The Wall Street Journal: Drugmakers, Worried About Losing Pricing Power, Are Lobbying Hard
Worried drugmakers are stepping up efforts to blunt proposals in Washington that they view as some of the most serious threats to their pricing power in recent years. Pharmaceutical industry trade organizations and outside groups are spending millions of dollars on advertisements attacking the proposals, which would peg drug prices in the U.S. to prices paid overseas and force companies to pay rebates if a drug’s price increases by more than the rate of inflation. For instance, one trade group’s radio ad decries “foreign price controls” imposed by European bureaucrats. (Loftus, 9/23)

Stat: The Democrats Shepherding Pelosi’s Drug Pricing Bill Have Taken Plenty Of Campaign Cash From Pharma
The fate of Nancy Pelosi’s sweeping drug pricing bill rests in the hands of lawmakers who received more campaign contributions from the pharmaceutical industry than almost all other Democrats, according to a STAT review of campaign finance records. Rep. Richard Neal (D-Mass.), who chairs the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, received $111,500 in contributions from pharmaceutical industry political action committees in the 2018 election cycle — fifth-most of any lawmaker, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Rep. Frank Pallone, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, received $98,500, good for ninth-most. (Facher, 9/24)

PoliticoPro: Trump Whipsaws GOP On Drug Pricing
President Donald Trump is turning up the heat on his own party over drug pricing, pressing Republicans for an ambitious solution aimed at slashing costs and taking control of a health care issue key to his 2020 reelection. But the effort is already running into a familiar problem: Republicans on Capitol Hill have little idea what exactly the president wants, and where to start. (Cancryn and Karlin-Smith, 9/23)

The Associated Press: Appeals Court Weighs Challenges To Trump Abortion Rule
An appeals court is considering whether to block a Trump administration rule that bans taxpayer-funded health clinics from referring patients for an abortion — a rule that has already prompted many providers, including Planned Parenthood, to leave a longstanding federal family planning program. Eleven judges from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco heard arguments Monday in challenges brought by 22 states as well as Planned Parenthood and other organizations. (Johnson, 9/23)

Los Angeles Times: A Divided 9th Circuit Could Uphold Trump's New Abortion Referral Rule
A federal appeals court appeared divided along party lines Monday on whether to uphold a new Trump administration rule that denies federal family planning money to clinics that refer patients for abortions. During a hearing in San Francisco, an 11-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals considered whether to reinstate preliminary injunctions issued by three district judges against the new rule. Seven of the judges chosen randomly for the panel are Republican appointees, including two new judges Trump placed on the court. Four of the judges were appointed by Democrats. (Dolan, 9/23)

Politico Pro: Blue States, Planned Parenthood Urge Court To Throw Out Trump Anti-Abortion Rule
Democrat-led states, medical providers and advocacy groups, including Planned Parenthood, urged a federal appeals court on Monday to throw out the Trump administration's overhaul of the Title X federal family planning program, saying the new rules are trampling on the reproductive rights of millions of women without delivering significant benefits. Administration lawyers, however, countered that the flap over the policy changes is overblown, because only a small percentage of grantees in the Title X program have actually quit over the rules. (Colliver and Ollstein, 9/23)

The Oregonian: Oregon’s Solicitor General Urges 9th Circuit To Uphold Injunctions Against Trump’s Title X Rules
Oregon’s solicitor general on Monday urged the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to reinstate orders by federal judges in three states to temporarily halt a new Trump administration rule banning taxpayer-funded family planning clinics from referring patients to abortion providers. A three- judge panel of the 9th Circuit in June allowed the rule to go into effect while it was being challenged in court. (Bernstein, 9/23)

In other abortion-related news —

NPR: At U.N., Trump Administration Professes 'No International Right To An Abortion'
The Trump administration is calling on U.N. member nations to oppose efforts to promote access to abortion internationally, a move immediately criticized by reproductive rights groups seeking greater access to the services globally. At a meeting of the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Monday, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar spoke on behalf of the U.S. and more than a dozen other countries stating that abortion is not an international human right. (McCammon, 9/23)

The Washington Post: Planned Parenthood’s Woman In Hollywood
[Caren] Spruch is the rare person in the abortion rights movement for whom the past few years represent a long-awaited breakthrough in addition to a series of terrifying setbacks. She’s Planned Parenthood’s woman in Hollywood — or, in official terms, its director of arts and entertainment engagement. She encourages screenwriters to tell stories about abortion and works as a script doctor for those who do (as well as those who write about any other area of Planned Parenthood’s expertise, such as birth control or sexually transmitted infections). It’s a role she slipped into sideways, but one that now seems to be increasingly welcome in Hollywood. (Caplan-Bricker, 9/23)

