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Senator Elizabeth Warren spoke at length this week about her vision for improving the American health care system, like strengthening the Affordable Care Act and making prescription drugs more affordable. Twice, though, she ignored a question posed to her: Would she support eliminating private health insurance in favor of a single-payer system? “Affordable health care for every American” is her goal, Ms. Warren said on Bloomberg Television, and there are “different ways we can get there.” To put it another way: I am not walking into that political trap. (Martin and Goodnough, 2/2)

In his six years in the Senate, Cory Booker has progressed from a moderate who defended private equity to a leading progressive voice on issues like criminal justice reform and marijuana legalization. As he transitions to a national presidential campaign, which he announced Friday, the candidate has been focusing on some key issues that animate the left wing of the Democratic Party. ... In 2017, Mr. Booker announced his support for the Medicare for All Act drafted by Senator Bernie Sanders, and reiterated his support in an interview after he announced his candidacy Friday, saying “I signed up and am a big believer in Medicare for all.” (Corasaniti, 2/1)

It’s been hard to find a glaring weakness in Sen. Sherrod Brown’s swing through Iowa this week. Voters have been at the very least curious, with some enthusiastic for a possible presidential run by the Ohio Democrat. But during a meet and greet Friday night, the inevitable question about universal health care came up. (Richardson, 2/2)

South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg, a declared 2020 presidential candidate, on Sunday said a single-payer health care system is "the right place for us to head as a country," while saying a "Medicare for All" program doesn’t necessarily require doing away with private insurance. Buttigieg responded to questions from ABC host George Stephanopoulos about whether Medicare for all means an end to private insurance. (Beavers, 2/3)

House Democratic leaders' efforts to avoid a messy fight over "Medicare for All" may be put to the test by a 150,000-member national nurses union that's mounting a campaign to force the issue to the top of lawmakers' to-do list. The union starting Monday will recruit volunteers in key congressional districts for anticipated rallies, phone-banking and other activities promoting a House Medicare for All bill and the need for hearings. (Ollstein, 2/1)

The world’s most prestigious management-consulting firm, McKinsey & Company, has been drawn into a national reckoning over who bears responsibility for the opioid crisis that has devastated families and communities across America. In legal papers released in unredacted form on Thursday, the Massachusetts attorney general said McKinsey had helped the maker of OxyContin fan the flames of the opioid epidemic. (Forsythe and Bogdanich, 2/1)

Kaiser Health News: Lawsuit Details How The Sackler Family Allegedly Built An OxyContin Fortune

The first nine months of 2013 started off as a banner year for the Sackler family, owners of the pharmaceutical company that produces OxyContin, the addictive opioid pain medication. Purdue Pharma paid the family $400 million from its profits during that time, claims a lawsuit filed by the Massachusetts attorney general. However, when profits dropped in the fourth quarter, the family allegedly supported the company’s intense push to increase sales representatives’ visits to doctors and other prescribers. (Willmsen and Bebinger, 2/1)

Companies are starting to sell “risk scores” to doctors, insurers and hospitals to identify patients at risk of opioid addiction or overdose, without patient consent and with little regulation of the kinds of personal information used to create the scores. While the data collection is aimed at helping doctors make more informed decisions on prescribing opioids, it could also lead to blacklisting of some patients and keep them from getting the drugs they need, according to patient advocates. (Ravindranath, 2/3)

In the nation’s opioid epidemic, the carnage is far from over. A new projection of opioid overdose death rates suggests that even if there is steady progress in reducing prescription narcotic abuse across the country, the number of fatal overdoses — which reached 70,237 in 2017 — will rise sharply in the coming years. (Healy, 2/1)

Sandeep “Sonny” Bains pulled up to Lyons Family Medicine in the pre-dawn dark armed with coffee, doughnuts and glossy brochures about pain treatments. “What can I help you with for acute pain?” he inquired of ­father-and-son primary-care doctors Michael and Zachary Lyons as he was ushered into a wood-paneled back office. Bains’s quick drop-ins are modeled on those used by pharmaceutical sales reps to pump up sales. (Johnson, 2/1)

Concentrations of four different types of opioids were found in wastewater tested in north Tempe. The data was found by studying untreated sewage for drug compounds found in prescription opioid drugs such as fentanyl, oxycodone, and codeine, as well as illicit drugs like heroin. (Pineda, 2/1)

