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Rep.-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) on Sunday referred to "death panels," which was popularized almost a decade ago by Sarah Palin, saying they exist in the private health insurance market. "Actually, we have for-profit 'death panels' now: they are companies + boards saying you’re on your own bc they won’t cover a critical procedure or medicine," she wrote in a back-and-forth with the president of a conservative think tank on Twitter. (Keller, 12/2)

Incoming Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) tweeted Saturday that she was frustrated to learn that her health-care costs would be chopped by more than half upon entering Congress, accusing her fellow lawmakers of enjoying cheap government health insurance while opposing similar coverage for all Americans. In a tweet, the New York freshman lawmaker-elect wrote that her health care as a waitress was "more than TWICE" as high as what she would pay upon taking office as a congresswoman next month. (Bowden, 12/1)

Congressional Republicans are giving up on years of promises to cut federal funding for Planned Parenthood as Democrats prepare to take control of the House, a major setback for the conservative movement after controlling both chambers of Congress and the White House for the past two years. The futility of the congressional efforts was clear as the lame-duck session of Congress convened this week and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) briefly tried — and failed — to rally support for one last bid to push through Planned Parenthood cuts, Obamacare repeal and other conservative priorities. But most Republicans, already rattled by the possibility of a shutdown next week triggered by President Donald Trump’s border wall demands, dismissed his bid. (Ollstein, 12/2)

Newly released emails about the three Trump associates who secretly steered the Department of Veterans Affairs show how deeply the trio was involved in some of the agency’s most consequential matters, most notably a multibillion-dollar effort to overhaul electronic health records for millions of veterans. Marvel Entertainment chairman Ike Perlmutter, West Palm Beach physician Bruce Moskowitz and lawyer Marc Sherman — part of the president’s circle at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida — reviewed a confidential draft of a $10 billion government contract for the electronic-records project, even though they lack any relevant expertise. (Arnsdorf, 12/3)

Juan Sanchez grew up along the Mexican border in a two-bedroom house so crowded with children that he didn’t have a bed. But he fought his way to another life. He earned three degrees, including a doctorate in education from Harvard, before starting a nonprofit in his Texas hometown. Mr. Sanchez has built an empire on the back of a crisis. His organization, Southwest Key Programs, now houses more migrant children than any other in the nation. Casting himself as a social-justice warrior, he calls himself El Presidente, a title inscribed outside his office and on the government contracts that helped make him rich. (Barker, Kulish and Ruiz, 12/2)

But local advocates for immigrants say the proposal goes too far and will result in families, particularly those that include both citizens and noncitizens, skimping on health care and other necessities out of fear that using those public benefits could jeopardize their chances of legally staying in the U.S. That will ultimately cost taxpayers more in the long run, they say. Many advocates say the proposed change already is having a chilling effect on immigrants, even those who wouldn’t be putting themselves or their family members at risk by accepting Medicaid or food stamps. (Schencker, 12/2)

Healthcare institutions have a role to play because trafficking’s victims so often require medical treatment. A 2014 Annals of Health Law survey of human trafficking survivors found that some 88 percent saw a healthcare provider at some point during captivity. The problem was, few providers recognized the signs — or knew how to intervene. ... Experts say the missed signs include untreated chronic conditions; uncertainty about the city they’re in; a fearful and/or submissive demeanor often including avoidance of eye contact; malnutrition or signs of physical abuse or trauma; and a controlling companion who insists on answering questions. (Ackerman, 11/30)

Company leaders are grappling with how to deal with the rising cost of health insurance in ways that get beyond the longtime strategy of simply passing on more of the burden to workers. “The CEOs of our clients are more involved in the health-care benefits program than I’ve seen in 25 years,” says Jim Winkler, a senior vice president at consulting firm Aon PLC. “It’s, ‘What are we spending our money on, and does it make sense?’ ” (Wilde Mathews, 12/2)

As state and federal officials increasingly search for ways to curb rising health care costs, a decades-old idea is gaining traction: helping people with challenges that have nothing to do with medical care but everything to do with their health. Insurers are taking steps as simple as paying for hot meal deliveries and outreach to homebound people and replacing air filters in homes with asthmatic children. More radical approaches include building affordable housing for people who don’t have a stable home of their own. (Williams, 12/3)

