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Chuck Schumer and Senate Democrats will pursue a series of votes in the coming weeks to roll back some of President Donald Trump’s regulations on health care, taxes and the environment. ... Senate Democrats will also force votes on rolling back the administration’s greenlighting skimpier health care plans that do not meet the standards of the Affordable Care Act. They will also hit back at regulations preventing workarounds to part of the 2017 tax cut law, which put a $10,000 ceiling on the federal tax deduction for state and local taxes, a limit that’s largely affected taxpayers in New York, New Jersey and California, along with a few other states. (Everett and Adragna, 10/10)

More states are taking control of their health insurance marketplaces to take advantage of cost savings, increase their autonomy, and support wide-ranging health reform efforts, according to a new report Thursday. Several states are planning or mulling a move from HealthCare.gov, a federal health insurance marketplace established under the Affordable Care Act to help individuals find coverage, to state-run platforms. Maine, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Oregon are among the states thinking about making the switch. (Brady, 10/10)

People who buy health insurance on their own in Wisconsin will have more choices next year on the marketplaces set up through the Affordable Care Act, according to the state Office of the Commissioner of Insurance. The increase is a sign that the market for health insurance sold directly to individuals and families is stabilizing after years of turmoil. (Boulton, 10/10)

Patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease who were enrolled in private high-deductible health plans more frequently reported putting off or skipping care and ending up in the hospital or emergency department than patients without high deductibles, according to a new study. Those with high deductibles were also more likely to report struggling to pay monthly bills and report family out-of-pocket healthcare costs that exceeded $5,000 in a year, Harvard Medical School researchers wrote in the study published Thursday in the Annals of the American Thoracic Society. (Livingston, 10/10)

Protesters interrupted the CNN LGBTQ town hall on Thursday to highlight the plight of black transgender women, at one point taking the mic from a questioner. Advocates tracked the deaths of at least 26 transgender people in the US in 2018, according to the Human Rights Campaign. In 2019, at least 19 transgender people have been fatally shot or killed, according to HRC. (Sullivan, 10/10)

Addressing an LGBTQ community fearful that their gains in equality are slipping, Democratic presidential candidates on Thursday promised an aggressive agenda to end workplace discrimination, improve health care and ensure protections for people who face threats, or worse, because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. At a televised forum in downtown Los Angeles, rivals for the party's nomination to challenge President Donald Trump took turns criticizing the Republican administration and detailing personal stories to underline their points before an audience of LGBTQ members, activists and supporters. (Blood, 10/10)

In back-to-back appearances at a CNN town hall in Los Angeles, the Democrats sketched out similar agendas on LGBTQ issues. One after another, they vowed to reverse President Trump’s ban on transgender people serving in the military and to outlaw discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. The most warmly received candidate was Pete Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Ind., who spoke at the last primary debate about his decision to publicly come out as gay soon after returning from war. (Finnegan, 10/10)

Audience members interrupted a CNN LGBTQ town hall on Thursday night multiple times, raising banners and calling attention to violence against transgender women of color. They first interrupted Pete Buttigieg’s opening answer, walking to the front of the room just as the South Bend, Indiana, mayor and Democratic presidential candidate was beginning to answer a question. They were holding up a transgender pride flag with the words "we are dying" written on it, shouting “Trans people are dying!” and "Do something!" (Behrmann, 10/10)

After they had quieted down, Mr. Buttigieg turned to them, saying, “I do want to acknowledge what these demonstrators were speaking about, which is the epidemic of violence against black trans women in this country right now.” He continued, “And I believe or would like to believe that everybody here is committed to ending that epidemic, and that does include lifting up its visibility and speaking to it.” Another member of the audience interrupted Senator Kamala Harris of California, and while shouting, asked, “How do we get those men to stop killing trans women of color? We are hunted.” “I know,” Ms. Harris said, addressing the questioner, “I know.” (Medina, 10/10)

Buttigieg also said he’s mindful of the fact that his experience as a gay white man has been different than that of a "black gay woman that I also do not understand." (Rodriguez, Cook and Gomez, 10/11)

Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren was met with loud applause at CNN's LGBTQ Town Hall in Los Angeles on Thursday when she joked about a potential faith-based argument against same-sex marriages. Morgan Cox, chair of the Human Rights Campaign Board of Directors, asked the Massachusetts senator how she would respond if an "old-fashioned" supporter told her that they believe marriage is between one man and one woman. "I'm going to assume it is a guy who said that," Warren started. "And I'm going to say, 'Well, then just marry one woman. I'm cool with that.'" She then paused and shrugged before finishing her joke -- "Assuming you can find one" -- with a deadpan delivery that sent the crowd into loud applause. (Iyer, 10/11)

Asked what [Warren] would do to ensure passage of the Equality Act in the Senate, where Republicans currently hold the majority, Warren stressed that voters have to elect more Democrats into the upper chamber because LGBTQ protections are a priority for the Democratic Party and she wants to send a message to her GOP colleagues. “We believe that equal means equal everywhere,” Warren said of Democrats. “I also say it because I want our Republican friends to hear that in the United States Senate. I want them to know that people vote based on LGBTQ issues. So I’m willing to continue to push Mitch McConnell right now, but my No. 1 goal is to make sure that he is not the majority leader come January 2021.” (McCaskill, 10/11)

Judy Shepard, one of the nation's foremost LGBTQ rights figures, was on hand for CNN's town hall Thursday night and asked former Vice President Joe Biden how he would reduce hate crimes against LGBTQ and marginalized communities. Shepard is the mother of Matthew Shepard, the gay 21-year-old University of Wyoming student whose 1998 murder is one of the nation's highest-profile hate crimes against LGBTQ people. ... Biden -- like other Democrats -- stressed the importance of passing the Equality Act, saying it would come "first and foremost." (Bradner, Merica, Krieg, Reston and Rocha, 10/11)

Former Rep. Beto O'Rourke of Texas said on Thursday that conversion therapy "should be illegal" and compared the widely discredited practice that seeks to change the sexual orientation of gays, lesbians and bisexuals to torture. "As president, we will seek to outlaw it everywhere in this country," the Democratic candidate said Thursday at an LGBTQ town hall hosted by CNN and the Human Rights Campaign Foundation. "In my opinion, this is tantamount to torture. Torture that we're visiting on children who are absolutely defenseless." (Merica and Sullivan, 10/10)

