The New York Times: Trump’s Plan For Cheaper Health Insurance Could Have Hidden Costs
President Trump’s plan to expand access to skimpy short-term health insurance policies, as an alternative to the Affordable Care Act, would affect more people and cost the government more money than the administration estimated, an independent federal study says. The study, by Medicare’s chief actuary, suggests that the new policies would appeal mainly to healthy people, including many who have had comprehensive coverage under the Affordable Care Act. The administration estimated in February that a few hundred thousand people might sign up for the “short-term, limited-duration policies,” which would not have to provide the standard health benefits like preventive services, maternity care or prescription drug coverage. (Pear, 5/15)

Bloomberg: Obamacare Startup Oscar Will Expand To New States, CEO Says 
Oscar Insurance Corp., the Obamacare-focused health insurance startup, plans to expand to Arizona and at least three other new markets next year, a bet on the health law’s survival despite the turbulent politics surrounding it. In an interview, Chief Executive Officer Mario Schlosser said Oscar is meeting its goals to increase membership and revenue while gaining a better handle on medical costs. (Tracer, 5/15)

Modern Healthcare: Oscar Health's Narrow-Network Strategy Yields First-Ever Quarterly Profit 
Health insurance startup Oscar Health posted a profit in the first quarter of 2018 after expanding its footprint and growing membership in the individual insurance market. The quarterly profit—the first Oscar has reported since launching five years ago—signals that the health insurer's strategy of creating narrow networks through partnerships with major brand-name hospital systems may be a winner. Oscar this year serves members in six states and partners with heavy hitters like Cleveland Clinic in Ohio; Tenet Healthcare Corp. in Dallas; and Mount Sinai Health System and Montefiore Health System, both in New York. (Livingston, 5/15)

And in other insurance and marketplace news —

Reuters: Healthcare, Freelanced-Where Will Gig Economy Workers Get Coverage?
There are plenty of problems lurking on America's career ladder, but here is a big one: our healthcare systems are designed for the workforce of 1950. If you have a lifetime corporate 9-to-5 gig, then you probably have group health insurance. But what if that is not the kind of job you have? Well, good luck with that. (Taylor, 5/15)

The CT Mirror: Dems Predict 'Eye-Popping' Health Premium Hikes, Blame GOP
Sen. Chris Murphy on Tuesday helped launch a Democratic initiative that blames Republicans for “sabotaging” the Affordable Care Act, leading to sky-high health insurance premiums. Those sharp rate hikes — averaging more than 18 percent nationally for individual policies — will be announced just before November’s mid-term elections and will be an issue in many campaigns, the Democrats predict. (Radelat, 5/15)

The Associated Press: AP-NORC Poll: Young Adults Feel Stress Of Long-Term Care
Most young adults haven't given much thought to their own needs as they get older, but a significant number are already providing long-term care for older loved ones, according to a new poll by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. And while those who have caregiving experience put in fewer hours than their older counterparts, they're more likely to feel stressed out by the experience. (5/15)

Reuters: U.S. State Lawsuits Against Purdue Pharma Over Opioid Epidemic Mount
Litigation against OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma LP is intensifying as six more U.S. states on Tuesday announced lawsuits, accusing the company of fueling a national opioid epidemic by deceptively marketing its prescription painkillers to generate billions of dollars in sales. U.S. state attorneys general of Nevada, Texas, Florida, North Carolina, North Dakota and Tennessee also said Purdue Pharma violated state consumer protection laws by falsely denying or downplaying the addiction risk while overstating the benefits of opioids. "It's time the defendants pay for the pain and the destruction they've caused," Florida State Attorney General Pam Bondi told a press conference. (5/15)

The Wall Street Journal: Florida And Texas Are Among Latest States To Sue Opioid Painkiller Companies
Florida, Texas and four other states became the latest to file lawsuits against Purdue Pharma LP and other opioid painkiller makers, alleging they fueled an addiction crisis by misrepresenting the risks of their drugs. Florida and Texas, the most populous states yet to pursue litigation, join more than a dozen other states and hundreds of counties, including Ohio, Alabama, Missouri, New Hampshire and Washington, to sue opioid painkiller makers. Many states and counties have also sued painkiller distributors. (Whalen and Randazzo, 5/15)

Texas Tribune: Texas Sues Purdue Pharma, The Maker Of OxyContin, Over The Opioid Epidemic
In an announcement Tuesday afternoon, [Texas Attorney General Ken] Paxton, a Republican, flanked by several assistant attorney generals, said the state is taking the drug maker to court for misrepresenting the risks of opioid addiction. “We must make those who have caused the opioid crisis feel the pain that they have inflicted on our community,” Paxton said. (Evans, 5/15)

Austin American-Statesman: Texas Sues National Drug Maker Over 'Deceptive' Opioid Marketing
Paxton said his office filed suit in Travis County because a state law known as the Deceptive Trade Practices Act can provide powerful leverage — the ability to get an injunction barring Purdue from continued misrepresentation of its pain killers and penalties of up to $20,000 per violation. (Lindell, 5/15)

Bloomberg: Tennessee, Florida Opioid Suits Create New Settlement Doubts 
Tennessee Attorney General Herbert Slatery and Florida’s Pam Bondi on Tuesday accused executives of Purdue and other opioid makers and distributors of fueling a public-health crisis by falsely claiming that the synthetic pain medicine wasn’t addictive. They joined more than 20 other states that have sued companies including Purdue, Johnson & Johnson and McKesson Corp. over the products. It’s a twist for Slatery and Bondi, who have been leading settlement negotiations sponsored by a coalition of attorneys general and who’ve deferred from suing makers and distributors of the drug until now. Four other states -- North Carolina, Texas, Nevada and North Dakota -- also filed opioid suits Tuesday. They were also part of the talks. (Feeley, 5/15)