The Hill: Warren Comes Under New Pressure Over Medicare For All And Higher Taxes 
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) is coming under increasing pressure from her 2020 rivals to spell out how she’d pay for her “Medicare for All” proposal. The pressure comes as Warren builds momentum in the presidential primary race and suggests she is likely to come under a harsher spotlight as other candidates seek to compete with her for the 2020 Democratic nomination. (Jagoda and Easley, 9/23)

Bloomberg: Biden-Linked Firm Tests Messages To Undercut ‘Medicare For All’ 
A new poll by a firm linked to Joe Biden is testing messages designed to undercut support among Democrats for Medicare for All, one of the most contentious issues splitting the party’s top presidential contenders. The survey, commissioned by the centrist Democratic think tank Third Way, found that primary voters start off favoring the government-run health care system by a margin of 70% to 21%, but can be persuaded to oppose it. The study showed that Democrats are most swayed by the arguments that the program would impose a heavy cost on taxpayers and threaten Medicare for senior citizens. (Kapur, 9/23)

The Washington Post: Biden’s Bungled Attack On Medicare-For-All
A confused reader passed along a tweet with a clip of these remarks. What was Biden talking about? After all, the Medicare-for-all plan advanced by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) calls for eliminating premiums, deductibles and co-pays. Yet Biden suggests the plan would raise deductibles. Biden’s staff acknowledges that he misspoke, repeatedly, in this passage. (Kessler, 9/24)

Outlets also report on how issues ranging from health care to abortion and guns pose challenges for voters and candidates on both sides of the aisle -

The Associated Press: 'Way Too Extreme': Some Democrats Warn Against Moving Left
Sitting outside a coffee shop a mile (1.6 kilometers) from the construction site, Beaver County Democratic Party Chairwoman Terry Mitko worried that the plant would hurt local air quality, but her criticism was largely muted. Asked about her party’s message, she encouraged candidates to avoid issues that turn off local Democrats, like gun control, abortion, impeachment and the Green New Deal. (Peoples, 9/24)

Politico: White House Infighting Thwarts Movement On Guns
Competing factions inside the White House have stymied efforts to unite behind gun legislation, further delaying President Donald Trump from getting behind any plan. On one side is Ivanka Trump, the president’s daughter and adviser, and Attorney General William Barr. Both are urging the president to back new firearms restrictions — including expanded background checks for gun sales ... On the other side, a group that includes Donald Trump Jr., the president’s son and an avid hunter, and a top aide to acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, is telling Trump he risks losing support from his conservative base if he pushes too aggressively on new gun control legislation, they say. (Kumar and Levin, 9/23)

The Wall Street Journal: Federal Prosecutors Conducting Criminal Probe Of Juul
Federal prosecutors in California are conducting a criminal probe into e-cigarette maker Juul Labs Inc., according to people familiar with the matter, escalating law-enforcement scrutiny of the startup. The investigation by the U.S. attorney’s office of the Northern District of California is in its early stages, the people said. The focus of the probe couldn’t be learned. (Maloney, 9/23)

The Wall Street Journal: ‘The Bells Start Going Off.’ How Doctors Uncovered The Vaping Crisis.
Children’s Hospital officials and Wisconsin health authorities considered the vaping threat serious enough to merit public announcement. On July 25, they held a news conference and issued an alert warning about vaping-associated lung illness. The notice started a chain of events that prompted doctors, nurses and health authorities to recognize they had hundreds of similar patients. Once authorities began to issue warnings about a new lung illness, doctors saw its shadow everywhere. In Illinois, a doctor who saw the warning from Wisconsin health authorities reached out for help. Likewise, a doctor at a Utah hospital system, told by a colleague about the alerts, notified her state’s health agency about patients. (Abbott, 9/23)

Kansas City Star: Second Kansas Resident Dies From Mysterious Vaping Illness
A second Kansas resident has died from a mysterious vaping-related illness that has resulted in hundreds of cases nationwide. The death – this time involving a man over the age of 50 with underlying health conditions – comes less than two weeks after Kansas announced its first vaping-related fatality, a woman also over 50. The development is likely to intensify attention on vaping and e-cigarette use in the state. (Shorman, 9/23)

CNN: Second Vaping-Related Death In Kansas Brings Nationwide Total To 9
There have been nine known deaths related to vaping in the US so far -- two in California, two in Kansas, and one in Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, Missouri and Oregon. That's out of 530 confirmed and probable cases of lung injuries related to e-cigarettes as of September 17, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Christensen and Gumbrecht, 9/24)

The Wall Street Journal: Dick Durbin, Longtime Anti-Smoking Advocate, Turns Sights On Vaping
Five days before the Trump administration moved to ban the sale of fruit- and candy-flavored vaping products, acting Food and Drug Administration commissioner Norman E. “Ned” Sharpless received a sharply worded letter from Sen. Dick Durbin (D., Ill.). The message: if Dr. Sharpless didn’t move to ban the flavored products in 10 days, Mr. Durbin would publicly demand his resignation. ... Close observers say Mr. Durbin’s persistence on the issue, along with mounting evidence of death and illness associated with vaping, has long been pivotal in advancing safety issues related to tobacco and nicotine. (Burton, 9/23)