2020 Democratic presidential candidate Cory Booker (D-NJ) says he has had to deal with people "using religion as a justification for discrimination" all of his life, and goes on to cite a verse in the Bible to support his idea that religion and LGBTQ rights can coexist. (10/11)

Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders said Thursday he’ll make his medical records public at the “appropriate time.” “People do have a right to know about the health of a senator and someone running for president,” Sanders told CNN’s Sanjay Gupta in a live interview at his Burlington, Vt. home. “At the appropriate time we'll make all the medical records public for you or anyone else who wants to see them.” (Semones, 10/10)

Describing the heart attack itself, Sanders recalled feeling discomfort during the Las Vegas event and "sweating profusely" before visiting an urgent care clinic, which referred him immediately to the hospital. He traveled there by ambulance. He also again expressed regret, as he did a few days ago, about not being more sensitive to earlier symptoms. "I should've paid more attention to some of the symptoms that were occurring. You know, when you do four rallies a day and you run all over the country, you get tired. Everybody would get tired. But I was more tired than I usually have been, had more trouble sleeping than ordinarily," Sanders said. "Occasionally I'd be up there at the podium and I'd feel a little bit unsteady. You know, one time I was just lifting, literally, holding the mic up to my arm and my arm hurt. Up to my mouth and my arm hurt. I should've paid more attention to those symptoms. So I hope that people learn from my mistake." (Krieg and Christensen, 10/10)

Sanders said he and his staff headed to an Urgent Care in Las Vegas after he experienced pain in his arm before he was quickly diagnosed with having a heart attack. The senator said he then underwent a 45 minute procedure at Desert Springs Hospital. Sanders told Gupta that his doctors informed him that he was "on the road to a full recovery." (Manchester, 10/10)

A former senior adviser in the Obama administration called on the media to give Sen. Bernie Sanders some “leeway” amid criticism that the independent Vermont lawmaker's presidential campaign wasn’t transparent about his heart attack last week. “I’m rarely a Sen. Sanders defender, but I think he can be given some leeway here,” Stephen Cobb, who also served as a Virginia deputy attorney general, told Hill.TV. “And, yes, they’re trying to figure out what the campaign looks like going forward.” (Bonn, 10/10)

2020 Democratic candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders sits down with CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta to talk about his recovery and health after suffering from a heart attack. (10/10)

The Trump administration has approved states’ plans to impose work requirements on people who get Medicaid even though estimated implementation costs are in the hundreds of millions of dollars, a federal oversight report said Thursday. The Government Accountability Office said in the report that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services allowed states to add work requirements without requiring projections on the administrative costs, which is inconsistent with federal control standards. The administrative costs of the programs aren’t transparent to the public, based on the report, and aren’t included in calculations ensuring they don’t cause additional federal spending. (Armour, 10/10)

The White House on Thursday announced a new effort aimed at reining in spending at federal agencies by requiring them to offset administrative actions that boost mandatory spending with cuts elsewhere. The order, which President Trump signed Thursday, would apply to any agency actions not required by law, including new rules, guidance or program notices. If an agency head determines such action would affect mandatory spending on expenses such as Social Security they would have to submit a proposal to the Office of Management and Budget “to comparably reduce mandatory spending,” according to the order. (Davidson and Restuccia, 10/10)

The Trump administration's new public charge rule, which makes it more difficult for immigrants to get green cards if it looks like they might need public assistance, is set to go into effect on Oct. 15. Multiple groups, including several states and immigrants' rights advocates, are in court trying to delay the rule and ultimately block it. But there's already widespread confusion over how the rule would work, leading many immigrants to drop benefits unnecessarily. (Fessler, 10/11)

The Trump administration on Thursday proposed new regulations on lead and copper in drinking water, updating a nearly 30-year-old rule that may have contributed to the lead-tainted water crisis in Flint, Mich., that began in 2015. The draft plan, announced by the Environmental Protection Agency administrator, Andrew Wheeler, at a news conference in Green Bay, Wis., includes some provisions designed to strengthen oversight of lead in drinking water. But it skips a pricey safety proposal advocated by public health groups and water utilities: the immediate replacement of six million lead pipes that connect homes to main water pipes. The proposed new rule would also more than double the amount of time allotted to replace lead pipes in water systems that contain high levels of lead. (Davenport, 10/10)

Contrary to regulatory rollbacks in many other environmental areas, the administration has called dealing with lead contamination in drinking water a priority. Communities and families in Flint, Michigan, Newark, New Jersey, and elsewhere have had to grapple with high levels of lead in tap water and with regulatory failures dealing with the health threat. Lead in drinking water has been linked to developmental delays in children and can damage the brain, red blood cells and kidneys. It is most often caused by lead service lines — pipes connecting a home to a water main — or lead fixtures in a home or school. (Knickmeyer, 10/10)

The EPA’s revamped rule, which has been in the works since 2010, is meant to provide what the agency called a “proactive and holistic approach” to more reliably identify elevated lead levels across 68,000 public water systems and to force utilities to tackle problems faster. EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler called the proposal “a major milestone” in a news conference Thursday afternoon in Wisconsin. (Dennis, 10/10)

In communities that exceed the federal action level of 15 parts per billion of lead in water, utilities would have to replace a minimum of 3% of lead service lines annually, down from a requirement of 7%. That will give utilities about 33 years to replace lead pipes in their systems, up from a current pace of about 13 years, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council, which represents residents and community groups against Flint, Mich., over its lead crisis from 2014 and 2015. (Puko, 10/10)

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy proposed a $500 million bond initiative to replace aging water infrastructure as part of a statewide plan to protect residents from potential lead contamination. The governor called on lawmakers to pass legislation that would allow residents to vote on the bond package in a 2020 ballot initiative. Mr. Murphy, a Democrat, also said he wants to replace all of the state’s lead service lines, which can leach lead into drinking water, over the next decade. (De Avila, 10/10)

