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The attorneys general for New York and Minnesota are suing the Trump administration for abruptly cutting off federal funding for health care coverage for more than 800,000 low-income residents in the two states. New York’s Eric Schneiderman and Minnesota’s Lori Swanson announced Friday that the lawsuit filed in Manhattan federal court accuses the Department of Health and Human Services of withholding more than $1 billion. (1/26)

The U.S. Health and Human Service Department waited until a day before Affordable Care Act payments were due to notify New York and Minnesota by email that more than $1 billion in annual funding was being cut off, according to a complaint filed Friday in federal court in Manhattan. New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman called the state’s health plan a "lifeline" for 700,000 residents. "The abrupt decision to cut these vital funds is a cruel and reckless assault on New York’s families,” he said in a statement. (Larson, Tracer and Recht, 1/26)

The 2010 health care law gave states the option to set up a Basic Health Program for people who make between 133 percent and 200 percent of the federal poverty level. New York and Minnesota — the only states to have set up such programs — receive federal funding equal to 95 percent of what would have been provided to qualified individuals through premium tax credits and cost-sharing reduction payments if they purchased coverage on the law's insurance exchanges. In the lawsuit, the states say the administration informed them in December it would end the component of that funding related to the CSR payments. (McIntire, 1/26)

Minnesota is challenging the Trump administration’s decision to cut funding for the state’s public health care program for the working poor. Attorney General Lori Swanson announced a lawsuit Friday against the federal government to halt an expected $130 million cut to MinnesotaCare, which provides insurance to low-income Minnesotans. The state of New York, which has a similar program, is also a plaintiff in the case. (Magan, 1/26)

MinnesotaCare enrollees will not be affected in the short run, but the cuts could create a long-term funding shortfall with the potential to threaten the future of the program. “Minnesota may be forced, in the future, to reduce benefits or increase out-of-pocket costs for its enrollees,” according to the federal lawsuit, which was filed Friday in partnership with the state of New York. But any changes would need to be approved by the federal government and the Minnesota Legislature, which could take up the issue this session because of the federal cutbacks. (Howatt, 1/26)

Republicans on the campaign trail this year will be eager to tout the potential benefits of their tax cut plan.Voters like Jeanine Limone Draut, a freelance technical writer in Denver, have something else in mind: health care. Failed efforts by congressional Republicans last year to repeal former President Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act exposed not only deep divisions within the party but also revealed core benefits of the law that millions of Americans now take for granted. Draut is tired of the attacks and the uncertainty surrounding the law's future. (Anderson, 1/28)

Only a third of the public is aware that Congress repealed ObamaCare's individual mandate, according to a new poll released Friday. Of those surveyed by the Kaiser Family Foundation, 36 percent said they're aware Congress repealed the requirement that most have insurance or pay a tax penalty, while 46 percent incorrectly said it has not been repealed. (Hellmann, 1/26)

The billionaire Koch brothers’ political organization spent more than $200 million in the past decade on what official Tim Phillips calls “without question our biggest policy defeat,” the quest to kill the Affordable Care Act. Now, the network of donors is turning its attention to the more urgent matter of protecting Republican majorities in both chambers of Congress this fall. “You can’t pout; you have to move on,” said Mr. Phillips, the longtime president of Americans for Prosperity, the Kochs’ primary vehicle for advocating on health care and other state and federal policies. “We won’t hold the majority forever, and we have many more policy goals.” (Bykowicz, 1/28)

Washington state isn’t waiting for the federal government to tweak, fix or repeal Obamacare. Health-insurance bills are surfacing in Olympia this session with the goal of insuring more Washingtonians and stabilizing the individual-insurance market. The bills are a response to President Trump’s and Congress’ continued efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The ACA, also known as Obamacare, took a significant hit when Congress passed and President Trump signed a new tax bill into law. The tax bill eliminates the penalty for not buying health insurance, therefore crippling the individual mandate that was an essential piece to propping up the ACA with a pool of healthy people. (Blethen, 1/27)

Democratic candidates for governor weighed in on health care issues Saturday in a public forum, addressing topics such as BadgerCare and hospital emergency room costs. In a format loosely modeled after the game show Jeopardy, candidates supported the idea of allowing anyone, regardless of income, to buy into BadgerCare, the state health program currently reserved for the most needy. (Barrett, 1/27)

