups and tests Americans need to stay healthy. But increasingly, their work is more controversial than obscure. The doctors sit on the national task force that told most women to forget about yearly mammograms until they turn 50, raising an uproar that had barely quieted by the time the group then decided most men shouldn’t be screened for prostate cancer. (Sun, 3/7)

Kaiser Health News: Report Details Senior Health Care That Misses The Mark
Quality over quantity. As people get older, their health care goals may shift away from living as long as possible to maintaining a good quality of life. In key areas, however, the medical treatment older people receive often doesn’t reflect this change, according to a new study. The wide-ranging report from the Dartmouth Atlas Project uses Medicare claims data to examine aging Americans’ health care. Among other things, it identified five key areas where too many older people continue to receive treatments that don’t meet established guidelines or, often, their own goals and preferences. (Andrews, 3/8)

In other public health news, researchers say even with the "moonshot" initiative cancer remains underfunded, scientists are studying what effects cinnamon and other common substances have on lifespan using fruit flies and studies undercut the reliability of BMI to determine health —

The Tampa Bay Times: Speakers At Moffitt Forum Say Cancer 'Moonshot' Will Require More Money
Cancer researchers are on the verge of making significant advances that could reduce the mortality rate for people with the disease, National Cancer Institute Acting Director Douglas Lowy said Monday during a visit to Tampa's Moffitt Cancer Center. "What we've been able to do for HIV — to take a death sentence and turn it into a disease where people who have HIV can look forward to a normal life expectancy — I think with cancer, we'll have the same opportunity," Lowy told a group of doctors, scientists and patients gathered for a panel discussion on cancer research. (McGrory, 3/7)

The Wall Street Journal: Seeking Elixir Of Life, A Scientist Studies Fruit Flies
A research lab at a University of California campus has a big ambition—to extend the number of years people live disease-free. The animal model it uses for its experiments is decidedly smaller: the tiny fruit fly. The Jafari Lab, located at UC Irvine, has run tests on substances as diverse as green tea, cinnamon and an Arctic plant called Rhodiola rosea, looking for an elixir of life. To pass muster, each experimental compound must help the fruit flies live longer and not have adverse effects. (Chen, 3/7)

Los Angeles Times: As Measures Of Health, Fitness And Fatness Matter More Than Weight
Researchers are nurturing a growing suspicion that body mass index, the height-weight calculation that distinguishes those with "normal healthy weight" from the overweight and obese, is not the whole picture when it comes to telling who is healthy and who is not. Two new studies drive that point home and underscore that BMI offers an incomplete picture of an individual's health. Fitness matters, as does fatness. And the BMI is an imperfect measure of both. (Healy, 3/7)

Meanwhile, advocates are frustrated that fewer kids are getting the HPV vaccine —

The Columbus Dispatch: Few Kids Getting HPV Vaccine; Health Advocates Frustrated
As Diane Crawford sat waiting for doctors to remove the cancer buried inside her, she decided her own surgery wasn’t going to be enough. Once this was over, she was going to see that others never got this far. (Kurtzman, 3/8)

And what really are the health effects of children drinking lead-contaminated water —

The Tribune Newspapers: The Lowdown On Lead And Its Lingering Health Effects On Children
Tens of thousands of people in Flint, Mich., may have guzzled down coffee, orange juice and pots of spaghetti laced with lead when the city began drawing inadequately treated water from a nearby river. No one has precise figures; the extent of lead exposure from corroded pipes remains unknown. (Graham, 3/7)

STAT: Obama's Emergency Request For Zika Funding Stalls In Congress
The emergency money the Obama administration wants to fight the Zika virus is stuck in Congress — and so far, there’s no sign that congressional Republicans are about to budge. (Nather, 3/8)

The Washington Post: Zika Has Pregnant Women In The U.S. Worried, And Doctors Have Few Answers
Across the country, obstetricians and specialists in high-risk pregnancies are fielding concerns ... because of Zika. Patients are alarmed given recent trips to the countries with growing outbreaks in the Caribbean and Latin America. They want reassurance that they’re not infected, that their babies will be safe from the potentially devastating birth defects associated with the virus. Some are even putting fertility treatments on hold. There’s only so much their doctors can tell them since so much about Zika remains unknown. (Sun and Dennis, 3/7)

The Wall Street Journal: In Brazil, Zika Makes Getting Pregnant A Fraught Choice
As her homeland battles a viral epidemic that may cause babies to be born with undersized skulls and brains, Brazilian radiologist Juliana Salviano has a plan for giving birth to a healthy child: moving to Miami. Ms. Salviano and her husband want to conceive a baby this year. But they have no confidence that their native country will soon tame the mosquito-borne Zika virus, which authorities strongly suspect is linked to a surge in the number of Brazilian babies born with the congenital condition known as microcephaly. (Johnson and Magalhaes, 3/7)