Most federal retirees will receive an inflation adjustment to their monthly annuities of 1.6 percent in January, in line with the boost of most recent years but below the increase paid at the start of this year. The same cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) will apply to Social Security and military retirement benefits. The figure reflects a 12-month measure of inflation through September announced Thursday. (Yoder, 10/10)

The annual COLA is based on the Consumer Price Index for working-age residents of urban areas. But it’s widely accepted that this figure fails to account for seniors’ higher spending on health care and housing, which are experiencing significant inflation. Changing that would require an act of Congress. (Ben-Achour, 10/10)

Over the past decade, COLAs have averaged 1.4%, less than half the 3% average the previous decade, according to the Senior Citizens League. Since low COLAs have a cumulative effect over time, Social Security benefits are about 17.5% lower today than if inflation had averaged a more typical 3% over the same period, Johnson says. “The Social Security recipients tell us their standard of living has declined,” Johnson says, noting big-ticket costs for retirees, such as health care and homeowners insurance, have risen sharply. (Davidson, 10/10)

Schiavone points to increased health care premiums and copays, along with other kinds of insurance costs, as the main culprits. He expects that part of his adjustment for 2020 will be eaten up by an increase in Medicare's "Part B" premium for outpatient care, which hasn't been announced yet. Democrats are working to convince older people they have their backs on Social Security. Voters age 65 and older went 53% for Donald Trump and 44% for Hillary Clinton in 2016, according to a Pew Research Center analysis. Now, Democrats are aiming to recapture older voters. (10/10)

Legislation advertised as fixing the Social Security trust fund’s long-term shortfall would only keep the fund’s balance above zero until 2036, according to a new analysis by the Congressional Budget Office, which assumes a key modification will be made to the bill. The analysis is the latest in competing estimates made by the CBO and the Social Security Administration regarding Rep. John B. Larson’s Social Security overhaul legislation (HR 860). Currently, the Social Security Administration estimates the trust fund will become insolvent in 2034 if no action is taken, while CBO estimates exhaustion would come in 2032. Both agencies say that once the trust fund hits zero, benefits will have to be cut by 20 percent or more. (Sword, 10/10)

Six weeks after it sparked a national wave of protest by unveiling a revamped drug insurance website that omitted a tool used by millions, the federal agency that runs Medicare has restored its total-cost calculator to help seniors find the cheapest plans. The calculator has long been the most popular feature of an online tool called Medicare Plan Finder. (Weisman, 10/10)

U.S. health officials again warned doctors Thursday against abandoning chronic pain patients by abruptly stopping their opioid prescriptions. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services instead urged doctors to share such decisions with patients. The agency published steps for doctors in a six-page guide and an editorial in the Journal of the American Medical Association. (Johnson, 10/10)

After more than 300 medical providers, pharmacists, patient advocates and others emphasized these concerns in a letter to the C.D.C. earlier this year, the agency put out a clarifying statement saying the guidelines did not “support abrupt tapering or sudden discontinuation of opioids,” and warning doctors not to misapply them. The new tapering guide goes deeper, detailing the potential harms to patients who abruptly stop taking opioids and laying out factors to consider and steps to take before starting a taper. It includes several examples of tapering protocols. (Goodnough, 10/10)

"It must be done slowly and carefully," says Adm. Brett P. Giroir, MD, assistant secretary for health for HHS. "If opioids are going to be reduced in a chronic patient it really needs to be done in a patient-centered, compassionate, guided way." This is a course correction of sorts. In 2016, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued prescribing guidelines. Those highlighted the risks of addiction and overdose and encouraged providers to lower doses when possible. In response, many doctors began to limit their pain pill prescriptions, and in some cases cut patients off. (Stone and Aubrey, 10/10)

Millions of people in the United States — an estimated 3 to 4 percent of the adult population — take opioids daily. About 2 million people have been diagnosed with prescription opioid use disorder, according to HHS. There is a consensus in the medical community that these painkillers have been overprescribed and that many patients would have better long-term health outcomes if they cut back on their dosages and took advantage of other types of treatment, ranging from physical therapy to nonnarcotic painkillers. (Achenbach, 10/10)

HHS' assistant secretary for health Dr. Brett Giroir urged clinicians to collaborate with patients on deciding how fast they reduce or stop their opioid therapies. "We know that it is critical that clinicians manage acute and chronic pain in an individualized, patient-centered way," Giroir said. (Johnson, 10/10)

The anxiety around prescribing built in response to the opioid crisis, which drove more than 47,000 fatal overdoses in 2017 alone. The crisis was caused in part by some clinicians overprescribing the drugs, leading to cases of addiction in patients and a source of pills that were diverted. Prescribing levels have dropped since 2012, and some advocates have warned that the fear around opioids has left some patients unable to get them. (Joseph, 10/10)

How much members of the Sackler family should be held accountable for the role their company, Purdue Pharma, played in the nation's opioid crisis will be at the center of a hearing Friday in federal bankruptcy court. State attorneys general are evenly divided over whether to accept terms offered by Purdue to settle some 2,600 claims against it. About half of them say the proposed deal is too lenient to family members who siphoned billions out of their privately held company and stashed much of it overseas. (Mulvihill, 10/11)

An appellate court on Thursday rejected a last-ditch request by Ohio to halt a landmark trial on whether drug companies are responsible for the opioid epidemic, ruling the bid did not meet the strict test for such an extraordinary move. ... Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, supported by a number of other states, had filed the first request to postpone or dismiss the federal case,. arguing the cities and counties suing drug companies have usurped state authority. Opening arguments in the trial are scheduled for Oct. 21. (Bernstein, 10/10)

A federal appeals court on Thursday cleared the way for a landmark trial over the nation's opioid crisis, rejecting a bid by eight drug retailers and distributors to disqualify the judge, and a request by Ohio and other U.S. states to delay an Oct. 21 trial. The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati said U.S. District Judge Dan Polster, who oversees nationwide opioid litigation, had not created an appearance of bias against the drug industry through his rulings, public statements, and efforts to encourage settlements. (Stempel, 10/10)

