The New York Times: Alabama Lawmakers Vote To Effectively Ban Abortion In The State
The Alabama Senate approved a measure on Tuesday that would outlaw almost all abortions in the state, setting up a direct challenge to Roe v. Wade, the case that recognized a woman’s constitutional right to end a pregnancy. The legislation bans abortions at every stage of pregnancy and criminalizes the procedure for doctors, who could be charged with felonies and face up to 99 years in prison. It includes an exception for cases when the mother’s life is at serious risk, but not for cases of rape or incest — a subject of fierce debate among lawmakers in recent days. (Williams and Blinder, 5/14)

Los Angeles Times: Alabama Lawmakers Vote To Ban All Abortions In The State And To Punish Doctors
“You just aborted and you raped the state of Alabama,” Sen. Minority Leader Bobby Singleton railed at his Republican colleagues after the vote against the amendment. “All of you should be put in jail for this abortion that you just laid on the state of Alabama. This is just a shame. This is a disgrace. It is a travesty.” In an extraordinary protest against the vote on the amendment, Singleton vowed that Democrats would stay up through the night to filibuster the bill. (Jarvie, 5/14)

The Associated Press: Alabama Ban On Nearly All Abortions In GOP Governor's Hands
Ivey has not said whether she'll sign the bill. Sponsor Rep. Terri Collins says she expects the governor to support the ban. And the lopsided vote suggests a veto could be easily overcome. But an Ivey spokeswoman said before Tuesday's vote that "the governor intends to withhold comment until she has had a chance to thoroughly review the final version of the bill that passed." In Alabama and other conservative states, anti-abortion politicians and activists emboldened by the addition of conservative justices to the U.S. Supreme Court hope to ignite legal fights and eventually overturn the landmark 1973 decision Roe v. Wade, putting an end to the constitutional right to abortion. (Chandler, 5/15)

The Washington Post: Alabama Senate Passes Nation’s Most Restrictive Abortion Ban, Which Makes No Exceptions For Victims Of Rape And Incest
“This bill is about challenging Roe v. Wade and protecting the lives of the unborn because an unborn baby is a person who deserves love and protection,” Alabama state Rep. Terri Collins (R), the sponsor of the bill, said after the vote Tuesday night. “I have prayed my way through this bill. This is the way we get where we want to get eventually.” (Wax-Thibodeaux and Brownlee, 5/14)

Politico: Alabama Senate Approves Nation’s Strictest Abortion Ban
Abortion rights groups said they will immediately mount a legal challenge to the measure, contending it violates the landmark 1973 Roe ruling guaranteeing a woman’s right to an abortion until a fetus is viable. “Politicians in Alabama just passed the most extreme and dangerous policy since Roe v. Wade,“ said Leana Wen, president of Planned Parenthood Action Fund. “Doctors and public health leaders agree: the cost will be women’s lives. … Politicians who say they value life should advocate for policies to solve the public health crises that are killing women, not dismantle what little access to health care Alabamians have left.“ (Goldberg, 5/14)

The Wall Street Journal: Alabama Senate Approves Abortion Ban
It highlights growing efforts by abortion opponents to try to challenge the legality of abortion more directly instead of pursuing incremental measures that erect regulatory and other hurdles. The new approach has gained steam in the wake of President Trump’s appointment of conservative Justice Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. (Campo-Flores, 5/15)

Los Angeles Times: Georgia Governor Postpones L.A. Visit Amid Hollywood Clash Over Abortion Law
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp has postponed a trip to Los Angeles next week amid mounting criticism over the state’s controversial abortion bill that he signed into law last week. But Kemp has plans for a later visit. “We have confirmed a date to go out to L.A. this fall,” Kemp’s spokesman, Cody Hall, said in a statement to The Times on Tuesday. At next week’s visit in L.A., Kemp had planned to tout his state’s ties to Hollywood productions. (Saad, 5/14)

The Associated Press: Pennsylvania House Tries Anew To Ban Down Syndrome Abortions
The Pennsylvania House of Representatives is launching another effort to outlaw abortions because of a prenatal diagnosis of Down syndrome, passing legislation Tuesday that faces a veto by Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf, if it even reaches his desk. The vote comes amid a wave of abortion restrictions advancing in more conservative states, setting them on a course to virtually eliminate abortion access in parts of the Midwest and Deep South, in hopes that a more conservative U.S. Supreme Court will approve. (Levy, 5/14)

The Associated Press: Michigan Lawmakers OK Ban On Abortion Procedure; Veto Vowed
Michigan's Republican-led Legislature voted Tuesday to ban a common second-trimester abortion procedure, pushing ahead with legislation Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said she would veto. The bills would prohibit physicians from performing abortion by dilation and evacuation except to save a woman's life. Anti-abortion advocates refer to the procedure by the non-medical term "dismemberment abortion." (5/14)

Detroit Free Press: Legislature Passes, Whitmer Says She'll Veto Abortion Procedure Ban
The GOP-led Legislature's straight party line votes on Tuesday to ban an abortion procedure performed in the second trimester, sets up a promised veto from Gov. Gretchen Whitmer — and an expected ballot proposal to get around the governor's move from Michigan Right to Life. Republicans in the state Senate and House of Representatives passed the bills seeking to criminalize the dilation and evacuation procedure amid a national trend of GOP-led legislatures trying to restrict access to abortion as the U.S. Supreme Court grows more conservative. (Egan, 5/14)

The Washington Post: ‘Heartbeat’ Abortion Ban To Be Debated In Missouri Senate
Missouri’s Republican-led Senate is set to take up a bill to ban abortions after eight weeks, a move that comes as GOP legislatures across the U.S. are emboldened by the possibility that a more conservative Supreme Court could overturn its landmark ruling legalizing the procedure. The Missouri bill would be one of the nation’s most restrictive if enacted. It’s similar to “heartbeat” bills signed into law in Mississippi, Kentucky, Ohio and Georgia that ban abortion once a fetal heartbeat is detected. That can occur in about the sixth week of pregnancy. (Ballentine, 5/15)

The Associated Press: Judge Rescinds Ruling Against ‘Physicians-Only’ Abortion Law
A federal judge has rescinded his own ruling that struck down a Virginia law that said only physicians may perform first-trimester abortions. U.S. District Court Henry Hudson last week found that the law was “unduly burdensome” to women seeking abortions. Hudson’s ruling came ahead of a trial scheduled to begin next week in a lawsuit challenging Virginia abortion laws. (5/14)

The Washington Post: Which States Are Blocking Abortion — And Which Are Enacting Protections?
The Alabama Senate tonight approved a bill that would create the nation’s strictest abortion ban, the latest attempt to prompt the Supreme Court to reconsider Roe v. Wade. The bill, which would make performing virtually all abortions a crime, has passed the state House and Senate and now goes to the governor for signature to become a law. (Keating, Tierney, Meko and Rindler, 5/14)