President Donald Trump plans to use Tuesday night’s State of the Union address to promise an end to the HIV epidemic in America, four individuals with knowledge of the planned remarks told POLITICO. Under Trump’s 10-year strategy, health officials would target the U.S. communities with the most HIV infections and work to reduce transmissions by 2030. The strategy has been championed by top health officials, including HHS Secretary Alex Azar and CDC Director Robert Redfield. (Diamond, 2/3)

President Donald Trump will use his State of the Union speech next week to renew his call for tough action on immigration while also urging Democrats to work with him on issues where they broadly agree, including rebuilding infrastructure and lowering the cost of prescription drugs, a senior White House official said Friday. ...Trump will call on Congress to pass legislation to lower the cost of prescription drugs and work with the administration on legislation to lower health care costs, the official said, declining to describe specific policies. (Jackson, McIntire, Ferguson, 2/1)

President Trump will undergo his annual physical exam next Friday at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, the White House says. "The President will receive his annual physical at Walter Reed Friday, February 8th," White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told CNN. (Frazen, 2/1)

The Trump administration says it would require extraordinary effort to reunite what may be thousands of migrant children who have been separated from their parents and, even if it could, the children would likely be emotionally harmed. Jonathan White, who leads the Health and Human Services Department's efforts to reunite migrant children with their parents, said removing children from "sponsor" homes to rejoin their parents "would present grave child welfare concerns." He said the government should focus on reuniting children currently in its custody, not those who have already been released to sponsors. (Spagat, 2/2)

A former youth care worker at a Southwest Key migrant shelter in Mesa was sentenced by a federal judge to 19 years in state prison, followed by a lifetime of supervised release. Levian D. Pacheco, 25, of Phoenix, was convicted by a federal jury in September of seven counts of abusive sexual contact with a ward and three counts of sexual abuse of a ward, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney's Office in Arizona. (Cruz, 2/1)

Immigration and Customs Enforcement failed to hold private contractors accountable for problems at detention facilities where migrants in the country illegally are held, according to a report from the inspector general at the Department of Homeland Security. The report detailed several of the most egregious cases, including contractors failing to notify ICE of sexual assaults and employee misconduct, using tear gas instead of approved pepper spray, and commingling detainees with serious criminal histories with those who might be at risk of sexual assault. (Lane, 2/1)

A U.S. judge on Friday threw out the state of Maryland's bid to protect the healthcare law known as Obamacare in a ruling that also sidestepped a decision on whether President Donald Trump's appointment of Matthew Whitaker as acting attorney general was lawful. In a win for the Republican president, Baltimore-based U.S. District Judge Ellen Hollander said Maryland had failed to show that the Trump administration is likely to terminate enforcement of the 2010 law, officially called the Affordable Care Act. (2/1)

In her Friday ruling, Judge Hollander, an Obama appointee, said Maryland didn’t have legal standing to bring the lawsuit because the Trump administration was continuing to abide by the health law for now, which means the state isn’t being harmed. The judge then chose not to decide the legality of Mr. Whitaker’s appointment, saying it would be improper to do so given that Maryland didn’t have standing to bring the lawsuit to begin with. (Kendall, 2/1)

"In effect, the state proclaims the sky is falling. But, falling acorns, even several of them, do not amount to a falling sky," Hollander wrote in her 48-page opinion that entitles Maryland to revive the litigation at some later date. Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh, a Democrat, had sought a declaratory judgment that ACA was constitutional and the Trump administration must stop trying to "sabotage" the Obama-era law twice sustained by the U.S. Supreme Court. (2/1)

The suit, filed in September by Maryland Attorney General Brian E. Frosh, has been a counterpoint of sorts to a federal lawsuit in Texas challenging the ACA’s constitutionality brought by that state’s Republican attorney general and nearly a score of GOP counterparts. In mid-December, a conservative federal judge in Fort Worth ruled the entire law is unconstitutional. That case is being appealed and is considered likely to reach the Supreme Court, which has twice before upheld the ACA’s constitutionality. (Goldstein, 2/1)

The outcome of a fight over a Louisiana law regulating abortion providers could signal whether a fortified conservative majority on the Supreme Court is willing to cut back on abortion rights. The high court is expected to decide in the next few days whether the state can begin enforcing a law requiring doctors who work at abortion clinics to have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital. It was passed in 2014, but has never taken effect. (2/3)