A U.S. bankruptcy judge on Thursday urged parties that will benefit from a proposed settlement with OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma LP to focus on addressing the opioid addiction crisis and avoid battling over the deal's billions of dollars. The outline of a proposed settlement that Purdue values at more than $10 billion was filed in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in White Plains, New York on Tuesday. (Hals, 10/10)

Dad was dying, the doctor told James Allen’s family members as they clustered by his hospital bed. Mr. Allen’s family was stunned. He had suffered a heart attack and was on a ventilator in the hushed intensive care unit of Mount Carmel West, a Catholic hospital in a working-class corner of Columbus. But Mr. Allen, 80, had been stabilized, his family said. He could squeeze his son’s hand. His family still believed he would return home to his bedridden wife and his backyard tomatoes. (Healy, Farr, Feiger and Duffy, 10/11)

The head of the main pharmaceutical industry lobbying group on Thursday warned that a bill to lower drug prices from Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) would have a “devastating” effect on the industry and weaken its ability to develop new treatments. The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) is one of the most powerful groups in Washington, and its CEO, Steve Ubl, outlined on Thursday the arguments the group is making as it seeks to ward off a push from the House, Senate and Trump administration to crack down on its prices. (Sullivan, 10/10)

The head of the drug industry’s most powerful lobbying group said he is open to a modest deal on legislation to lower prices — even as he warned that the sweeping House Democrats’ bill would cast a “nuclear winter” on drug innovation. Stephen Ubl, president and CEO of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, told reporters Thursday that he was working with lawmakers to develop a “balanced package” of bills that includes changes for drug manufacturers. Ubl said he has worked to engage on “outlier practices” and is no longer shying away from “issues that have divided the industry in the past.” (Clason, 10/10)

Venture capital drives biotech. Early investments power the huge capital needs and sustain the far-longer-than-normal development timelines that drug development requires. Venture capital dollars brought about new treatments like Yescarta, one of the first FDA-approved cell therapies for cancer, and even major biotech companies like Genentech. It’s easy to imagine those piles of cash are coming from billionaires’ bank vaults or some arcane Wall Street magic. But more often than not, those millions are coming from people with jobs that don’t bring them anywhere near a lab bench. (Sheridan, 10/11)

U.S. health officials are preparing to release new guidance for doctors stressing the need to ask every patient with an apparent respiratory infection about their vaping history. The updated guidance will also advise physicians on how to diagnose and manage patients who may have both a lung infection and a vaping injury. (Steenhuysen, 10/10)

U.S. health officials on Thursday reported 26 deaths and 1,299 confirmed and probable cases so far from a mysterious respiratory illness tied to vaping. Last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported 1,080 cases and 18 deaths from the illness. As of Oct. 8, confirmed deaths were reported from 21 states, including one each from California, Connecticut, Georgia, Massachusetts, Michigan, New York, Texas and Pennsylvania. (10/10)

The vaping patients suffered injuries to their lungs that some researchers have compared with the mustard-gas exposures that damaged the lungs of soldiers during World War I. “For most acute lung injuries, it takes awhile for the injury to improve. The insult could be one quick strike, and yet the healing can take weeks,” said Louis DePalo, a pulmonologist at Mount Sinai Health System in New York City. One of Dr. DePalo’s patients who had been severely ill has recovered fully, he said, but one of his milder cases had been slower to regain complete lung function and might not get it back. (Abbott, 10/10)

Federal and state health authorities are testing vaping materials and studying tissue samples from patients in an effort to find the cause of the outbreak. They are particularly concerned about the huge amount of illicit THC products in circulation, which contain unknown mixtures of solvents, diluting agents and flavorings that may be toxic to the lungs. (Grady, 10/10)

Dr. Anne Schuchat, the CDC’s principal deputy director, last week called the illnesses a “very concerning outbreak” with no signs of abating. “We haven’t seen a measurable drop in the occurrences of new cases,” she said at the time. “The data that we’ve seen doesn’t suggest it has peaked, it doesn’t suggest this is declining.” (Lovelace, 10/10)

Of the 573 patients who provided information about what products they had used, 76 percent reported vaping THC, with or without nicotine-containing products. Thirty-two percent said they vaped THC exclusively, while 13 percent said they only vaped nicotine products. (Hellmann, 10/10)

Oregon’s caseload has also been growing, with nine victims – two of them fatal – reported as of Oct. 8. At least five of the victims purchased products at legal marijuana retail shops. State health officials have said they don’t know what precise products or chemicals made the people ill, leaving open the possibility that the patients had tampered with the products before using them. (Zarkhin, 10/10)

The thousands of shops that sprang up in cities and towns across the country over the past decade to sell vaping products have seen a stunning reversal of fortune, with their sales plunging in just two months amid news reports that vaping has sickened nearly 1,300 people and killed 26. People who turned to vaping products to help them quit smoking have been turning away, even teenagers who used the products illegally, although the U.S. Centers for Disease Control says most of the people who suffered lung injuries from vaping were using products containing THC, a component of marijuana. (10/10)

Juul Labs Inc. said sales-software changes it designed to stop underage shoppers from buying its e-cigarettes at the cash register were successful in a company study, nearly eliminating such purchases. The company plans to present a poster at the 7th Annual Vermont Center on Behavior & Health Conference Thursday touting the success of the new standards in a test run this year. Juul said retailers that adopted them cut down sharply on underage sales. Within two years, the company has said, it wants all stores that sell its products to use them. (Brown, Huet and Brustein, 10/10)

Even though “quitlines” were designed to help people kick cigarette habits, calls and texts from people who use e-cigarettes are climbing as more people fall ill with a mysterious and devastating respiratory illness linked to vaping. Health officials are investigating 1,080 cases in 48 states and the U.S. Virgin Islands, including at least 18 deaths. In California, more than 110 residents have fallen ill, at least two of whom died, according to the California Department of Public Health. (Almendrala, 10/10)

America's child obesity epidemic shows no signs of shrinking. About 4.8 million American kids aged 10 to 17 -- just over 15% -- were obese in 2017-2018, according to a new report. "These new data show that this challenge touches the lives of far too many children in this country," said Dr. Richard Besser, the president and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, which produced the new report. (Preidt, 10/10)