NPR: Venezuela Struggles To Contain Zika Outbreak Amid Economic Crisis
For pregnant women in Venezuela, the possibility of getting the Zika virus is scary. The country's economy has collapsed, doctors are leaving in droves, and there's no medicine on the shelves. On top of that, the government seems to be downplaying the spread of the disease in the country. (Otis, 3/7)

The Associated Press: Hospital Deregulation Efforts Fail In Virginia Legislature
An effort by doctors, tea party groups, conservative lawmakers and others to loosen government oversight of new or expanded health care facilities failed Monday, marking a much-lobbied win for the state’s hospitals. The Virginia Senate used a procedural move Monday to effectively kill legislation aimed at reforming the state’s decades-old certificate of public need law, which requires medical providers to prove to the State Board of Health that proposed new facilities, expansions or major equipment purchases are necessary in a geographic area. (3/7)

Iowa Public Radio: Critical Shortage Of Psychiatrists In Iowa Addressed
A shortage of mental health physicians could be alleviated under a program Governor Branstad announced today. Iowa ranks 41st in the nation in the number of practicing psychiatrists. So the state will spend $4 million for new psychiatric residency programs at three Des Moines medical centers, Broadlawns, UnityPoint Health, and Mercy Hospital. (Russell, 3/7)

St. Louis Public Radio: St. Louis County's Prescription Database May Catch On Elsewhere
Don’t look now, but St. Louis County Executive Steve Stenger and company may be trailblazers – at least when it comes to setting up a prescription drug monitoring program. With the Missouri General Assembly unlikely to approve a statewide drug tracking program, Stenger and the St. Louis County Council gave their blessing to a county database last week. It’s aimed at stopping someone from getting certain controlled substances at multiple pharmacies, which database supporters say is a big precursor to heroin abuse. (Rosenbaum, 3/7)

The Columbus Dispatch: Needle Exchanges Can Save Lives, Reduce Disease, Report Shows
Needle exchange programs — where drug addicts can swap old, contaminated syringes for clean, new ones — are handing out 54,000 needles a month in five Ohio cities, including Columbus, a new report shows. (Johnson, 3/7)

The Wall Street Journal: Theranos Ran Tests Despite Quality Problems
A federal inspection report said a Theranos Inc. laboratory ran an important blood test on 81 patients in a six-month period despite erratic results from quality-control checks meant to ensure the test’s accuracy, people familiar with the report said. The report hasn’t been publicly released but is far more detailed than the letter that summarized the results of last fall’s inspection of the Newark, Calif., lab by the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and was sent to Theranos in late January, these people said. (Carreyrou and Weaver, 3/7)

Los Angeles Times: Deadly Superbugs From Hospitals Get Stronger In The Sewers And Could End Up In The Pacific Ocean
Every day Southern California hospitals unleash millions of gallons of raw sewage into municipal sewers. The malodorous muck flows miles to one of the region's sewage plants, where it is treated with the rest of the area's waste and then released as clear water into a stream or directly to the Pacific. Scientists at the Environmental Protection Agency recently announced they had discovered a lethal superbug — the same one that caused outbreaks at UCLA and two other Los Angeles-area hospitals — in sewage at one of those plants. They declined to name the facility. (Petersen, 3/7)

The Tampa Bay Times: Land O'Lakes Man Sentenced To 14 Years In Prison For Medicare Fraud
David Brock Lovelace used purported medical clinics in Tampa and Lakeland to submit millions of dollars in phony Medicare claims, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. On Monday, the Land O'Lakes businessman was sentenced to 14 years in prison and ordered to pay more than $2.5 million in restitution. (3/7)

St. Louis Public Radio: Traumatic Stress In St. Louis' Marginalized Communities And What We Can Do About It
For some children in the St. Louis area, traumatic stress is an unavoidable part of growing up. Chronic poverty, racism and discrimination, experienced over time, contribute to children’s stress levels, which have an adverse impact on the way they grow up and contribute to their community. Vetta Sanders Thompson’s research at the George Warren Brown School of Social Work at Washington University focuses specifically on traumatic stress that is impacting marginalized communities in St. Louis. This week, she’s a featured speaker at the Missouri Institute for Mental Health’s Traumatic Stress: New Mechanisms and Effective Treatment conference, which runs March 9-10. (Moffitt, 2/7)

The Concord Monitor: Patients At 2 Medical Centers Warned Of Exposure To Scabies
New Hampshire health officials say patients and staff at two Manchester clinics may have been exposed to scabies. Health officials in Manchester issued the scabies alert Friday. WMUR reported that a patient was diagnosed and treated for scabies Wednesday at Dartmouth-Hitchcock clinic in Manchester. The same patient reportedly was treated at Catholic Medical Center in Manchester in February. (3/7)

