The New York Times: Divided Senate Republicans Turn To Health Care With A Rough Road Ahead
The top Republican in the Senate, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, has a reputation as a shrewd tactician and a wily strategist — far more than his younger counterpart in the House, Speaker Paul D. Ryan. So the Senate majority leader’s decision to create a 13-man working group on health care, including staunch conservatives and ardent foes of the Affordable Care Act — but no women — has been widely seen on Capitol Hill as a move to placate the right as Congress decides the fate of President Barack Obama’s signature domestic achievement. (Pear, 5/8)

The Associated Press: Health Care Fight Shifts To Senate, Where GOP Wants A Reboot
It took blood, sweat and tears for Republican leaders to finally push their health care bill through the House last week. Don't expect the process to be less arduous in the Senate, though more of the angst in that more decorous chamber will likely be behind closed doors. (Fram, 5/8)

The Wall Street Journal: Republicans Confront Health-Bill Backlash
House Republicans may have won the battle to pass a health-care overhaul, but the fight over public messaging that is now ramping up could be critical to the shape of the bill that emerges from the Senate and to any final compromise. GOP leaders and the Trump administration are urgently trying to tamp down a backlash from Democrats and some Republicans who say the House legislation rolling back and replacing much of the Affordable Care Act would imperil coverage for millions of Americans. (Armour and Peterson, 5/8)

Politico: White House To Let McConnell Do His Thing On Health Care
The White House is indicating it will take a hands-off approach to the Senate's healthcare work, entrusting Mitch McConnell and his team to come up with the 50 votes needed to replace Obamacare, according to GOP officials and lawmakers. (Everett and Dawsey, 5/8)

The Hill: McConnell: ObamaCare Replacement Bill 'Will Not Be Quick' 
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is signaling that the Senate will not quickly pass legislation to reform the nation's healthcare system after a bill cleared the House last week.  "This process will not be quick or simple or easy, but it must be done," McConnell said on Monday.  He added that "to those who have suffered enough already my message is this: We hear you, and Congress is acting." (Carney, 5/8)

CQ Roll Call: GOP Senators Expect 52 Voices On Health Care
Republican senators downplayed the influence of a working group that Senate leadership formed to help the party hone its legislative effort to replace the 2010 health care law. More moderate members said they are confident they will be able to participate in the policymaking process. The McConnell panel includes mostly members of leadership and more conservative hard-liners like Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Mike Lee of Utah. (Mershon and Young, 5/8)

The Hill: McCarthy: 'I Have No Problems' If Senate Writes Its Own Healthcare Bill
House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) on Monday said he doesn't have a problem if the Senate wants to write its own healthcare bill. “There's a number of senators over there that have different ideas. They are their own legislative body. I have no problems if they write their own bill," McCarthy said on Fox Business Network’s “Mornings with Maria.” "If it took the House passing a bill to get them moving on a bill, I thank them for that." (Savransky, 5/8)

The Hill: What Moderate GOP Senators Want In ObamaCare Repeal 
The House managed to narrowly pass its ObamaCare repeal bill by finding a delicate balance between hard-line conservatives and moderates. Now the Senate is looking to achieve the same feat, only with a smaller margin for error. Senate moderates have already put their markers down on the healthcare issues that concern them the most. Individual senators hold much more power in advancing the health bill than individual House members, and if Senate Republicans can’t find a balance among their caucus, the ObamaCare repeal effort could be doomed. (Weixel, 5/8)

McClatchy: Why Are There Only Men On The Senate's Health Care Panel? 
Criticism on the GOP’s replacement for Obamacare mounted immediately after the House narrowly passed its bill on Friday. Actions by Republican leadership have given those critics – especially those voicing concerns for female health issues – more fuel. Most recently, the Senate unveiled a 13-member panel – all of them men – that would craft a Senate version of a health care bill to replace Obamacare. It’s the latest issue in a series of gender-based criticisms of Republican actions on health care. (Irby, 5/8)

Kaiser Health News: On The Air With KHN: Obamacare Replacement Bill Heads To The Senate
Reporters with Kaiser Health News and California Healthline (produced by KHN) have been featured on a variety of radio and television shows to discuss the legislation passed by the House to overhaul the Affordable Care Act and its prospects in the Senate. Here’s what KHN chief Washington correspondent Julie Rovner, KHN senior correspondent Mary Agnes Carey and California Healthline senior correspondent Emily Bazar had to say. (5/9)

The New York Times: They Voted To Repeal Obamacare. Now They Are A Target.
For months, protesters have been rallying outside Senator Cory Gardner’s offices in Colorado, urging him not to join fellow Republicans in their push to repeal the Affordable Care Act. When he refused to hold town hall meetings, protesters staged them in his absence, asking questions to a cardboard cutout of him.Now they are escalating their tactics. (Zernike, 5/8)

Politico: Left Adopts Shock Tactics In Obamacare Repeal Fight
One newly formed progressive super PAC is planning to cart caskets to Republican lawmakers' districts and hold mock funerals for their constituents. Another activist is encouraging protesters to ship their own ashes — should they die without health care —to GOP lawmakers. And other progressive groups are planning graphic "die-in" protests as they work to derail GOP plans to repeal Obamacare. Democrats, already frothing with anger over losing the White House to Donald Trump, are seething anew over the advancing Republican plan to gut Obamacare. (Vogel and Cheney, 5/9)

The Washington Post: A Lot Of Republican Rhetoric On Health Care This Weekend May Haunt The Party In 2018
It’s important to remember, when considering the Republican plan to overhaul Obamacare, that the only constituency that fervently supports throwing out the Affordable Care Act is Republicans. In the most recent Post-ABC News poll, three-quarters of Republicans supported repealing Obamacare, sure — but 9 in 10 Democrats and two-thirds of independents favored strengthening the existing law. The net effect, then, is that Republicans on Capitol Hill are trying to deliver a long-held promise to their base — while not alienating other voters who might come to the polls next fall. (Bump, 5/8)

