California Watch July 5, 2016 Campaign 2016 Health Law
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CALIFORNIA WATCH JULY 5, 2016 San Francisco Chronicle: $2 Billion to go to Housing Mentally Ill Homeless People Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill Friday allowing the state to use $2 billion in bond money to house and treat mentally ill Californians who are homeless. The bipartisan bill, called “No Place Like Home,” will send counties bond money from future Proposition 63 mental-health revenues to create affordable-housing programs for mentally ill homeless people. Prop. 63, which is also known as the Mental Health Services Act, passed in 2004 and has raised more than $13 billion through a 1 percent income tax on residents who earn more than $1 million a year. (Gutierrez, 7/1) California Healthline: Hospital Workers Union Pulls California Ballot Measure on Hospital Exec Pay A powerful hospital workers union has been forced to withdraw a proposed measure that would have capped the pay of California hospital executives, even though it had gathered more than enough signatures to qualify for the November ballot. (Ibarra, 7/1) KPCC: Parents, Advocacy Groups Sue to Overturn California’s New Vaccination Law As California’s new law requiring almost all children entering day care, kindergarten or 7th grade to be vaccinated against various diseases took effect Friday, opponents filed a federal lawsuit seeking to have the law overturned. The suit, filed by six parents and four advocacy groups in U.S. District Court in San Diego, argues that the law violates the California Constitution’s guarantee of a public education for all children. It also claims the law violates the rights to, among other things, equal protection and due process guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution. (Glickman, 7/1) CAMPAIGN 2016 The Washington Post: Democrats Release Draft of Platform, with Shifts to Left on Death Penalty, Abortion, Taxes The Democratic National Committee released the latest draft of its 2016 platform late Friday afternoon, a week after Sen. Bernie Sanders (Vt.) promised to fight "on the floor of the convention" if more progressive planks did not make it in. ... [On health care] there's more for Sanders here, in one half-sentence: "Americans should be able to access public coverage through Medicare or a public option." Sanders campaigned on a Medicare-for-all, single-payer health-care system, and this nods at that, without promising it in four years. ... For the first time, the 2016 Democratic platform says that the party will attempt to repeal the Hyde Amendment (which bars the use of federal funds for most kinds of abortion) and the Helms Amendment (which prevents foreign aid from being spent on abortion). (Weigel, 7/1) HEALTH LAW ISSUES AND IMPLEMENTATION Kaiser Health News: Young Adults Can Face Challenges to Health Enrollment The Obama administration is making a push to get young adults covered on the health insurance marketplaces, both for their own good and that of the marketplaces, which need healthy people to balance sicker ones in the risk pool. While experts applaud the beefed up outreach planned for the coming months, they point to several factors that may throw a wrench into enrollment plans for young people. (Andrews, 7/5) PUBLIC HEALTH AND EDUCATION The New York Times: Sex May Spread Zika Virus More Often than Researchers Suspected An outbreak of the Zika virus in the continental United States could begin any day now. But while there is plenty of discussion about mosquito bites, some researchers are beginning to worry more about the other known transmission route: sex. Intimate contact may account for more Zika infections than previously suspected, these experts say. The evidence is still emerging, and recent findings are hotly disputed. All experts agree that mosquitoes are the epidemic’s main driver. (McNeil, 7/2) The Washington Post: Uterine Cancer Risk Higher for Women with ‘Breast Cancer Gene’ Mutation Women with a mutation in the BRCA1 gene, which is already linked to breast and ovarian cancers, also face a higher risk of a deadly type of uterine cancer, according to a new study. Lead author Noah Kauff, director of Clinical Cancer Genetics at the Duke Cancer Institute, said the study was the first "conclusive link" between the gene defect and an increased likelihood of serous endometrial carcinoma, a type of cancer that affects the lining of the uterus and has a mortality rate of 50 percent. Many women with BRCA mutations have their breasts, ovaries and fallopian tubes removed to reduce their risk of developing cancer. (McGinley, 7/1) PHARMACEUTICALS Kaiser Health News: Medicaid, Private Insurers Begin to Lift Curbs on Pricey Hepatitis C Drugs After legal battles and lobbying efforts, tens of thousands of people with hepatitis C are gaining earlier access to expensive drugs that can cure this condition. States that limited access to the medications out of concern