Data released by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation on Thursday shows the obesity rate among people aged 10 to 17 has held steady in recent years. The obesity rate for this age group is 12.5%, or 73,800 people, which is neither an increase nor a decrease, according to the data. Missouri ranks fifteenth lowest in the nation for obesity rates in this age group. (Straughn, 10/10)

Pennsylvania children are among the most obese in the nation, according to the first-ever report on childhood obesity released by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation on Thursday. The disparities in obesity rates cut across racial, socioeconomic and state lines, with more black and Hispanic children ages 10-17 suffering from obesity than their white and Asian peers. Mississippi, West Virginia and Kentucky had the highest child obesity rates, while Alaska, Minnesota and Utah had the lowest rates. (Huang, 10/10)

More than 50,000 children in Iowa ages 10 to 17 are obese, a new report from a national health philanthropy organization says. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Thursday published a childhood obesity report based on data from 2017 and 2018. It shows that 16.4% of Iowa children in the age group have obesity. (Rodriguez, 10/10)

A study released Thursday, Oct. 10, shows there are 485,700 young people in the United States between the ages of 10-17 who have obesity. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) State of Childhood Obesity: Helping All Children Grow up Healthy report is the first report of its kind on national and state childhood obesity rates. The childhood obesity rate in Texas is 15.5 percent, 19th in the country, and has remained mostly unchanged in recent years. (Kowalick, 10/10)

Oklahoma’s childhood obesity rate is the sixth-highest in the nation, according to a newly released data report, and the figure hasn’t changed much from recent years. Eighteen percent of 10-to-17-year-olds in the state are obese, which is about 72,500 teens. Although the rate hasn’t necessarily improved, state officials view the steady figure as progress. (Schlotthauer, 10/10)

High fives to our healthy Wyoming kids. According to a report released Oct. 3 by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Wyoming’s children are some of the thinnest in the country. In 2017 and 2018, the years covered in the report, just 11.8% of kids in the state qualified as obese, below the national rate of 15.3%. Wyoming has the 10th lowest obesity rate in the nation, following mostly Western states. Utah has the lowest at 8.7%, while Mississippi has the highest rate at 25.4%. (Hallberg, 10/10)

Childhood obesity rates have remained fairly steady across the country over the past few years, but Arizona’s rates have actually dropped and is now tied for 17th best in the country. (Brodie, 10/10)

Mountain West states have some of the lowest rates of youth obesity in the country, according to a new report from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Utah's rate of 8.7% was found to be the lowest in the country, while Colorado and Montana, with rates of 10.7% and 10.8%, respectively, were also among the six states with obesity rates statistically significantly lower than the national average of 15.3%. (Glick, 10/10)

Minnesota was one of six states with “statistically significantly lower” rates of childhood obesity according to the 2017-18 data used in the study, said an accompanying news release. Minnesota had the second-best percentage overall, 9.4; Utah led the way with 8.7%. The national rate was 15.3%, down from 16.1% in 2016 — not a statistically significant difference, according to the report. Wisconsin’s rate was 14.3%, tied for 28th highest in the nation. (Lundy, 10/9)

Political rhetoric that blames people with mental illness for spasms of mass violence appears to be seeping into the national psyche. Americans increasingly see people with schizophrenia or major depression as a threat not only to themselves but to others, new research reveals. That wariness even extends to those who have difficulties coping with everyday life but whose symptoms fall far short of a psychiatric diagnosis. (Healy, 10/10)

The suicide of a 16-year-old who was cyberbullied over sexually explicit messages he exchanged with another boy shows acceptance - including legal support - is key to improving mental health, LGBT+ advocates said on World Mental Health Day on Thursday. U.S. teenager Channing Smith killed himself on the night of Sept. 22 after being "humiliated" by screenshots of his messages which were posted on social media by fellow students, his brother Joshua Smith told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. (10/10)

Kaiser Health News: Taking The Cops Out Of Mental Health-Related 911 Rescues

Every day that Janet van der Laak drives between car dealerships in her sales job, she keeps size 12 shoes, some clothes and a packed lunch — a PB&J sandwich, fruit and a granola bar — beside her in case she sees her 27-year-old son on the streets. “’Jito, come home,” she always tells him, using a Spanish endearment. There he can have a bed and food, but her son, Matt Vinnola, rarely returns home. If he does, it is temporary. The streets are easier for him. Home can be too peaceful. (Dawson, 10/11)

Prince Harry and Ed Sheeran have teamed up in a video to raise awareness for World Mental Health Day -- with a light-hearted jibe at their own plight as Britain's most famous redheads. In the video, shared on the official Sussex Royal Instagram account, the famous duo discuss the issue of mental health, and urge everyone to "look out for anybody that might be suffering in silence." Yet despite the serious message, the video starts on a humorous note. When the pair sit down to discuss their collaboration, Prince Harry explains that Sheeran has the right "skill set" to create a song to help fight the problem. (Robinson, 10/10)

HBO wants people to talk about mental illness. The network announced on Thursday a campaign to use its shows to increase awareness around mental health issues, highlighting characters’ struggles with conditions like depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder or substance abuse. (Harris, 10/10)

Millennials are changing the way people look at and talk about mental health. As part of World Mental Health Day, Business Insider took a look at the mental-health state of millennials (defined by the Pew Research Center as the cohort turning ages 23 to 38 in 2019). It doesn't look pretty — depression and "deaths of despair" are both on the rise among the generation, linked to issues such as loneliness and money stress. (Hoffower and Akhtar, 10/10)

Everybody seems to be having fun when the kids in a new public service announcement are just playing football, until one boy is thrown to the ground and the background music turns ominous. Then, the coach starts handing out cigarettes."Tackle football is like smoking," a youthful voice-over says as a smiling, motherly type lights a cigarette for one of the pre-teen players. "The younger I start, the longer I'm exposed to danger." (10/10)

Men account for about 1% or less of all breast cancer diagnoses in the U.S., yet male breast cancer patients have a 19% higher mortality rate than their diagnosed female counterparts, according to a recent study in JAMA Oncology. Scientists from Vanderbilt University looked at data on mortality rates from over 1.8 million female patients and 16,025 male patients who were diagnosed with breast cancer. The stark contrast between the number of men surveyed compared to the number of women underscores the deep lack of male representation in breast cancer studies. (Spinella, 10/11)