The Charlotte Observer: After Chickenpox Outbreak, 15 Union County Schoolchildren Without Vaccinations Sent Home For 21 Days
Five-year-old Katie Hedrick doesn’t have chickenpox. But five other elementary students in Union County do. And because Katie hasn’t been vaccinated against the childhood illness, she is one of 15 children who have been ordered by the county health director to stay out of school, in quarantine, for 21 days. Katie’s mother, Chelsea Hedrick of Indian Trail, is confused and angry about the health department’s decision. She questions why her child – and the other healthy, unvaccinated children – should be sent home when the vaccination didn’t prevent the other children from getting sick. (Garloch, 3/7)

The Tampa Bay Times: Medical Marijuana Expansion Legislation Headed To Gov. Rick Scott
Terminally ill patients will be allowed to use full-strength medical marijuana under a bill passed Monday that would expand the drug's use in Florida. HB 307 expands existing law that allows patients with seizure disorders, such as intractable epilepsy, and cancer, to have access to a noneuphoric strain of cannabis. (Auslen, 3/7)

The New York Times: We’re Losing The Race Against Antibiotic Resistance, But There’s Also Reason For Hope
A century ago, the top three causes of death were infectious diseases. More than half of all people dying in the United States died because of germs. Today, they account for a few percent of deaths at most. We owe much of that, of course, to antibiotics. The discovery of prontosil, the first synthetic modern antibiotic, earned Gerhard Domagk the Nobel Prize in 1939. Mass-produced penicillin earned Alexander Fleming, Ernst Boris Chain and Howard Walter Florey one in 1945. It is hard to overstate how much less of a threat infectious diseases pose to us today. But we take antibiotics for granted. We use them inappropriately and indiscriminately. This has led many to worry that our days of receiving benefits from them are numbered. (Aaron E. Carroll, 3/7)

The Washington Post: Odds Are You Won’t Get Zika. But It’s Only Human To Worry That You Might.
There is a serious disease outbreak in Brazil right now. And then there is the Great Zika Freakout, the part of this outbreak that is offering some interesting lessons about the emotional nature of risk perception and how our fears so often don’t match the facts. (David Ropeik, 3/7)

The Seattle Times: Why Seattle Needs Safe-Injection Sites For Heroin Addicts
Well before pot became legal, the nation’s first needle exchange opened in these parts in 1988. The 1811 Eastlake housing project, which allows alcoholics to keep drinking, helped make Seattle’s “Housing First” model official federal policy. And a Seattle police social-services diversion for low-level drug dealers is being copied around the country. The next big idea is called a safe-injection site. (3/7)

The Seattle Times: It’s Time To Face The Region’s Opioid Epidemic Head-On
The horrendous effects of heroin addiction can be felt everywhere, from homeless encampments under bridges and on the streets of glittering downtown Seattle to rural communities throughout the state ... The only way to address this public health crisis — and to end the death spiral for some — is to acknowledge the scope of the problem and to be open to exploring new approaches to treatment. (3/7)

The Chicago Sun-Times: Doubek: She Lives On Mental Health Edge Because Of State Cuts
Tina Wardzala lies awake nights wondering and fearing what will happen to her and her sons if she loses the therapy and psychiatric medication she needs. “I have to be well to take care of my children,” she told me recently. I first wrote about Wardzala, 50, late last September. She has been a client at the Family Service and Mental Health Center of Cicero for 10 years. Men her mother invited into their home abused her as a child. As an adult many years ago, she was raped in the hallway of an apartment building when she was trying to deliver food to an elderly woman. It took seven years for her to muster the courage to tell her therapist about that. Wardzala has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, agoraphobia and bipolar disorder. (Madeleine Doubek, 3/7)

STAT: Uterus Transplants Are No Match For The Safety Of Surrogacy
Cleveland Clinic surgeons performed the nation’s first uterus transplant last week; nine more are planned as part of a clinical trial. The goal is to make it possible for a woman with a damaged or missing uterus to become pregnant. This is innovative, skilled surgery. But it does not represent real progress for infertile women. (Josephine Johnston and Eric Trump, 3/7)

The Wall Street Journal: As The Number Of Uninsured Falls, Potential Fallout To Repealing The ACA Grows
The initial National Health Interview Survey results published last month by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirm what many private surveys have shown: that the proportion of Americans under 65 who lack health insurance has plummeted to record lows since the Affordable Care Act became law. Twenty million fewer Americans were uninsured in the first nine months of 2015 than in 2010. ... Whether or not you like Obamacare, a few things are clear: Repeal of the health-care law would be complicated and politically fraught. (David Blumenthal, 3/7)