Abortion providers, represented by the Center for Reproductive Rights, had petitioned the court for an emergency stay, saying the law, due to take effect Monday, would leave just one qualified abortion provider to practice in the state. The state contended there was no need for an emergency stay since the law would be implemented over time and not shut down facilities overnight. (Ollstein, 2/1)

Republicans at the national level this week jumped into the firestorm surrounding a Virginia abortion-rights bill, marking a rare instance in which a state issue has drawn harsh rebukes from members of Congress and the White House. The bill, proposed by a Democratic state lawmaker, would have made it easier for women to get third trimester abortions if their health was threatened by pregnancy. (Hellmann, 2/2)

U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine said this week that he does not support provisions in a Virginia Democrat’s bill that would ease restrictions on third-trimester abortions, becoming the most prominent Virginia Democrat to distance himself from the failed legislation. Kaine, a former Virginia governor, told Capitol Hill reporters Thursday that he does not support the changes included in legislation introduced in the General Assembly by Del. Kathy Tran, D-Fairfax. (Moomaw, 2/1)

Inside a federal courtroom in Boston this week, a bit of intrigue has emerged as lawyers try to pry open the secretive plans of a new venture created by three of the world’s most powerful corporations. The underlying case involves allegations made by UnitedHealth Group, which is asking a judge to stop a former executive from working at the new health care outfit created by Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan Chase. UnitedHealth has accused the executive, David William Smith, of removing confidential, proprietary information that could benefit his new employer, and he has denied any inappropriate action. (Abelson, 2/1)

When Sherise Grant filed a claim against the manufacturer of her pelvic mesh implant, she hoped to use the money from a settlement to pay for its removal. Ms. Grant, 51, was among the millions of women around the globe whose urinary problems were treated with pelvic mesh. But not only has the surgically implanted device done little to help her, it frequently causes Ms. Grant discomfort, including pain during sex with her husband. (Goldstein, 2/1)

A coalition of conservative and libertarian groups is demanding President Trump “pump the brakes” on the administration’s crackdown on e-cigarettes, arguing the anti-vaping efforts will hurt “an innovative industry that is helping American smokers quit.” The letter, sent to the White House on Monday, criticized the Food and Drug Administration — and specifically its commissioner, Scott Gottlieb — for waging an “aggressive regulatory assault” on e-cigarettes. The signers include Americans for Tax Reform, ALEC Action, the Competitive Enterprise Institute and the Goldwater Institute. (McGinley, 2/4)

A confluence of factors is feeding demand for healthcare real estate, including robust domestic demand, related interest from investors outside the U.S. and relatively easy access to capital. The rapidly ascending ambulatory sector—one of several trends impacting the undulating healthcare real estate landscape—is feeding a booming medical office market. That, in turn, has drawn increased foreign investment and loosened the purse strings on a vast supply of capital that also has fueled construction and mergers and acquisitions. (Kacik, 2/2)

Catholic Health Initiatives and Dignity Health sealed the deal Friday on their prolonged courtship that lasted more than two years, according to the new system's website. The Chicago-based not-for-profit system—now known as CommonSpirit Health—has 142 hospitals, 150,000 employees, nearly $30 billion in revenue and more than 700 care sites across 21 states, including 30 hospitals in California. Among not-for-profits, it rivals Ascension in total hospitals, trailing by just nine facilities. (Kacik, 2/1)

The long-awaited merger of two national health system powerhouses, which includes St. Luke's Health System in Houston, is now complete, marking the latest in high-profile couplings that are transforming the industry. Catholic Health Initiatives and Dignity Health announced Friday they have sealed the deal to become CommonSpirit Health. The Chicago-based, $29 billion nonprofit system will be one of the nation's largest, with 142 hospitals across 21 states and more than 150,000 employees. (Deam and Hixenbaugh, 2/1)

Nearly a decade ago, leaders at Pomerene Memorial Hospital in Millersburg, Ohio, realized they needed to do things differently to better serve the large Amish and Anabaptist community in their county. The Amish and other Anabaptists, including Mennonites, do not carry commercial health insurance; they prefer to pay for healthcare and other goods and services in cash, and they are famously thrifty shoppers. They wanted one all-inclusive price for tests, procedures and episodes of care, rather than a lengthy list of itemized charges that didn't even include professional fees. (Meyer, 2/2)

Kaiser Health News: Transparent Hospital Pricing Exposes Wild Fluctuation, Even Within Miles