In other news on the crisis —

Los Angeles Times: A Dangerous Opioid Is Killing People In California. It's Starting To Show Up In Cocaine And Meth
Fentanyl, a potent opioid already responsible for thousands of deaths nationwide, is increasingly showing up in drugs like cocaine and methamphetamine in California, officials say. The white powder, a lethal substance 50 times stronger than heroin, is sometimes mixed into other opioids to produce a stronger high. Now its presence in non-opioids has public health experts worried that California may be staring down a new dimension of the deadly epidemic. (Karlamangla, 5/15)

Kaiser Health News: Opioid Overdose Antidote Naloxone And Narcan Can Be Hard To Get
A few months ago, Kourtnaye Sturgeon helped save someone’s life. She was driving in downtown Indianapolis when she saw people gathered around a car on the side of the road. Sturgeon pulled over, and a man told her there was nothing she could do: Two men had overdosed on opioids and appeared to be dead. “I kind of recall saying, ‘No man, I’ve got Narcan,'” she said, referring to a brand-name version of the opioid overdose antidote, naloxone. “Which sounds so silly, but I’m pretty sure that’s what came out.” (Harper, 5/16)

The Associated Press: Nation's Most Restrictive Abortion Law Is Challenged In Iowa
A lawsuit challenging the nation's most restrictive abortion law was filed Tuesday in Iowa, a state that for years was largely left out of Republican efforts to overturn abortion protections and where the Democratic attorney general has refused to defend the law. If allowed to take effect on July 1 as planned, the law would ban most abortions once a fetal heartbeat is detected, around the sixth week of pregnancy. Abortion-rights groups say that's a time when many women do not know they are pregnant. (Rodriguez, 5/15)

The Washington Post: Abortion Rights Groups Ask Iowa Court To Block ‘Heartbeat Bill,’ Calling It ‘Beyond Extreme’
Abortion rights advocates filed a lawsuit in an Iowa district court Tuesday seeking to block Iowa’s newest abortion law — known as “the heartbeat bill” — which bans most abortions at about the sixth week of pregnancy, before many women know they are pregnant. The law is among the most restrictive abortion bans in the country. The Iowa law is part of a flurry of legislation that aims to test the legality of abortion restrictions, as some Republicans want legal challenges to the laws to reach the U.S. Supreme Court in an effort to overturn its landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling. In Mississippi this year, GOP lawmakers passed a 15-week abortion ban that was signed by Mississippi’s Republican governor, but the law was quickly put on hold after a court challenge. (Wax-Thibodeaux, 5/15)

WBUR: Groups File Lawsuit To Block Iowa's New 'Heartbeat' Abortion Law
Critics say that the law would make abortions illegal in cases where women may not yet have realized that they're pregnant. Iowa's current law allows most abortions up to 20 weeks into a pregnancy. The lawsuit was filed in Iowa state court. "Not only is this law blatantly unconstitutional — it's extremely harmful to women," Planned Parenthood said in a statement about the lawsuit. The group says that Iowa's legislature ignored the legal rights guaranteed in the Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision, as well as Iowa's own constitution. (Chappell, 5/15)

The Associated Press: 20 AGs Back Lawsuits By Family Planning Groups Against Trump
Twenty attorneys general voiced their support Tuesday for lawsuits challenging Trump administration rule changes they said will reduce access to family planning services. California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said the president is playing politics with patients by changing rules that would shift federal family planning funds toward organizations that stress abstinence. (5/15)

Los Angeles Times: California Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra Clashes With Challengers Over All His Lawsuits Against The Trump Administration
California Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra is probably best known to California voters as the man who has sued the Trump administration more than 30 times, a feat he boasted about at a debate Tuesday ahead of next month's primary election for the attorney general race. Becerra's rivals worked to turn the focus on the federal government against him."Quite frankly, I think Mr. Becerra is obsessed with Donald Trump. It's not the role of state attorney general to be suing our federal government every five minutes," said Republican Eric Early, a Los Angeles attorney. "It's outrageous. There are all kinds of problems in this great state that are being ignored." (McGreevy, 5/15)

The Wall Street Journal: Youth Suicidal Behavior Is On The Rise, Especially Among Girls
A new study finding a rise in suicidal thoughts and attempts among young people adds to the research pointing to a decline in mental health among U.S. children and adolescents. The study showed the proportion of young people treated at 31 U.S. children’s hospitals for suicidal thoughts or attempts more than doubled between 2008 and 2015, from 0.66% of all visits to 1.82% of all visits. Rates were higher during the school year than in the summer, and nearly two-thirds of the visits involved girls, according to results published in the medical journal Pediatrics. (Whalen, 5/15)

NPR: Kids Struggle With Thoughts Of Suicide
Lead author Gregory Plemmons, a pediatrician and researcher at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn., says the study results confirmed what he'd been seeing at the hospital. He says he hopes clinicians and families take note. "The number one thing to take home is that it's important to talk about this and important to ask about it," he says. The findings line up with past data showing a steady increase in teen suicide over the past decade. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported last year that a drop in adolescent suicide in the 1990s and early 2000s reversed course in 2008, though it's not yet reached peak levels seen in the 1980s. It's not clear what has contributed to the increase, but the study noted the 2008 financial crisis may be one factor among others. (Haelle, 5/16)