The New York Times: Where Steve Bullock Stands On The Issues
Steve Bullock, the latest Democrat to enter the presidential race, was twice elected governor of deep-red Montana. In 2016, in fact, more than 20 percent of Trump voters also voted to re-elect him. ... Most of the Democrats running for president are calling for universal health care, but Mr. Bullock isn’t. Asked last year whether he supported Medicare for all, he demurred, saying there were “any number of different paths” to make health care “affordable, accessible and of quality.” He did shepherd an expansion of Medicaid through the Republican-controlled Montana Legislature in 2015. He also supports the Affordable Care Act and has spoken out against attempts to repeal or undermine it, accusing the Trump administration and congressional Republicans of trying to “sabotage” the law. (Astor, 5/14)

The Washington Post: Montana Gov. Bullock Joins 2020 Democratic Presidential Race
His immediate challenge is corralling enough donors and support in the polls to qualify for the first Democratic debate in June. He told reporters during an appearance at the high school from which he graduated that he hopes to do that over the next month, but he’ll still be out campaigning even if he doesn’t make the cut. “The debate stage would be lacking a bit if they didn’t have somebody who actually got reelected in a state where Donald Trump won,” he said. “I’ll do the best I can to get there.” (Barrow and Volz, 5/14)

Politico: Kamala Harris Escalates Gun Control Agenda
Kamala Harris' unilateral crackdown on guns is expanding. At a presidential campaign event Wednesday in New Hampshire, Harris will pledge to take executive action banning the importation of AR-15-style assault weapons — a move that comes just three weeks after the California Democrat rolled out her sweeping gun-control proposal. (Cadelago, 5/15)

The Hill: Dem House Chairman, Top Republican Release Measure To End Surprise Medical Bills 
The Democratic and Republican leaders of the House Energy and Commerce Committee on Tuesday released a discussion draft of a measure to protect patients from getting massive, unexpected medical bills, a sign of bipartisan momentum on the issue. The release from Energy and Commerce Chairman Frank Pallone Jr. (D-N.J.) and ranking member Greg Walden (R-Ore.) comes after President Trump called for action on the issue last week. (Sullivan, 5/14)

Modern Healthcare: House Committee Proposes Surprise Medical Bill Ban
Notably, the House Energy and Commerce Committee's bipartisan proposal doesn't opt for arbitration to resolve pay disputes between hospitals, physicians and insurers — the approach hospitals and specialty physicians favor. Instead, insurers would pay out-of-network clinicians based on what they'd pay similar physicians in their networks. Additionally, hospitals would have to get written permission from patients before letting an out-of-network physician treat them for a scheduled procedure. (Luthi, 5/14)

Los Angeles Times: Wary Of Medicare For All, Democrats Seek Easier Paths To Universal Coverage
Wary of the political risks and practical difficulties of Medicare-for-all proposals that would move every American into a government health plan, Democrats increasingly are embracing more modest plans to use Medicare to expand insurance coverage. This strategy — backed by former Vice President Joe Biden as well as other Democratic presidential hopefuls and leading members of Congress — would give Americans the option to sign up for Medicare, the half-century-old government plan currently reserved for the elderly and disabled. (Levey, 5/14)

The Associated Press: Lawmakers Ask Watchdog To Probe Migrant Teen Camp's Contract
Three Democratic lawmakers are asking a government watchdog agency to investigate how a private company tied to former White House Chief of Staff John Kelly secured a no-bid contract to hold migrant children in a Florida facility. South Florida U.S. representatives Donna Shalala, Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Debbie Mucarsel-Powell sent a letter to the Office of Inspector General in the Department of Health and Human Services on Monday. In the document made public Tuesday, the House members ask for a probe of Kelly's role in the contract negotiations, given he was a board member of the contractor's umbrella company, Caliburn International. (Gomez Licon, 5/14)

The Associated Press: Congresswomen To Form A Caucus Focusing On Female Veterans
Congresswomen with military service in their past, some of them forged on post-Sept. 11 wars, are hoping to create their own caucus to drive an agenda to support the nation's growing ranks of female service members. Such a caucus — bipartisan and including men — would be a first, too. There are more than a dozen military and veteran-related caucuses in the House, but none dedicated to the specific needs of women who serve. (Kellman, 5/15)

Kaiser Health News: Listen: A Blitz Of Health Care Bills
Julie Rovner, Kaiser Health News’ chief Washington correspondent, talks with Robin Young on “Here and Now” about Democrats’ plans to push a package of health care bills through the House this week. The measure will give lawmakers a talking point about their efforts to bolster the Affordable Care Act after the Trump administration has sought to weaken it. The package, however, includes several bills with bipartisan support to get generics on the market sooner. (5/14)

Politico: 5 Key Questions About The Country's First Public Option
Washington state formally approved the public option this week, becoming the first state to test a policy that numerous Democratic presidential candidates — including the state’s governor — will tout on the campaign trail. But the state’s work on the idea is just beginning, and it’s facing a major time crunch to get the plans launched by the legislation’s 2021 start date. State officials must wrestle with key questions about how to design the public plan to make it affordable enough to attract new customers, while ensuring enough hospitals and doctors will join its network. (Pradhan and Goldberg, 5/14)

Los Angeles Times: Newsom’s Tough Sell On Healthcare: Persuading Public On Fines For Those Without Coverage
Five months after unveiling a sweeping plan to lower health insurance costs for middle-class Californians, Gov. Gavin Newsom now must sell the politically unpopular part of his proposal — hefty fines on those who do not have medical coverage. On Tuesday, he launched his pitch by highlighting how the high cost of health insurance is hurting small-business owners, and he warned lawmakers that failing to approve the fees to fund expanded subsidies is a “bad decision.” (Gutierrez, 5/14)

The Associated Press: California Governor Wants To Help More Buy Health Insurance
Sydney Winlock owns a small business with his wife in Northern California, and they had a strange conversation recently: Should they make less money so they can afford their health insurance? The couple makes too much money to qualify for help from the federal government in paying their monthly insurance premiums, which now cost them $18,000 a year. But if they scale back their business and make less money, they would qualify for the help. (5/14)

In other news —

The Star Tribune: Health Costs Surge For Minnesota Employers, Employees 
Health care spending for Minnesota businesses and their workers jumped 9.6% last year — nearly triple the national growth rate — as employers reported that old cost-cutting solutions have begun to run their course. Minnesota was an early user of strategies such as moving workers to high-deductible health plans and enticing them to pick cheaper generic prescription drugs. (Olson, 5/14)

Bloomberg: Merger Cops Must `Push Envelope' In Health, FTC Official Says
Antitrust enforcers should be aggressive in policing mergers in the health-care industry to keep costs down for consumers, even if it means a greater risk of losing cases, said Federal Trade Commissioner Rebecca Kelly Slaughter. “We should push the envelope and not be afraid to bring cases,” Slaughter, a Democrat on the Republican-controlled FTC, said Tuesday in a speech at the Center for American Progress in Washington. “If we never bring a case unless it’s a sure thing, we’re almost certainly under-enforcing.” (McLaughlin, 5/14)