A Wyoming legislative committee has quietly put together a series of bills that is looking at the high cost of health care in the state as well as making health care more accessible. At a recent meeting of the legislature's Health and Labor Committee, Senator Charles Scott stated that consumers pay a lot for health care in the state. (Beck, 11/30)

Early last year, a little-known Chinese researcher turned up at an elite meeting in Berkeley, California, where scientists and ethicists were discussing a technology that had shaken the field to its core — an emerging tool for "editing" genes, the strings of DNA that form the blueprint of life. The young scientist, He Jiankui, saw the power of this tool, called CRISPR, to transform not only genes, but also his own career. (Marchione and Larson, 12/2)

This week’s announcement that two Chinese children were born with CRISPR-modified genes exploded onto the global stage. Experts joined Good Morning America and took to Twitter, sharing their fears for the future and for the children’s health and discussing their concerns about the ethical quandaries realized sooner than some had expected. Wall Street, however, was unfazed. Share prices for three publicly traded companies using CRISPR — Editas, Intellia and CRISPR Therapeutics — haven’t faltered. If anything, most CRISPR-based stocks have become more valuable since the announcement. Editas’s and CRISPR Therapeutics’ share prices rose about 15 percent over the course of the week; Intellia’s was up by about 4 percent. (Sheridan, 11/30)

It felt as if humanity had crossed an important line: In China, a scientist named He Jiankui announced on Monday that twins had been born in November with a gene that he had edited when they were embryos. But in some ways this news is not new at all. A few genetically modified people already walk among us. In the mid-1990s, fertility doctors in New Jersey got an idea for how to help women have children. They suspected that some women struggled to become pregnant because of defective material in their eggs. (Zimmer, 12/1)

Scientists hoping to fight diseases with genetically engineered organisms that spread their genes in the wild will be able to proceed cautiously under an agreement reached this week. That was the compromise outcome of a protracted debate, conducted in Egypt at a major U.N. conference on biodiversity, over a technology known as “gene drives.” A gene drive is a form of genetic engineering that seeks to push modified genes through a population. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has funded a program called Target Malaria that envisions using a gene drive to combat the mosquitoes that carry malaria, a disease that kills nearly half a million people a year. (Achenbach, 11/30)

Yield10 is aiming to make major crops like rice much more productive. It's using data science to pinpoint key genes that affect growth, and then altering them using CRISPR. The company has already reported dramatic initial results from gene-editing to boost yield in camelina, a plant related to flax. (Goldberg 11/30)

Nancy Baum Lipsitz remembers the night the pain began. She’d had a glass of white wine with a friend and went to bed with a terrible headache. The next day, she still felt horrible, the beginning of what she called a “rolling tide” of near constant migraines and lower level headaches. For three years she dealt with the symptoms. Sometimes she got tunnel vision, or a visual aura, a warning that a big headache was on the way. Those felt like “someone taking a pick and jabbing it through my nose and eye,” she said. (Vander Schaaff, 12/1)

The biggest problem with the holidays season for migraine sufferers is falling out of a regular routine, said Charles Flippen II, clinical professor of neurology at David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. Flippen, a fellow of the American Academy of Neurology, offers some tips for managing the season. (Vander Schaaff, 12/1)

A single season playing football might be all it takes to change a young athlete's brain. Those are the preliminary findings of research presented this week in Chicago at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America. Researchers used special MRI methods to look at nerve bundles in the brain in a study of the brains of 26 young male football players, average age 12, before and after one season. Twenty-six more young males who didn't play football also got MRI scans at the same time to be used as a control group. (Westerman, 11/30)

A couple of weeks ago, eight-year-old Liam Ramsay-Leavitt of Martinez, Calif., was swinging on the monkey bars at school. "And then I just fell on my side," he says. "I was kind of dizzy and I had an achy head." It turns out that he had a concussion. (Singh, 12/3)