The New York Times: Kids’ Suicide-Related Hospital Visits Rise Sharply
About five years ago, pediatricians at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville found that more and more of their inpatient beds at the children’s hospital were occupied by children and adolescents with mental health issues, especially those who had come in because of suicide attempts, or suicidal thoughts. These patients were known as “boarders”: They were waiting for psychiatric placement because it wasn’t safe for them to go home. (Klass, 5/16)

The Associated Press: Cherokee Nation Lauded For Hepatitis C Elimination Effort
Recovering addict Judith Anderson figures if she hadn't entered a program that caught and treated the hepatitis C she contracted after years of intravenous drug use, she wouldn't be alive to convince others to get checked out. The 74-year-old resident of Sallisaw, Oklahoma — about 160 miles (257 kilometers) east of Oklahoma City near the Arkansas border — said the potentially fatal liver disease sapped her of energy and "any desire to go anywhere or do anything." (Juozapavicius, 5/16)

The Associated Press: More US Adults Try Vaping But Current Use Is Down, Data Show
New research shows 1 in 7 U.S. adults have tried electronic cigarettes. That's an increase but it's offset by a small decline in the number currently using the devices. About 3 percent of adults were current users in 2016, down from almost 4 percent in 2014, the study found. Adults who said they have tried vaping at least once reached just over 15 percent in 2016, versus 12.6 percent in 2014. That means an estimated 33 million U.S. adults have tried e-cigarettes, said University of Iowa researcher Dr. Wei Bao, the lead author. (Tanner, 5/15)

The Washington Post: Exploding Vape Pen Death: Man Dies After Pieces Strike His Head, Autopsy Says
A 38-year-old man in Florida was killed when his vape pen exploded, sending projectiles into his head and causing a small fire in his house, in what is believed to be one of the first deaths from an e-cigarette explosion. Tallmadge D’Elia was found May 5 in the burning bedroom of his family’s home in St. Petersburg, according to the Tampa Bay Times. An autopsy report released his week blamed a vape pen explosion for his death, according to local news media outlets. The cause of death was listed as “projectile wound of head” — the pen exploded into pieces, at least two of which were sent into his head, the report said — and he suffered burns on about 80 percent of his body. (Rosenberg, 5/16)

The Washington Post: More Men With Low-Risk Prostate Cancer Are Forgoing Aggressive Treatment
American doctors are successfully persuading increasing numbers of men with low-risk prostate cancer to reject immediate surgery and radiation in favor of surveillance, a trend that is sparing men's sexual health without increasing their risk of death. The latest evidence that more men are postponing aggressive therapy unless their symptoms worsen came in a large study published Tuesday that involved more than 125,000 veterans diagnosed with nonaggressive prostate cancer between 2005 and 2015. (McGinley, 5/15)

The New York Times: Broke Your Right Arm? Exercise Your Left. It May Help, Really.
If you sprain an ankle or break a wrist this summer and cannot use one of your limbs, the muscles there will weaken and shrink — unless you exercise those same muscles in your other limb. According to a fascinating new study, working out the muscles on one side of our bodies can keep the muscles on the other side strong and fit, even if we do not move them at all. The finding has implications for injury recovery and also underscores how capable and confounding our bodies can be. (Reynolds, 5/16)

NPR: Children Get Fewer Antibiotics
Children and adolescents are getting fewer prescription drugs than they did in years past, according to a study that looks at a cross-section of the American population. "The decrease in antibiotic use is really what's driving this overall decline in prescription medication use that we're seeing in children and adolescents," says Craig Hales, a preventive medicine physician at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics and lead author of a study published Tuesday in JAMA. (Harris, 5/15)

The New York Times: Yanny Or Laurel: Which Do You Hear? You’re Right
Three years ago, the internet melted down over the color of a dress. Now an audio file has friends, family members and office mates questioning one another’s hearing, and their own. Is the robot voice saying “Yanny” or “Laurel”? The clip picked up steam after a debate erupted on Reddit this week, and it has since been circulated widely on social media. (Salam, 5/15)

The New York Times: Scientists Made Snails Remember Something That Never Happened To Them
Transferring memories from one living thing to another sounds like the plot of an episode of “Black Mirror.” But it may be more realistic than it sounds — at least for snails. In a paper published Monday in the journal eNeuro, scientists at the University of California-Los Angeles reported that when they transferred molecules from the brain cells of trained snails to untrained snails, the animals behaved as if they remembered the trained snails’ experiences. (Greenwood, 5/15)

The Associated Press: Judge Tosses California Law Allowing Life-Ending Drugs
Betsy Davis threw herself a party before becoming one of the first people to use a California law allowing her to take her own life in 2016. Her sister and other advocates fear others won't have the same choice after a Riverside County judge threw out the law Tuesday because he said it was unconstitutionally approved by the Legislature. Superior Court Judge Daniel Ottolia ruled lawmakers illegally passed the law during a special session devoted to other topics, but he gave the state attorney general five days to appeal. (Thompson, 5/16)

Los Angeles Times: Riverside Judge Overturns California's Doctor-Assisted Suicide Law
In a statement emailed to The Times, California Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra said: "We strongly disagree with this ruling and the state is seeking expedited review in the Court of Appeal." California's law allows patients with less than six months to live to request end-of-life drugs from their doctors, a practice that has been allowed in Oregon for more than 20 years. Now, nearly 1 in 5 Americans live in a state where physician-assisted suicide is legal, according to advocacy group Compassion and Choices. (Karlamangla, 5/15)