Healthcare stakeholders are watching in horror as the fate of a number of critical healthcare programs has gotten bound up in Congress' intractable political battle over immigration. The short-term continuing budget resolution approved by lawmakers Jan. 22 to keep the federal government open through Feb. 8 provided a big jolt of relief by extending funding for the Children's Health Insurance Program for six years, ensuring coverage for nearly 9 million kids. Medical-device makers, insurers and employers were pleased by provisions delaying enforcement of three Affordable Care Act taxes affecting them, which the Congressional Budget Office said would cost the Treasury $31 billion. (Meyer, 1/27)

Several groups are pleading with Congress to permanently fund diabetes programs, arguing the absence of long-term funding could delay promising new research and harm prevention efforts in vulnerable populations.   So far, lawmakers have provided a funding patch for the two diabetes programs that will last through March 31. But these short-term fixes come at a cost because they “do not provide the sustained ability for these programs to keep moving forward,” said Meghan Riley of the American Diabetes Association. (Roubein, 1/28)

According to Cecile Richards, the president of Planned Parenthood for over a decade, protesters who wave anti-abortion signs outside one of the organization’s clinics will sometimes return — a week, a month or a year later — for an annual medical exam. The men in Washington, D.C., who have done battle with Ms. Richards (“and they’re almost always men”) don’t see that side of the organization, she said. “For women, access to reproductive health care isn’t a political issue,” Ms. Richards said. “The women who walk into Planned Parenthood clinics come from every background, every political persuasion. "Yes, she said, even women who support President Trump. (Chozick, 1/26)

The president of Planned Parenthood, longtime activist Cecile Richards, will step down this year after leading the women's health organization for more than a decade, the group said on Friday. Richards, 60, has worked defending reproductive rights and other services including providing contraception, healthcare screenings and about one-third of the abortions in the United States. (Mincer, 1/26)

“Leading Planned Parenthood over the last 12 years has been the honor of my lifetime," she said in a statement. "I will be leaving the organization well-positioned to serve and fight for our patients for a century more. Every day we see the incredible power that grassroots voices can have — there has never been a better moment to be an activist." (Manchester and Hellmann, 1/26)

Under Richards’ leadership, Planned Parenthood has grown its supporters to 11 million. According to a Kaiser Family Foundation poll, 75 percent of the public supports Medicaid money going to Planned Parenthood for services that do not include abortion. Richards plans to discuss the next steps for the organization and 2018 at Planned Parenthood’s upcoming board meeting, according to a spokesperson. (Raman, 1/26)

The Missouri Supreme Court heard arguments earlier this month in a case that challenges two of the state's abortion restrictions, the three-day waiting period and the requirement that abortion providers give patients a booklet that defines life as beginning at conception. Many such restrictions have gone in front of the court for years. What is unusual about this case is the name of the group that the plaintiff is a part of: The Satanic Temple. The southeast Missouri woman and the group argue that the rules prevent her from practicing her faith.  (Palmer, 1/29)

Thousands of anti-abortion Texans are expected to rally on the steps of the state Capitol on Saturday for the Texas Rally for Life, an event recognizing the 45th anniversary of what they consider the "tragic" Roe v. Wade decision. But as attendees mourn the U.S. Supreme Court case that ensured a right to a legal abortion, they'll also celebrate. This past year, they say, has brought "sensational" gains for their movement. (Greene, 1/26)

With his confirmation last week, Alex Azar officially took the reins at HHS. During his confirmation hearings, Azar addressed four key priorities for the department: 1. Soaring drug prices: Azar offered few details on how he would bring prices under control, other than including praise for the pharmacy benefit managers' system for Medicare Part D and a plug for applying Part D ideas to rein in the spiking growth in Part B drug costs. 2. Affordability: Even before Azar took over, HHS was moving forward with plans to relax Affordable Care Act insurance reforms. (Weinstock and Luthi, 1/ 27)

It’s a sign of just how divided things have gotten in Washington that a relatively qualified nominee like Alex Azar can somehow garner 43 no votes. Such was the case Jan. 24, when the former Eli Lilly executive, who had previous stints in the federal government as a deputy secretary, was confirmed by the Senate for Health and Human Services secretary. The only HHS secretary to get more  no votes was Azar’s predecessor, Tom Price, who resigned from his post in September following a Politico report that showed the Georgia Republican had billed taxpayers for more than $1 million in travel on private and military jets. (Miller, 1/29)