Last week, another Canadian diplomat was diagnosed with a mysterious disease so weird it’s been referred to in some circles as “the thing.” The illness afflicts only government employees from the United States and Canada. Sufferers report feeling pulsing or hearing a ringing in their ears. Then headaches, dizziness, trouble concentrating and struggles to remember basic words and facts. (Erickson, 12/3)

If you are divorced, widowed or never married and develop cancer, watch out. You may get less aggressive treatment than your married friends. We’ve often heard about studies showing that married adults are more likely to survive cancer than singles. But buried in those same studies is another finding that hasn’t made the headlines. When surgery or radiotherapy is the treatment of choice, patients with spouses are more likely to get it. (DelFattore, 12/1)

The placenta may be dismissed as “afterbirth,” deemed an afterthought in discussions about pregnancy and even relegated, literally, to the trash bin. But at long last it is beginning to get its due. In the past three weeks, scientists have published three significant studies of this ephemeral organ. One gave a detailed analysis of all the genes expressed, or converted into functioning proteins, in the placenta; another experimented with a way to silence that expression when it causes trouble. In the third, researchers created mini-placentas, three-dimensional clusters of cells, or organoids, that mimic the real thing in the lab, and can be used as models for studying it. (Mandavilli, 12/3)

The holiday shopping season is underway, and the nation’s pediatricians have some advice for the parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles and others who plan to buy cutting-edge digital toys for the young children in their lives: Don’t do it. Sure, these toys may promise to boost a little one’s brain development, or to give them a head start in school. They may come in packages that feature endorsements from “experts.” In all likelihood, they come with a price tag that implies they are of great value. (Kaplan, 12/3)

A taxi driver named Roy Kim recently became the eighth professional driver to die by suicide in New York over the last year. The city’s taxi commissioner, Meera Joshi, has characterized the deaths as an epidemic. The stories have drawn attention to the economic despair in the industry and prompted the City Council to weigh new legislation to help taxi owners reduce their debt and to increase driver wages. (Fitzsimmons, 12/2)

In the days after the NRA tweet, doctors around the nation and even some around the world began posting sometimes-graphic, sometimes-poignant messages that shined a light on just how gun violence spills into their practices and why they are invested in seeing it prevented. Their rebuke to the NRA coalesced into trending themes #ThisIsOurLane and #ThisIsMyLane, prompting hundreds of thousands of retweets and more than 500,000 likes. (Anderson, 12/2)

For many of us, especially those without family nearby, spending time with friends can be a meaningful way to celebrate the holidays. As fewer people opt for marriage, friendships have become more than social relationships: Friends are proxy families, and they may be better than the real ones. Researchers have found that these personal connections may be more beneficial to one’s health and well-being than family relationships. And at a time when loneliness has become a public health crisis with young adults saying they feel lonelier than older generations, studies show that investing in friendships pays off. According to the Mayo Clinic, these bonds can help reduce stress, increase happiness and bolster self-confidence. (Fraga, 12/2)

University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers have developed a bandage that harnesses a body's own energy to speed up wound healing through gentle electrical pulses. Initial testing on rats shows the low-cost wound dressing dramatically lowering healing times from nearly two weeks to just three days. (Jones, 11/30)

Family history DNA tests are pegged to be hugely popular gifts this Christmas – but are they worth it if you're one of the 30 percent or so of Americans with ancestors who didn't come from Europe? Today, the answer is a qualified maybe. People of color generally aren't going to get the same specificity of ethnicity estimates as white Americans, though the results are slowly getting more precise for those with ancestors from Africa, Asia and the Americas. Even so, experts suggest collecting DNA from your oldest relatives now, wherever they come from, because one day it's going to be a genealogical gold mine. (Weise, 12/2)

With more than $12 billion in sales this year, the industry is booming and, according to the market research company, Grand View Research, is on track to sell billions more by 2025. But do we really need all this supplemental protein? It depends. There are pros, cons and some ho-hums to consider. (Neighmond, 12/3)