Kaiser Health News: Walmart Charts New Course By Steering Workers To High-Quality Imaging Centers
Walmart Inc., the nation’s largest private employer, is worried that too many of its workers are having health conditions misdiagnosed, leading to unnecessary surgery and wasted health spending. The issue crystallized for Walmart officials when they discovered about half of the company’s workers who went to the Mayo Clinic and other specialized hospitals for back surgery in the past few years turned out to not need those operations. They were either misdiagnosed by their doctor or needed only non-surgical treatment. (Galewitz, 5/15)

Modern Healthcare: AMA Hires Its First Chief Health Equity Officer
The American Medical Association has hired its first chief health equity officer to launch a new program addressing health disparities in the U.S. and working toward optimal health for all. Dr. Aletha Maybank, a pediatrician and public health specialist, will head the AMA's new Center for Health Equity, designed to make health equity and diversity a key part of all the organization's processes and activities. She previously served as deputy commissioner and founding director of the Center for Health Equity within New York City's public health department. (Meyer, 5/14)

The Wall Street Journal: Hospital Drug-Making Venture Picks Antibiotics As First Products
Two critical antibiotics will be the first products supplied by a group of hospitals that are trying to overcome high drug prices and short supplies by producing the medicines themselves. Civica Rx, the nonprofit drugmaking venture established by the hospitals, plans to begin distributing vancomycin hydrochloride and daptomycin before the end of September, according to Civica’s chief executive. (Evans, 5/15)

Stat: New Ventures Strike Deals With Drug Makers To Combat Shortages
The efforts reflect the extent to which drug shortages continue to plague hospitals and the pharmaceutical supply chain more broadly. Over the past decade, a growing number of generic drugs in particular have been hard to obtain as manufacturers encounter quality control issues or some companies cease production of low-profit medicines. “Some of the drugs have gotten to a price so low that no quality manufacturer wants to produce the products without a sustainable financial model. So a lot have chosen to exit” the market, Michael Moloney, group vice president of integrated pharmacy at Premier, told us recently. “We see the problem as a structural inefficiency.” (Silverman, 5/15)

In other pharmaceutical news —

Stat: Gilead Struck Anti-Competitive Deals To Hike HIV Drug Profits: Lawsuit
In a bid to maintain its dominance in the HIV market, Gilead Sciences (GILD) allegedly conspired with other drug makers whose medicines were part of a so-called combination cocktail in order to block generic competition, according to a lawsuit filed by AIDS activists and two unions. The complaint describes an unusual scheme concerning these cocktails, which are actually fixed-dose combinations of different medicines and have been widely used for several years to combat the virus. Although Gilead has been a dominant player in the HIV marketplace, other companies manufacture HIV medicines that are useful components in a cocktail treatment. (Silverman, 5/14)

Stat: Myovant’s Uterine Fibroid Drug Worked In Phase 3. Now Comes Competition
Myovant Sciences, part of a constellation of biotech startups, said Tuesday that its treatment for uterine fibroids succeeded in the first of two large trials, a major step toward winning approval. The drug, relugolix, met its goal of significantly reducing menstrual blood loss over 24 weeks and beat placebo on six other metrics including pain and quality of life. In the roughly 400-patient trial, relugolix was similar to placebo, including on the key measure of bone density. (Garde, 5/14)

The Washington Post: Justice Department Says FDA ‘Lacks Jurisdiction’ Over Death-Penalty Drugs
The Justice Department says in a new legal opinion that the Food and Drug Administration does not have authority over drugs used in lethal injections, a stance sure to be challenged by death-penalty opponents. The department’s Office of Legal Counsel said that “articles intended for use in capital punishment by a state or the federal government cannot be regulated as ‘drugs’ or ‘devices.’ ” The legal opinion, issued this month, comes as states have struggled in recent years to obtain drugs for lethal injections, which remain the country’s primary method of execution even as the number of executions has declined. (McGinley and Berman, 5/14)

Politico: FDA Can’t Control Death Penalty Drugs, DOJ Says
The immediate effect of the Trump administration decision is unclear because of a court injunction issued in 2012 barring the FDA from allowing the importation of a key execution drug, sodium thiopental. Shortages of that drug have led many states to scale back or halt executions in recent years. In a statement, an FDA spokesperson said the agency would “follow the conclusion of the opinion to the extent permissible” by the 7-year-old order, which remains in effect. (Gerstein, 5/14)

The New York Times: Despite Measles Warnings, Anti-Vaccine Rally Draws Hundreds Of Ultra-Orthodox Jews
An ultra-Orthodox rabbi falsely described the measles outbreak among Jews as part of an elaborate plan concocted by Mayor Bill de Blasio of New York to deflect attention from “more serious” diseases brought by Central American migrants. A pediatrician questioned whether Jews were being intentionally given “bad lots” of vaccines that ended up giving children a new strain of the virus. And Andrew Wakefield, the British doctor whose study linking measles vaccines with autism was widely discredited and condemned, appeared via Skype to offer an almost apocalyptic vision of a world in which vaccines were giving rise to deadlier immunization-resistant diseases. (de Freytas-Tamura, 5/14)

The Wall Street Journal: New York Bill To Close Vaccination Loophole Stalls In State Assembly
Hundreds of people who oppose vaccination requirements rallied Tuesday at the State Capitol, decrying a bill that would eliminate an exemption to the rules based on a family’s religious beliefs. The measure has been introduced for years but gained new urgency amid the country’s largest measles outbreak since 1994, said the bill’s sponsors, state Assemblyman Jeff Dinowitz and state Sen. Brad Hoylman. Both men were booed in absentia during a two-hour rally that included Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Del Bigtree, who produced the antivaccine documentary “Vaxxed.” (Vielkind and West, 5/14)

The Associated Press: Parents Rally At State Capitol To Keep Vaccine Exemptions
Hundreds of parents and vaccine skeptics have called on New York lawmakers not to narrow existing exemptions to the state childhood immunization rules. The group stood in the rain outside the state Capitol Tuesday urging lawmakers to protect a state law that permits people not to vaccinate their children for religious reasons. (5/14)

The Associated Press: Oregon Vaccine Bill Dead As US Measles Count Soars
Critics blasted a decision by Oregon lawmakers that killed a bill aimed at getting more children vaccinated for measles and other preventable diseases in order pass a tax on large businesses, saying it jeopardized public health. Despite passing the House and having the necessary votes in the Senate, the measure to make it harder for families to opt out of required vaccinations was nixed as part of a deal announced Monday to end a week-long Republican walkout over a multibillion school funding tax. (Zimmerman, 5/14)

The Associated Press: New Liver Transplant Rules Begin Amid Fight Over Fairness
Wilnelia Cruz-Ulloa spent the last months of her life in a New York City hospital, waiting for a donated liver that never came. Doctors had urged the 38-year-old to move to another state that has more organs to go around. But she couldn't afford to. Where you live makes a difference in how sick you have to be to get a transplant, or if you'll die waiting. Now the nation's transplant system is aiming to make the wait for livers, and eventually all organs, less dependent on your ZIP code. New rules mandating wider sharing of donated livers went into effect Tuesday despite a fierce and ongoing hospital turf war in federal court. (5/14)