The deaths of four squirrel monkeys used as subjects in a nicotine addiction study have prompted the Food and Drug Administration to shut down the research permanently and to establish a council to oversee all animal studies under the agency’s purview. “It is clear the study was not consistent with the agency’s high animal welfare standards,” Dr. Scott Gottlieb, the agency’s commissioner, said in a statement on Friday. “These findings indicate that F.D.A.’s animal program may need to be strengthened in some important areas.” (Kaplan, 1/26)

Squirrel monkeys from an Food and Drug Administration nicotine study are headed to a long-term sanctuary after officials concluded that the experiment, which resulted in four deaths, did not meet the agency's animal-welfare standards and shut it down. Twenty monkeys that were involved in the study, plus six that were not, will be moved to the sanctuary, the FDA said Friday. It did not detail where the monkeys will go or when, although officials said the transition process could be lengthy. (McGinley, 1/26)

This year’s flu season is now more intense than any since the 2009 swine flu pandemic and still getting worse, federal health officials said on Friday. Nationally, the number of people falling ill with flu is increasing. More worrying, the hospitalization rate — a predictor of the death rate — has just jumped. It is now on track to equal or surpass that of the 2014-2015 flu season. In that year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates, 34 million Americans got the flu, 710,000 were hospitalized and about 56,000 died. (McNeil, 1/26)

Sick with the flu? You’ve got a lot of company. The flu blanketed the U.S. again last week for the third straight week. Only Hawaii has been spared. The government doesn’t track every flu case but comes up with estimates. One measure is how many people seek medical care. Last week, 1 in 15 doctor visits were for symptoms of the flu. That’s the highest level since the swine flu pandemic in 2009. (Stobbe, 1/26)

What's more, flu activity has stayed at the same level nationwide for about three weeks, said Dr. Dan Jernigan, the director of the CDC’s Influenza Division. That sets it apart from many flu seasons, in which activity wanes in certain parts of the U.S. "We often see different parts of the country 'light up' at different times, but for the past 3 weeks, the entire country has been experiencing lots of flu, all at the same time," he said. (Greenwood, 1/27)

The toll on children has been especially severe. CDC officials said the pediatric death count is likely to approach, if not exceed, the 148 deaths reported during the especially severe flu season of 2014 and 2015. That season ended with 56,000 flu-related deaths, 710,000 people hospitalized and 16 million who sought care from a clinician or hospital. This year’s intensity has been driven by a particularly nasty strain of the virus known as H3N2. Another strain has also begun showing up, hitting baby boomers especially hard, CDC officials said Friday, although experts have not figured out exactly why. (Sun and Wan, 1/26)

After an early start, the country is about nine weeks into this nasty flu season and could be only about halfway through, Jernigan says. As a result, the percentage of people seeking medical treatment for the flu and the rates at which they are ending up in the hospital and dying are still rising. The flu is hitting the 65-and-over age group hardest, but the next-hardest hit is the 50-to-64 age group. Usually, children are the second-hardest hit. (Grayson and Stein, 1/26)

The season is shaping up to be similar to the epidemic of late 2014 and early 2015, which entailed 710,000 hospitalizations and 56,000 deaths, according to the CDC. The agency is expecting similar numbers this year, Jernigan said. (Cortez, 1/26)

Marian Smith somehow missed getting a flu shot this year, which is unlike her — in the past, she always got one. The 58-year-old Washington D.C. resident says it was easier to remember to get it when the vaccine was provided at a clinic at work. But now the clinic is a bus ride away, and getting the shot wasn't at the top of her mind. (Neighmond, 1/29)

As World War I raged in Europe, an even deadlier killer was on the loose — influenza. During 1918, up to 50 million people died during the worst flu pandemic the world has ever seen. About 675,000 perished in the United States alone — far more than the number of Americans who died in World War I. You can experience those terrifying days through “The Deadly Virus,” an online exhibition from the National Archives and Records Administration. (Blakemore, 1/27)

The number of flu-related deaths across Washington state this season reached 109 last week, up from 29 earlier this month, according to tallies by the state Department of Health. This season’s fatalities, according to a report released Friday, are seemingly on track with last year’s rate at this time. The country, meanwhile, is grappling with what is on track to be the worst flu season in nearly a decade, with people seeking care at a rate rivaling the 2009 swine flu pandemic. (Lee, 1/26)