When the World Health Organization declared Dec. 1 World AIDS Day in 1988, the disease was already a global pandemic. By the end of that year, 82,362 cases of AIDS had been reported in the United States, and more than 61,000 people had died nationwide. In the 30 years since, the disease has killed an estimated 35.4 million people in all, including more than 700,000 in the United States. Today, there are still some 36.9 million people living with H.I.V. and AIDS around the world. The war is far from over in the United States. If current trends continue, half of all black gay and bisexual men will be living with HIV during their lifetimes. The epidemic is hitting hardest in the South, the region of our country with the fewest resources to combat it. (12/1)

If part of a hospital stay is to recover from a procedure or illness, why is it so hard to get any rest? There is more noise and light than is conducive for sleep. And nurses and others visit frequently to give medications, take vitals, draw blood or perform tests and checkups — in many cases waking patients to do so. (Frakt, 12/3)

A drug that protects children in wealthy countries against painful and sometimes lethal bouts of sickle-cell disease has been proven safe for use in Africa, where the condition is far more common, scientists reported on Saturday. More research remains to be done, experts said, but knowing that hydroxyurea — a cheap, effective and easy-to-take pill — can safely be given to African children may save millions of youngsters from agonizing pain and early deaths. (McNeil, 12/1)

Progress has stalled in ridding the world of polio. An emergency committee of the World Health Organization unanimously agreed Friday to continue to designate the paralyzing disease a "Public Health Emergency of International Concern." WHO originally designated polio in this way in 2014, deeming it a health threat serious enough to endanger communities worldwide. This year, WHO has recorded 27 cases of wild poliovirus worldwide, compared with 22 total cases last year. Though the small number of cases may appear insignificant, the committee said the trend is noteworthy because it shows stagnation. (Scutti, 11/30)

The number of Minnesota children being removed from drug-addicted parents has reached crisis levels, flooding a state child welfare system that was already operating under heavy strains. As the opioid epidemic has tightened its grip on the Upper Midwest, drug abuse by parents has emerged as the leading reason why children are taken from their parents. Children have been removed from their families because of parental drug abuse on more than 6,000 occasions from 2015 to 2017, according to new data from the Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS). (Serres, 12/1)

A Charlottesville clinic has become the first in the state to offer a treatment program specifically for pregnant women trying to break opioid addictions before they give birth. “We were realizing that as the dependent population continued to grow, that the pregnant and addicted population would grow along with that,” said Dr. Christopher von Elten, a co-founder of Addiction Allies. “We kept asking why no one was addressing it, and we decided we would.” Many doctors and clinics are hesitant to offer medications to pregnant women addicted to opioids, said von Elten said, and it can be burdensome for providers to navigate necessary regulations. (Smith, 11/30)

Feeling lonely? Social isolation isn’t just bad for your mood — it can be bad for your health, too. And in a TEDxMidAtlantic talk, Rachel Wurzman says it contributes to opioid addiction — fueling drug use, relapses and overdoses. Wurzman, a neuroscientist, says she thinks there is a way to make recovery from opioid addiction easier: social connection. That idea is informed by her work with the striatum, a region at the base of the forebrain that helps enable decision-making and is dramatically affected by social connection. (Blakemore, 12/1)

The 108-page report by the Texas House Select Committee on Opioids and Substance Abuse, released just weeks before the start of the 2019 legislative session, outlines challenges and opportunities for the state as it seeks to curb drug addiction among Texans. In the report, the committee wrote that the data on the opioid crisis and substance use disorders are “alarming” and that the state “faces significant challenges.” (Evans, 11/30)

The tall, lanky patient walked out of his room at Washington state's largest psychiatric hospital and spit on two patients before ducking back inside. A few minutes later, he came back out and punched two patients, so Larry Herbert, a licensed practical nurse, went after the man. As Herbert approached, the patient punched him in the face. Herbert wrapped his arms around the patient, and they wrestled until another worker joined in and they all hit the floor. Herbert's knee went "snap, snap" as his body twisted in one direction then the other. He ended up in surgery with three torn ligaments and has spent the past six months on the couch, unsure when or if he can return to work. (12/3)