Kansas City Star: KU, St. Luke’s Appeal As Judge Allows Liver Donation Change
A new way of distributing donor livers took effect Tuesday, over the objections of medical centers mostly in the Midwest who say it will mean more livers heading to patients on the coasts. The University of Kansas Hospital and St. Luke’s Hospital were among more than a dozen plaintiffs who had filed suit in a federal court in Georgia to try to stop the change, which has been months in the works. (Marso, 5/14)

The Associated Press: Fewer Babies As US Birth Rate Fails To Rebound With Economy
America's baby bust isn't over. The nation's birth rates last year reached record lows for women in their teens and 20s, a government report shows, leading to the fewest babies in 32 years. The provisional report, released Wednesday and based on more than 99% of U.S. birth records, found 3.788 million births last year. It was the fourth year the number of births has fallen, the lowest since 1986 and a surprise to some experts given the improving economy. (5/15)

The Wall Street Journal: U.S. Births Fall To Lowest Rates Since 1980s
About 3.79 million babies were born in the U.S. in 2018, according to provisional data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics. That was a 2% decline from the previous year and marked the fourth year in a row that the number fell. The general fertility rate—the number of births per 1,000 women ages 15 to 44—fell to 59.0, the lowest since the start of federal record-keeping. With the latest decline, births in the U.S. have fallen in 10 of the last 11 years since peaking in 2007, just before the recession. Many demographers believed that births would rebound as the economy recovered, but that trend hasn’t materialized. (DeBarros and Adamy, 5/15)

Bloomberg: U.S. 2018 Births Fall To Lowest Level In 32 Years, CDC Data
The United States is confronted by its lowest number of births in 32 years, according to provisional data released by the National Center for Health Statistics. The total fertility rate (which represents the number of births per woman), is steadily decreasing, and remains under its replacement level of 2.1 per 1,000, where it has been since 2009. However, all states are not equal when it comes to the diversity of their new generation of toddlers. (Patino, 5/15)

The Associated Press: What Helps Prevent Dementia? Try Exercise, Not Vitamin Pills
If you want to save your brain, focus on keeping the rest of your body well with exercise and healthy habits rather than popping vitamin pills, new guidelines for preventing dementia advise. About 50 million people currently have dementia, and Alzheimer's disease is the most common type. Each year brings 10 million new cases, says the report released Tuesday by the World Health Organization. (5/14)

The Associated Press: 'Zombie Cells' Buildup In Your Body May Play Role In Aging
Call them zombie cells — they refuse to die. As they build up in your body, studies suggest, they promote aging and the conditions that come with it like osteoporosis and Alzheimer's disease. Researchers are studying drugs that can kill zombie cells and possibly treat the problems they bring. (5/14)

Kaiser Health News: ‘Living Their Values’: Palliative Care Power Couple Faces Cancer At Home
In the 18 years that Kathy Brandt and Kim Acquaviva have been together, death has been a constant companion. It’s the reason they went to work each morning. Acquaviva, a professor of nursing, wrote an acclaimed 2017 book on inclusive end-of-life care for LGBTQ people. Brandt, a nationally known hospice industry leader and consultant, was tapped to write and edit the latest clinical guidelines for quality palliative care. But in January, the professional became acutely personal: Brandt, 53, was diagnosed with metastatic ovarian cancer and learned she had mere months to live. (Aleccia, 5/15)

The New York Times: Primal Fear: Can Monkeys Help Unlock The Secrets Of Trauma?
On Valentine’s Day, 2018, five months after Hurricane Maria made landfall, Daniel Phillips stood at the edge of a denuded forest on the eastern half of a 38-acre island known as Cayo Santiago, a clipboard in his hand, his eyes on the monkeys. The island sits about a half-mile off the southeast coast of Puerto Rico, near a village called Punta Santiago. Phillips and his co-workers left the mainland shortly after dawn, and the monkeys had already begun to gather by the time they arrived, their screams and oddly birdlike chirps louder than the low rumble of the motorboat that ferried the humans. (Dittrich, 5/14)

PBS NewsHour: What Trump’s PrEP Deal Means For The Spread Of HIV
Top HIV/AIDS researchers and public health advocates say the Trump administration’s new deal to provide uninsured Americans with free drugs to prevent HIV infection is a promising step in America’s fight against AIDS. But actually reaching the very people most in need of the medication — like men who have sex with men and people who use injection drugs — and convincing them to take it, will be a bigger challenge. (Kane, 5/14)

The New York Times: Scans Suggested The Boy Had Cancer. But No Doctor Could Prove It. Why?
The mother was in a grocery store on the North Side of Chicago when she got the news. “I talked to a doctor who might be able to help figure out what’s wrong with your son,” her friend said. The words were a relief; she had been searching for months. The woman, her husband and their 16-year-old son were in Florida for spring break several months earlier when the boy first mentioned the pain in his right knee. That school year, he had thrown himself into sports with enthusiasm — first softball, then basketball, playing almost every day — so his mother wasn’t surprised that he was having pain, only that he complained about it. (Sanders, 5/15)

The New York Times: Doctor, We Need You In The Writer’s Room, Stat
The surgeon is scrubbed and ready. He calls for a “ten-blade” and the nurse slaps the scalpel into his hand. He nods, unwavering, and runs the sharp edge against plastic skin. And then —A different kind of cut. The surgeon relaxes and now he is an actor waiting for a touch-up of his powder. The director makes a suggestion and he nods. He’s game. The patient sips from her water bottle. And in this world of seemingly unlimited takes, we are ready to go again. (Lamas, 5/15)

Stat: Scientific Labs Look For New Ways To Become Sustainable 
Scientific labs produce a ton of waste: plastic pipette tips and the plastic racks that hold them, plastic foam coolers that house chemicals and cells, surplus solvents that expire in storage. They also rack up big energy bills: special freezers keep experiments cold, high-tech vents keep air clean, and dedicated machines keep equipment sterile. But a growing number of universities and other scientific institutions are making a point to be more mindful about their waste and water and energy use. And experts who help labs become more sustainable say the idea is increasingly gaining traction among researchers looking for ways to reduce their environmental footprint. (Thielking, 5/15)

The New York Times: Glucosamine Tied To Heart Benefits
Glucosamine, the dietary supplement widely used for arthritic pain, may reduce the risk for cardiovascular disease, researchers report. Scientists looked at 466,039 British men and women, ages 40 to 69, who were free of cardiovascular disease at the start of the study. Participants completed detailed health questionnaires that included information on the use of dietary supplements. Nearly 90,000 of them, or 19 percent, reported regular use of glucosamine. The study, in BMJ, tracked the participants’ health for an average of seven years. (Bakalar, 5/14)