The federal government’s new rule requiring hospitals to post prices for their services is intended to allow patients to shop around and compare prices, a step toward price transparency that has generated praise and skepticism. Kaiser Health News examined the price lists — known in hospital lingo as “chargemasters” — of the largest acute care hospitals in several large cities. (Rowan, 2/4)

The federal government said a recent inspection of Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital found serious problems and threatened to cut off the institution’s public funding unless the issues are addressed in a matter of weeks. The hospital was cited for not meeting federal rules on infection control, quality improvement, how it hires and manages doctors, and its leadership structure, according to a letter the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services sent the hospital Thursday. (McGrory and Bedi, 2/1)

Patients should work to rein in health-care costs by demanding accountability and transparency from hospitals and physicians, U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Seema Verma said Friday. ...As people spend more out of pocket on their health care, they are increasingly seeking information to help them make smarter decisions. But finding out in advance how much a procedure will cost is difficult because the prices insurers negotiate with doctors and hospitals are considered proprietary. (Gantz, 2/1)

David Lerman, a Berkeley, Calif., lawyer, changed health plans this year only to learn that his new insurer has no contract with the dominant medical provider in his community. Anthem Blue Cross of California, one of the state’s largest health insurers, is battling with Sutter Health over how much it should pay to care for tens of thousands of its enrollees in Northern California. Sutter operates 24 hospitals in the region and lists about 5,000 doctors in its network. (Ostrov, 1/31)

The number of hate crimes in the District rose sharply in 2018, nearly doubling the total attributed to bias in the city just two years earlier, according to city statistics. Crimes based on sexual orientation topped the list, according to the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism, a research center at California State University at San Bernardino. The center analyzed the rise in hate crimes in the District and in cities across the nation in its annual report on bias crimes. (Zauzmer and McCoy, 2/2)

Transgender teens — those whose gender identity does not align with their biological sex at birth — now represent almost 2 percent of U.S. high school students, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That conclusion stems from the agency’s analysis of data based on a nationally representative sample of 131,901 public school students in grades nine through 12, who were asked a variety of questions about gender identity and personal health and safety issues. (Searing, 2/3)

A federal magistrate judge this week recommended that a ban on conversion therapy in Tampa be partially blocked, arguing it violates therapists' free-speech rights under the First Amendment. A pair of licensed marriage and family therapists, along with a Christian ministry organization, sued the city of Tampa over an ordinance adopted in April 2017 that barred mental health professionals from subjecting minors to conversion therapy, a highly controversial practice that attempts to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity. (Schmidt, 2/1)

Those medications, the first to be tuned to the genetic mutations that cause the disease, have helped people experience fewer flare-ups and hospitalizations. They have also brought the relief of simply feeling better and breathing easier. The drugs have been touted as a testament to what’s possible with precision medicine treatments, which target the roots of diseases instead of just addressing symptoms. The catch is that cystic fibrosis is not caused by one mutation, or a handful, but more than 1,500 different rearrangements in the code for the gene known as CFTR. (Joseph, 2/4)

The risk of developing obesity-related cancer is increasing in successive generations, along with increasing rates of obesity. Researchers studied the incidence of 30 of the most common cancers, including 12 that are obesity related, from 1995 to 2014 in people ages 25 to 84 — more than 14.6 million cases. The study is in Lancet Public Health. (Bakalar, 2/4)

In the fall of 2015, Dr. Herbert Dardik, chief of vascular surgery at Englewood Hospital and Medical Center in New Jersey, nodded off in the operating room. Note that Dr. Dardik, then 80, was not performing the operation. He’d undergone a minor medical procedure himself a few days earlier, so he’d told his patient that another surgeon would handle her carotid endarterectomy, in which plaque is removed from the carotid artery to improve blood flow. (Span, 2/1)

Jill was just 39 in July 2010 when she was diagnosed with stage 2 breast cancer. Her longtime boyfriend had felt a lump in her right breast. Two weeks later, she had a mastectomy and began chemotherapy. The shock, stress, fatigue and treatment took its toll on the relationship, and her boyfriend left. “That’s when I began to realize that breast cancer was not only threatening my life, but would affect me physically, emotionally and sexually going forward,” said Jill, a library specialist in Denver who asked that her last name not be used to protect her privacy. (Sadick, 2/2)