Politico: Maloney Plans Town Hall In Faso's District, As Health Care Fallout Continues
Fallout over last week’s House vote on the American Health Care Act is continuing across upstate New York, with planned protests, new television ads and a Democratic congressman holding a town hall meeting in the district of his Republican neighbor. They’re the latest steps in what is expected to be months of politicking over the bill, which was opposed by Democrats but supported by seven of New York’s nine Republican House members. (Vielkind, 5/8)

The Hill: House Democrat Plans To Attend Town Hall For GOP Lawmaker
Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-N.Y.) is making good on his offer to attend a town hall meeting in the place of a Republican colleague who won't be there. Maloney plans to attend a town hall hosted by a local chapter of anti-President Trump group Indivisible in a neighboring New York district on Monday night in the place of Rep. John Faso (R-N.Y.), who represents that area. (Marcos, 5/9)

NPR: At Town Hall Meeting, Republican Lawmaker Gets An Earful
On Monday night, a few days after voting in favor of the House bill to repeal and replace major parts of the Affordable Care Act, Rep. Elise Stefanik, 32, from Northern New York, held a town hall at a public television station. Stefanik is a moderate Republican in her second term. She's also the youngest woman ever elected to Congress. After refusing for weeks to say how she planned to vote, she was one of a handful of last-minute "yes" votes for the GOP health care bill. Stefanik got an earful about that from her constituents. (Hirsch, 5/9)

The Washington Post: Iowa Congressman Walks Out Of A TV Interview And Into An Angry Town Hall Meeting
An Iowa congressman walked out of a television interview on Monday, declining to explain why his staff is prescreening constituents who plan to attend his town hall meetings this week. A few hours later, Rep. Rod Blum (R-Iowa) showed up at his town hall meeting where most of the prescreened audience screamed at him. It was a rough start to a recess week for Blum, a second-term lawmaker representing a swing district that voted narrowly for President Trump last year after supporting Barack Obama in 2012. Blum is a member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus who initially declined to support the Republican plan to replace the Affordable Care Act but ultimately voted last week for the American Health Care Act. (O'Keefe, 5/8)

The Associated Press: Rep. Raul Labrador Says Health Care Answer Wasn't Elegant
U.S. Rep. Raul Labrador says his answer to a question on health care at a recent town hall in northern Idaho wasn't very elegant. Labrador has received criticism for his comment Friday that no one has died because they didn't have access to health care — a claim disputed by medical experts because they counter that patients without health coverage often risk waiting until their conditions have advanced too far for effective treatment. (Kruesi, 5/8)

The Washington Post: Obamacare Cost Him A Seat In Congress. Can It Make Him Governor Of Virginia?
An hour after House Republicans voted to gut the Affordable Care Act last week, Tom Perriello released a viral ad that showed him in front of an ambulance being compacted in a scrapyard, shouting above the din that he’d stop Republicans from crushing health care in Virginia if he is elected governor. Never mind that Perriello is competing for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination against a pediatric neurologist, Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam, who supports Obamacare as much as he does. Or that the GOP House bill may never become law after the Senate gets to work on its version. (Nirappil, 5/8)

Roll Call: Blum Defends GOP Health Care Bill But Not Process
Rep. Rod Blum faced his constituents Monday night to defend the Republican health care bill, but agreed with critics who chided the “rushed” process. The Iowa Republican attempted to explain what he viewed as the merits of the bill, known as the American Health Care Act. Though he agreed with one constituent who raised concerns that House Republicans did not hold any hearings on the legislation before passing it last week. (Bowman, 5/9)

The Hill: Ads Launched To Back House GOP On ObamaCare Vote
A nonprofit allied with Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) launched a national ad buy on Monday providing cover for House Republicans who voted for the American Health Care Act. The $500,000 buy from the American Action Network will air nationally and on cable television, including on MSNBC's “Morning Joe” and Fox News's “Fox & Friends.” It will also air in Ryan's Wisconsin district. (Marcos, 5/8)

Morning Consult: Ad Buy Seeks to Defend Ryan, House GOP After Health Care Vote
After voting to overhaul the Affordable Care Act last week, House Republicans could face upset constituents during this week’s recess. A powerful, conservative group plans to give them some cover and defend House Speaker Paul Ryan. The American Action Network, a group with ties to House GOP leadership and the Congressional Leadership Fund super PAC, on Monday announced a $500,000 national ad buy highlighting key aspects of the American Health Care Act. The ad will also run in Wisconsin’s 1st Congressional District, which Ryan represents. (McIntire, 5/8)

Roll Call: Senate Democrats Find Message On Trump’s Tax, Health Care Promises
Democrats are at a disadvantage with the Republican majorities in the House and Senate. But by pointing out the gap between what Trump said during the campaign and what’s appeared in the GOP health care and tax plans, they are attempting to influence the legislative debate from the outside. Both initiatives have a long way to go before reaching Trump’s desk. But in the shadow of next year’s critically important midterm elections, Democrats in the chamber are on the offensive and looking to portray the GOP proposals as major wins for the wealthy at the expense of the middle class. (Williams, 5/9)

The Hill: Healthcare Vote Puts Heller In A Bind 
Thursday’s House vote to repeal and replace ObamaCare puts Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nev.) in the hot seat. The House GOP’s American Health Care Act (AHCA) would largely eliminate ObamaCare’s Medicaid expansion, which has enrolled hundreds of thousands of Nevadans since 2013. Heller, seen as the most vulnerable GOP senator up for reelection after his state backed Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and freshman Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) in 2016, quickly distanced himself from the current version of the bill. (Hagen and Kamisar, 5/9)

Stateline: Scrapping ‘Essential Benefits’ May Be Biggest Health Care Change
Critics of the Republican health care plan the House passed last week mostly have focused on how it might harm Americans with pre-existing health conditions and poor and disabled people who rely on Medicaid — two vulnerable, but limited, populations. But another change might have more far-reaching effects: eliminating the Affordable Care Act’s “essential health benefits,” or EHBs. That shift could affect almost everybody, including the 156 million Americans who receive health coverage through their employers. (Ollove, 5/9)