Koalas have been running into hard times. They have suffered for years from habitat destruction, dog attacks, automobile accidents. But that’s only the beginning. They are also plagued by chlamydia and cancers like leukemia and lymphoma, and in researching those problems, scientists have found a natural laboratory in which to study one of the hottest topics in biology: how viruses can insert themselves into an animal’s DNA and sometimes change the course of evolution. (Gorman, 10/10)

Federal health officials issued dire warnings this week about an STD epidemic that’s taken hold of the nation, with new data showing that dramatically more people were infected in 2018 than in the year prior. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s new report did not mince words. The rise in numbers is a “serious public health concern that requires immediate attention,” the health officials said. (Zarkhin, 10/10)

When Ben Faus went to bed at his home in the foothills above the Monterey Bay, he knew there was a chance his power would go out but he didn’t know exactly when. About 3 a.m. on Thursday he was jolted awake because his sleep apnea breathing machine stopped working. “All of a sudden, I was like, ‘I can’t breathe,’” he said. The decision to turn electricity off for large areas of Northern California inconvenienced and frustrated hundreds of thousands of residents, but it became increasingly dangerous for people like Mr. Faus and the state’s most vulnerable. (Fuller, 10/11)

PG&E’s planned power outages are sparking panic among people with health conditions who rely on electricity to power medical devices at home — devices that help them stay comfortable, or stay alive. Patients who need oxygen machines running nonstop to breathe began calling their nurses as soon as the outages were announced, asking what they should do. (Dembosky, 10/10)

Gov. Gavin Newsom tore into Pacific Gas & Electric Co. on Thursday, calling the mass power outages “unacceptable” and the result of the bankrupt utility’s own long legacy of mistakes. “What’s happened is unacceptable. And it’s happened because of neglect. It’s happened because of decisions that were deferred, delayed or not made by the largest investor-owned utility in the state of California and one of the largest in the nation,” he said at a news conference. (Fry, Dolan, Luna and Serna, 10/10)

Despite an unprecedented effort to prevent wildfires, at least three of them erupted in Southern California on Thursday fueled by strong winds and dry conditions. The fires quickly claimed more ground, destroying homes and by Friday morning at least 100,000 people had been forced to flee under mandatory evacuation orders around Los Angeles. L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti confirmed evacuation orders after the high winds pushed the Saddleridge fire across two freeways and into communities. Most of the residents ordered out were in neighborhoods about 20 miles northwest of central Los Angeles. (Vigliotti, 10/11)

At the height of Louisiana's debate over a strict new abortion ban, phone calls poured into Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards' office, from people urging him to jettison the measure and threatening to withhold votes for his reelection bid as he signed the new law. So many hundreds of calls bombarded the governor's office in opposition to the ban on abortion as early as six weeks into a pregnancy that workers couldn't physically log all the complaints into a computerized system. (10/10)

The nation’s largest public hospital system is in the black after years of financial woes. NYC Health + Hospital, with 11 hospitals serving New York City’s neediest population, closed the fiscal year on June 30 on budget and with a surplus of $36 million, hospital officials said Thursday. Revenue was $7.51 billion and expenses were $7.48 billion. The city’s hospitals appear to be exiting a troubled period after a forced overhaul that began in 2016. State and federal budget cuts, plus increased costs in treating uninsured New Yorkers, forced the hospital system to tighten its belt and shrink staffing. (West, 10/10)

Three months after the state medical board voted to tighten regulations on how doctors practice medicine, the rules are facing stiff resistance from Massachusetts hospitals and physicians, and it’s unclear to what extent they are being obeyed. The regulations, which medical experts describe as among the most-far reaching in the country, require doctors to provide more information to patients who are considering surgery and to document each time a lead surgeon enters and leaves the operating room. (Saltzman, 10/10)

A Virginia university is planning to add new slots to its nursing program as the state struggles with a shortage of nurses. The Roanoke Times reports that James Madison University will add 23 students each semester starting in January. The school currently admits 90 students a semester. The newspaper says the admissions increase is meant to help address the state’s nursing shortage. (10/11)

The Atlanta Veterans Affairs Medical Center has sharply reduced surgeries as it overhauls operations, the latest sign of significant troubles at the hospital for the area’s military veterans. The Decatur facility stopped performing routine surgeries because of serious problems involving medical procedures, two employees told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. (Quinn, 10/10)

As many as 100,000 UnitedHealthcare plan members could lose in-network access to all eight Houston Methodist hospitals and dozens of its out-patient facilities on Dec. 31 after the insurer announced it was dropping the major hospital system from its network. The move would affect anyone with a UnitedHealthcare employer-sponsored plan as well as those covered under the insurer’s Medicare Advantage program for seniors, both the hospital and the insurance company confirmed on Thursday. Medicare Advantage enrollment for 2020 begins next week. (Deam, 10/10)

The adoption scandal involving Maricopa County Assessor Paul Petersen raises serious questions about how the pregnant women he brought to Arizona were able to get government health care. That's because people from the Marshall Islands, where the women were from, do not qualify for Medicaid in Arizona unless they are U.S. citizens or lawful, permanent U.S. residents of at least five years. There are a few exceptions, including refugees and asylees. (Innes, 10/10)

Macomb County health officials are investigating seven cases of Legionnaires' disease reported at McLaren Macomb hospital in Mount Clemens, Mich. Six of the seven cases were reported since the middle of September, according to a Wednesday news release from the Macomb County Health Department, which is handling the investigation alongside the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. (Nagle, 10/10)

The state has put another stamp of approval on the Texas Department of Public Safety’s controversial new policy to measure state troopers’ physical fitness by their waistlines. After a lengthy Thursday morning meeting with agency officials rattling off studies and standards used to come up with their often-changing physical fitness tests and measurements, the three-member Public Safety Commission unanimously adopted DPS’s fitness program, certifying it is in line with scientific standards and federal law. (McCullough, 10/10)

A teenager who carried a loaded shotgun into a classroom at Parkrose High School in May -- causing a massive scare before one of the school’s security guards subdued him -- was sentenced Thursday to three years of probation and any mental health treatment that he needs. Investigators say Angel Granados-Diaz, then 18, was suffering a mental health crisis and didn’t intend to hurt anyone but himself. (Green, 10/10)