On a mild January morning in Lafayette, Colo., 22 residents and five dogs gathered for a walk along the Coal Creek Trail. Bundled in puffy coats and fleece hats, they explored the great outdoors, taking in views of snow-covered Longs Peak. Two thousand miles away, in Naples, Fla., a cluster of walkers put in laps on the fitness trail around Lake Avalon. Meanwhile, outside the New Brunswick train station in New Jersey, dozens of men and women huddled together before setting off on the Delaware and Raritan Canal State Park Trail. (Rough, 2/2)

Nearly 50 years after the United States declared war on cancer, the University of Minnesota is launching research into one of the chief casualties — men who survived their diseases only to encounter a lifetime of side effects from aggressive and even toxic treatments. Male death rates from prostate and testicular cancers have been halved since 1995 because of advances in radiation, chemo­therapy and drugs that suppress cancer-fueling hormones such as testosterone. But the treatments take a toll, said Dr. Charles Ryan, a U prostate cancer specialist. Reducing testosterone alone can affect men's mood, strength and energy. (Olson, 2/3)

Sonny and Brina Hurwitz raised a family in Boston. They both died with secrets. In 2016, their oldest daughter, Julie Lawson, took a home DNA test. Later, she persuaded her sister, Fredda Hurwitz, to take one too. In May, the sisters sat down at the dinner table in Ms. Hurwitz’s Falls Church, Va., home to share their results. A man’s name popped up as a close genetic match for Ms. Hurwitz. Neither had ever heard of him. (Dockser Marcus, 2/1)

What do men secretly want? Long-held stereotypes contend they’re always interested in sex; happiest being the pursuer; focused on the physical rather than the emotional connection. If we discuss male sexuality at all, we tend to focus on the darker, toxic side—the entitlement and aggression increasingly exposed by the #MeToo movement. (Bernstein, 2/2)

Larry Weller didn’t want to spoil the party. Surrounded by relatives who had gathered to celebrate his oldest granddaughter’s 18th birthday at a favorite Italian restaurant, he fervently hoped that no one, other than his wife who murmured her concern, noticed what he was doing. (Boodman, 2/2)

When registered nurse Ebony Monroe of Houston went through a period of being quick to anger about every little thing recently, she didn't realize what it might mean for her health. "If you had told me in the beginning that my irritability was related to depression, I would probably be livid," Monroe says with a laugh. "I did not think irritability aligned with depression." (Greenfieldboyce, 2/4)

Ashoor Rasho has spent more than half his life alone in a prison cell in Illinois — 22 to 24 hours a day. The cell was so narrow he could reach his arms out and touch both walls at once. "It was pretty broke down — the whole system, the way they treated us," says the 43-year-old Rasho, who has been diagnosed with several mental health conditions, including severe depression, schizophrenia and borderline personality disorder. (Herman, 2/3)

Since last summer, Congo has been in the crosshairs of the second worst outbreak of the Ebola virus disease. As of the end of January, more than 730 cases and 459 deaths have been reported. International public health officials are working to get effective treatments into the conflict-ridden region. The World Health Organization’s Ebola virus disease website is a clearinghouse for information on the epidemic, from details about its toll to publications about the virus and how the world is working to fight it. (Blakemore, 2/2)

Under a new initiative dubbed “Know Diabetes by Heart,” the American Heart Association and American Diabetes Association are partnering to reduce cardiovascular deaths, heart attacks and strokes in people with Type 2 diabetes. Those living with diabetes are twice as likely to develop and die from cardiovascular disease. (Smola, 2/3)

Katherine Leon was 38 and living in Alexandria, Va., when she gave birth to her second son in 2003. She was discharged from the hospital, but instead of getting better, she recalls, she kept feeling “worse and worse and worse. ”Five weeks after she had her child, Ms. Leon’s husband came back early from work and found her barely able to breathe. “I hate to use the word panic, because so many people say if it’s a woman she is just having a panic attack, but I was terrified,” she said. (Warraich, 2/1)

Football helmets could be getting another boost toward enhanced safety features with announcements by two major manufacturers Friday. Riddell has partnered with Carbon, a tech company that features 3-D printing, to bring digital design innovation and customization to head protection through its new Diamond helmets. (Wilner, 2/1)

As a measles outbreak rages in Clark County, health care professionals advise a simple solution: Get vaccinated. “The key thing is vaccinations,” said John Lynch, an associate professor of medicine and allergy and infectious diseases at the University of Washington School of Medicine. Despite measles being declared eradicated in the United States in 2000, there have been periodic outbreaks. At least 47 people in southwest Washington’s Clark County have been infected with measles during the past couple of weeks, according to data posted on the Clark County Public Health website on Feb. 3. (Blethen, 2/3)