The New York Times: G.O.P. Bill Could Affect Employer Health Coverage, Too
If it becomes law, the American Health Care Act will have the biggest effects on people who buy their own insurance or get coverage through Medicaid. But it also means changes for the far larger employer health system. About half of all Americans get health coverage through work. The bill would make it easier for employers to increase the amount that employees could be asked to pay in premiums, or to stop offering coverage entirely. (Sanger-Katz, 5/9)

The Fiscal Times: 6 Ways The Republican Health Plan Could Affect Someone Not On Obamacare 
ch of the focus on the potential impact of the health care overhaul plan that Republicans in the House of Representatives passed last week has focused on people who purchase insurance on the individual market through the health insurance exchanges set up by the Affordable Care Act. But the effects of the American Health Care Plan were it to become law, would also be felt by people who enjoy employer-sponsored coverage, or who earn too much money to qualify for subsidies under the ACA. (Garver, 5/8)

NPR: GOP Health Bill Would Let States Determine 'Pre-Existing Condition' Protections
Ryan Lennon Fines seems like a typical 2-year-old. He and his parents, Scott Fines and Brianna Lennon, flip through a picture book of emergency vehicles. Ryan is looking for the motorcycle, but a photo of an airplane catches his dad's eye. "That's an air ambulance," Fines tells him. "You've been on one of those." (Sable-Smith, 5/8)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Tom Price: Obamacare Repeal Is ‘Better Way’ To Treat Pre-Existing Conditions 
Health Secretary Tom Price took his star turn on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday to defend the House health care bill’s treatment of Americans with pre-existing conditions, calling the Obamacare repeal a “better way” to cover those illnesses. Pressed by Andrea Mitchell on a coalition of health groups and other advocates who oppose the measure, Price said it said it would allow “for every single person to get the access to the kind of coverage that they want.” (Bluestein, 5/8)

The Hill: More Than One-Third Of Americans Oppose GOP Healthcare Bill
More than one-third of American voters oppose the new Republican legislation aimed at repealing and replacing ObamaCare, according to a HuffPost/YouGov poll released Monday. Forty-four percent oppose the new legislation, while 31 percent favor the GOP plan. A quarter of those polled were unsure.  (Shelbourne, 5/8)

Bloomberg: Obamacare Premiums Rise As Insurers Fret Over Law’s Shaky Future 
Health insurers are asking for sharp increases in the cost of their Obamacare plans next year, thanks to instability in the law’s coverage markets that’s been compounded by the Trump administration. In Maryland, Virginia and Connecticut -- the first states to make filings public -- premiums for Affordable Care Act plans will rise more than 20 percent on average, according to data compiled by ACASignups.net and Bloomberg. The increases follow years of rising premiums under ex-President Barack Obama. (Tracer and Edney, 5/9)

The CT Mirror: Health Insurers Seek Big Rate Hikes, Blame Obamacare’s Uncertain Future 
The state’s health insurers are asking for sizeable rate increases for individual and small-business policies sold in 2018, led by Anthem, which is seeking an average 33.8 percent increase on plans covering individuals and their families. The insurers blamed the size of their rate hikes in large part on the unsteady future of the Affordable Care Act, which congressional Republicans are attempting to repeal. (Radelat, 5/8)

The New York Times: New Veterans Affairs Chief: A Hands-On, Risk-Taking ‘Standout’
A gray-haired Vietnam veteran sat rustling on the paper of an examining table at the small veterans clinic in Grants Pass, Ore., on a recent afternoon when his doctor for the day appeared on a screen in front of him, wearing a white lab coat and bulbous headphones. “Take some deep breaths. All the way in … And, sir, do you want to give me a good cough?” the doctor said as he listened to the veteran’s heart and lungs from about 2,400 miles away in his office overlooking the White House. (Philipps and Fandos, 5/9)

In other news from the administration —

Modern Healthcare: GOP Lawmakers Fear HHS Is Barring Staffers From Contacting Congress
Republican lawmakers are concerned that HHS may be trying to prohibit employees from corresponding with members of the legislative branch. In a letter to HHS Secretary Tom Price dated Thursday, Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said they were concerned by a recent HHS memo that told employees they must first talk to the agency's Office of the Assistant Secretary for Legislation before communicating with lawmakers or their staff. Chaffetz and Grassley said this possibly violates federal law. (Dickson, 5/8)

CQ Roll Call: FDA Bill Would Add Changes On Hearing Aids And Device Makers
The latest version of a bill to renew the Food and Drug Administration’s authority to collect fees from the drug and medical device industries contains a slew of new policy provisions related to device facility inspections, hearing aid regulation and the development of drugs or devices for children. The additions seem to be bipartisan and likely won’t threaten the bill’s passage, which senators want to occur by late July. The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee is marking up the bill (S 934) on Wednesday, and the House Energy and Commerce Committee is expected to follow suit next week, setting up potential floor votes in June. (Siddons, 5/8)

Bloomberg: Biotech CEOs, NIH Defend Research Spending At White House Visit 
Biotech executives and the head of the National Institutes of Health met on Monday at the White House with Vice President Mike Pence and other top officials to defend government-sponsored research after the president’s budget proposal sought deep cuts. President Donald Trump’s administration proposed cutting $1.23 billion from the NIH’s budget this fiscal year and $5.8 billion next year. Most of the proposed 2017 cuts would have come from reductions in research grants. But Congress increased the NIH’s budget for this fiscal year by $2 billion in the spending bill it passed last week to fund the government through September. (Edney, 5/8)

Stat: Trump's Proposed NIH Funding Cut Not Discussed At White House Biotech Meeting
Francis Collins, the director of the National Institutes of Health, chaired a meeting at the White House on Monday that many research advocates viewed as a chance to oppose the $5.8 billion cut President Trump has proposed for the agency next year. Yet the topic of possible reductions in federal research funding, by Collins’ account, did not come up. ... Advocates for strong federal research funding had characterized the so-called “biotech summit” as a tipping point in their campaign for NIH funding. If the White House seemed willing to back away from NIH cuts altogether, they said, a planned wave of advocacy might be unnecessary, especially in the wake of the 2017 budget deal that included more money for the agency. (Facher, 5/8)