The CT Mirror: Five Things To Know About The Rise In Vaping Illnesses
A surge of vaping-related illnesses has sent hundreds of people to hospitals across the country and resulted in eight deaths. Connecticut public health officials have asked residents to halt their use of e-cigarette products until local and federal investigations into the mysterious lung disease are complete. Some states are moving to ban the sale of flavored e-cigarettes and President Trump has endorsed that idea on the federal level. Others are warning against buying vaping products off the street. (Carlesso, 9/23)

The New York Times: How Anti-Vaccine Sentiment Took Hold In The United States
As millions of families face back-to-school medical requirements and forms this month, the contentiousness surrounding vaccines is heating up again, with possibly even more fervor. Though the situation may seem improbable to some, anti-vaccine sentiment has been building for decades, a byproduct of an internet humming with rumor and misinformation; the backlash against Big Pharma; an infatuation with celebrities that gives special credence to the anti-immunization statements from actors like Jenny McCarthy, Jim Carrey and Alicia Silverstone, the rapper Kevin Gates and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. And now, the Trump administration’s anti-science rhetoric. (Hoffman, 9/23)

NPR: Doctors Without Borders Calls For More Transparency In Distribution Of Ebola Vaccine
Doctors Without Borders is accusing the World Health Organization of restricting the availability of the Ebola vaccine in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Dr. Isabelle Defourny, the group's director of operations, said in a statement Monday that at least 2,000 people could be receiving the vaccine each day, instead of the maximum of 1,000 who are vaccinated daily at present. She called for WHO to supply more vaccines to medical teams. (Zialcita, 9/23)

Stat: Vaccination Strategy In Long-Running Ebola Outbreak Comes Under Fire
The World Health Organization’s vaccination strategy in the long-running Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is coming under fire, with Doctors Without Borders accusing the agency of rationing vaccines and calling for an independent committee to ensure “more transparent management” of the situation. The broadside, issued Monday, follows a prolonged effort by Doctors Without Borders to campaign for wider use of an as-yet unlicensed vaccine, developed by Merck. (Branswell, 9/23)

NPR: Immigration Detention Facilities Can Be A Breeding Ground For Disease
The mumps has nearly been eradicated in the U.S, and the risk of contracting it is small. But in immigration detention centers, that risk skyrockets. More than 900 immigrants have been infected. (Trovall, 9/23)

USA Today: Migrant Children Held By The Obama Administration Still Suffering 5 Years Later
Lawsuits have alleged children held by the Border Patrol are deprived of their rights and treated inhumanely. An inspector general's report concluded that some migrant children would suffer mental trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder. For the tens of thousands of children who arrived this year, the long-lasting effects may not have surfaced yet. (Gonzalez, 9/23)

The New York Times: A Simple Regimen Can Prevent TB. Why Aren’t More People On It?
Tuberculosis struck 10 million people worldwide in 2017, killing 1.6 million of them — a toll greater than that of H.I.V., malaria, measles and Ebola combined. TB is the leading infectious killer around the globe; nearly 1.8 billion people are carrying the bacterium that causes the disease. The world is sorely in need of new ways to prevent TB, not just treat it. Drugs to stave off the infection do exist, but the monthslong regimens are difficult and people often do not finish the prescribed courses. (Mandavilli, 9/23)

NPR: All-In-One Pill May Help To Prevent Heart Disease, Researchers Say
When it comes to fighting heart disease among low-income individuals, researchers find that an all-in-one pill may be just what's needed to lower blood pressure and cholesterol. (Neighmond, 9/23)

The Washington Post: For Some With Chronic Pain, The Problem Is Not In Their Backs Or Knees But Their Brain
More than 5,000 years after the Sumerians discovered they could quell aches with gum from poppies, medical science is still uncertain about who will develop chronic pain, how to prevent it and what to do when it occurs. The reasons the same insult to the body can leave one person with short-term discomfort and another with permanent misery have eluded researchers. "Chronic pain is incredibly complex,” said Benjamin Kligler, national director of the Integrative Health Coordinating Center at the Veterans Health Administration. “It is interwoven with all kinds of psychological, emotional and spiritual dimensions, as well as the physical. Honestly, the profession of medicine doesn’t have a terribly good understanding, overall, of that kind of complexity.” (Bernstein, 9/23)

The Wall Street Journal: Her Alzheimer’s Research Includes Her Husband
As a lifelong Alzheimer’s researcher, Dorene Rentz sees many brain scans with amyloid plaques, a telltale sign of the disease that ravages the brains and memories of its victims. But there’s one scan she’s unable to see: that of her husband, Ray Berggren. Never did she think that one day her 73-year-old husband would be part of a clinical trial she helped design, whose overall cognitive outcomes she will eventually help analyze. (Reddy, 9/23)