over sky-high prices have begun to lift those restrictions — many, under the threat of legal action. And commercial insurers such as Anthem Inc. and United HealthCare are doing the same. (Graham, 7/5) EDITORIALS AND OPINIONS The Washington Post: HHS Wins One Obamacare Case and Loses Another Friday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit released two opinions in Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) cases. In one case, the federal government prevailed. In the other, it did not. Both opinions were unanimous and (in my opinion) likely correct. The two cases are also further confirmation that Obamacare litigation is far from over. To the contrary, for reasons I explained here, the PPACA created a perfect storm for ongoing litigation. (Jonathan H. Adler, 7/1) DHNR is a daily compilation of news stories from GCHP's Communications Department. Certain news organizations are protected via a paywall requiring the purchase of a subscription to view their content. CALIFORNIA WATCH JULY 6, 2016 California Healthline: Providence St. Joseph Health System Merger Creates $100 Million Mental Health Initiative The plan is to create an Institute for Mental Health and Wellness, which will earmark a one-time initial amount of $30 million for California alone. The money is to be used for mental health and addiction counseling and research and treatment for child mental health as well as depression, psychotic disorders and other conditions, according to the California Attorney General’s office. The other states that will participate in the mental health initiative -- Montana, New Mexico, Oregon, Texas and Washington -- will receive the remaining $70 million. (Ibarra, 7/6) ADMINISTRATION NEWS Sacramento Bee: More Opioid Abusers Now Can Get Medication Help More Americans will now have access to a drug that could help treat their opioid addiction, Sylvia Burwell, U.S. secretary of health and human services, announced Tuesday, even as she pushed for Congress to approve $1.1 billion targeted at the opioid epidemic. The drug, called buprenorphine, is one of three medications that the FDA has approved for treating addictions to the powerful painkillers. Health care providers who prescribe the drug now must cap the number of patients treated at 100. The new rule, effective Aug. 5, raises that patient cap to 275. (Mueller, 7/5) PUBLIC HEALTH AND EDUCATION Kaiser Health News: Unintended Consequence: Blood Banks Could Feel the Squeeze from Zika Advisories Enhancing mosquito control. Encouraging safe sex. Advising people to minimize travel to infected areas. As public health officials hustle to implement strategies like these to undermine the threat of the Zika virus, one such tactic could exacerbate a different health concern: maintaining the nation’s supply of donated blood. The FDA is encouraging blood banks to turn away potential donors who might be at risk. Specifically, people who have traveled to a country where the disease is being spread, or had sex with someone else who did, should not donate for four weeks. (Luthra, 7/6) The Hill: NIH to Study Zika in Olympic Athletes U.S. researchers are launching a study of hundreds of American Olympic athletes and staffers this summer to learn more about the effects of the Zika virus, which has plagued South America. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced Tuesday it is funding a study to determine what puts people at risk for infection and how long individuals can carry the virus. (Ferris, 7/5) PHARMACEUTICALS The Washington Post: Pfizer Agrees to Truth in Opioid Marketing Pfizer, the world’s second- largest drug company, has agreed to a written code of conduct for the marketing of opioids that some officials hope will set a standard for manufacturers of narcotics and help curb the use of the addictive painkillers. Though Pfizer does not sell many opioids compared with other industry leaders, its action sets it apart from companies that have been accused of fueling an epidemic of opioid misuse through aggressive marketing of their products. (Bernstein, 7/5) EDITORIALS AND OPINIONS STAT: To Manage Chronic Pain, Use the Whole Toolkit, Not Just Opioids For people in pain, opioids are just one leg of a chair. The other three legs — which are often missing from the debate on opioid addiction — can support equal weight if the right medical expertise and infrastructure are in place. The American Society of Anesthesiologists calls this approach multimodal analgesia. It’s the foundation for my work at Stanford Medical Center and the affiliated VA Palo Alto Health Care System, and for other pain management specialists around the country. It is also part of legislation to be reviewed tomorrow by the House and Senate Opioid Conference Committee. (Michael Leong, 7/5) DHNR is a daily compilation of news stories from GCHP's Communications Department. Certain news organizations are protected via a paywall requiring the purchase of a subscription to view their content.