Modern Healthcare: Judge Strikes Down California's Aid-In-Dying Law
It's likely Attorney General Xavier Becerra will appeal Ottolia's decision. It's also possible that Gov. Jerry Brown and the Democratic-controlled Legislature, which is in session through August, could move to re-pass the law in regular session to settle the procedural objections. Senate Majority Leader Bill Monning's office said Monning is talking with the Becerra's office about options to preserve the law. (Meyer, 5/15)

San Jose Mercury News: California's Right To Die Law Overturned By Judge
If the state is unsuccessful in defending the law, Sen. Bill Monning, D-Carmel, vowed to re-introduce the measure before the full legislature. “I’m disappointed and distressed. They were grasping for a reason,” said Monning. “There will always be a future option to reintroduce the same legislation – nothing prohibits us from doing that. But that’s not the option we hope for.” (Krieger, 5/15)

Sacramento Bee: California Assisted Death Law Court Ruling Q&A
Nearly two years after it took effect, California's controversial assisted death law is back in limbo. A judge in Riverside County on Tuesday overturned the law because of concerns about how it was passed by the Legislature. (Koseff, 5/16)

The Associated Press: For Chicago Teen Activists, Survival Is The No. 1 Goal
At his desk at North Lawndale College Prep High School, Gerald Smith keeps a small calendar that holds unimaginable grief. In its pages, the dean and student advocate writes the name of each student who's lost a family member, many of them to gun violence. And then he deploys the Peace Warriors — students who have dedicated themselves to easing the violence that pervades their world. (5/16)

The Associated Press: Maryland Bans 'Gay Conversion Therapy' For Minors
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan signed a bill into law on Tuesday to prohibit health professionals from practicing "gay conversion therapy" on minors, as a growing number of states and municipalities are banning it. Maryland is the 11th state to enact legislation against the practice of trying to alter a person's sexual orientation through psychological intervention. Supporters of the ban note the therapy is widely discredited by medical and mental health associations. The law will classify the practice as unprofessional conduct. (5/15)

Boston Globe: What Consumers Need To Know About The State’s New Health Care Website
State officials are launching a website that attempts to make health care costs a little easier for consumers to understand. The long-planned website, MassCompareCare.gov, is scheduled to go live Wednesday. It contains information about health care costs and quality, and includes guides to help patients ask the right questions about their care. (Dayal McCluskey, 5/16)

Georgia Health News: A Political Race That Has Big Implications For Health Care
In what’s shaping up as a pivotal race for Georgia’s next insurance commissioner, many of the prominent issues are related to health care coverage. Three Republicans and two Democrats are on the ballot in next Tuesday’s primaries, and the parties’ nominees will go on to face each other in November as they vie to succeed retiring Commissioner Ralph Hudgens. (Miller, 5/15)

Concord (N.H.) Monitor: N.H. Officials Say Reports Of Unlawful Restraint At Sununu Center Are ‘Unfounded And Irresponsible’
State officials rejected accusations that the Sununu Youth Services Center is rife with abuse and the staff illegally uses physical restraint against the children in their care, saying the center is committed to providing a safe environment for the state’s most at-risk youth. Attorney General Gordon MacDonald and Department of Health and Human Services Commissioner Jeffrey Meyers said reports of abuse at the state-run facility in Manchester are “unfounded and irresponsible” in a response released Tuesday. (Willingham, 5/16)

Los Angeles Times: For Years, A Doctor Was Accused Of Bad Behavior With Young Women. USC Let Him Continue Treating Students
For nearly 30 years, the University of Southern California's student health clinic had one full-time gynecologist: Dr. George Tyndall. Tall and garrulous, he treated tens of thousands of female students, many of them teenagers seeing a gynecologist for the first time. Few who lay down on Tyndall's exam table at the Engemann Student Health Center knew that he had been accused repeatedly of misconduct toward young patients. (Ryan, Hamilton and Pringle, 5/15)

Columbus Dispatch: Gov. Kasich Warns Ohio Legislators To Not 'Weasel' On Gun Reforms
Gov. John Kasich warned Republican legislators to not “weasel” on his package of gun-safety changes, which have received a chilly reception before the Ohio General Assembly. (Ludlow, 5/15)

The Associated Press: Governor Signs Bill Regarding Cancer Patients’ Fertility
The governor of Maryland has signed legislation requiring insurers to pay to freeze the eggs and sperm of people with cancer who undergo treatments that could diminish their chances of having children. The Baltimore Sun reports Gov. Larry Hogan signed the legislation Tuesday. The law requires insurers to pay for harvesting and freezing the eggs and sperm, but not the annual storage costs. (5/16)

The Wall Street Journal: Philadelphia’s Soda Tax Goes To Court: What You Need To Know
Should sodas and sugary drinks be subjected to a special tax? Philadelphia has become ground zero in the national debate over whether to tax sodas and other sugar-sweetened beverages. On Tuesday, Pennsylvania’s highest state court is set to hear a challenge by the American Beverage Association and others to the city’s soda tax, which went into effect in January 2017. (Armental, 5/15)

The Star Tribune: Minnesota GOP Calls For Crackdown On Child Care Assistance Fraud 
Minnesota Republicans said Tuesday they want to crack down on subsidized child-care providers who commit fraud, following a television news report that suggested illegally obtained funds may be going overseas to finance terrorist groups. State and federal officials said Tuesday that they've seen no evidence of a link between Minnesota day-care operators and overseas terrorist groups, but that they welcome any additional resources to investigate fraud against the state's child-care subsidy program. (Serres, 5/15)