NPR: Allergists Debate Anticipated FDA Approval Of A Peanut Allergy Drug
A panel of experts earlier this month recommended that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approve a new drug for children and teens with peanut allergies. The drug, called Palforzia, was developed by California startup Aimmune Therapeutics to be taken daily in a regimen known as oral immunotherapy. The therapy involves ingesting small doses of peanut protein, gradually increased over months, to blunt the immune system's overreaction to peanuts. When it's effective, patients can become biteproof — that is, able to withstand small amounts of peanut that would have previously caused possibly dangerous allergic reactions. (Landhuis, 9/23)

USA Today: More Blood Pressure Medicines Recalled Over Possible Cancer-Causing Impurity
A recall of common blood pressure medication losartan has been expanded for a fifth time after manufacturer Torrent Pharmaceuticals found a possibly carcinogenic impurity in more batches of the drug, federal health officials said. Three additional lots of losartan potassium tablets and two additional lots of losartan potassium/hydrochlorothiazide tablets were under recall, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said Thursday. (Miller, 9/23)

North Carolina Health News: NC Foster Care Numbers Up Related To Opioids 
As of mid-summer, there were 11,700 children and teens younger than 20 in the foster care system. According to the N.C Department of Health and Human Services, that’s a 20 percent jump from just five years ago. Some of those children are in family foster homes such as [Lisa] Link’s. Other children stay with non-parental relatives as part of the state’s focus on kinship care to lessen the trauma experienced by children entering the system. (Ovaska-Few, 9/24)

KCUR: Missourians On Medicare Use More Opioids Than The National Average 
One out of three Missouri participants in Medicare’s prescription drug program were prescribed opioids last year, more than the national rate of 29%, according to a newly released government report. About 973,000 Missourians were enrolled in Medicare Part D and 321,000 of them received opioids, the report by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services’ inspector general finds. (Margolies, 9/23)

WBUR: Walking The South End With A Mass. Lawmaker Proposing New Laws To Combat The Opioid Crisis
About two months after Boston police arrested dozens of people in "Operation Clean Sweep," state lawmakers will consider legislation to address some of the issues that prompted the police action. The sweep occurred in an area of Boston's South End where there are many services for addiction treatment and the homeless. (Becker, 9/24)

Meanwhile, in other news —

NPR: For Chronic Pain, Off-Label Naltrexone In Low Doses Seems To Help
Naltrexone, commonly used for opioid and alcohol use disorders, may also help patients with chronic pain — when prescribed in microdoses. But few doctors or patients seem to know about it. (Smith, 9/23)

The New York Times: Newark Says Water Crisis Is Easing As Lead Filters Prove Mostly Effective
Officials in New Jersey’s largest city announced on Monday that thousands of water filters handed out to residents had significantly reduced lead in drinking water to safe levels. Bottled water would still be made available, but officials said the crisis that had gripped the city for months seemed to be easing. Testing done jointly by city, state and federal officials found that the filters had been 97 percent effective at reducing lead levels to below a federally acceptable standard, meaning that 97 percent of test results showed the filters working properly. (Corasaniti, 9/23)

Bloomberg: Newark Averts Flint-Size Crisis As Filters Nab Most Of Lead
Almost all of the filters supplied by Newark, New Jersey, to combat tainted water showed lead lower than the federal standard in preliminary tests, Governor Phil Murphy said. The results indicate that the city, New Jersey’s most populous, likely has avoided a crisis on the scale of that in Flint, Michigan, whose contaminated supply led to a state of emergency. Newark will continue to supply free bottled water, officials said at a City Hall news conference. (Young, 9/23)

The Associated Press: 'You Are Failing Us': Plans, Frustration At UN Climate Talks
Scolded for doing little, leader after leader promised the United Nations on Monday to do more to prevent a warming world from reaching even more dangerous levels. As they made their pledges at the Climate Action Summit, though, they and others conceded it was not enough. And even before they spoke, teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg shamed them over and over for their inaction: “How dare you?” Secretary-General Antonio Guterres concluded the summit by listing 77 countries that committed to carbon neutrality by 2050, 70 nations pledging to do more to fight climate change, with 100 business leaders promising to join the green economy and one-third of the global banking sector signing up to green goals. (Borenstein, 9/24)

The New York Times: Trump Administration Threatens To Cut U.S. Highway Funds From California
The political war between California and the Trump administration escalated Monday with a letter from Andrew Wheeler, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency, warning that Washington would withhold federal highway funds from the state if it did not rapidly address a decades-long backlog of state-level pollution control plans. The letter is the latest parry between President Trump and the liberal West Coast state that he appears to relish antagonizing. California’s recent actions on clean air and climate change policy have blindsided and enraged him, according to two people familiar with the matter. (Davenport, 9/24)