The measles outbreak in Clark County shows no sign of letting up as public health officials Sunday announced they had identified additional cases. Officials have identified another four confirmed cases, bringing the total to 47. They said they’d also identified seven suspected cases of the disease. Public health officials said they have not identified any new locations where people may have been exposed to measles. (Crombie, 2/3)

A 9-year-old Vancouver boy infected with measles wasn’t vaccinated because his parents feared he would have an allergic reaction, the boy’s father said this week. The case is one of 41 infections in a monthlong outbreak in the Vancouver area that has spread to Oregon. Clark County has among the lowest vaccination rates in Washington. Health officials haven’t identified the source of the outbreak or any connections between those infected. (Zarkhin, 2/1)

A child who received only one dose of the measles vaccine is the newest person diagnosed with the disease, according to a Friday update from Clark County Public Health. The first dose of the measles vaccine is 93 percent effective. Public health officer Dr. Alan Melnick said that it is fine for most people children who are not yet scheduled for the second dose, which is usually administered around the age of 5. (Harbarger, 2/1)

A measles outbreak in the Portland, Ore., area has revived a bitter debate over “philosophical” exemptions to childhood vaccinations as public health officials across the Northwest scramble to limit the fallout. At least 44 people in Washington and Oregon have fallen ill in recent weeks with the extraordinarily contagious virus, which was eradicated in the U.S. in 2000 as a result of immunization but arrives periodically with overseas travelers. (Flaccus, 2/3)

Lurking among the hot new cars and crowds of journalists at this year's North American International Auto Show was a potentially serious virus, state health officials warned Friday. If you attended the Detroit auto show press preview days Jan. 13-15, you may have been exposed to rubella, also known as the German measles, the state Department of Health and Human Services said.  (Shamus, 2/1)

The school district here uses a facial recognition system to scan for people not allowed on school grounds. IDs track the whereabouts of students and staff. Teachers have cellphone panic buttons to alert police and soon will have special locks on classroom doors that can be activated remotely. A newly expanded security team keeps 22 AR-15 rifles in their offices. The district has spent $6.3 million in eight months on these and other security measures to keep students safe from potential shooters. (Hobbs, 2/3)

New Mexico could become the eighth state to allow physician-assisted death for the terminally ill, as lawmakers consider an aid-in-dying bill. About 20 years ago, a similar law went into effect in Oregon. At the time, University of New Mexico School of Law professor Robert Schwartz was concerned with the bill's ethics and gray areas. (O'Dowd, 2/1)

As the one-year anniversary of the UH fertility freezer failure approaches, the incident is still fresh in the minds of many. Patients still grieve. Attorneys continue to fight for answers. And regulators try to prevent something like this from happening again. Stricter fertility center protocols and the ongoing lawsuits against UH and equipment manufacturers are evidence the incident is serving as a wake-up call for many. (Washington, 2/3)

The Chicago Police Department is about to undergo extensive changes to its practices and policies, after a federal judge approved a plan Thursday that attempts to reform the way the police department interacts with the public. The plan is the culmination of a multi-year process that began with the 2015 release of a video that showed a white police officer shooting at black teenager Laquan McDonald 16 times. (Schwartz, 2/1)

A drug-resistant superbug is on the rise in Travis County, and Austin Public Health officials are warning medical professionals to take extra precautions since it’s typically found in hospitals and nursing homes. Carbapenem-resistant enterobacteriaceae, also known as CRE, is one of the top drug-resistant organisms in the world today, and instances of people becoming infected have been increasing in Travis County in the past three years, health officials say. (Huber, 2/1)

He’s not calling it a cartel, as Gov. Ron DeSantis did. But House Speaker José Oliva acknowledged this week that the state’s “vertically integrated” medical marijuana system – which requires operators to grow, process and dispense cannabis and related products – “isn’t terribly free market.” (Kam, 2/1)

Currently, Texas law requires optometrists — who go to optometry school instead of medical school — to refer patients to doctors for a second opinion if they find patients have glaucoma. Optometrists are also only allowed to prescribe antibiotics for a limited amount of time. (Evans, 2/4)

Can children aged 13 and 14 years old be the aggressors in a sexual encounter with a 67-year-old man? A Leavenworth County judge recently said he thought so when he reduced the prison sentence for a man who paid for sex with young girls he solicited over the internet. (Rizzo, 2/3)

The federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services have notified Mount Carmel Health that two of its hospitals involved in the patient-death scandal could be terminated from the Medicare program due to pharmaceutical-services deficiencies “so serious they constitute an immediate threat to patient health and safety.” Findings and details of surveys conducted for CMS by the Ohio Department of Health won’t be released until each hospital — Mount Carmel West and Mount Carmel St. Ann’s — has an opportunity to submit a plan of correction within five days of receipt of the notification letters and CMS approves each plan. (Bruner and Price, 2/1)

On Thursday, 300 volunteers across San Mateo County came out in the rain—arriving at 5 a.m. at places like Safe Harbor House in South San Francisco—to help put together this year's point-in-time homeless count. Volunteers were divided into groups, and spent the day walking and driving along U.S. Census tracts, taking care not to disturb people who appeared to be sleeping. (Schiffer, 2/2)

As Pride St. Louis and other organizations opened pop-up shelters for people needing reprieve from the record-breaking cold last week, activists and elected officials called on the City of St. Louis to develop new procedures for helping the homeless during harsh winter weather. Prompted by phone calls from citizens and activists, President of the Board of Aldermen Lewis Reed urged the city to “reevaluate all of the winter-outreach practices” in a letter to Mayor Lyda Krewson. (Petrin, 2/2)

We call upon Congress to seize opportunities to adopt policies and public funding to expand information, access and opportunity to serve all people. We know it won’t be easy. The current administration continues to propagate policy initiatives that are designed to strip away the protections and funding that have helped millions of women — particularly those most in need — for decades. (Ginny Ehrlich, 2/2)

C.S. Lewis was only partly right when he wrote: The greatest evil . . . is conceived and ordered (moved, seconded, carried and minuted) in clean, carpeted, warmed and well-lighted offices, by quiet men with white collars and cut fingernails and smooth-shaven cheeks who do not need to raise their voice. Lewis, perhaps, couldn’t have envisioned the day when a law allowing abortion up to the moment of birth would receive a standing ovation, as occurred last month with New York’s passage of the absurdly named “Reproductive Health Act.” (Kathleen Parker, 2/1)

A legislative effort to loosen restrictions on late-term abortion died last week in the Virginia General Assembly. The problem was that Gov. Ralph Northam was a little too honest about what the bill would mean. When an interviewer asked him what would happen to a baby born alive during a third-trimester abortion, the governor—who also works as a pediatric neurologist—said calmly: “If a mother is in labor, I can tell you exactly what would happen. The infant would be delivered. The infant would be kept comfortable. The infant would be resuscitated if that’s what the mother and the family desired, and then a discussion would ensue between the physicians and the mother.” (Ann McElhinney and Phelim McAleer, 2/3)

Since New Year’s Day, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has learned the hard way that forcing hospitals to post their standard prices online brings as much confusion as insight to prospective patients. Rather than enlighten us on the cost of, say, a knee replacement, we must now parse the complicated medical jargon associated with knee replacement surgery — do I need the Component FML P-STB Cndlr Knee Ant-Pstr Pors 54x55mm for $42,011 at one Texas hospital or do I need its Implant TIB Knee MOST HNGD SZ 2 at $25,956? — while trying to figure out how much insurers will knock off the price. This clearly wasn’t the intended result behind the CMS requirement that, as of Jan. 1, every hospital must post a “machine readable” copy of its chargemaster, a list of all charges the hospital can levy. Yet it shouldn’t have taken the actual implementation of this shortsighted policy to reveal it wouldn’t bring true price transparency into the cost of health care. (Jay Deady, 2/4)

Last month, the DNA-testing company 23andMe secured Food and Drug Administration approval for a new screening for gene-based health risks. Along with celiac disease, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, breast cancer and several other medical conditions, the company can now screen clients for two mutations that have been linked to colorectal cancer. But “F.D.A.-approved” does not necessarily mean “clinically useful.” 23andMe relies on much simpler technology than tests that you’d get at your doctor’s office. As a result, the company’s tests cannot tell you much about your actual risk of developing the diseases in question. (2/1)

Our children are being left behind. Mortality rates are rising from preventable injury. Children are dying in the custody of the state. Some are suffering and dying from vaccine preventable diseases. Some are trapped in detention centers and psychiatric hospitals due to state failures to find less restrictive settings, hindering their development at critical periods in their lives. As the country emerges from the longest government shutdown in history — and possibly braces for another — policy makers set agendas to define the year ahead. While more candidates throw their hats into the 2020 ring, children’s issues are not top priority. (Erin Daksha-Talati Paquette, 2/3)