The New York Times: To Move Is To Thrive. It’s In Our Genes.
A need and desire to be in motion may have been bred into our DNA before we even became humans and could have helped to guide the evolution of our species, according to a fascinating new study of the genetics of physical activity. The study uses big data and sophisticated genetic analyses to determine that some of the gene variants associated with how much and whether people move seem to have joined our ancestors’ genome hundreds of thousands of years ago, making them integral to human existence and well-being and raising interesting questions about what that means today, when most humans are sedentary. (Reynolds, 5/15)

The Associated Press: Maker Of OxyContin Gets Hit With Another State Lawsuit
The company that makes OxyContin did not stop pitching the powerful opioid painkiller to doctors even when its sales representatives raised concerns that they were prescribing the drug inappropriately, the Pennsylvania attorney general's office said in a lawsuit announced Tuesday. The lawsuit against Connecticut-based Purdue Pharma was filed on May 2 under seal and announced on Tuesday. It made Pennsylvania at least the 39th state to sue the company seeking to hold it responsible for the toll of opioids, which have been killing more people in the U.S. and Pennsylvania each year than car crashes. (Mulvihill, 5/14)

The Hill: Pennsylvania Attorney General Sues Purdue Pharma Over Opioid Epidemic 
Shapiro’s lawsuit accuses the drugmaker of aiming more than 500,000 misleading or deceptive messages about its products' potential for addiction at Pennsylvania doctors. “Simply stated, Purdue took advantage of addiction to make money,” the suit says. The lawsuit says the company made more sales visits in Pennsylvania than any other state except California. The Connecticut-based firm has sold more than 2.9 million opioid prescriptions in Pennsylvania since May 2007, according to Shapiro. (Budryk, 5/14)

Meanwhile —

Modern Healthcare: Rural Opioid Abuse Targeted By HHS Federal Grants
HHS awarded $24 million to rural organizations across 40 states to develop strategies for preventing and treating opioid abuse. The Health Resources and Services Administration announced on Monday that it will provide $200,000 for one year to 120 rural organizations, part of a larger effort by the Trump administration to fill major gaps in addiction treatment and recovery in rural areas. (King, 5/14)

Stateline: Black Women More Likely To Die Of Breast Cancer — Especially In The South 
Treatment advances have improved breast cancer survival rates among all U.S. women, but the disparity between white and black women has grown: Black women such as [Felicia] Mahone are 40% more likely to die from the disease than white women, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. No region has as many high-disparity states clustered together as the South. Louisiana and Mississippi have the highest racial disparities in breast cancer mortality. In both of those states, the excess death rate among black women is more than 60%, according to the American Cancer Society. Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee all have excess death rates over 40%. (Blau, 5/15)

Pioneer Press: Why Are Lawmakers Fighting Over A 27-Year-Old Health Care Tax? 
A nearly 30-year-old tax on medical providers is at the center of increasingly tense negotiations between Democrats and Republicans for the next state budget. The 2 percent provider tax will sunset at the end of the year if lawmakers do nothing. It currently raises about $700 million for a Health Care Access Fund that is spent on a variety of programs to keep health care accessible and affordable. Republicans call it a ‘sick tax’ and they say letting it expire should bring down health care costs. Democrats argue the provider tax is a key source of revenue for programs like medical assistance, MinnesotaCare and other efforts to help the most vulnerable residents receive care. (Magan, 5/14)

The Associated Press: DC Votes To Close City’s Only Public Hospital Within 4 Years
The Washington, D.C., City Council has voted to close the city’s only public hospital by January 2023. The Washington Post reports the closure voted for Tuesday was part of the $15.5 billion budget approved by the council for the fiscal year starting Oct. 1. The local part of the budget controlled by city officials equals about $8.6 billion, the remainder is federal or special funding. (5/15)

Boston Globe: Baker Administration Pledges Major Reforms For Troubled Foster Care System
The plan, presented as a joint agreement between the state’s Department of Children and Families and SEIU Local 509, the union that represents foster care workers, promises to boost the number of social workers who communicate directly with foster families. DCF will also hire 11 additional employees to recruit more foster families, and offer more training for foster families who are struggling to care for severely traumatized children. (Lazar, 5/14)

Arizona Republic: Missing And Murdered Indigenous Women Bill Signed Into Law
Gov. Doug Ducey on Tuesday signed into law a bill to create a task force that will investigate and gather data about missing and murdered Indigenous women. The committee will serve as a way to assess the scope of the problem and identify methods to address cases involving missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls, or MMNWG. (Oldham, 5/14)

The Associated Press: Delaware AG Investigating Prison Medical Contractor
Delaware's attorney general is investigating the state's prison system medical contractor amid allegations that staffers were ordered to forge documents to falsely state that inmates were getting mental health treatment they never received. Officials confirmed the investigation this week and urged anyone with information about the record-keeping practices of Connections Community Support Programs Inc. to contact the Office of Civil Rights and Public Trust. (5/14)

The Associated Press: Philly Soda Tax Study Sees Sales Dip, Health Impact Unclear
A new study bolsters evidence that soda taxes can reduce sales, but whether they influence health remains unclear. The research found that Philadelphia's 2017 tax led to a 38 percent decline in sugary soda and diet drink sales that year, even when taking into account an increase in sales in neighboring towns. (5/14)

KCUR: Move Over Smoking, Kansas High Schoolers Can’t Get Enough Of Vaping
Kansas school officials told the state Board of Education on Tuesday that vaping is an increasing epidemic. In 2017, about a third of Kansas high school students tried vaping at least once. Between 2017 and 2018, the number of students vaping increased by 80 percent. ...Some adults have turned to vaping to quit smoking, though the Food and Drug Administration does not approve e-cigarettes for that use. The Centers for Disease Control acknowledges that while e-cigarettes could help some smokers quit, there isn’t enough research to say how effective they are. There also hasn’t been enough research to fully understand the health consequences associated with vaping, partially because of e-cigarettes’ fast adoption. (Bisaha, 5/14)

Pioneer Press: ‘Don’t Forget About Us!’ So Say Diabetics, Medical Pot Patients, Others As MN Legislators Rush To Reach Budget Deal. 
As Minnesota lawmakers rush to reach a deal on a state budget before the session ends on Monday, advocates for many issues worry that their causes will get lost in the mix. From diabetics and medical marijuana patients to opioid abuse victims and elder care advocates, the most uncertain stretch of the legislative session is here. And many of them are mounting a final push to get their priorities through. Some of their issues will hinge on a budget agreement between Gov. Tim Walz and legislative leaders. Over the past several days, the state’s leaders have quarreled behind closed doors over the future of state spending, the gas tax and an expiring tax on health care providers. (Faircloth, 5/14)

Texas Tribune: Texas House Passes Bill To Raise Legal Age To Buy Tobacco To 21
Senate Bill 21 received preliminary approval from the lower chamber more than one month after the Senate approved a slightly different version of the legislation. The bill now awaits final approval in the House, which is usually a formality. Then the Senate will vote to either appoint a conference committee for the two chambers to iron out differences in the bill or accept the House's changes and send the legislation to Gov. Greg Abbott. (Byrne, 5/14)