Sacramento Bee: Trump Threatens CA With Highway Fund Cuts Over Air Quality
The Trump administration is ratcheting up its threats against California with a letter warning the state faces sanctions – including cuts in federal highway funding – over its “failure” to submit complete reports on its implementation of the Clean Air Act. In the letter to the California Air Resources Board, Andrew Wheeler, administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, wrote that the state had the “worst air quality in (Wilner, 9/23)

Los Angeles Times: Early Power Shut-Offs Are New Reality As California Enters Peak Wildfire Season
Russ Brown and other emergency officials in Yuba County have been trying to get the word out. Charge your medical equipment and phone batteries now. Make sure you have enough nonperishable food to last a few days. Because when the hot winds start blowing, the power to your house may be shut off. (Wigglesworth and Serna, 9/23)

Kansas City Star: Leavenworth Co. Residents Fight Against Kaw Valley Sand Mine
Kaw Valley, though, has been cited dozens of times for federal safety violations at its other mines and has been dinged by state regulators for water quality problems. Aside from residents, the project has stoked concerns from the county planning commission, a nearby golf course, neighboring cities and school districts.Yet county staff are still pushing the project forward. In recommending the new sand mine, Leavenworth County staff wrote that it would provide jobs and “a necessary good” because sand is used to produce concrete and asphalt as well as mitigate flooding. (Hardy, 9/24)

Politico Pro: HHS Sued Over Indiana Medicaid Work Rules
Two legal aid groups are suing to block a Medicaid work requirement in Indiana, the latest in a string of lawsuits challenging the Trump administration's overhaul of the coverage program for the poor. Indiana's work requirement was approved in early 2018 and has gradually been rolled out this year. The state initially adopted a conservative version of Obamacare's Medicaid expansion four years ago under then-Gov. Mike Pence. (Pradhan, 9/23)

Concord Monitor: Now-Disbanded Medicaid Work Requirement Costs New Hampshire $187,000
New Hampshire state officials spent over $187,000 this summer attempting to get low-income residents into compliance with the now-defunct Medicaid work requirement, according to calculations released this month. In a Sept. 3 letter to state lawmakers, Department of Health and Human Services Commissioner Jeffrey Meyers said that the bulk of that spending – $108,723 – went to an outside agency to call members of the program and get them into compliance. (DeWitt, 9/23)

Miami Herald: Potential Cuts Fuel Fear Among Floridians With Disabilities
Those services are possible only because of a state Medicaid program for impoverished and disabled Floridians, which provides Hahr and other people with disabilities money to get services — such as in-home nursing, physical therapy and transportation — they need. But state disability administrators are developing a plan to restructure the state’s home and community-based waiver program for Hahr and more than 34,000 others like him, because the Legislature says the state’s disabilities agency has spent too much beyond the budget it is given. (Koh, 9/24)

A useful primer for some -

Texas Tribune: Immigrants On Medicaid: What You Need To Know About Trump's New Policy
The new policy, published by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services in August and scheduled to take effect Oct. 15, adds health care, food stamps, cash assistance and public housing programs to the list of public benefits that, if used to some extent, could count against immigrants who apply for visas or permanent residency after the changes take effect. It also increases the income requirement for applicants to 250% of the federal poverty level. (Coronado, 9/24)

And in Medicare news -

San Francisco Chronicle: Medicare Double Billed About 411,000 People Who Pay Part B Premiums Directly
Because of a processing error, about 411,000 seniors who pay for Medicare Part B directly through the system’s Easy Pay had their premiums deducted twice from their bank accounts, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced Monday. Jade Tippett of Fort Bragg noticed the error on Friday when he looked at his credit union checking account and spotted two withdrawals for $135.50 each. (Pender, 9/23)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: First Hearing Held For Georgia's New Anti-Abortion Law
A federal judge said Monday that he hoped to determine soon whether the court should block Georgia’s new anti-abortion law from going into effect, but he hinted at the potential long road ahead for the case. It’s unclear when U.S. District Judge Steve C. Jones will rule on the request from the American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia to halt the new law, which bans most abortions once a doctor can detect fetal cardiac activity. (Prabhu, 9/23)

The Associated Press: Judge Hears Arguments In Challenge To Georgia Abortion Law
Opponents of Georgia’s restrictive new abortion law told a judge on Monday that it violates Supreme Court precedent and should be blocked, while the state argued the law should be allowed to take effect as planned. The law signed in May by Republican Gov. Brian Kemp bans abortions once a fetal heartbeat is detected, which can happen as early as six weeks into a pregnancy, before many women realize they’re expecting. It allows for limited exceptions. (Brumback, 9/23)

The Associated Press: Tennessee Abortion Clinics Hope To Defeat Waiting Period
The former medical director of Planned Parenthood of Tennessee and North Mississippi testified on Monday that Tennessee’s 48-hour waiting period for abortions actually delays the procedure by up to a month. Dr. Sarah Wallett was testifying in the federal trial challenging Tennessee’s 2015 law. Tennessee is one of 14 states with laws requiring women to make two trips to an abortion clinic, first for mandatory counseling and then for the abortion, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research group that supports abortion rights. (Loller, 9/23)