Houston Chronicle: UT Physician Group Improperly Shared Patient Email Addresses 
A clinic owned by the physicians organization of the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston improperly sent out mass emails containing the email addresses of many of its patients. The Davis Clinic sent batches of emails, notification of a doctor leaving the clinic, to patients last week. There were 19 such emails, each of which made visible the email addresses of anywhere from 100 to 300 other people. (Ackerman, 5/15)

California Healthline: California Hospital Giant Sutter Health Faces Heavy Backlash On Prices
Cooking dinner one night in March, Mark Frizzell sliced his pinkie finger while peeling a butternut squash and couldn’t stop the bleeding. The 51-year-old businessman headed to the emergency room at Sutter Health’s California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco. Sutter charged $1,555 for the 10 minutes it treated him, including $55 for a gel bandage and $487 for a tetanus shot. “It was ridiculous,” he said. “Health insurance costs are through the roof because of things like this.” (Terhune, 5/15)

Los Angeles Times: Following Golden State Killer Suspect's Arrest, California Lawmakers Want Rape Kits Tested More Quickly
Less than a month after police arrested a man suspected of being the Golden State Killer — one of California’s most prolific serial rapists — state lawmakers in Sacramento on Tuesday said they want to ensure all sexual assault kits are counted and swiftly tested. Under a bill by Sen. Connie Leyva (D-Chino), law enforcement agencies would have to submit rape kits to crime labs within 20 days of their collection, and labs would have no more than 120 days to test them. Another bill by Assemblyman David Chiu (D-San Francisco) would require a statewide audit of all untested exams. (Ulloa, 5/15)

The Washington Post: Salmonella Outbreak: Egg Farm Had Rodent Infestation, FDA Says
A North Carolina egg farm that authorities say is responsible for an outbreak of salmonella illness that has sickened several people in nine states has had a heavy rodent infestation and failed to take actions to reverse it, according to an inspection report. Dozens of rodents, some alive and some dead, were found inside Rose Acre Farms’ hen houses in its North Carolina facility. Many, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration report says, were burrowing in manure piles. Insects also hovered around chicken feeds and throughout the farm. Employees were seen touching body parts and dirty surfaces while handling food. (Phillips, 5/15)

NPR: Flavored Tobacco, Vaping Juice Targeted By San Francisco Ballot Measure
San Francisco could become the first city in the nation to ban flavored tobacco products from all store shelves. The ban includes everything from candy-flavored e-cigarettes to conventional menthol smokes. City supervisors last year unanimously approved a ban on the products, but the tobacco industry funded a referendum, Proposition E, to put the issue before voters instead. San Francisco residents will decide in the June 5 election whether the ordinance goes into effect. (McClurg, 5/16)

Reuters: Competition Heats Up For Controversial A2 Milk Company
Stay-at-home mother Anna Wei wanted the best milk formula to feed her firstborn, so she chose the most expensive brand her money could buy: Platinum by a2 Milk Company Ltd. "I always felt that the higher the price, the better the quality," said 28-year-old Wei, who lives in Shanghai. Buyers like Wei have fanned a phenomenal success for New Zealand-based a2 Milk and its controversial milk powder that is marketed as easier to digest than conventional milk because it lacks the A1 caesin protein. (5/16)

Stat: Small Town Grapples With Growth Of The World’s Largest Insulin Maker
This small town of 20,000 might seem an unlikely place for the world’s largest maker of insulin to build a stockpile of drugs needed to fight a chronic disease affecting 30 million Americans. Yet Novo Nordisk is constructing a $1.8 billion plant here, to make the active pharmaceutical ingredients for an array of diabetes medicines. The largest project in Novo Nordisk’s history, the plant is rising across the street from a building where the Danish company has assembled and packaged its product for the past quarter century. It sits on the edge of a region known as the “diabetes belt” — a wide swath stretching from Louisiana up to West Virginia and over to North Carolina, where people are more likely to have type 2 diabetes. (Blau, 5/15)

The Hill: Defending The 'Middlemen' In The Battle On Drug Prices
Pharmacy benefit managers (PBM) — the “middlemen” in drug price negotiations — are under attack, and, for the past 15 years, Mark Merritt has been the point man in charge of defending them. Merritt, who recently underwent open-heart surgery, is stepping down as president and chief executive officer of the trade group Pharmaceutical Care Management Association (PCMA) at the end of the year, even as the PBM industry is smack in the middle of a drug pricing war involving drug companies, insurers and the Trump administration. (Weixel, 5/15)

The Washington Post: After Outcry, Drugmakers Decide Not To Triple The Price Of A Cancer Pill
Last week, two drug companies that jointly sell a blood-cancer drug made a rare decision: to not move forward with changes that would have effectively tripled the cost of a lifesaving medicine for some patients. Most patients take three capsules of Imbruvica a day, at an annual price of $148,000 — most of which is picked up by insurance. But just as early evidence began to suggest a lower dose might be effective, Janssen and Pharmacyclics announced they were discontinuing the old capsule and introducing once-a-day tablets in four different dosages. (Johnson, 5/15)

Stat: Azar Calls Out A Celgene Drug For Price Hikes That Are Hurting Medicare
In his speech on Monday on ways to combat high drug costs, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar was careful not to mention any one company by name when talking about some medicines that Medicare Part D must automatically cover. But it certainly appears that he was pointing a finger at Celgene. (Silverman, 5/15)

CNN Money: Check Out How Much Medicare Spends On Drugs
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services spent $174 billion on prescription medications in 2016, or 23% of its total budget, the agency reported Tuesday. That's up from $109 billion, or 17% of the budget, in 2012. The agency released the data in conjunction with its newly redesigned Drug Spending Dashboard, which contains a wide array of information on drug usage and costs in Medicare and Medicaid for 2016. (Luhby, 5/15)