Flu activity has spiked across Florida, slamming doctors’ offices and ERs with sick patients, and depleting supplies of the antiviral drug Tamiflu, particularly in liquid form for children, at some local pharmacies. ...Flu activity had a sharp rise in all Florida counties and among all age groups during the third week of the year, leading to closure of the entire school district in Gulf County in Florida’s Panhandle and the death of a 12-year-old boy in Palm Beach this week. (Miller, 1/28)

Dr. Mary Beth Saunders of Lee Health said that kind of adverse reaction to the influenza medicine is rare — about 1 percent of patients who take Tamiflu might have a reaction, and it’s very difficult for physicians to predict, WBBH NBC2 reported. At the hospital, even the doctors weren’t sure how to handle the rare reaction. (Cohen, 1/27)

The number of Californians younger than 65 who have died from the flu during this flu season jumped again in the latest reporting period and now totals 97, according to figures released Friday by state public health officials. The latest number represents a spike of 23 in addition to the 74 deaths announced by the state last week — in the same age group — and an increase of four in the Greater Bay Area. (Seipel, 1/26)

The number of flu-related deaths in Georgia has more than doubled, climbing to 25 from 12, state health officials reported late Friday. The Department of Public Health also said there were 115 hospitalizations in the metro Atlanta area due to influenza infection during the week of Jan. 14 through Jan. 20. (Miller, 1/26)

Philadelphia wants to establish safe havens where people can inject drugs, an effort to combat skyrocketing opioid overdoses in the city. They would be places where people could shoot up under the supervision of medical professionals who could administer an overdose antidote if necessary. But there are more questions than answers on how it would work and what it would look like, and if it could even legally get up and running. (de Groot, 1/28)

Arizona Republican Governor Doug Ducey on Friday signed into law legislation intended to crack down on opioid abuse, calling it vital to combat an epidemic felt statewide and across the nation. “We’ve all heard the first person stories of individuals who have been impacted,” Ducey said at a signing ceremony. “But there are so many other stories we haven’t heard because the individuals impacted didn’t survive. This bill is for them.” (Schwartz, 1/26)

State laws, public health guidelines and American Medical Association standards are forging the path to cut back the prescribing of pain pills in the United States. ...But the shift isn't uniform. Five states had prescription rates that were higher in 2016 — by as much as Iowa's 12.1 percent — than they were back in 2007, a USA TODAY NETWORK analysis of the CDC's data shows. (DeMio, 1/26)

New mothers in recovery from addiction confront extraordinary obstacles, according to people who care for them. Most are allowed to take their babies home but live in fear of losing them as the Department of Children and Families watches over their shoulder. (Freyer, 1/29)

Kaiser Health News: Death In The Family: An Uncle’s Overdose Spurs Medicaid Official To Change Course

Andrey Ostrovsky’s family did not discuss what killed his uncle. He was young, not quite two weeks past his 45th birthday, when he died, and he had lost touch with loved ones in his final months. Ostrovsky speculated he had committed suicide. Almost two years later, Ostrovsky was Medicaid’s chief medical officer, grappling with an opioid crisis that kills about 115 Americans each day, when he learned the truth: His uncle died of a drug overdose. (Huetteman, 1/29)

Workplace wellness programs have two main goals: improve employees’ health and lower their employers’ health-care costs. They’re not very good at either, new research finds. For the study, 3,300 employees of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign were given a year of access to iThrive, a workplace wellness program similar to what many companies offer workers. A control group of 1,534 didn’t get access to it at all.  (Greenfield, 1/26)

In her lab at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Choi-Fong Cho is growing tiny, balled-up versions of the blood-brain barrier, one of neuroscience’s most notorious opponents. The barrier lines blood vessels in the brain to block foreign invaders, but it also stops most drugs from getting into the central nervous system. It’s foiled countless treatments that looked promising in animals, only to never make it into the brains of patients. (Thielking, 1/29)

Kaiser Health News: Treating Domestic Violence As A Medical Problem

Fanny Ortiz, a mother of five who lives just east of downtown Los Angeles, spent nearly a decade married to a man who controlled her and frequently threatened her. Then, she said, his abuse escalated. “He would physically hit me in the face, throw me on the wall,” she recalled. Ortiz, 43, eventually left the marriage, taking her children with her. A few years later, she learned that the East Los Angeles Women’s Center offered domestic violence services at the Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center, near her home. Now she goes to the hospital campus for weekly therapy sessions, which she said have helped stop her suicidal thoughts. (Gorman, 1/29)