Politico Pro: Drug Pricing, NIH Budget Cuts Absent From Discussion At White House Biomedical Meeting 
The pricing of pharmaceuticals was among "several elephants in the room" that didn’t come up at a White House meeting Monday on U.S. biomedical research, NIH Director Francis Collins said. Also not discussed at the high level meeting: President Donald Trump’s proposal to cut nearly $6 billion or about one-fifth of NIH appropriations in fiscal year 2018, said Collins, who attended along with top advisers to Trump including Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump, HHS Secretary Tom Price and representatives from the drug industry and leading universities and hospitals. (Karlin-Smith, 5/8)

Bloomberg: Anthem Asks Judge To Continue Blocking Cigna's Merger Exit 
Anthem Inc. is making another push to salvage its $48 billion merger with Cigna Corp. by asking a Delaware judge to extend an order blocking its would-be partner from pulling out of the deal. Anthem wants Delaware Chancery Court Judge Travis Laster to extend a temporary ban on Cigna’s exit for 60 days. The company hopes to work out a deal with federal prosecutors to drop their objections to the combination or to get the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn court rulings blocking it as anticompetitive. (Feeley, 5/8)

Reuters: Anthem Argues For 60 Days To Save Merger With Balky Cigna
The U.S. Justice Department and 11 states sued to stop the proposed transaction and won in both district court and an appeals court. Anthem wants the injunction while it pursues an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. (Bartz, 5/8)

New Orleans Times-Picayune: Cracking The Code: 10 Questions To Find What That Medical Procedure Will Cost You
How much will that cost? People are getting used to asking this in the health care marketplace. The $10 co-pay is basically a thing of the past. With rising deductibles running into thousands of dollars a year, more out-of-network providers, more uninsured people and more out-of-pocket spending, it's increasingly a question to ask - before the medical procedure, not after, when the "gotcha" bill upsets us. (Pinder, 5/8)

Kansas City Star: Price Shopping For Surgery? Some Websites Can Help
High-deductible health plans like the Fogts’ are on the rise nationwide, making it all the more important for health care consumers to shop around, even for surgical procedures. Historically that’s been pretty tough, because the prices for things like biopsies have been less than transparent. But some websites are trying to provide consumers with tools to at least get an idea of what they should pay for certain procedures. (Marso, 5/8)

Stat: Senator: Delay FDA Opioid Workshop Over Conflicts Of Interest
A US senator is urging the Department of Health and Human Services to delay a two-day workshop on opioid prescribing that is scheduled to start on Tuesday over concerns that some of the participating organizations have financial ties to drug makers that sell pain pills. In a letter last Friday to HHS Secretary Tom Price, Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) urged HHS to review “serious” conflicts of interest in order to ensure a “genuine balance of views” and “diminish the influence of companies that have a financial stake in loosening opioid prescriber guidelines.” (Silverman, 5/8)

Modern Healthcare: Wyden Questions Conflicts Of Interest In FDA Opioid Training
A lawmaker has asked HHS and the FDA to postpone a workshop designed to train healthcare providers on ways to safely prescribe opioids, citing concerns that some participants have close ties to opioid makers. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, called on HHS to conduct a full conflict-of-interest review and ensure that participants have no financial ties or partnerships with opioid companies. (Johnson, 5/8)

Stateline: As Fentanyl Spreads, States Step Up Responses
A billboard on a main highway tallies the number of residents in this mostly rural county who have overdosed on prescription painkillers, heroin and other illicit opioids this year: 96 overdoses, 15 of them fatal. What the sign doesn’t say is that a large and growing number of those deaths are the result of fentanyl, a fast-acting drug that is 50 times stronger than heroin and can kill users within seconds. Cheap and easy to produce, it is used by drug dealers to intensify the effects of heroin and other illicit drugs, often without the users’ knowledge. (Vestal, 5/8)

And in other news on the opioid epidemic —

Stat: As They Fight The Opioid Crisis, Counselors See A Grave New Threat: The GOP
Republicans have framed their bill as a way to give patients more freedom in their insurance choices, allowing them to buy plans that fit their needs instead of being mandated to buy coverage for services they would never use. But the bill’s huge cuts to Medicaid could cause millions of low-income people to lose coverage. The bill also give states the flexibility to redefine which “essential benefits” insurance plans must cover — and some could choose to make mental health and addiction coverage optional. That’s a harsh blow for the recovery community, which was just starting to feel — at last — as though they had the elements in place to at least start combating the epidemic. (Joseph, 5/9)

NPR: Public Restrooms Become Central To The Opioid Epidemic
A man named Eddie threads through the mid-afternoon crowd in Cambridge, Mass. He's headed for a sandwich shop, the first stop on a tour of public bathrooms. "I know all the bathrooms that I can and can't get high in," says Eddie, 39, pausing in front of the shop's plate glass windows, through which we can see a bathroom door. Eddie, whose last name we're not including because he uses illegal drugs, knows which restrooms along busy Massachusetts Avenue he can enter, at what hours and for how long. Several restaurants, offices and a social service agency in this neighborhood have closed their restrooms in recent months, but not this sandwich shop. (Bebinger, 5/8)

Cleveland Plain Dealer: Cleveland Judge To Address U.S. Congress On Opioid Crisis 
A Cuyahoga County judge who has seen firsthand the ravages of the opioid epidemic has been invited to address members of U.S. Congress in Washington this week. Common Pleas Judge David Matia, who helped create Cuyahoga County's first drug court program in 2008, will speak at a Wednesday lunch briefing in the Rayburn House Office Building next to the U.S. Capitol, according to a news release Monday. (Shaffer, 5/8)