North Carolina Health News: Will North Carolina Dig Its Teeth Into Teledentistry? 
Teledentistry uses technology to connect clinicians with patients outside their offices and is extolled as a cost-efficient way to expand basic care to low-risk patients in underserved areas, especially children and seniors who have to rely on others for transportation to appointments. ...Livestream face-to-face consultations between a dentist and patient, a hygienist and dentist or general practitioner and specialist in different locations. Technology makes it possible to add in parents or family members for group consultations, too. (Blythe, 5/15)

Boston Globe: Closing Of 5 South Coast Facilities Leaves State With Fewer Nursing Home Beds
A court-appointed receiver is working against a May 24 deadline to find new living quarters for residents of five South Coast nursing homes that are shutting down this month. The closures are the latest blow to a state network of skilled nursing facilities that has shrunk by a third since 2000. (Weisman,, 5/14)

Sacramento Bee: CalPERS Health Insurance Could Climb Up To 24 Percent In 2020
The premiums state workers and retired public employees pay for CalPERS health insurance are projected to go up 7.2 percent on average next year, with premiums for specific plans increasing as much as 24 percent, according to preliminary estimates published Tuesday. The estimated increases, presented at a CalPERS board meeting, were the first public glimpse of the 2020 premiums, which take effect Jan. 1. (Venteicher, 5/15)

Seattle Times: What’s Behind The Increase Of Hepatitis C Cases In Washington State?
Between 2009 and 2017, the number of chronic cases of hepatitis C increased by 60% statewide, and an increase of 77% was reported in King County. The county reported a drop in chronic cases from 2017 to 2018; the state does not yet have 2018 numbers. Acute cases of hepatitis C are up as well: Between 2009 and 2017, the number of acute cases more than doubled in King County and more than tripled statewide. (Blethen, 5/14)

Georgia Health News: Insurance Chief Indicted Over Alleged $2 Million, Five-Year Fraud Scheme
State Insurance Commissioner Jim Beck was charged Tuesday in a 38-count federal indictment on allegations of wire fraud, mail fraud and money laundering, prosecutors said. The indictment alleges Beck stole more than $2 million from his former employer, Georgia Underwriting Association, through ‘’an elaborate invoicing scheme,’’ BJay Pak, the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia, said Tuesday at a news conference in Atlanta. (Miller, 5/14)

NH Times Union: Pro-Life Group Opposes CMC-Dartmouth-Hitchcock Marriage 
The pro-life group New Hampshire Right to Life opposes combining the parent organizations of Catholic Medical Center and Dartmouth-Hitchcock because the latter performs abortions and trains doctors on how to perform them. “They may not be doing abortions at CMC, but the funds, the revenue, generated by CMC can go to funds that Catholics disagree with (including abortion),” the group’s president, Jason Hennessey, said in an interview Tuesday. (Cousineau, 5/14)

Houston Chronicle: Kingwood Pines Patient Escapes After Breaking Through Glass Window 
A patient at Kingwood Pines Hospital suffered severe lacerations after jumping out of a glass window and escaping from the facility Tuesday morning, according to Houston police. The escape is the latest in a string of  troubling incidents in recent years that have raised questions about patient safety at the 116-bed psychiatric hospital, which was the site of a teen riot late last year. The hospital has also weathered multiple lawsuits alleging sexual assaults of juvenile patients. (Hennes and Barned-Smith, 5/14)

Stat: A New Study Sparks A War Of Words Over Pharma's Commitment To Research
A coalition of the drug industry’s fiercest foes is accusing the world’s top drug makers of hiding behind research and development “as an excuse for price-gouging American patients.” And they’re pointing to a new study that finds drug makers spent about 22% of their revenues on research and development in 2017 to prove their point. The new study, first shared with STAT, was commissioned by the Campaign for Sustainable Rx Pricing, a coalition that includes pharmacy middlemen, hospitals, and insurers and that advocates for drug pricing reforms. It was based largely on analysis of 2017 Security and Exchange Commission filings for the 10 largest U.S.-based pharmaceutical companies that generate more than half their revenue from prescription drugs. (Florko, 5/14)

The Atlantic: Everything Trump Has And Hasn't Done About Drug Prices
Donald Trump’s promise of sweeping health-care reform has not come to pass. While the president campaigned heavily on assurances to “repeal and replace Obamacare” on “day one” with an unspecified plan for every American to have affordable health care, his claims have now been diluted to a focus on “drug prices.” One of his first comments on the release of the Mueller report was that it was a distraction from the need to “get back to infrastructure, get back to cutting taxes, get back to lowering prescription drug prices.” (Hamblin, 5/10)

The Associated Press Fact Check: Trump Cites Drug-Price Drop That Isn't
President Donald Trump is misstating the facts when it comes to prescription drug prices. Speaking Monday at a White House dinner, he cited a remarkable drop in prescription drug prices. But a government index that had registered some declines is now showing an increase again. Some experts say more increases are likely. (Alonso-Zaldivar and Yen, 5/14)

Politico Pro: Medicare Plans Fret Over Looming Drug Policy Changes
Insurers are struggling over how to handle major drug policy changes the Trump administration has proposed as the filing deadline for 2020 Medicare Advantage bids approaches. The financial stakes are huge: Medicare spends more than $100 billion per year on prescription drugs. (Demko, 5/10)

CNBC: Teva Stock Drops After Conspiracy Allegations On Hiking Drug Prices
U.S. traded shares of Teva Pharmaceutical plunged more than 16% on Monday after 44 states sued the company, alleging it orchestrated a sweeping scheme with 19 other drugmakers to inflate prices. Shares of drugmakers Mylan, which was also named in the lawsuit, were trading 10% lower in afternoon trading. The states, led Connecticut Attorney General William Tong, claim 20 drug companies, including Teva USA, “systematically” divided up the market for generic drugs to avoid competing with one another, according to a 500-page lawsuit filed late Friday in the U.S. District Court in Connecticut. (Lovelace, 5/13)

WBUR: $2 Million Drug? Treatment For Rare Genetic Disease Is Expected To Break Price Record
Now, a new treatment called Zolgensma (pronounced zohl-JEN-smah), which replaces the gene that's defective in spinal muscular atrophy, is expected to break that price record this month. The FDA is expected to approve Zolgensma sometime in May, and the biopharma company Novartis is then expected to announce the price.Novartis executives have made clear it will be in the seven figures. (Goldberg, 5/10)

Vox: The House’s Big Bill To Lower Drug Prices And Shore Up Obamacare, Explained
The biggest health care bill of the year is coming to the House floor this week. House Democrats have packaged together a bunch of proposals to lower prescription drug costs and to reverse the Trump administration’s maneuvers to undermine the Affordable Care Act, and they are bringing them to the floor for a vote this week as one bill. (Scott, 5/13)