The Chicago Sun-Times: Two Smart Ways To Improve Obamacare
Instead of compulsively voting over and over again to repeal the Affordable Care Act, which ain’t gonna happen as long as Barack Obama is president, could Congress actually do something to improve the quality of health care in the United States? Yes, it could, and we wish it would. Nobody on the left or right would argue that health care in America could not be less expensive or more effective. (Thomas Frisbie, 3/7)

The Wall Street Journal: $lammed by ObamaCare
This year my family joined millions of others whose health-insurance premium has become their biggest annual expense. More than our mortgage. More than our property taxes. More than our state income tax. More than our annual food or energy costs. With this year’s $194-a-month premium increase, I could roughly buy a Chevy Sonic or Ford Fiesta. Since 1999 our premiums are up 350%. Bad as this is, the story gets worse. (Christopher E. Press, 3/7)

Los Angeles Times: GOP Plans To Repeal Obamacare Won't Bring The Change You're Hoping For
For the third time in eight years, the presidential campaign is doubling as a referendum on the U.S. healthcare system. And once again, the debate will revolve around the rising cost of health insurance and the number of people struggling to obtain or maintain coverage. The obvious difference this time, though, is that the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare, is now fully in effect. Although the 2010 law has helped slow some cost increases, the continuing rise in premiums and prescription drug costs and the uptick in healthcare spending growth show that there's much work left to do. The question for voters this year is whether that work would be easier if the Affordable Care Act were repealed, and the answer is no. (3/7)

Los Angeles Times: Bernie Sanders Jokes About The 'Mental Health' Of Republicans
In 1992 Ross Perot, an independent candidate for president, turned the tables on people who called his ideas crazy by adopting the Willie Nelson/Patsy Cline song “Crazy” as his campaign theme. Suppose Sanders had called the Republican positions “crazy.” Or suggested that Donald Trump suffered from “delusions of grandeur.” Would those expressions also have been offensive? Probably not: They don’t have quite the same clinical connotation as “mental health.” Still, I don’t think Sanders was suggesting that everyone with clinical depression or bipolar disorder is at risk of voting for Ted Cruz or Donald Trump. He was making a joke about wrong-thinking — crazy! —Republicans, and it backfired. (Michael McGough, 3/7)

The New York Times: Reducing Drug Waste Could Save Billions Of Dollars
Given how expensive many cancer drugs are, it is alarming that the government, private insurers and patients spend an estimated $3 billion a year on cancer medicines that are thrown out because they are packaged in unnecessarily large quantities. The Food and Drug Administration ought to figure out ways to reduce this costly waste. (3/8)

Forbes: California's Illegal Medicaid Tax
California’s tax is illegal under federal law because the state was holding numerous insurers harmless from the tax that should not have been. The state has recently come up with a revised tax plan that it is submitting for federal approval. (Brian Blase, 3/7)

Louisville Courier Journal: Legislation Needed To Cap Drug Co-Pays
In the beginning, my epilepsy diagnosis felt a bit like a death sentence. I lived in constant fear of having a seizure at any time – driving to work, in the middle of an important meeting, holding an infant, alone at home. The independence I had once taken for granted was gone. Then, I discovered a prescription medicine to help control my epileptic seizures. As soon as I began taking it, I noticed improvement. This medication couldn’t cure me of my disease but did the next best thing: It effectively treated my symptoms ... [Last summer] I learned that my insurance company was now implementing “co-insurance,” which meant my out-of-pocket cost for the prescription had increased – and not just by a little. My $60-per-month medicine now cost me nearly $1,300. (Julie Davis, 3/7)

The News & Observer: UNC Rex Healthcare Is On The Rise
In Raleigh, people still call it Rex Hospital, but it isn’t that anymore. Since entering the UNC health care system in 2000, it’s formally known as UNC Rex Healthcare. And the change is in a lot more than the name. The former community hospital has evolved into a major regional medical center. Next year, it will open a $235 million Heart & Vascular Hospital. (3/7)

Modern Healthcare: Clinicians Must Partner With Gov't, Community Groups To Learn About Patients' Real-Life Challenges
Healthcare providers need to work more closely with governments and community organizations to better address the social determinants of health, according to a report released Monday by the National Academy of National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Providers must also more rigorously educate themselves and think critically about the potential root causes of poor health, and ultimately the factors that lead to suboptimal patient outcomes. (Sabriya Rice, 3/7)

Cleveland Plain Dealer: Planned Parenthood's Caring Doctors Made A Huge Difference For Me And Many Others
You've stripped Planned Parenthood of a potential $1.3 million for women's health care, because your anti-choice ideology stands in the way of cancer screenings, domestic violence counseling, unwanted-pregnancy prevention, HIV testing, prenatal care, well-baby care and birth control pills for a poor, hardworking kid with nowhere else to go. You speak, governor, in evangelical tones, of being "the prince of light and hope" in this presidential election season. But how many of Ohio's daughters will you leave in the dark? (Melissa Stacho, 3/7)