Ten years ago, Jennifer Wyms was a 17-year-old junior at Normandy High School in Wellston, Mo. She was the captain of her school’s hip-hop dance team and enjoyed going to the mall with friends. But when a health scare engulfed her St. Louis community, it cast a shadow on her high school experience. A letter from school officials sent to parents and guardians in October 2008 relayed the news that epidemiologists with the St. Louis County Department of Health had grounds to believe that HIV may have been transmitted among some students — as many as 50 students at Normandy High School could have been exposed, it said. “Everybody wanted to know, who had it? Where it came from? Why our school?” Wyms told The Washington Post. (Ferguson, 11/30)

Virginia Tech engineering Professor Marc Edwards watched as water flowed from a garden hose in Enterprise, Louisiana. As he moved a jar to catch a sample, the color changed from clear to brown. "When mine comes out, it comes out black," Enterprise resident John Tiser said as he watched Edwards work. Tiser, Enterprise's newly appointed water board president, was giving Edwards a tour around this rural community in central Louisiana, where residents have struggled with water problems. He says his wife drives 20 miles each direction to do laundry in a town with clear water. (Ganim, 11/28)

The decision by Attorney General Maura Healey to allow the merger of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Lahey Health marks the start of a great experiment in Massachusetts health care. The hypothesis behind the approval: Allowing the formation of a new large health system — with price caps and other constraints — will keep medical costs in check, ensure access for vulnerable populations, and provide a healthy dose of new competition to market leader Partners HealthCare. (Dayal McCluskey, 12/3)

States can take action against doctors based on license surrenders in other places. But, as with other matters in the broken world of doctor discipline, such a step is spotty. Some states don’t even search a national database of troubled physicians. What’s more, voluntary license surrenders can mean the public gets no access to information about what happened, putting future patients at risk. (Fauber and Wynn, 11/30)

Federal authorities announced Friday they were pulling funding from a Chicago psychiatric hospital under investigation following numerous allegations of sexual abuse, assault and patient safety violations, a move that raises questions about the future of the hospital and of the hundreds of children in state care who are treated there. The Department of Children and Family Services relies on Aurora Chicago Lakeshore Hospital to treat children with severe mental illness, some of whom have been turned away from other facilities. (Eldeib, 11/30)

More than three weeks after the Camp Fire began ravaging Northern California, the Butte County Sheriff announced Saturday the number of unaccounted for has dropped to 25 people. The lift of missing has fluctuated since the fire began on Nov. 8, reaching a high of 1,276 people on Nov. 17. The missing list began at 35, returning to double digits for the first time Friday when it shrunk from 196 to 49. (Lam, 12/2)

The potential exposure of more than 1,000 patients at a Nova Southeastern University orthodontic clinic in Davie to viruses including HIV and hepatitis through dirty equipment continued for more than two years, from July 2015 to February 2018, administrators said Friday. And it took the university seven months, once they corrected the problem at the end of February, to inform patients via Fedex letters sent Nov. 23. (Chang, 11/30)

A group of Johns Hopkins Hospital nurses on Saturday slammed the renowned Baltimore institution, saying it fosters poor working conditions for those in their ranks and by doing so, compromises patient care. The nurses — who are in the midst of a contentious campaign to unionize — presented a trio of scathing reports during a town hall meeting at the Reginald F. Lewis Museum. Each described a version of Johns Hopkins that falls short of its mission. (Richman, 12/2)

With last month’s hard freeze, the West Nile virus season in Colorado has reached its end. But after two deaths and nearly 100 infections to date in 2018, experts said the virus is here to stay — and it’s a cause for concern. Since West Nile first came to Colorado in 2002, only four states have a higher average incidence rate than the Centennial State’s rate of 1.35 incidents per 100,000 people, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In 2018, there have been 94 reported human cases in Colorado, according to data compiled by the state’s Department of Public Health and Environment. Last year, there were 68 human cases in the state, including four deaths. (Tabachnik, 12/2)

A Grand Prairie pharmaceutical company known for its fruit-flavored, extended-release Adderall-like medications is cutting jobs in an effort to "accelerate our path to profitability. "In a statement on Friday, Neos Therapeutics described a "realignment" that included the departure of its chief commercial officer, Thomas McDonnell. The announcement also said a reorganization of the company's sales staff and territories was planned. (Mosier, 12/1)

Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri made big news over Thanksgiving break when, as chairman of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Commission, he announced that he now sees value in having armed teachers in schools. His change of heart on the issue, along with his plan to recommend lawmakers allow willing teachers to carry guns, has prompted Florida educators to revisit a debate that raged in the spring as the idea first surfaced. (Solochek, 11/30)

Health officials in Northern Kentucky are encouraging adults to get vaccinated against hepatitis A as four counties continue to see increases as part of a larger statewide outbreak of the infection. The Northern Kentucky Health Department, which includes Boone, Campbell, Grant and Kenton counties is recommending the hepatitis A vaccine for all adults. (Key, 12/2)

McKesson Corp., the nation’s largest pharmaceutical distributor, announced today that it will relocate its headquarters from San Francisco to Irving in April. The company, which delivers prescription drugs and medical supplies, has more than 75,000 employees globally and had revenue of $208 billion last year. It ranks sixth on the Fortune 500 list, behind only Walmart, Exxon Mobil, Berkshire Hathaway, Apple and UnitedHealth Group. (Repko, 12/1)

About 31 percent of people who died from 2010 to 2011 had a POLST on file with the state’s registry. A group of Oregon Health & Science University researchers, along with one from Harvard’s Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, found that number had jumped to 45 percent between 2015 and 2016. In that same time frame, the number of deaths in Oregon by natural causes increased nearly 13 percent while the number of forms filled out by nearly 66 percent. Researchers say that indicates the popularity of the form has grown independent of the size of the population who would need it. (Harbarger, 12/1)

A three-judge panel of the 1st District Court of Appeal overturned a decision by a Leon County circuit judge who in June directed the department to quickly turn over to The Rehabilitation Center at Hollywood Hills death certificates from across the state. The requested death certificates were from around the time of Hurricane Irma, which hit the state Sept. 10, 2017. (Saunders, 12/3)

Last March, the chancellor’s freeze was prompted by investigations of multiple fraternities for alleged health and safety violations. By the end of the semester five of the university’s 24 IFC fraternities, including two KFLL fraternities, received sanctions from the university. ...And while KU and other universities have defined hazing as any power differential between a veteran and new fraternity member, many alumni believe strongly in their right to retain certain traditions, such as making freshmen wear suits or engage in study hours. (Bergen, 12/3)

Advocate Aurora Health plans to raise the wages of its lowest-paid workers to at least $15 an hour, or $31,200 a year, over the next three years. The planned increases would put the health system among Amazon, Aetna, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Target and other companies that have or plan to pay a minimum wage of at least $15 an hour. (Boulton, 11/30)

Phoenix-based Banner Health has a new protocol for physicians that the company suspects will increase screenings for valley fever, a potentially deadly and often misdiagnosed upper-respiratory infection. ...f the Banner program works as intended in its primary care offices, urgent care centers and emergency departments, Valley fever screening in Arizona will increase. (Innes, 11/30)

The three largest healthcare systems in Northeast Ohio increased their spending on education, research and other community benefits in 2017, upping contributions 9 percent from $1.3 billion to $1.5 billion. ...Nonprofit private hospital systems such as the Clinic and UH are required by federal law to provide what is known as community benefit to the areas in which they operate in order to maintain tax-exempt status. (Christ, 12/2)

Connecticut’s asthma rate is worse than the nation’s. It’s 11 percent for children and 10.5 percent for adults—and rising. Neighborhoods in Bridgeport, Hartford and New Haven are among the hardest hit. Automobile exhaust, cigarette smoke and mold and vermin in sub-standard housing are among the triggers. (Hamm, 12/2)

Iowa’s long awaited medical cannabis program began Saturday, as people with certain medical conditions were able to buy medical marijuana at five dispensaries in the state. MedPharm Dispensary Manager Stephen Wilson talked with William Rose and his son Christian as they made one of the first purchases of medical cannabidiol in Sioux City. (Peikes, 12/1)