Georgia Health News: A Place That Pulls Addicts Back From The Brink 
Some policymakers in Georgia worry about the proliferation of these businesses in the state, and the General Assembly recently authorized a new legislative committee to scrutinize drug treatment centers more closely... Too many centers with too little regulation could expose desperate people to unnecessary risk. (Griffith, 5/8)

The Washington Post: U.S. Life Expectancy Varies By More Than 20 Years From County To County
Life expectancy is rising overall in the United States, but in some areas, death rates are going conspicuously in the other direction. These geographical disparities are widening, according to a report published Monday in JAMA Internal Medicine. Life expectancy is greatest in the high country of central Colorado, but in many pockets of the United States, life expectancy is more than 20 years lower, according to the report from the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. (Achenbach, 5/8)

NPR: Life Expectancy Varies By 20 Years, Depending On County
Health experts have long known that Americans living in different parts of the country tend to have different life spans. But Murray's team decided to take a closer look, analyzing records from every U.S. county between 1980 and 2014. "What we found is that the gap is enormous," Murray says. In 2014, there was a spread of 20.1 years between the counties with the longest and shortest typical life spans based on life expectancy at birth. (Stein, 5/8)

Los Angeles Times: To Live A Long Life In America, It Helps To Be Born In The Right County
A child born in the United States in 2014 can expect to live 79.1 years, on average. But that figure doesn’t apply equally to all kids across the country. For example, a baby boy born in South Dakota’s Oglala Lakota County that year has a life expectancy of just under 62.8 years. Meanwhile, a baby girl lucky enough to be born in Summit County, Colo., can plan to live to the ripe old age of 88.5. That’s a difference of more than 25 years. Put another way, the girl in Colorado can expect to live 41% longer than the boy in South Dakota. (Kaplan, 5/8)

Seattle Times: We’re Living Longer — But Just How Long Varies Across Washington, Study Shows
The gap in life expectancy between Washington’s counties is growing, pointing to increasing inequality in the health of Americans. If you lived in King County, your life expectancy increased by six years from 1980 to 2014, to 81.37 years, according to a new study by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington. But Cowlitz County residents gained only three years of life expectancy in that span and died at the average age of 77.51. (Young, 5/8)

Columbus Dispatch: Life Expectancy Rises In All 88 Ohio Counties
A new report shows that life expectancies have risen in all 88 of Ohio’s counties. Nationwide, life expectancies dropped in 13 counties from 1980 to 2014, according to the report published by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington in Seattle. The lowest life expectancy in 2014 was 66.8 years, in Oglala Lakota County, South Dakota. (Viviano, 5/8)

The New York Times: Why Everything We Know About Salt May Be Wrong
The salt equation taught to doctors for more than 200 years is not hard to understand. The body relies on this essential mineral for a variety of functions, including blood pressure and the transmission of nerve impulses. Sodium levels in the blood must be carefully maintained. If you eat a lot of salt — sodium chloride — you will become thirsty and drink water, diluting your blood enough to maintain the proper concentration of sodium. Ultimately you will excrete much of the excess salt and water in urine. The theory is intuitive and simple. And it may be completely wrong. (Kolata, 5/8)

The Associated Press: Suicide Online: Facebook Aims To Save Lives With New Actions
The alarming video of a Georgia teenager livestreaming her own suicide attempt stayed up long enough on Facebook Live for sheriff's deputies to find and save her — a repeat phenomenon that has prompted mental health experts and Facebook's CEO to further investigate how they can use social media as a possible platform to help save lives. (Martin, 5/8)

Stat: Loneliness In Seniors: A Medical Problem This Provider Thinks It Can Solve
Clinicians are starting to look at the role that poverty, race, and other social determinants play in a person’s health, but what about social connectedness — how do friendship, family, and loneliness play into a person’s medical needs? Large health care systems have yet to take up the fight in a meaningful way, but that could be changing. On Monday, CareMore, a unit of Anthem Insurance that offers coverage and health care to more than 100,000 members across seven states, is introducing a campaign to help some of the US population’s most socially isolated people: seniors. (Tedeschi, 5/8)

Cox Media Group: Study: 16 Children Hospitalized Daily With Gunshot Injuries
Dr. Alyssa Silver, an attending physician and assistant professor of pediatrics in Children's Hospital at Montefiore/Albert Einstein College of Medicine Division of Pediatric Hospital Medicine, took a close look at the number of children injured by guns. CNN reported. She found that roughly 16 children a day, or an estimated 5,862 a year, were hospitalized due to firearm injuries in 2012. (D'Angelo, 5/5)

HealthDay: With Autism, Tracking Devices May Ease Parents' Minds 
An electronic tracking device can calm worried parents who fear their child with autism might wander off and stumble into danger, a new survey shows. With the device, "parents were more comfortable letting their child spend time with family and friends," explained lead researcher Dr. Andrew Adesman. (Miller, 5/8)

The Associated Press: Dems Want Omaha Win, But Anti-Abortion Candidate Riles Some
Democrats desperate for fresh faces cast 37-year-old Heath Mello as a pragmatic, next-generation leader who could win in the Nebraska heartland. Yet his anti-abortion stance has become a flashpoint for the national party. If Mello prevails on Tuesday in his bid for Omaha mayor, it’s a promising sign, he says, for a candidate “with a proven record of working bipartisan and tackling some big issues and, yes, to some extent, is a pro-life Catholic Democrat.” He is challenging Republican incumbent Jean Stothert. (Beaumont, 5/8)

In Alaska —

The Associated Press: Alaska Lawmaker Mum Amid Apology Demand For Abortion Remarks
An Alaska lawmaker who set off a firestorm by suggesting women try to get pregnant for a "free trip to the city" for abortions is a military veteran and first-year representative with a reputation for being outspoken in his conservative beliefs. (Bohrer, 5/8)

Reveal: Poor Medical Care In Immigrant Detention Had Deadly Consequences, Report Finds 
Poor medical care, including underqualified staff and systemic neglect, has contributed to the deaths at immigrant detention facilities around the country, according to a report released Monday by two advocacy groups. The report is based on doctors’ evaluations of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement death reports from 2012 to 2015, and on interviews with people who are or recently were detained in facilities overseen by ICE. (Michels, 5/8)