Stat: Which Drug Makers' Medicines Are Racking Up Bigger And Bigger Bills For Medicare And Medicaid?
Medicare spending on each dose of Sanofi Genzyme’s Renvela has been ratcheting up by an annual growth rate of 21.6 percent for roughly the last five years. Nearly the same is true for Sanofi’s Lantus, Merck’s Zetia, and Amgen’s Enbrel — Medicare spending on all of them climbed by an annual rate of more than 18 percent between 2012 and 2016. Now the Trump administration is calling out the companies behind those increases as part of an effort to tout its updates to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services “drug pricing dashboard” and the data available there. It updated the dashboard Tuesday as part of its broader effort to put forth policies and changes that will help lower drug prices. (Mershon, 5/15)

Stat: Vermont Moves Closer To Creating A Wholesaler Program For Importing Drugs From Canada
The Trump administration may not support importing medicines from Canada, but that’s not stopping lawmakers in Vermont, who endorsed a bill that would make the state the first in the nation to designate wholesalers to buy drugs from across the border. The bill, which was passed last week by both the Vermont House and Senate, is now before Gov. Phil Scott, who has so far not indicated whether he will sign the legislation into law but has until this week to decide. We asked his office for comment and will pass along any reply. (Silverman, 5/15)

Bloomberg: Ex-Valeant Official Says He Suspected Secret Financial Stake
A former Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. executive told a jury how he became concerned that one of his senior directors had a secret financial interest in a mail-order pharmacy that did business with the drug company. Laizer Kornwasser, one the government’s star witnesses in the fraud and money-laundering trial of Gary Tanner and Andrew Davenport, the former head of Philidor Rx Services LLC, took the witness stand Monday in Manhattan federal court. He said Tanner wasn’t following through on his responsibility to find additional mail-order pharmacies with which Valeant could do business, suggesting he wanted to keep all of the business at Philidor. (Larson, 5/14)

CNN: Is Your Pharmacist Under A 'Gag Rule'?
Independent pharmacist Ira Katz has been serving the eclectic community of Little Five Points in Atlanta for 37 years. But it wasn't until Georgia passed a law last year banning "gag rules" that Katz could legally tell his patients they might save big bucks on their prescriptions if they paid cash or used a lower-priced generic. The gag rule was a clause in his contract with one of the pharmaceutical benefit managers, also known as PBMs, that manage most of our nation's prescription drug programs. (LaMotte, 5/11)

Stat: AbbVie And J&J Reverse Course On A Price Hike In Face Of Criticism
After a group of doctors raised a public fuss last month about a complicated change in pricing and dosing for a cancer medication, the manufacturers late last week suddenly scrapped plans to greatly increase the cost, according to a statement issued by one of the companies. The about-face is an unusual instance in which a drug maker — in this case, two drug makers — rolled back plans to boost pricing in the face of notable criticism. Typically, pharmaceutical companies try to ride out bad publicity, but the outcry came just as the White House made a push to lower drug prices. (Silverman, 5/14)

Dallas Morning News: How Some Dallas-Area Walgreens Are Helping Patients Manage Costly Prescriptions 
It’s one of 300 community specialty pharmacies Walgreens has opened in just a few U.S. cities, including Dallas, Austin and San Antonio. There are no rows of toilet paper. No aisles of Maybelline and L’Oreal. ...Unlike the company’s larger stores, these pharmacies dispense medications only to people suffering from complicated medical conditions that are hard to manage and costly to treat. Specialty pharmacies have traditionally been the realm of pharmacy benefit managers, the third-party administrators of prescription drug programs for health insurers. (Rice, 5/15)

The Star Tribune: Son's Death Pushes Minn. Mom Into Fight Over Rising Drug Prices 
When Alec Smith turned 26 last May and aged out of his parents’ health insurance, he discovered that he couldn’t afford coverage of his own. Within weeks, he was trying to ration his diabetes medication because he couldn’t afford a $1,300 refill. A month later, the young restaurant manager was dead. An autopsy found he suffered a critical shortage of insulin, a hormone that regulates blood sugar and energy in the body. Now, Smith’s mother is speaking out against the high and rising prices of prescription drugs and calling for legislation to prevent excessive price increases for essential medications. (Olson, 5/10)

The New York Times: What Trump Should Actually Do About The High Cost Of Drugs
A Big Mac costs $4.40 in Britain, a ticket to see the latest superhero movie is $10 in Spain, and an iPad Pro sells for about $800 in Switzerland — prices that do not differ that much from those in New York City. But if you’re suffering from ovarian cancer or rheumatoid arthritis, the prices in the United States for leading medicines are at least twice what those same drugs cost in those other nations. The fact that Americans pay more for their drugs has long spurred anger and questions about why we spend so much. Seniors crossing the border in buses to fill their drug prescriptions in Canada or Mexico is a perennial news story. (Thomas J. Bollyky, Aaron S. Kesselheim and Joshua M. Sharfstein, 5/14)

San Francisco Chronicle: Trump’s Drug Plan Shows He Isn’t Willing To Take On Big Pharma
Donald Trump promised to rein in drug prices. It was his only sensible campaign promise. But the plan he announced Friday does little but add another battering ram to his ongoing economic war against America’s allies. (Robert Reich, 5/15)