[Marc] Taormina, a Kansas City native, is one of a small number of Missouri doctors bucking the state’s medical establishment by openly supporting the medical marijuana amendment voters approved in November. All of the state’s major physician groups opposed it, saying there hasn’t been enough research to prove cannabis’s effectiveness for many of the eligible conditions, and it’s not sold in standard doses or purities. (Marso, 12/2)

If you were hoping for the U.S. and China to seal a wide-ranging pact in the next few months to avert a further round of tariff wars, their speed in agreeing a crackdown on the modern opium trade in Buenos Aires looks like good news, right? Wrong. The White House’s triumphant declaration that President Xi Jinping “in a wonderful humanitarian gesture, has agreed to designate Fentanyl as a Controlled Substance” misses the fact that multiple varieties of the drug have been controlled substances in China for more than three years. (David Fickling, 12/2)

Boosting law enforcement efforts against fentanyl and other illicit opioids is an obvious solution — but just as obvious should be the need to reduce demand by providing easy access to addiction treatment. And since heroin users may not even know their heroin could contain this deadly additive, public education needs to be a big part of the equation. (12/2)

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC), in response to a 40-fold increase in new cases of HIV infection among intravenous drug users in a small county in the Midwest, identified 220 counties in 26 states as vulnerable to HIV as a result of the opioid epidemic. Many of these counties have been characterized as “treatment deserts” -- places that lack community health resources, needle exchange programs or qualified health care professionals. (Iván Espinoza-Madrigal and Lauren Sampson, 11/30)

Why are American mothers dying in childbirth at higher rates than in other developed countries? And who is to blame? Kim Brooks raised these questions in her Opinion essay “America Is Blaming Pregnant Women for Their Own Deaths.” More than 900 readers responded with comments on the article, including parents who shared their own harrowing birth stories and who often said they felt their lives were devalued, in favor of their child’s, by their doctors during the delivery process. (Rachel L. Harris and Lisa Tarchak, 12/3)

For experts studying the United States’ maternal mortality and injury rates — which are estimated to far surpass those in other developed countries — and for women in labor, the failure to treat mothers as people is neither antiquated nor dystopian, but absolutely pressing. In September, USA Today published a major investigation into recent efforts to curb maternal death rates. A number of states have assigned panels of experts to review what went wrong in cases where mothers die. This sounds promising. Unfortunately, it hasn’t worked — rates have continued to rise — and the reason is hard to fathom. (Kim Brooks, 11/16)

Sharing her personal story in a Nov 13 column, Katie Vandegrift described the pain of learning that her much desired “life within” would not survive. Many women, myself included, have experienced the heartache of an in utero life loved and lost. Vandegrift then described a new Kentucky law as “essentially outlawing” the safest option for most women in her situation and ended by urging policymakers and courts to leave decisions regarding abortion to doctors and women. (Joyce Ostrander, 11/29)

For such flawed creatures, human beings are surprisingly hard to improve, at least through our genes. That’s one reason there’s so much outcry over the recent claim that researchers in China altered the genes of a pair of twins girls – endowing at least one with resistance to HIV. The genetic change, even if it worked as advertised, would not be a clear-cut improvement but a trade-off. (Faye Flam, 11/30)

Unlike the meeting organizers, I favor a low-risk, temporary, three-year moratorium on implantation of gene-edited human embryos to make genetically modified babies. A moratorium won’t stop the most driven rogue, and one can reasonably ask how it would be enforced. But I believe it would send a strong message that going down this road in the near future won’t be tolerated. Three years is enough time for both the science and societal discussions to advance without being a burden. (Paul Knoepfler, 12/3)

Now that they've won the House and the 2020 presidential campaign is about to start, Democrats will have to decide how much Medicare for All should dominate their health care agenda.The big picture: The idea has strong appeal for many Democrats, as does the more limited approach of letting 50-64 year olds buy into Medicare. But both ideas also require spending political capital that could be devoted to other health issues. They also run the risk of dividing moderate and progressive Democrats, and could give Republicans the chance to get off the ropes on health care in 2020. (Drew Altman, 12/3)