A separate report finds issues at centers in Georgia —

Georgia Health News: Report Claims Substandard Care At Georgia Immigrant Detention Centers
People in two Georgia immigrant detention centers are getting inadequate care in “desperately understaffed” medical units, according to a report released last week by Project South, an Atlanta-based advocacy group. While detainees often get their required physical exams upon entering the facilities, they may wait a long time for medical treatment, the report said. (Simonton, 5/8)

The Star Tribune: Allina Limits Hospital, Clinic Visitors Due To Measles Outbreak 
Several major Twin Cities hospitals and clinic systems announced precautionary limits on visitors Monday as four more cases of measles were reported by state health officials. Minnesota's measles outbreak, which was first detected nearly four weeks ago, has sickened 48 people. (Howatt, 5/8)

Pioneer Press: Measles Outbreak Has Metro Hospitals, Clinics Limiting Children’s Visits
Flu season is all but over, but the Minnesota measles outbreak has metro medical centers handing out masks and telling their youngest visitors to stay home. Allina Health, which includes United Hospital in St. Paul, said Monday it is continuing its flu-season visitation restrictions, which bar visitors under age 5 to protect patients and staff. As an added precaution, children under 10 must wear a mask while visiting, and no one under 10 is allowed at Allina’s childbirth centers. (Verges, 5/8)

Denver Post: Colorado Lawmakers Make Final Push For Hospitals Bill, Others Ahead Of Adjournment
The state Senate passed Senate Bill 267 on Monday, and the measure raced through the House as lawmakers rushed to avoid a $528 million cut in payments to hospitals by reclassifying the provider fee program and generate $1.9 billion for road construction by mortgaging state buildings. The 25-10 vote in the Senate demonstrated the significant heartburn among some conservative lawmakers who blasted the measure for allowing more state spending and debt — reasons they believed it should go to voters for approval. (Frank, 5/8)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Insurance Could Shift For 250,000 Wisconsin State Workers Under Scott Walker Budget Proposal
After years of skepticism, lawmakers must now decide on Gov. Scott Walker's plan to save at least $60 million by restructuring health insurance for some 250,000 government employees and their families. The Republican governor wants the state to shift from a model in which the state pays premiums to private insurers to cover state and local employees. (Stein, 5/8)

Boston Globe: Worcester Hospital Faces Backlash Against Plan To Close Psychiatric Beds 
But a plan by UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester to convert those beds for medical and surgical care has generated deep concerns from the state and stiff opposition from nurses, mental health advocates, and elected officials. Officials at the state Department of Public Health said Monday that UMass Memorial’s plan “does not adequately meet the needs of the patients in the community” and asked the hospital to delay. (Dayal McCluskey, 5/9)

The Baltimore Sun: Baltimore Hospital Bringing Virtual Reality To Medical Treatment
Virtual reality is being used to distract patients during painful procedures, such as treatment for third-degree burns, so they feel less pain. Soldiers and veterans suffering from depression and post-traumatic stress disorder are getting treated with virtual reality videos that recreate traumatic events to help patients face them head-on and learn, over time, to cope with the mental effects of their combat experiences. Doctors also are using the techniques for surgery simulations and robotic surgery. (McDaniels, 5/8)

Boston Globe: Mass. Medical Schools Plan To Teach How To Discuss Patients’ Goals For Care, And For Life
The four medical schools in Massachusetts have jointly agreed to teach students and residents how to talk with patients about what they want from life, so future doctors will know how far to go in keeping gravely ill patients alive. How patients answer questions about their overall life goals can inform treatment decisions, especially as people near the end of life. (Freyer, 5/9)

Health News Florida: Federal Funds May Not Offset State Cuts To Hospitals
The state budget includes deep cuts to hospitals that serve the poor and lawmakers are betting on federal money to help offset the losses. But that federal money is not guaranteed, said Bruce Rueben, president of the Florida Hospital Association. (Ochoa, 5/9)

Seattle Times: Will Seattle’s Proposed Soda Tax Be A Boon For Health? A Nutritionist’s Take
2016 has been called the Year of the Soda Tax, but 2017 is looking to match it. Last year, six cities — including San Francisco and Philadelphia — followed in the footsteps of the Berkeley, California, tax on soda and other sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs), which went into effect in March 2015. Seattle has a soda tax up for consideration this year (a public hearing is scheduled for May 17), and it’s likely that a number of other cities, towns and even entire states, will do the same. This isn’t just a U.S. thing — France, Hungary, Ireland, Mexico and the United Kingdom have passed similar taxes. (Dennett, 5/8)

Minnesota Public Radio : Project Reduces Mercury Levels In Women On North Shore 
After a 2011 study by the Minnesota Department of Health showed that 10 percent of newborns tested along the North Shore had concerning levels of mercury in their blood, public health officials faced a conundrum. Too much mercury can cause lasting problems with understand and learning. (Kraker, 5/8)

The Star Tribune: Northern Minnesota Campaign Reduces Fish-Related Mercury Consumption
The Minnesota Department of Health reported Monday that mercury levels have declined in a study group of women living along the North Shore of Lake Superior, where studies have found widespread mercury contamination in freshwater fish. The women's mercury levels came down even though they continued to eat fatty fish that offer dietary and health benefits. (Olson, 5/8)

San Antonio Press-Express: On Tight Deadline, Advocates Urge Lawmakers To Schedule Medical Marijuana Bill For Texas House Vote 
Patients, caregivers and parents of autistic and epileptic children gathered Monday on the south steps of the state Capitol to urge members of the House Calendars Committee to schedule a vote on HB 2107, authored by state Rep. Eddie Lucio Jr., D-Brownsville. The legislation would authorize the possession, use and cultivation of cannabis by qualifying patients. (Mejia Lutz, 5/8)