News outlets also report on how much the legal battles over abortion are costing states —

The Washington Post: Abortion Restrictions Are Costing States Millions Of Dollars — In Fees For The Other Side
In the past four years, taxpayers in states trying to restrict abortion access have paid almost $10 million in attorney fees for abortion providers. That price tag is likely to keep growing as more abortion restrictions are challenged, including three in federal courts today. In an effort to overturn Roe v. Wade, these states are passing laws that severely limit or prohibit abortion, hoping that the courts will uphold them. But when, instead, those new laws are thrown out, the state has to pay the legal expenses for the abortion advocates. That puts taxpayers in the position of having to pay for the attorneys on both sides of abortion battles that often last for years. (Keating, 9/23)

Houston Chronicle: Unconstitutional Anti-Abortion Law Costs Texas Another $2.5 Million 
As Texas defends abortion laws in federal court that mandate fetal burials and seek to outlaw certain medical procedures, the state has been ordered to pay abortion-rights attorneys $2.5 million — fortifying women’s reproductive rights groups that have repeatedly sued over restrictions passed by the Legislature. The August order from a federal judge in Austin is seemingly the final decision in a high-profile battle over a 2013 Texas abortion law the U.S. Supreme Court eventually struck down as medically unnecessary and thus unconstitutional. The law, which was in effect for three years, required abortion providers to comply with all the regulations for ambulatory surgical centers, forcing many to undergo expensive renovations, and required their physicians to obtain admitting privileges at a nearby hospital. (Zelinski, 9/23)

Pioneer Press: As Insulin Debate Continues, Minnesota Lawmakers Aim To Triage Plans 
State lawmakers on Monday took up the latest proposal to provide insulin to diabetics in need, but not before debating whether other plans should get higher priority. The Senate Health and Human Services Committee took up a measure that would require drug manufacturers to foot the bill for insulin supplies for Minnesotans who can’t afford the drug and who don’t have state-sponsored health insurance. (Ferguson, 9/23)

The Star Tribune: Minnesota GOP Legislator Touts $25 Insulin At Walmart; Diabetics Say It Has Drawbacks 
The Facebook video shows state Rep. Jeremy Munson walking into Walmart without an insulin prescription and picking up a vial for $24.88. ...Democrats quickly condemned Munson’s advice as irresponsible and dangerous, warning that different types of insulin cannot be treated the same way. But as state lawmakers remain locked in a fierce debate over how to help Minnesotans shelling out $300 for a couple weeks of insulin — and who face deadly consequences if they cannot pay — Munson is not the only person suggesting the cheaper option. (Berkel, 9/24)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Georgia Senators Consider Statewide E-Scooter Rules
A Georgia Senate committee is studying statewide regulations that could set limits on electric scooters. Advocates say the devices can be part of the solution to the region’s traffic mess. Critics say they’re a menace to public safety. (Wickert, 9/23)

Stateline: On-Site Health Care Could Help Seniors Stay At Home 
The nation’s older population is growing rapidly — it’s projected to nearly double by 2050. Many seniors want to stay in their homes, but when they grow older and more infirm, that isn’t always possible. Nor are there enough services — access to transportation and doctors, help managing medication — to make it easier for them to stay at home, according to a 2017 report by the Office of Policy Development and Research in the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). (Wiltz, 9/24)

St. Louis Post Dispatch: Missouri Life Expectancy Drops As Suicides, Overdoses And Homicides Climb
Missourians’ life expectancy dropped in 2018, fueled by an increase in suicides, overdoses and homicides, according to a report released this month by the state Department of Health and Senior Services. The report, released annually by the department, said life expectancy last year dropped to 77.0 years from 77.1 years in 2017 — down from a peak of 77.8 years in 2012. That means Missourians are living 1.6 fewer years than the nation as a whole, according to the report. (Suntrup, 9/23)

Columbus Dispatch: Federal Judge Allows Transgender Birth Certificate Lawsuit To Proceed
Four transgender individuals who sued state officials over a policy barring changes in sexes originally recorded on birth certificates are closer to potential courtroom proceedings in a complaint they filed more than a year ago. A trial date has not yet been set and won’t take place this year, but a federal judge in Columbus this month denied state officials’ motion to dismiss the suit, allowing the case to move forward. (Kovac, 9/23)

San Jose Mercury News: Many California Teens Say They Don’t Know Where To Find, Can’t Afford Mental Health Services
According to a study released this spring, many young Californians don’t know where to find mental health services and don’t think they can afford it if they could find it. Earlier this year, Lady Gaga’s Born This Way Foundation, in partnership with California’s Mental Health Services Oversight & Accountability Commission, surveyed 485 Californians, ages 13 to 24, about mental health, access to mental health services, and what they’d like to see in that area in California. The resulting report, “California Youth Mental Health: Understanding Resource Availability and Preferences,” was released May 28. (Yarbough, 9/23)