State officials are expected to have at least one health care waiver proposal ready for an agency board to consider in early November. The waiver development is a central part of Gov. Brian Kemp’s strategy to improve Georgia health care. The state has a high uninsured rate, and its health rankings on various measures lag behind most other states. (Miller, 10/10)

Hundreds of others of the island residents had as much as 4 or 5 feet of water in their homes. Even in houses high enough to avoid the water, often the heating and electrical systems in their crawl spaces were totaled. Along with almost everyone’s cars. That’s what happened to the Ocracoke Health Center too. ...The clinic’s heating and ventilation system was ruined, along with the electrical system, insulation and all of the data lines. Ballance said their pre-storm routine is to take portable equipment, put it on top of the desks and tables, and cover it in plastic. (Hoban, 10/11)

In the weeks before Randy Santos allegedly bludgeoned four homeless men to death in Manhattan, he was sleeping in an abandoned building on East 183rd Street in the Bronx. At the time, Lydia and Segundo Segarra, who lived on the Bronx block, hired him to perform odd jobs on their property. The first time he worked for them was unremarkable, Ms. Segarra said. But the second time, Mr. Santos looked lost, leading her husband to encourage Mr. Santos to seek psychiatric help at nearby St. Barnabas Hospital, she said. (Blint-Welsh, 10/10)

Rep. Ralph Massullo, a dermatologist from Lecanto, has filed a bill for the 2020 legislative session that would change state law and allow health-care licensing boards to take disciplinary action against providers who are not physicians but use monikers that could imply they are, such as “anesthesiologist.” The bill (HB 309) comes on the heels of a unanimous decision by the Florida Board of Nursing in August to allow John McDonough, an advanced practice registered nurse, to identify himself as a “nurse anesthesiologist” without facing repercussions. (Sexton, 10/10)

Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed a bill that paves the way for parents in some California school districts to bring medical cannabis to their students at K-12 campuses, breaking with former Gov. Jerry Brown, who had vetoed similar legislation last year. The measure, signed late Wednesday, allows medical cannabis that is not in smoking or vaping form to be administered to students by parents on campus if their school board has approved a policy providing the access. (McGreevy, 10/10)

Los Angeles County officials are warning that residents may have been exposed to measles earlier this month. Health officials have confirmed that a person who spent time at a movie theater and stores on the Westside has been diagnosed with measles. Considered one of the most contagious diseases in the world, measles spreads through coughing and sneezing but can linger in the air for up to two hours after an infected person leaves the room. (Karlamangla, 10/10)

A week into opening the application process for medical cannabis dispensaries to apply for permits in Texas, the Texas Department of Public Safety — without warning — suspended the process. ...The move by the state agency came as a shock to advocacy groups who were eager for the state to move forward on medical cannabis expansion months after the Legislature expanded the list of conditions that qualify for the medicine under the Compassionate Use Program to include seizure disorders; amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS; terminal cancer and autism. (Samuels and Fernandez, 10/10)

Stuart Copperman was, to all appearances, an old-fashioned pediatrician. For 35 years, he ran a bustling practice in Merrick, Long Island, where he was revered by parents as an authority on everything from colic to chickenpox. Well-dressed, affable and tan year-round, he was always available in an emergency, and even made house calls. When he told mothers that their daughters were old enough to see him alone — without a parent in the room, so the girls could speak freely — they accepted it as sound medical practice. Girls who told their mothers that the pediatrician had rubbed their genitals or inserted his fingers into their vaginas were often met with disbelief. (Rabin, 10/8)

Growing up in the Baldwin Village section of Los Angeles, Charles Slay roamed the streets as a member of the Bloods. The neighborhood was forlorn and devoid of commercial life, making it easy ground for ambush — especially a ragged patch of dirt alongside a major thoroughfare. “I used to rob people there,” he says. But three years ago, when construction workers began transforming the vacant lot into a gleaming campus of medical offices, there was Mr. Slay, donning work boots and coveralls. He had spent 27 years behind bars for a gang-related murder. On this day, he was employed as an apprentice electrician. (Goodman, 10/10)

Despite the billions of dollars collected and spent on breast-cancer research over the past half-century, relatively little has been devoted to studying metastatic-breast-cancer patients or their particular forms of the disease. Doctors do not know why some breast cancers eventually form deadly metastases or how to quash the disease once it has spread. Patients with metastatic disease are typically treated with one drug after another, their doctors switching the medications whenever the disease stops responding to treatment. Eventually, nearly all patients with breast-cancer metastases run out of options and die, although in recent years, many have been living longer. (Pickert, 10/1)

Before Natalie Nakles was born, before the egg from which she was conceived was even fully mature, something went slightly awry. The egg that would help form her ended up with two copies of chromosome 16. So today, 24-year-old Nakles does not, as most people do, have one set of chromosomes from each parent. She has two copies of chromosome 16 from her mother and none from her father. (Zhang, 10/10)

Few Americans may realize that, under current law, releasing their digital health records to an app—So easy! Just like using Uber!—is like being bitten by a vampire: There is nothing you can do to reverse this action, and it has the potential to infect every part of your life. Third-party health apps—think apps for fertility, weight loss, lifestyle changes, or diabetes management—aren't covered by federal privacy laws. They certainly aren't covered by HIPAA, which governs only health industry "covered entities," like health insurance companies, doctors, and hospitals, and requires that those actors adequately protect your health information and use (and disclose) that data only as minimally necessary to provide you services.So, unless something changes, once you click impatiently through your favorite health app's terms of service, that app will be able to sell your data—including your name and everything in your medical records—to anyone. (Crawford, 10/2)

For a phenomenon that’s highly unlikely to be real, period syncing has enjoyed an impressively long life in the popular imagination. Every now and again, news stories and listicles pop up to inform the public that no, actually, period synchronization as a result of prolonged proximity is not a thing, but the fictional story lines and offhand jokes persist nonetheless. TV and movies certainly help maintain the popularity of the period-syncing myth. But to some extent it survives because so many people want it to be true. No matter how inaccurate the myth of period syncing may be, the idea that women’s bodies can fall into collective rhythms carries a certain mysterious, otherworldly appeal and, lending the myth more inertia, gives women a way to feel connection, empathy, and collective empowerment with other women. (Ashley Fetters, 9/24)