Bloomberg: How To Make A Dent In Crazy-High Drug Prices
There’s no good reason to pay a lot for prescription drugs that don’t work well. But that’s what lots of Americans are doing.Some drug prices far outweigh any reasonable measure of the drug’s benefit. This is frequently the case for new cancer therapies. For example, the cancer drug Erbitux costs about $10,000 per month and extends life by an average of about three months when used to treat patients with recurrent or metastatic squamous-cell carcinoma of the head and neck. And the launch price of new cancer drugs is going up 12 percent a year even though the drugs aren’t getting commensurately better. In one recent estimate, the cost of extending a cancer patient’s life by one year is increasing by $8,500 every year. (Austin Frakt, 5/11)

Los Angeles Times: Where Do Prescription Drugs Come From? Good Luck Answering That Question
Frances Richmond, chairwoman of the Department of Regulatory and Quality Sciences at USC's School of Pharmacy, told me that because all facets of the supply chain must meet strict FDA safety standards, it shouldn't matter to consumers where drugs or their ingredients originate. But she acknowledged that some drug companies probably don't want people knowing that 80% of active ingredients — yes, 80% — come from China and India. (David Lazarus, 5/15)

The Daily Caller: Trump's Missed Opportunity On Drug Pricing
President Trump last Friday unveiled a plan to, “Bring soaring drug prices back down to earth.” Acknowledging that the current system is broken, with drug prices beyond the reach of many patients, the President’s plan targets drug patents, pharmacy benefits managers, and drug pricing negotiated by foreign countries. Yet he misses one of the big elephants in the room, the fact that here in the US, Medicare is forbidden to negotiate what they pay for prescription drugs. Back in 2016, he was on the same page with Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, wanting a change in the 2003 law banning Medicare from negotiating drug prices. (Brian Joondeph, 5/16)

Bangor Daily News: Want To Lower Drug Prices? Let Medicare Negotiate.
The price of brand name drugs have increased nearly 300 percent since 2010. The price of one drug used to treat multiple sclerosis increased by more than 3,000 percent, a recent study found. Because of the high cost of prescription drugs, many Americans don’t take their medication as prescribed, which can worsen their symptoms and delay recovery. So, it is no surprise that drug prices are a top concern for many Americans. (5/15)

Forbes: '60 Minutes' Was Right About Huge Drug Prices, But Wrong About The Villain
Last Sunday, CBS’ “60 Minutes” covered a budget crisis in the small town of Rockford, Ill., sparked by an unexpected increase in health coverage for town employees. The problem: a surprise new bill for $500,000, the price for a year’s supply of one drug for two children. The town is scrambling to cut police and firefighting budgets to cover the cost. The company that makes this drug had the presence of mind to dodge an interview with correspondent Leslie Stahl. This deprived TV viewers of the image of suits stammering why they raised prices on children from $40 a vial to $40,000, or perhaps Stahl leading the sweating CEO on a tour of the town’s abandoned firehouse. Still, the villain of this story was clear: a greedy drug maker. (Leah Binder, 5/11)

The Washington Post: Trump’s Brutal Policies Target The Most Vulnerable Americans
We tend to associate the word “brutality” with physical violence, especially violence at the hands of the state. It calls to mind police shootings, torture and war. But there is another form of brutality that is less apparent to the naked eye — the brutality of policy. In recent weeks, the Trump administration has announced policy proposals that appear to serve little purpose other than cruelty. (Katrina vanden Heuvel, 5/15)

The New York Times: G.O.P. Insists Making Poor People Work Lifts Them Up. Where’s The Proof?
There’s something almost eerie about the unwavering nature of the Republican system of belief. The nationalists who propelled President Trump into office may appear locked in an existential battle with the party’s pro-trade globalists. In truth, the Republican Party is still driven by the two propositions that have guided it for decades: cutting government aid will free poor Americans to shake dependency and get ahead, and cutting taxes on the well-to-do will bring prosperity to all. (Eduardo Porter, 5/15)

USA Today: Health Care Is Not Democratic Or Republican And We Should Fix It Together
In Virginia, an insurer wants to hike rates by as much as 64%. In Maryland, it’s as much as 91%. And unfortunately, more double-digit increases in premiums for 2019 are expected to be announced over the coming weeks and months. It’s clear why this is happening — because President Trump and Republican leaders made it happen. Since day one, Trump and Republicans have put partisan politics and special interests ahead of patients in desperate attempts at fulfilling the Tea Party promise to "repeal Obamacare." (Sen. Patty Murray, 5/15)

USA Today: Unequal Heart Research And Treatment Is Killing Women
In the past year, Hollywood’s uncomfortable look in the mirror has shown a place where inequity is profound, sexism is rampant, and gender bias and the subjugation of women are the norm. Women have not been equals in the entertainment industry, and the reckoning is now. However, the passion for equity that I have carried throughout my life extends into the world of science and discovery, particularly when it comes to the inequitable research funding and treatment of cardiovascular disease in women. Just as women have been undervalued in Hollywood, we aren’t adequately represented in the lab, or in research, when it comes to heart health. Today in America, women are being sent to early graves because our country has failed to combat a disease that kills more of us annually than all forms of cancer combined. (Barbra Streisand, 5/15)

The Washington Post: The White House Looks Secretive And Uncaring About Americans’ Health
The public, media, and Congressional reaction to these numbers is going to be huge,” a White House staffer wrote in a newly revealed email, calling the release of a new Department of Health and Human Services study a “potential public relations nightmare.” After the White House forwarded the staffer’s email to the Environmental Protection Agency, which also oversees the chemical industry and consulted with HHS, the study was suppressed and remains unpublished. Meanwhile, communities across the country may be exposed to unhealthful levels of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, chemicals linked to thyroid conditions, weakened immune systems, developmental defects and other health problems. (5/15)