The Washington Post: Do High-Risk Pools Work? It Depends.
If the American Health Care Act ultimately becomes law, states will have the option to once again let insurers on the individual market charge those with preexisting conditions more than healthy people. Among the more contentious pieces of the AHCA, which the House of Representatives passed narrowly on Thursday, is a provision allowing states to request waivers to rules otherwise forbidding higher premiums based on a person’s health status. To get a waiver, states would have to explain how their approach would reduce premium growth and increase enrollment or competition; a late amendment to the bill added $8 billion to help defray higher costs to individuals with health conditions. (Richard Popper, 5/8)

The Washington Post: Republicans Are Accidentally Paving The Way For Single-Payer Health Care
Sooner or later, we will have universal, single-payer health care in this country — sooner if Republicans succeed in destroying the Affordable Care Act, later if they fail. The repeal-and-replace bill passed by the House last week is nothing short of an abomination. It is so bad that Republicans can defend it only by blowing smoke and telling lies. “You cannot be denied coverage if you have a preexisting condition,” House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) said — true in the narrowest, most technical sense but totally false in the real world, since insurance companies could charge those people astronomically high premiums, pricing them out of the market if, as often happens, they let their coverage lapse. (Eugene Robinson, 5/8)

Los Angeles Times: Two GOP Governors Already Are Thinking Of Killing Protections For Preexisting Conditions In Their States
White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus tried to reassure America over the weekend that the most horrific provisions of the Republican Obamacare repeal bill were so horrific that no politicians in their right mind would even contemplate implementing them. The issue is protection for people with preexisting medical conditions. Under the Affordable Care Act, insurers aren’t allowed to charge those customers more for coverage just because of their health profile. The repeal bill passed by House Republicans last week allows states to obtain waivers to cut that safeguard way back, potentially allowing insurers to charge sky-high surcharges to make coverage unaffordable for those patients. (Michael Hiltzik, 5/8)

Fortune: The Surprise Gift That Trumpcare Could Yield
The U.S. Constitution is notable for its focus on proscriptions rather than prescriptions. Most of what this masterful charter does is guarantee freedom from government interference in individual liberties “rather than impose any affirmative obligation of the government to provide for the health or welfare of its citizens,” writes Erin C. Fuse Brown, an associate professor of law at Georgia State University’s Center for Law Health and Society in a fascinating 2013 paper. (Clifton Leaf, 5/8)

Kansas City Star: Mentally Ill Will Be Even Worse Off Under GOP Health Bill
There are so few services for those suffering from a serious mental illness that thousands of Missourians in that situation now live in nursing homes intended for geriatric patients, The Star reported this week. ... Yet if anything resembling the “American Health Care Act” — George Orwell would love that name — becomes law, such patients and their families will be even worse off. (5/8)  

The Charlotte Observer: One Doctor’s Diagnosis: 5 Huge Flaws With The AHCA
The House of Representatives last week passed the American Health Care Act to replace the existing health care legislation. If this bill became law, what would be the consequences, to name but a few, for those Americans who currently have health care coverage? (Michael E. Norman, 5/8)

Cleveland Plain Dealer: True Health Care Reform Must Go Beyond Just Putting A New (Political) Fox In The Henhouse
Health care in this country has been a political football for too long. Both parties can equally share the blame for this in different ways: the Republicans, for never giving in and admitting that we needed an inclusive system in the first place, even though nearly every developed country in the free world has one; and the Democrats, for ramming through a system so flawed and tainted that it is practically useless to anyone who actually needs it. Its very design entices companies not to hire full-time workers, or to cut full-time workers back to part-time simply to avoid paying health care benefits under this plan. (Dave Moeller, 5/8)

KevinMD: What’s The Difference Between Health Care In The U.S. And Haiti? Not Much.
Naturally, we will always have the option that awaits most of Haiti’s working poor: Simply let people die. It’s cheap and cost-effective and it hardly ever fails. Haiti’s government, while complicit in the country’s chronic dysfunction, simply does not have the funding to provide care for its 10 million people. The United States has no such excuse. We have the financial resources to insure our citizens, but we regularly choose defense spending hikes or tax cuts instead. (Vincent DeGennaro Jr., 5/8)

The Washington Post: Republicans Serve Up Dishonest Claims To Defend Their Health-Care Bill
Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) was asked Sunday whether the health-care bill the House of Representatives passed last week would, as its GOP boosters insist, improve coverage and preserve patient protections. “I think that’s unlikely,” she responded. “Unlikely” was a kind way of putting it. Ms. Collins’s comments came on the same morning that Trump administration officials and House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) made several indefensible claims about the bill they championed, despite widespread condemnation from experts, wariness from industry and concern from more sensible members of their own party. (5/8)

WBUR: The Republican Health Care Bill Is An American Tragedy 
Last Thursday, Congressional Republicans voted to pass the American Health Care Act, the first step in fulfilling their pledge to “repeal and replace” former President Obama's health care law, the Affordable Care Act. This comes after attempts to pass an earlier version of the Republican health care bill imploded about a month ago. If the new version of the bill becomes law, it stands to reshape both the landscape of American health and the health care industry -- one-sixth of our economy. (Sandro Galea, 5/9)

The Washington Post: The Health Bill Is A Total Disaster. That’s Why Republicans Keep Lying About It.
As the political world absorbs the implications of the House GOP vote to repeal and replace Obamacare, it is being widely suggested that the move could put GOP control of the House in jeopardy. There is a long way to go until Election Day 2018, and all kinds of things can change, but there are two indicators right now that this may be shaping up as a legitimate worry for Republicans. (Greg Sargent, 5/8)

The Washington Post: The AHCA Dampens GOP Senate Aspirations
Just a couple of months ago Republicans would boast of the plethora of Senate pickup opportunities in 2018. Democrats will be defending 25 seats, Republicans only nine. Among the Democratic seats up for grabs are a slew from states President Trump won in 2016 — Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, North Dakota, Montana, West Virginia, Indiana, Missouri and Wisconsin. As of February, the Cook Political Report rated four Democratic seats (plus the seat of independent Angus King of Maine, who caucuses with Democrats) as “lean Democratic” races and listed eight in the “likely Democratic” column. By contrast, only two GOP-held seats are in the “lean Republican” column. (Jennifer Rubin, 5/8)