In 2000, when I was 19 and having an existential and Adderall-fueled nervous breakdown, I came home from college for a long weekend and sobbed in my mother’s arms. She held me and shushed me, and then — feeling like she was out of options, she’d tell me later — took out a fat, round, green pill from a bottle on her night table and bit off a small chunk. “Here,” she said as she pulled me close, “Maybe this will calm you down.” It did. I didn’t even ask what it was before I swallowed it, but as soon as it kicked in, I knew: This feels like home. (Dani Fleischer, 2/3)

I believe my mother thought that needing to medicate her own discomfort would be a kind of moral and physical weakness. This applied only to herself; if I told her that I was hurting, or that one of her grandchildren was in pain, she would have been anxious for something to help. She felt our pain, you might say, but she denied her own. I’ve spent the past couple of weeks thinking about pain in children and writing about pain in children — acute pain and chronic pain, pain with shots and pain after surgery, pain medicines and pain specialists. (Perri Klass, 2/4)

For progressives, the only thing worse than Starbucks founder Howard Schultz getting into the 2020 presidential race might be Donald Trump suffering a debilitating heart attack. That’s how many on the left secretly see things. To them, Mr. Trump is like another Kennedy assassination combined with another Goldwater—a one-time alignment that will enable an agenda that otherwise would never get through the White House door. Item No. 1 on that agenda is single-payer health care. (Holman W. Jenkins, 2/1)

It’s time to acknowledge that critics may have misjudged one of the Trump administration’s signature health-care policies — “bigly.” Last summer, the administration issued new rules designed to help small businesses and self-employed people get health insurance through what are known as association health plans. The plans, which have existed for decades, allow small businesses in the same field or region to band together into “associations” and provide insurance for their members. Because these plans are able to use their size to negotiate lower premiums and are not subject to all Affordable Care Act regulations, they are often cheaper than those found on the individual market. (Robert Gebelhoff, 2/1)

Since President Trump took office, speculation has raged that he intends to privatize major portions of the Department of Veterans Affairs’ sprawling health care system. Last week, the administration took its most definitive step in that direction by releasing rules allowing veterans who live more than a 30-minute drive from a V.A. health care facility to choose to receive private care instead. (Anuradha Bhagwati, 2/3)

Jacqueline Watson needed money. Her son had called her that morning from prison, where he is serving a life sentence, to ask her to make a deposit in his phone account. She didn’t have cash, but she did have something she could sell quickly and legally — her blood. So, on a crisp Monday morning in November, she traveled 40 minutes by bus to CSL Plasma, a blood plasma collection center wedged between a Dollar Tree and a Wells Fargo bank in a strip mall in North Philadelphia. (Zoe Greenberg, 2/1)

The news in November that a Chinese scientist may have edited the genes of embryos, resulting in the birth of two baby girls, reminds us that gene editing is still an exciting — and often controversial — field. (Jim Burns, 2/1)

As the aging demographic continues to grow, the stress on the state budget will significantly increase. To meet demand and provide needed care, Newsom must prioritize resources and follow through.The plan should identify and address the social factors that place seniors at risk for malnutrition and other diseases. (Susannah Meyer, 2/3)

Does Partners HealthCare still need to grow — and if so, how and where, and at what cost to Massachusetts General and Brigham and Women’s, its flagship hospitals? That’s the important, underlying policy question, beyond what feels like a family feud between two great Harvard teaching hospitals and their parent company. (2/1)

The soda industry has won two rounds in the battle to discourage consumption of sugary drinks linked to obesity, diabetes, heart disease and tooth decay. It will take a concerted effort by the community to keep the focus on what’s really at stake: our health. (2/3)

What makes California the very picture of health? It’s neither sunshine nor silicone. Our health secret is immigration.While the president blames immigrants for being sources of disease, Californians have long known that immigrants make us healthier. (Joe Mathews, 2/3)

As the federal government roared back to life this week, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Tampa announced a slew of sentencings and settlements. There was the standard fare expected from federal prosecutors — important cases involving the conviction of child predators, drug dealers, and felons carrying guns. Also of note, however, were a series of high-impact health care fraud cases. Health care practitioners — and their patients — would be wise to learn from the mistakes of their peers and adjust their course accordingly. (A. Lee Bentley III and Jason Mehta, 2/1)