CQ: House Health Care Bill Puts Generic Drug Industry In Bind
This was supposed to be a good week for the makers of low-cost generic drugs, as a bill that is one of their top priorities gets a House floor vote. Instead, the industry finds itself clouded by allegations of price fixing and its signature bill is being packaged with two measures they oppose. The bill (HR 987) that the House will take up Thursday combines three drug pricing measures with bills to strengthen the individual health insurance market. (Siddons, 5/15)

Pioneer Press: MN Diabetics Make Plea For Emergency Insulin Supply Bill
A group of Minnesota diabetics made an eleventh-hour plea on Monday for lawmakers to address the rising costs of insulin. During a news conference at the state Capitol, the women urged lawmakers to unite behind a proposal that would give diabetics an emergency supply of insulin if they cannot afford it. The “Alec Smith Emergency Insulin Act” provision is wrapped into the House and Senate health and human services bills, but the versions are slightly different. Those who have high-deductible insurance plans could get an emergency refill under the House bill, but not the Senate version. And the House bill would provide an emergency supply of 90 days, as opposed to the Senate proposal of 30 days. (Faircloth, 5/13)

The Star Tribune: High Cost Of Meds Is Driving Minnesotans Across The Border
Six Minnesota diabetes activists, who have dubbed themselves the “Caravan to Canada,” approached the U.S. border crossing last Sunday with a mixture of apprehension and defiance. Their three vehicles were carrying insulin, carefully packed in coolers, that they had bought the day before at a Canadian pharmacy just three blocks away. Together, they had spent $1,265 for insulin supplies that in the United States would cost an estimated $12,400 — a savings of $11,000. (Howatt, 5/12)

Stat: New Ventures Strike Deals With Drug Makers To Combat Shortages
Underscoring concerns about ongoing drug shortages, two different ventures representing hundreds of hospitals across the U.S. are announcing separate deals on Wednesday in which manufacturers have agreed to provide medicines that are in short supply. In the first deal, CivicaRx, which is a generic drug company formed by several large hospital systems and three philanthropies, has reached an agreement for Xellia Pharmaceuticals to manufacture antibiotics, including vancomycin and daptomycin. (Silverman, 5/15)

Public News Service: OR Lawmakers Tackle Rising Prescription Drug Prices 
Oregon lawmakers are looking at ways to address the spiking costs of prescription drugs. Two bills in the Legislature could bring down prices, which would be a relief to older Oregonians. According to a U.S. Senate report from last year, the prices for some commonly prescribed, name-brand drugs are increasing at 10 times the rate of inflation. Geneva Craig, a registered nurse at Asante Health Systems in Medford and an AARP Oregon executive council member, said she wants the state to act soon because of the effects she's seen from unaffordable drugs. (5/15)

The Baltimore Sun: Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan Faces Pressure On Bills About Drug Prices And Renewable Energy
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan is facing pressure to sign bills that would create a state board to monitor drug prices and to increase the state’s requirements for using renewable energy. ... Health advocacy groups have been pressing Hogan to approve a bill that would create a state Prescription Drug Affordability Board. They were buoyed by comments Hogan made at a political event in New Hampshire last month when he was asked about high drug prices. (Wood, 5/14)

The Philadelphia Inquirer: J&J’s New Esketamine Drug For Depression, Spravato, Not Worth The Money Or The Risk, Watchdog Says
According to the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER), Spravato may be overpriced for the benefits it delivers. Each treatment costs $590 to $885.And that price doesn’t cover the doctor’s time. (Wood, 5/13)

Stat: AbbVie Settles Humira Patent Litigation, Keeping U.S. 'Monopoly Prices'
Anyone holding out hope that a lower-cost version of the Humira rheumatoid arthritis treatment might soon become available in the U.S. can forget about it. That’s because AbbVie (ABBV) has settled patent litigation with Boehringer Ingelheim, which will be allowed to sell a biosimilar version of the medicine as part of the deal — but not until July 2023. Boehringer had been the sole holdout among several large drug makers that previously reached such agreements, which also preclude them from marketing versions of Humira for another four years. (Silverman, 5/14)

Stat: Grandstanding, Not Real Change: Drug Prices In TV Ads Won't Help
In a fit of hubris, President Trump believes he is making drug makers “come clean” by forcing them to mention list prices in their TV ads. If only it were that simple. The reality is that last week’s mandate may, indeed, prod recalcitrant drug makers to pay more attention to pricing and, in some cases, cast this or that company in a greedy light. But for the most part, the numbers that will soon flash across screens are likely to be confusing and, in many cases, irrelevant. (Ed Silverman, 5/13)

The Hill: Don't Import Prescription Drugs
Prescription drug pricing has been the subject of much debate over the last year. Pharmaceutical manufacturers have taken most of the blame and were recently called before Congress to answer for their actions. Several states are looking at importing drugs from Canada as an answer to the concerns over high prescription costs. In fact, in a move reportedly supported by the Trump Administration, the Florida legislature recently approved a plan to import drugs from Canada where prices are lower, rather than purchasing them domestically. Importation programs like the ones proposed in Florida are neither safe nor effective ways to lower the price of medications. (Brooklyn Roberts, 5/12)

The New York Times: Americans Need Generic Drugs. But Can They Trust Them?
In the fall of 2012, a young consumer safety officer at the Food and Drug Administration volunteered for a job that few of his colleagues wanted: inspecting the Indian manufacturing plants that make many of America’s low-cost generic drugs. In a world of drab auditors, Peter Baker stood apart. He rode a motorcycle and had tattoos lining one arm. Beyond his love of adventure, Mr. Baker, then 32, had a more pragmatic reason to volunteer. By reputation, India was the world leader in aseptic manufacturing, the exacting science of producing sterile drugs. He figured that after reviewing best practices there, he’d return to the United States with expert knowledge that would advance his career. (Katherine Eban, 5/11)

Fortune: Trump Has The Right Target For Lowering Drug Prices: Rebates
No one should ever be forced to forgo or ration a necessary medicine. But this has become a common practice in America due to the high patient costs of prescription medications. Our current medication system has grown into a tangle of high list prices, misaligned incentives, closed-door negotiations, and increasing out-of-pocket costs, trends that utterly ignore the needs of the patient. (Olivier Brandicourt and Stephen J. Ubh, 5/10)

Stat: Trump Administration's Good Effort On Drug Rebates Is Bad Policy
Earlier this month, the Congressional Budget Office delivered bad news for anyone hoping for a quick fix on the high price of prescription drugs. The CBO projected that a rule proposed in January by the Department of Health and Human Services aimed at lowering out-of-pocket costs on pharmaceuticals would actually cause federal spending to rise without cutting drug prices across the board. (John Arnold, 5/15)

The Hill: US Should Be Producing The HIV Prevention Drug Its Research Helped Create
When my uncle died of AIDS in 1984, at just 42 years old and in the prime of his life, the idea that the epidemic could be ended through prophylaxis was only a dream. Back then, patients just hoped to make it to their next birthday, to not lose any friends that week, or that more would not die undiagnosed, as my uncle did. Today, not only is HIV infection manageable but we can actually arrest its spread — if only more people could afford to take the highly effective prophylactic treatment known in the U.S. as Truvada. (Dana Brown, 5/14)