Los Angeles Times: Senate Republicans Couldn't Bother To Find A Single Woman To Help Overhaul Health Care
I know there aren’t that many women in the U.S. Senate. Just 21 of the 100 U.S. senators are female, and probably some of them had other plans. But still, couldn’t Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) find one woman to join the 13 men on his Obamacare overhaul posse? Just one? True, most of the women in the Senate are Democrats and would probably be annoying about pap smears, mammograms and Planned Parenthood. They might also point out that the Republican’s plan to replace the Affordable Care Act will invariably affect women. Women have a higher rate of poverty than men. (Mariel Garza, 5/9)

The Wichita Eagle: Health Care Redux: Can’t We Learn?
In the midst of Republicans’ endless health care victory laps last week, Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, offered this bipolar view of the meaning of Thursday’s vote: “You either believe in government or you believe in markets. I believe in markets.” Thus he joined 216 other House Republicans in passing along to the Senate the American Health Care Act, revoking the most critical parts of the Affordable Care Act, which they had derisively labeled “Obamacare” seven years ago and refused thereafter to try to improve. (Davis Merritt, 5/9)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: GOP Lies, Point-Blank, About Its Health-Care Plan
The continued willingness of Republicans to lie, point-blank, with a straight face and without a hint of conscience, about the impact of their proposed “health-care reform” just amazes me. I have never seen anything like it since those Joe Isuzu ads of the 1980s. (Jay Bookman, 5/8)

The Des Moines Register: Young Should Explain His Health Vote To Iowans
Rep. David Young’s congressional district includes Polk County. Though hardly a hotbed of liberalism, it is also not a solidly red area of the state. That is why Young is among the Republican U.S. House members who Democrats will work hard to unseat in the 2018 election. Last week, Young made their job easier. (5/8)

The Washington Post: I Worked With The Drug Policy Office Trump Wants To Gut. Here’s Why It Matters For The Opioid Epidemic.
The Trump administration is, per a leaked policy memo, considering a proposal to effectively eliminate the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, cutting 95 percent of its funding. The move could cut federal spending by $364 million. It would also threaten to undermine the government’s efforts to fight an opioid epidemic at a time when drug overdose deaths are rising at a frightening rate. (Keith Humphreys, 5/8)

Boston Globe: Restore Crucial Funds To Drug-Control Agency 
At a time when the national opioid addiction epidemic is crippling our country — killing more people than car crashes and firearms — it is more important than ever for the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy to continue its effective and vital community-based programs that support law enforcement, reduce crime, and save lives. Defunding the office will have an immediate adverse impact on public health and safety. (Gil Kerlikowske, Frederick Ryan and John E. Rosenthal, 5/9)

The New York Times: The Problem With Linking Abortion And Economics
In recent days, Senator Bernie Sanders has come under fire for appearing at a campaign stop with Heath Mello, a mayoral candidate in Omaha who voted for anti-abortion legislation as a Nebraska state senator. Mr. Sanders said he supported Mr. Mello’s progressive economic positions, but critics said abortion and economics were inextricable — that women on the margins need abortion so that they can scramble up the economic ladder without children holding them back. (Lori Szala, 5/9)

The Wichita Eagle: Topeka Hospital Saved; Now Help Other Hospitals
It’s a relief that the University of Kansas Health System and Ardent Health Services are forming a joint venture to operate St. Francis Health in Topeka. The 378-bed hospital had been on the market for more than a year, and the hospital’s parent company announced recently it would close the hospital this summer. (Phillip Brownlee, 5/9)

Lexington Herald Leader: Securing Miners’ Health Benefits Aids Ky. Coal Communities
Last week, we achieved the success that thousands of retired coal miners and their families so desperately needed with the passage of my proposal to permanently extend their health care benefits. And with President Donald Trump’s signature, it is now law. You may recall that at the end of December, their health benefits were set to expire. If Congress had not acted, approximately 3,000 Kentucky coal miner retirees — and tens of thousands more around the country — would have seen their health care benefits end. After years of hard work in the coal mines, they deserved better than having to suffer as collateral damage of President Barack Obama’s war on coal. (Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, 5/8)

Kansas City Star: Not Again With Kansas Medicaid Expansion
Some ideas, no matter how bad, never seem to go away. How else to explain state lawmaker efforts to expand Medicaid under Obamacare? After Gov. Sam Brownback rightly vetoed an expansion bill in March, and after the Legislature failed to override that veto, special interests that stand to benefit from this growth in government are pressuring lawmakers to try yet again during the current veto session. (Jeff Glendening, 5/8)

Billings (Mont.) Gazette: A Plan To Take Montana Care Backward
In 2013, 20 percent of Montanans under age 65 had no health insurance — no private or government coverage. With marketplace subsidies from the Affordable Care Act, that uninsured number dropped to 15 percent in 2015. Last summer — just six months after Montana expanded Medicaid under the ACA to all very low income adults — the state’s uninsured rate dipped to 7 percent and has kept inching lower. Montana has benefited greatly from the ACA, and thus has more to lose from the American Health Care Act. (5/8)

Miami Herald: Lawmakers Have More Mea Culpas To Make 
The Florida Legislature apologized this spring for decades of violent abuse at a state-run reform school for boys. It apologized to the families of the Groveland Four, the young black men wrongly accused of raping a white woman nearly 70 years ago. Legislators, set to approve the state budget and adjourn on Monday, owe a few apologies for their own actions. ... They should apologize to the poor who need healthcare and the hospitals who treat them whether they can pay or not. They cut Medicaid payments to hospitals by more than $500 million. They bet on a deal with the federal government to create a $1.5 billion Low Income Pool for uncompensated care will mitigate the cuts, but there is no guarantee. (5/8)