It was in Vermont that Senator Bernie Sanders learned to love single-payer health care — what he now calls Medicare for All — and it was in Vermont that American single-payer faced its greatest test so far. Under Gov. Pete Shumlin, a Democrat and avowed supporter of single-payer health care, the state worked to create a groundbreaking plan, called Green Mountain Care, to cover all its citizens. Following the Affordable Care Act’s 2010 passage, state lawmakers enacted legislation intended to put Vermont “on a path to a single-payer system.” No state-based single-payer effort ever made it as far, and Mr. Shumlin positioned the plan as a test case for the nation. (Peter Suderman, 10/9)

Five years, nine months, and nine days — within the course of American history — is not a very long time. However, it was only that long ago that the Affordable Care Act (ACA) radically transformed the healthcare system in this country.Before Jan. 1, 2014, when the bulk of the ACA went into effect, Americans were completely at the mercy of an inequitable and unfair healthcare system: Insurers could place lifetime limits on covering essential benefits; drop your coverage if you got sick; or simply deny you coverage for “pre-existing” conditions. The ACA not only removed these outrageous barriers to getting health insurance, it gave all Americans, irrespective of provider, access to better quality and more affordable health insurance. (U.S. Rep. Donna Shalala, 10/10)

Melinda B. Buntin, Ph.D.Tennessee has begun the process of asking the federal government for a block grant for its Medicaid program. Negotiations between state officials and CMS will shed light on how much the Trump administration is willing to concede in order to claim the block-grant mantle. (Melinda B. Buntin, 10/10)

We are leaving out an entire category of our citizens in the discussion about Medicaid block grants—our seniors and, even if we are currently younger than 65, ourselves as future seniors. In Tennessee, we who are 65 and older account for 16% of the total population. That number is growing. You may have seen that 10,000 baby boomers a day are turning 65. About 5% of the people enrolled in TennCare are seniors, and TennCare provides 62% of the nursing home coverage in our state. (Barbara Moss, 10/11)

I now work on health policy issues at Kentucky Equal Justice Center, and Friday, I’ll be joining our co-counsel, the Southern Poverty Law Center and the National Health Law Program in a D.C. courtroom. Together, we’ll represent 15 courageous Kentuckians as they challenge Gov. Bevin’s plan for Medicaid. The plan, called Kentucky HEALTH, would raise costs, reduce benefits and add new reporting requirements for people to get and keep Medicaid. Twice now, a federal district court has struck down the governor’s plan, but the Bevin administration keeps funneling state resources into defending it. We’ll see what the D.C. Circuit Court says about whether Kentucky HEALTH is legal. In the meantime, I’ve spent months trying to understand the reasoning behind the plan. Spoiler alert: I still don’t get it. (Betsy Davis Stone, 10/10)

Doctors have linked a tragic wave of lung injuries and deaths to the vaping of tainted marijuana concentrates. The episode reveals the dangers created by the federal government’s decadelong refusal to challenge state laws legalizing pot and promoting risky uses of its derivatives. (Scott Gottlieb, 10/10)

Closing the inclusion gap will be no small feat. UsAgainstAlzheimer’s, the organization we work with, recently analyzed more than 300 peer-reviewed studies of non-drug interventions for Alzheimer’s and dementia. Just under 4% of them focused on communities of color. Overall, just 5% of the studies included even a general strategy for recruiting underrepresented communities. This is startling given the fact that African Americans are two to three times more likely to develop Alzheimer’s than non-Hispanic whites, while Latinos are 1.5 times more likely. (Jason Resendez and Stephanie Monroe, 101/11)

Over the span of more than 20 years and three presidents, as surgeons general we’ve confronted more than our fair share of devastating public health crises, from emerging infections like bird flu, SARS, the H1N1 pandemic, and Ebola, to the opioid crisis and national-preparedness issues like hurricanes and terrorist attacks. All of them are tragic. Each caused governments and private organizations to rally to understand the threat, inform the public, develop solutions, and minimize the impact as much as possible on American families and the economy. (Drs. Richard Carmona, Jocelyn Elders, Antonia Novello and David Satcher, 10/10)

Under the rules that normally govern the American judicial system, the Louisiana abortion law at the center of a case the Supreme Court added to its docket last week is flagrantly unconstitutional. My goal in this column is to make visible not only the stakes in the case but also Louisiana’s strategy for saving its law, the first of a wave of anti-abortion measures to reach a Supreme Court transformed by the retirement of Justice Anthony Kennedy and the addition of two justices appointed by President Donald Trump. (Linda Greenhouse, 10/10)

Today is World Mental Health Day. And, California, a state with 10 percent of the U.S. population, just announced that it’s introducing the first toll-free statewide mental health line for non-emergency emotional support and referrals. What a wonderful way to kick off this occasion. This Peer-Run Warm Line is a reason to celebrate. As a psychologist, I’ve witnessed first-hand the emotional pains people carry, and how hard it is for them to come in for formal therapy. (Joan Cook, 10/10)

This week is Mental Illness Awareness Week, and it’s not a time to pity those with mental illness. It’s a time to assess what works, and what doesn’t, in our mental health system. In Iowa, the situation for the mentally ill is dire: There is a desperate shortage of inpatient mental health hospital beds in the state. Yet, for example, when a private company sought to build a new 72-bed facility in Bettendorf, using its own money, it was blocked for more than two years because of Iowa’s certificate of need law. (Mark Flatten, 10/10)

As many as 15 percent of known pregnancies end in miscarriage. That amounts to hundreds of thousands of miscarriages in America each year. (10/10)

When Pilar Schiavo got word that a homeless housing project might be going up near her daughter’s school, Chatsworth Park Elementary, she went on the parents’ Facebook page “to ask some questions and get the facts.” Four hours later, Schiavo logged off — still short on facts, and chastened by an online juggernaut of parents rallying to block the project. (Sandy Banks, 10/10)