Stat: Cancer Patients Should Be Treated By Their Doctors, Not Pharmacy Benefit Managers
When I must tell a patient that she or he has cancer, that diagnosis comes with the explicit promise that I will provide timely treatment, including medicines aimed at curing cancer or extending life as long as possible. But an insidious interloper now often comes between me and my patients. I’m talking about pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), the middlemen that have introduced a bureaucratic and nightmarish system of delays and denials into filling prescriptions. I’m not alone. (Jeff Vacirca, 5/9)

The Washington Post: Alabama’s Abortion Bill Is Not About Alabama. It’s About Tossing Roe V. Wade. 
Yes, the bill that Alabama’s Senate votes on today is intended to put an end to virtually all abortions in the state. Taking a different tack from other “heartbeat” bills we have seen recently, this one makes it a felony for a doctor to perform or attempt an abortion, and anyone who violates the law faces a sentence of up to 99 years in Alabama’s prisons. The sole exception is when the mother’s life is threatened. Most laws that prohibit some aspect of abortion have an exception that permits the procedure in cases of rape or incest. Alabama’s bill does not. But that draconian nature of the bill is its point — because its sponsors aren’t just looking to prohibit abortion in Alabama. They are looking for a clean vehicle to take to the Supreme Court. They want to overturn Roe v. Wade, supplanting it with something that makes state laws prohibiting abortion the law of the land. (Joyce White Vance, 5/14)

The Wall Street Journal: Liberals Who Cry Roe
Who would have thought that a Supreme Court ruling in an interstate tax dispute would devolve into a brawl over abortion politics? Such are our political times as the four liberal Justices on Monday chided their conservative colleagues for overturning a 40-year precedent, which progressives warn will create a stare decisis slippery slope to banning abortion. At issue in Franchise Tax Board v. Hyatt was whether states enjoy sovereign immunity in other states’ courts. California urged the Court to overturn its Nevada v. Hall (1979) precedent, which held that states aren’t required to grant legal immunity to other states. Most do for comity purposes, and state courts have entertained only 14 cases by private citizens against other states in the past four decades. (5/14)

USA Today: Heartbeat Bills: Abortion Laws Show Pro-Life Loyalties Not For Women
What I do know for sure is that I care about all lives, and that includes the lives of women contemplating abortion. The anti-abortion movement pays lip service to caring for women, but what the recent spate of laws shows us is that in the end there is only one thing they care about: the embryo or fetus. The lives of young rape or incest victims are accepted as collateral damage, and women who want to protect their health are as cast sinister actors incapable of searching their own consciences for a way forward when a wanted pregnancy goes awry. (Kirsten Powers, 5/14)

Bloomberg: Abortion Bans Like In Georgia And Alabama Are Start Of Slow War
The Georgia anti-abortion law signed last week and the near-total abortion ban Alabama will consider again Tuesday are just the most recent examples of what you could call “Kavanaugh laws.”Like anti-abortion statutes recently enacted by Iowa, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Dakota and Ohio, these are blatantly unconstitutional laws openly intended to violate the U.S. Supreme Court’s abortion-rights jurisprudence that goes back to Roe v. Wade. (Noah Feldman, 5/14)

The Wall Street Journal: Medicare Isn’t All It’s Cracked Up To Be
Democrats enamored by the idea of Medicare for All should keep in mind that the standard existing Medicare benefit package falls well short of what they are proposing. If Medicare were a private insurance plan, it wouldn’t even qualify as adequate health insurance on the Affordable Care Act’s exchange. Medicare currently leaves enrollees who lack supplemental coverage exposed to potentially catastrophic out-of-pocket expenses and steep deductibles for prescription drugs—one of the primary political concerns of seniors. (Chris Pope, 5/14)

Bloomberg: Study Suicide Like Any Other Public Health Problem
Suicide poses a mystery to science. How do people manage to get up the nerve to shoot themselves, hang themselves or take a lethal dose of a drug, when doing so violates the strongest instinct that’s been bred into us over millions of years of evolution? This is not morbid curiosity. The answer could be key to addressing a persistent public health problem: Suicide kills about 800,000 people every year, according to the World Health Organization. In the U.S., the rate has been climbing over the last two decades. (Faye Flam, 5/14)

The Wall Street Journal: Roundup Of Cancer Evidence
A California jury awarded a stunning $2.055 billion Monday to a couple who claim that Bayer AG’s Roundup weed killer caused their cancer. But would the judgment have been different if the judge had allowed the jury to see contradictory evidence? That’s the question Bayer will raise in its appeal thanks to Judge Winifred Smith, who presided over the trial. The Alameda County Superior Court judge denied a request by Bayer’s lawyers to inform the jury that the Environmental Protection Agency concluded last month that Roundup’s active ingredient, glyphosate, is noncarcinogenic and poses no risk to public health when used as directed. (5/14)

The New York Times: Don’t Visit Your Doctor In The Afternoon
It’s 3 p.m., I’ve been seeing patients for a few hours and I feel my focus fading. I need to stay sharp for those still to come, so I grab a snack and some coffee. This has become my afternoon ritual during my 20 years as a primary care doctor. Now, a new study confirms that my feared “3 o’clock fade” is real — and that it could affect patients’ health. (Jeffrey A. Linder, 5/14)

Arizona Republic: AHCCCS Should Cover More Than 1 Opioid Addiction Drug
If you have private insurance, it’s likely you and your physician have the choice of multiple treatment options in the event you need them.But if you’re among the 1.8 million Arizonans on Medicaid, you mainly have access to just one buprenorphine product: Suboxone film. That’s because our state’s Medicaid program — AHCCCS — gives Suboxone “preferred” status, meaning physicians and addiction medicine specialists seeking an alternative treatment for their patients need to navigate their “prior-authorization” process for approval. (Will Humble, 5/14)

The Washington Post: Tennessee Moves To Sabotage Its Own Health-Care System
Republicans failed to undermine the Medicaid program, the federal-state partnership that provides health-care coverage for the poor and near-poor, when they tried to repeal Obamacare two years ago. But the Trump administration might have found a way — by issuing waivers allowing states to volunteer for “block granting.” Tennessee lawmakers decided this month to make their state the first to try. That’s a bad decision for Tennessee and an alarming portent of the next potential assault on the nation’s safety net. (5/14)

San Francisco Chronicle: Trump Abolished The Health Care Mandate. California Needs To Restore It.
Once again, we are hearing the threat to “repeal and replace” the Affordable Care Act as distant thunder rumbling at the federal level. The story in California is much different, however, as Gov. Gavin Newsom and the Legislature are working to put our state on the path to universal coverage. One element includes bringing back the individual mandate penalty to individuals who can afford health insurance but do not to buy it. (Peter Lee, 5/14)