San Francisco Chronicle: Where Are The Empty Treatment Beds In SF? The Health Department Wants To Find Out
San Francisco health officials are rolling out a plan to fix a confounding problem: Many treatment beds in the city sit empty every night, despite thousands of people struggling with homelessness, mental illness and drug addiction on the streets. Mayor London Breed and Dr. Anton Nigusse Bland, the city’s director of mental health reform, plan to launch an online tool that will show, in real time, which of San Francisco’s hundreds of treatment programs have open slots. (Thadani, 9/23)

Boston Globe: Bayer To Invest In Longwood Lab Focused On Chronic Lung Conditions
German pharmaceutical giant Bayer AG will invest more than $30 million over the next five years to create a lab at Brigham and Women’s Hospital to develop drugs to treat chronic lung diseases. The lab in the Longwood Medical Area will employ about 20 scientists from Bayer, Brigham, and Massachusetts General Hospital. The three organizations will equally share the rights to any discoveries made as part of the venture. (Saltzman, 9/24)

Colorado Sun: How A “Warm Handoff” Is Making Mental Health Care A Regular Part Of Doctor Visits In Boulder
To get the mental health care that would rescue her, [Gina] Manchego didn’t have to get a referral from her doctor or call for an appointment, or worry whether the therapist was accepting new patients or her insurance. She didn’t even have to drive to a mental health clinic. That’s because Boulder Community Health has absorbed mental health care into 10 of its primary care clinics, a model that is attracting national attention and buy-in from the insurance industry. The clinics aim for a “warm handoff,” a direct introduction from physician to mental health specialist. (Brown, 9/23)

The Associated Press: Judge Tosses Lawsuit Challenging Md. Conversion Therapy Ban
A federal judge has thrown out a psychotherapist’s lawsuit challenging Maryland’s ban on treating minors with conversion therapy, the practice of trying to change a client’s homosexual orientation. U.S. District Judge Deborah Chasanow’s ruling on Friday rejected Christopher Doyle’s claims that the state law violates his First Amendment rights to free speech and religious freedom. (Kunzelman, 9/23)

The Wall Street Journal: Insurance CEO Took Leave After June Arrest Following Traffic Incident
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina Chief Executive Patrick Conway went on leave after he was arrested in June after an allegedly alcohol-related traffic accident, according to the company and the state’s top insurance regulator. Dr. Conway has returned to his post at the major health insurer. State Insurance Commissioner Mike Causey said the health insurer didn’t disclose the incident or the CEO’s move at the time to state officials and added that he thought disclosure was needed for accountability and transparency. (Scism, Wilde Mathews and Bauerlein, 9/23)

The Baltimore Sun: St. Louis Biotech Company Moves To Baltimore To Develop Fake Blood For Real Emergencies 
A small biotechnology company developing a synthetic blood for use when supplies are low or unavailable is moving to Baltimore from St. Louis and affiliating with the University of Maryland BioPark. During a trauma, blood loss is the leading cause of preventable death, but bags of blood aren’t always available, such as on the battlefield or at a mass casualty scene. There is no real blood substitute, though some products are in the works. (Cohn, 9/23)

Modern Healthcare: Ballad Staffers Cite Issues With Morale, Leadership Post-Merger
Morale is low at Ballad Health’s hospitals since the merger became official in 2018, according to several current and former nurses and doctors. They say they’ve watched many colleagues leave, fed up with being overworked, with management that doesn’t listen and changes to pay and benefits. ...System executives say that’s not true, that the health system is weathering the same nursing shortage as the rest of the country. They say nurse turnover here is no different than before the merger. (Bannow, 9/23)

The Associated Press: Students Seeks To End Ban Of Blood Donations By Gay, Bi Men
Several University of Virginia students want to overturn a ban that prohibits sexually active gay and bisexual men from donating blood.The Daily Progress reports Austin Houck and others have banded together to create Homoglobin, a social welfare organization with branches at other schools including Virginia Tech and the College of William & Mary. The Food and Drug Administration instituted a lifetime donation ban on gay and bisexual men at the height of the AIDS epidemic in 1983. (9/24)

Los Angeles Times: President Trump, America Is Still Waiting For Your Improvements To Gun Laws
Two weeks after Donald Trump took the oath of office in January 2017, Briddell Barber, 27, allegedly became upset that another man was driving his girlfriend home from a Super Bowl watching party at a nightclub in Yazoo City, Miss., so he opened fire, killing four men outside the bar. It was the first mass killing — defined as an incident in which at least four people were killed — in the U.S. under the Trump administration, an event for which, of course, the president bears no responsibility. (Scott Martelle, 9/23)