Austin American Statesman: McCain Shows Us The Power Of Coming To Terms With Dying
Sen. John McCain has not announced a decision to stop treatment for his brain tumor — but his public actions indicate that he has transitioned from “being sick” and hoping for a cure to “dying” and hoping for the best possible quality of life in the time remaining. (Susan Ducharme Hoben, 5/15)

The Hill: Not Only Do We Need To Support Veterans, But Their Caregivers, Too 
Joe Petrini is a hero. He faithfully served his country during the Vietnam War, where he suffered shrapnel wounds throughout his body. His injuries were so severe that he was treated for eight months in military hospitals before being medically retired. Joe’s frequent medical issues and chronic pain became a normal part of life for him and his wife, Diane. (Former Sen. Elizabeth Dole and Delphine Metcalf-Foster)

Stat: Peer Review Could Have Helped Short-Circuit The Theranos Scandal
Theranos had a product almost everyone could get behind: a revolutionary blood test that would allow individuals to quickly and easily access information about their health. Startups like Theranos rely on cutting-edge innovation, then leverage that innovation to attract investors. Now the company’s downfall is a signal to innovators, the public, and the media that we need more transparency and credibility built on peer-reviewed publications. (Kevin Hrusovsky, 5/16)

The Wall Street Journal: Vapin’ In The Boys’ Room
The sudden success of an e-cigarette called JUUL—pronounced “jewel”—is causing a backlash. Sales of JUUL, invented by two Stanford engineers, have exploded 30-fold since early 2016. JUUL doesn’t burn tobacco. It heats a nicotine-containing liquid held in replaceable pods, and, like other vaping devices, delivers nicotine far less dangerously than cigarettes. But instead of cheers for a blockbuster of American ingenuity that’s saving lives, JUUL has sparked a moral panic. A Harvard pediatrician likened teen use of JUUL to “bioterrorism . . . a massive public-health disaster.” Last week, Sen. Chuck Schumer demanded that the Food and Drug Administration douse the “fire of e-cig addiction among New York adolescents.”Everyone agrees that teens shouldn’t vape. But the consensus cannot end there, because there is no adult activity that some kids won’t do. (Sally Satel, 5/15)

Arizona Republic: Phoenix Should Vote On Medicare For All
Medicare for All would establish a single, public, universal health insurance system where everyone, regardless of their employment or immigration status, will have insurance. This means comprehensive health care that is free at the point of service, paid for not on the backs of the sick but through taxes on the rich: no fees, no copays and no deductibles. (Benjamin Fong, 5/15)

Los Angeles Times: Now Is Not The Time To Expand Medi-Cal To Undocumented Adults
Advocates of a single-payer healthcare system in California have struggled to come up with a realistic and feasible way to pay for it, so this year they're pushing for more incremental steps toward universal health insurance coverage. The most far-reaching of these would be to expand Medi-Cal, the joint federal and state insurance program for poor and disabled Californians, to cover low-income residents who are living in the country illegally. Now is not the time to take that step, however. (5/16)

The Hill: Virginia Should Think Twice About Joining The Medicaid Expansion Mess
Across the country, states like Ohio and Kentucky are trying to reel in their failed ObamaCare Medicaid expansions. But as those states are moving forward with enrollment freezes and work requirements to roll back expansion, Virginia’s governor and House leadership are moving backwards by trying to implement ObamaCare. Less than six months ago, the same Virginia House leadership decried Medicaid expansion, saying “free and guaranteed money from D.C. isn’t always free and guaranteed.” The facts on the ground have not changed. So why have they? If anything, the facts look even worse for expansion states, given that President Trump’s budget repeals and defunds ObamaCare expansion. (Christie Herrera, 5/15)

Los Angeles Times: Mandatory Armed Guards In California's K-12 Schools? No Thank You
According to David Ropeik, a Harvard scholar who studies risk, the chance of a child being shot and killed in school is far lower than the chance that he or she will have an accident on the way to or from school, catch a potentially fatal disease while in school, or suffer a potentially deadly injury playing sports at school. Of course that doesn't mean that school shootings shouldn't worry us, or that we shouldn't take serious steps to prevent them. But it does suggest that, despite the attention and news coverage they get, these events are relatively infrequent and not imminent at any given school — and that we should be tactical and thoughtful about the best way to prevent them. That's not the case with Assembly Bill 2067, which would mandate that an armed security officer be posted at every publicly funded school in California, including elementary schools and charter schools. The state would pick up the tab, estimated at $1 billion per year, according to the office of the bill's author, Assemblyman James Gallagher (R-Yuba City). (5/16)

San Jose Mercury News: Cost Panel Would Cripple Californians' Health Care
At a time when California is leading the nation by expanding health care coverage, our state’s elected leaders must work to help, not hurt, the progress we’ve made over the last decade. That’s why legislators should reject Assembly Bill 3087, which would lead to drastic cuts in health care services, eliminate thousands of health care jobs and harm patient access to care throughout the state. (Cal Knight, 5/15)

Sacramento Bee: What California Should Do About Record STD Rates
This week, the California Department of Public Health released a new report showing STD rates have hit an all-time high in California, with 300,000 cases of chlamydia, gonorrhea and early syphilis reported – a 45 percent increase compared to five years ago. ...With this year’s budget showing a projected surplus, it’s time for the governor and our elected lawmakers to make STD funding a priority in this year’s state budget, and provide the leadership and resources needed to get the job done. (Julie Rabinovitz, 5/15)