Weekly Edition June 28, 2019

Must-Reads Of The Week From Brianna Labuskes
By Brianna Labuskes Newsletter editor Brianna Labuskes wades through hundreds of health care policy stories each week, so you don't have to.

Health Care Gets Heated On Night 2 Of The Democratic Presidential Debate
By Shefali Luthra Though the candidates tended to agree on the end goal of universal coverage, differences emerged over how to get there. 

‘Medicare For All’ Emerges As Early Divide In First Democratic Debate
By Shefali Luthra and Jon Greenberg, PolitiFact On the first of the Democrat’s two-night debate, only New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren offered full support for a single-payer system that would banish private health insurance.

Universal Health Care For New Yorkers? Not Exactly
By Emmarie Huetteman Despite what New York Mayor Bill de Blasio claimed during the first night of the presidential debates, universal health care in the Big Apple is still in the seeding stage.

Delaney’s Debate Claim That ‘Medicare For All’ Will Shutter Hospitals Goes Overboard
By Shefali Luthra At the first Democratic presidential primary debate, former U.S. lawmaker John Delaney outlined his opposition to “Medicare for All” by claiming it would prove fatal for hospitals. It’s really not that simple.

Fuzzy Math Fuels Sanders’ Claim That Cost Barriers To Health Care Kill 30,000 A Year
By Shefali Luthra There’s a lack of confidence in the number.

Pelosi Aims For Feds To Negotiate Drug Prices, Even For Private Insurers
By Emmarie Huetteman A draft plan spearheaded by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi would allow the federal government for the first time to negotiate prices for 250 drugs for Medicare and apply those prices to all payers, including employers and insurers.

Trump Has Blessed States’ Exploration Of Importing Drugs. Will It Catch On?
By Phil Galewitz Colorado, Florida and Vermont — with the support of President Donald Trump — are exploring plans to bring drugs across the border from Canada to help lower costs.

How Black Pharmacists Are Closing The Cultural Gap In Health Care
By Cara Anthony Independent black-owned pharmacies fill a void for African American patients looking for care that’s sensitive to their heritage, beliefs and values.

Non-English Speakers Face Health Setback If Trump Loosens Language Rules
By Carmen Heredia Rodriguez A rule proposed by the Trump administration would leave patients with limited English proficiency with fewer guarantees of a written notice that free translation services are available. It also would no longer require directions on how patients can report discrimination they experience in a medical setting.

In Secret, Seniors Discuss ‘Rational Suicide’
By Melissa Bailey Running counter to the efforts of suicide prevention experts and many religious and social norms, some seniors are quietly exploring the option of turning to suicide when they feel they've lived long enough.

More Seniors Are Dying In Falls. Doctors Could Do More To Reduce The Risk.
By Judith Graham Doctors should assess older adults for the risk of falling, come up with individualized plans and refer seniors to physical therapists, occupational therapists and evidence-based programs.

Trump Administration Seeks More Health Care Cost Details For Consumers
By Julie Appleby President Donald Trump ordered the federal government to help consumers benefit from gaining fuller estimates about their health care costs. But whether it will be a game changer depends on the details.

Senate Panel Makes Surprisingly Fast Work Of ‘Surprise Medical Bills’ Package
By Rachel Bluth The measure also includes a range of provisions designed to address health care costs.

KHN’s ‘What The Health?’: Dems Debate Health Care
Democratic presidential candidates disagreed on how to fix health care in their first debate Wednesday, although they all called for boosting insurance coverage and lowering prices. Meanwhile, the Trump administration is keeping health care in the news, too, with a new plan to make medical prices more available to the public. Stephanie Armour of The Wall Street Journal, Rebecca Adams of CQ Roll Call and Anna Edney of Bloomberg News join KHN’s Julie Rovner to discuss this, plus the latest in news about bipartisan progress on catch-all legislation to address “surprise” medical bills. Plus, Rovner interviews NPR’s Jon Hamilton about the latest KHN-NPR “Bill of the Month” installment.

‘An Arm And A Leg’: Why Are Drug Prices So Random? Meet Mr. PBM
By Dan Weissmann Beware at the pharmacy counter: Your insurance company could be in cahoots with a pharmacy benefit manager — and the negotiations that go on between them are trade secrets.

KHN’s ‘What The Health’: Politics Heading Into 2020: Live From Aspen!
How big an issue will health really be in the 2020 election? Will the Republicans find their political footing on the issue? In this episode of KHN’s “What the Health?” Julie Rovner of Kaiser Health News, Joanne Kenen of Politico and Margot Sanger-Katz of The New York Times report from the Aspen Ideas: Health festival in Aspen, Colo. Joining them are Chris Jennings, who advised Democratic Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama on health policy, and Lanhee Chen, who advised GOP presidential candidates Mitt Romney and Marco Rubio.

A Million Californians Don’t Have Clean Drinking Water. Where Do They Live?
By Harriet Blair Rowan More than 10% of residents in 12 California counties don’t have safe drinking water, according to a California Healthline analysis of state water data. State lawmakers have pledged $130 million a year to help bring clean drinking water to Californians who need it.

San Francisco To Ban Sales Of E-Cigarettes
By Laura Klivans, KQED The nation's biggest producer of e-cigarettes is based in San Francisco, yet the city is on the verge of banning sales of the devices.

Meth In The Morning, Heroin At Night: Inside The Seesaw Struggle of Dual Addiction
By April Dembosky, KQED Many users now mix opioids with stimulants like meth and cocaine — and researchers believe opioids kicked off this new stimulant wave.

Five Things We Found In The FDA’s Hidden Device Database
By Sydney Lupkin The Food and Drug Administration released two decades of previously hidden data containing millions of injuries or malfunctions by medical devices. Here’s what we’ve learned so far.

As The Economy Surges, A Dramatic Drop In Workers On Disability
By Phillip Reese Experts credit the lowest U.S. unemployment rate in 50 years, along with a more flexible work culture and tighter oversight of who qualifies for federal disability benefits. 

Early Abortion Bans: Which States Have Passed Them?
By Mara Gordon, NPR News and Alyson Hurt, NPR News So far in 2019, nine states have passed laws to outlaw abortion or forbid it past a certain point in pregnancy. None of these laws are in effect, and many are being litigated in the courts.

New Budget Boosts Health Coverage For Low-Income Californians
By Ana B. Ibarra California lawmakers spent big on Medi-Cal in the 2019-20 state budget, voting to cover more older residents and people with disabilities, restore benefits cut during the recession and open the program to eligible young adults who are in the country illegally. 

The Values Of Health Care
Julie Rovner, the chief Washington correspondent for Kaiser Health News, joins Margot Sanger-Katz of The New York Times, Joanne Kenen of Politico and Alan Weil of Health Affairs at the Aspen Ideas: Health festival to discuss how consumers’ values impact the politics surrounding the national debate on health care.