The Wall Street Journal: Red-Flag Laws Could Stop Suicides
The Extreme Risk Protection Order and Violence Prevention Act may stop some mass shootings, but it could save even more Americans from suicide. Introduced by Sen. Marco Rubio, the legislation would use federal grants to encourage states to implement red-flag laws, as 17 have already done. These laws allow the temporary removal of guns from individuals at imminent risk of harming themselves or others. To qualify for funding under the proposed federal law, states would have to allow a law-enforcement officer or family member of the at-risk person to petition for a court hearing to determine whether gun removal is warranted. (Brian Barnett, 9/23)

The New York Times: We Need More Doctors Who Are Scientists
About a decade from now, public health statistics will begin to show a substantial decrease in cervical cancer in the United States and other developed countries. That’s because in 2006, young people began receiving vaccines against a sexually transmitted virus, HPV, that causes cervical cancer. By preventing HPV infections today, those vaccines have the potential to avert hundreds of thousands of cervical cancer cases. The HPV vaccine exists because Dr. Douglas Lowy, a physician, and his research collaborator Dr. John Schiller recognized the potential for it after more than a decade studying the family of infectious agents to which HPV belongs. (Mukesh K. Jain, Tadataka Yamada and Robert Lefkowitz, 9/23)

The Washington Post: Lifting The U.S. Ban On Euthanasia Is Like Opening A Pandora’s Box
Physician-assisted death — euthanasia — is lawful in three European countries, as well as Colombia and Canada. It is illegal, still, in the United States, though physicians in 10 states may supply lethal doses to terminally ill patients for self-administration. And the U.S. ban may not last forever: 72 percent of Americans support euthanasia, according to a May 2018 Gallup poll. For the sake of an undeniably worthy goal, ending avoidable suffering, euthanasia places great confidence and trust in fallible human beings: patients who request it; doctors who carry it out; and institutions, legal and professional, that regulate it. (Charles Lane, 9/23)

Miami Herald: Public Charge Policy Will Keep Immigrants From Seeking Services
The Department of Homeland Security’s new “public charge” rule already is having concerning repercussions throughout South Florida’s immigrant community. Although the rule becomes effective on Oct. 15, our clients at Sant La Haitian Neighborhood Center have begun to share real concerns of fear and backlash for accepting lifesaving and essential services for their children. Marie, who has Temporary Protected Status and is the mother of three U.S.-born children, immediately disenrolled her children from lifesaving programs, including food stamps and Medicaid benefits. (Gepsie M. Metellus and Altanese Phenulus, 9/20)

The Wall Street Journal: Protecting Unborn Children Is No ‘Cosmic Question’
Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg appeals to Scripture to defend his opposition to restrictions on abortion. “There’s a lot of parts of the Bible that talk about how life begins with breath,” he told a radio audience Sept. 5, adding that no matter what anyone thinks about “the kind of cosmic question of where life begins,” it ought to be up to “the woman making the decision.” Mr. Buttigieg’s words evoke rulings by the Supreme Court, which has upheld a sweeping right to abortion since Roe v. Wade in 1973, based on the supposed inexactness of when life begins. Yet with regard to issues other than abortion, many states have passed laws that define life as beginning at conception and treat unborn children as human persons. The Supreme Court has allowed such laws to coexist with Roe, creating a legal landscape in which arguments against restricting abortion look increasingly tenuous. (Clarke D. Forsythe, 9/23)

Columbus Dispatch: Aging Population Underscores Need To Protect Medicare Home Health
In just a few short months, U.S. Census officials nationwide will start actively collecting data that will help to shape much of the planning and policies to carry us into the next decade. And while there are sure to be some surprising findings, we already have a good idea of what the 2020 census will reveal in terms of Ohio’s aging population. Analyses believe Ohio is on track to have more residents over the age of 60 than under the age of 20. That’s a dramatic change from the 2000 census, when not a single state had an older population that outnumbered its younger one. In 2020, it’s expected that Ohio will be one of 18 states flipping that scenario. (Joe Russell, 9/24)

Georgia Health News: Congressional Inaction On DSH Program Will Hurt Georgia Hospitals
Though the DSH program is a crucial part of keeping safety-net hospitals open and running, the 116th Congress has neglected to make funding for it a legislative priority. If Congress does not take action soon, $7 billion in cuts to the DSH program will go into effect on Oct. 1. (Bernie Tokarz, 9/23)

The Wall Street Journal: California’s Hobo Paradise
Democrats blame rising rents for driving people onto the streets. But as a new White House Council of Economic Advisers white paper on homelessness notes, housing costs are swelled by restrictive building codes, zoning, environmental mandates, rent control, cumbersome permitting and labor regulations—in other words, liberal policies. The economists project that homelessness would fall by 54% in San Francisco and 40% in Los Angeles if housing costs approximated production costs more closely as they do in Texas, Florida and Arizona. Yet California’s homeless population is still 2.2 times larger than projected after controlling for poverty, home prices and weather. What gives? (9/23)