Consider two bills my family members have received. One was for more than $13,000 for a radionucleotide stress test and the other was more than $4,500 for a contrast MRI scan. Medicare, allowed less than 10 percent of the charges.Premium content for only $0.99For the most comprehensive local coverage, subscribe today. But why charge such exorbitant fees in the first place? Certainly, a private sector insurance company would not want to pay these. But this may not be the case. (Kevin Kavanagh, 11/27)

As members of Congress work to pass the last five appropriation bills before a December 7 deadline, they must not miss the opportunity to repeal a misguided, job-killing medical device tax that threatens growth and innovation in America’s health care industry. This tax was implemented in 2010 as part of the Affordable Care Act to help cover the on-paper cost of the law, although none of the revenue from the tax was directed to defray health care costs. Since then, it has been delayed twice by bipartisan coalitions because it is so destructive to job growth, innovation, and health care quality. But it is still on the books — and is set to return. (Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, 12/3)

Last month, the NFL announced that it is awarding more than $35 million in grants to fund research on brain injuries. The recipients of the league’s largesse include researchers at prestigious academic institutions such as Boston Children’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, the University of Pittsburgh and UC San Francisco. Peter Chiarelli, who chaired the scientific advisory board to allocate the NFL’s funds, said the league did not influence the panel in any way: “We were totally independent.” We’ve seen this story line before. (Kathleen Bachynski, 12/3)

America is suffering from a crisis of irreproducible science. In 2012 the biotechnology firm Amgen tried to reproduce 53 “landmark” studies in hematology and oncology, but could only replicate six. That same year Janet Woodcock, director of the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research at the FDA, “estimated that as much as 75 percent of published biomarker associations are not replicable.” The federal government bears some blame. According to a 2015 study, government funds two-thirds of preclinical research in America and half of that research is irreproducible. Of the $28 billion our country wastes each year in irreproducible preclinical research, the government share is $19 billion. (David Randall, 12/2)

We tend to accept some suicide as unavoidable and inevitable. Many people believe that mental illness, depression and addiction are conditions that cannot be prevented, addressed or effectively treated. But mental health conditions and substance use disorders can be treated even if we can’t always prevent them. People can — and do — heal, recover and live productive lives despite the challenges. It’s time to normalize the need to care for our mental health. Suicide can be prevented. (Barbara Van Dahlen and Talinda Bennington, 12/1)

A few days before Thanksgiving, I hosted a pre-holiday feast at Getty House for a group of men and women who live at El Puente, the city’s first temporary bridge housing site, built on a corner of the El Pueblo historic district downtown. It was a privilege to meet these men and women and to hear them describe their sense of renewed promise. They were thankful because, for the first time in months or even years, they have a place to sleep at night, a place to call home. Nearly every community in Los Angeles has been touched by the profound moral and humanitarian crisis of homelessness. The individuals and families living in tents, cars and on our streets aren’t faceless strangers. They’re our neighbors, and they’re in need of housing, healthcare and, most of all, hope. (Garcetti, 12/2)

A November report by the U.S. Marshall Service concluded what has long been known. The jail is an overcrowded, dangerous, and an unhealthy place. The running of the place affects us all. The jail puts taxpayers on the hook for potential civil rights violations, such as the $4 million dollars settlement paid out to the estate of Levert. (Phillip Morris, 11/30)

Partners HealthCare is responsible for more than 27 percent of all acute hospital stays in the state, with prices about 30 percent higher than the state average and quality that is often not any better than at other hospitals. The merger of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Lahey Health, approved by the attorney general’s office on Thursday, will add another 800-pound gorilla. (Sam Richardson, 11/30)

The inspector general recommended that the government staff Tornillo as it would a permanent facility. It pointed out that a similar "flux" facility in Homestead, Fla., must adhere to the smaller ratio.Part of the problem is the government's decision to treat Tornillo, a pop-up tent village that opened in June, as a temporary way station for children. But that doesn't absolve the government of ensuring that it is not placing the minors at risk. Unfortunately, the government's failure to properly handle the migrants it insists on detaining is becoming a norm rather than an exception. And that is unacceptable. (Scott Martelle, 11/29)