On Jan. 13, the state of Hawaii spent 38 minutes in terror after a text alert mistakenly warned of an incoming nuclear missile attack. If you heard about the mistake and wondered what you would or should do if you learned a nuclear bomb was heading your way, you're not alone. It has been more than 30 years since schools in the United States had “duck and cover” drills for schoolchildren, and preparing for a nuclear attack isn't something most people are familiar with. Today, nuclear threats are more likely from rogue states and terrorists, not the Soviet Union. But we should still be worried about nuclear threats we’re facing — and, with a president promising to rain down “fire and fury,” the threats we’re making. So if an attack is imminent, what do you do? (Taylor, 1/26)

While a cesarean delivery is sometimes necessary and can be lifesaving, it may have serious long-term disadvantages for both mother and child, researchers report. The analysis, in PLOS Medicine, pooled data from 80 studies including almost 30 million subjects. (Bakalar, 1/26)

Headaches are a common ailment — so common, perhaps, that many of us just accept them as part of life. “When I do routine physicals, I’ll ask about headaches,” says Michael Munger, a primary-care physician in Overland, Kan. He is always surprised that many of his patients report frequent headaches when asked but never bring them up otherwise. “Some people just live with it.” Tension headaches, sinus headaches and migraine headaches are among the most common varieties. (Adams, 1/27)

Each year, thousands of Americans suffer a traumatic brain injury. In 2013, about 2.8 million TBI-related emergency department visits, hospitalizations and deaths occurred in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Most of these are what are called mild traumatic brain injuries, or mTBIs — head injuries that don’t cause a coma. People with an mTBI typically get better within a few weeks, but for as many as 20 percent, problems can linger for months or years. (Kohn, 1/27)

A few weeks ago, our family gathered for a meeting that we hope will save my sister's life. Our goal was to demonstrate to a hospital social worker that we could take care of her should she get a heart transplant. My sister Sara is now 50. (NPR isn't using her last name to protect her medical privacy.) For her to get on the transplant list, her anatomy needed to be suitable and her antibody levels low despite prior surgeries. She had to show that she could withstand the grueling transplant process; that she could consistently take her anti-rejection medications; didn't abuse drugs or alcohol; and had a stable home life. (Wolfson, 1/28)

Cullen Schachtschneider, 6 years old, lay bleeding beside the barn, tangled up in a 4,600-pound farm machine that had ripped his left leg apart. Like children across America’s two million family-run farms, Cullen had grown up around farm equipment, including the yellow loader now covered in his blood. He rode along as his father hauled calves. He watched his grade-school-age brothers drive the diesel-powered loader, carrying corn and doing chores to help keep their family’s struggling Wisconsin dairy afloat. The work was woven into their childhood. (Healy, 1/29)

With the music of rapper Jay-Z blaring in the background, Marwan Khalifeh, a Washington-area cosmetic surgeon, vigorously plunged a strawlike metal probe back and forth through the breasts of a patient lying on an operating table, as if he were playing a cello. The goal was to reduce the size of his patient’s breasts, an increasingly common procedure for women who decide to change their lifestyle or address a medical condition. And Khalifeh’s surgical room on the 17th floor of a medical arts building in Friendship Heights is arrayed with state-of-the-art equipment, including a laser machine called the Smartlipo MPX that emulsifies unwanted fat. (Pianin, 1/28)

How can parents know if a doctor is touching a child in an inappropriate way? After scores of young women testified about being sexually molested by Dr. Lawrence G. Nassar, the former doctor for the American gymnastics team who was sentenced to 40 to 175 years in prison on Wednesday, their parents wondered how they could have missed the signs. Some were even in the exam room at the time but were unaware that anything was wrong. (Rabin, 1/26)

Even when physician sexual assault or accusations of assault are reported to police or employers the cases often don't trigger one of the outcomes that would end up on a doctor's employment record or in the national databases that hospitals consult to complete background checks. That leaves employers free to pass along their problems, accusers feeling betrayed and patients with no assurance of safety. (Christ and Zeltner, 1/28)

After months of scrutiny over an egregious patient-abuse case, the Connecticut Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services is now facing a class action lawsuit that alleges committed patients are languishing in state hospitals long after they have been deemed stable because the state has failed to create an adequate system of community-based care. ...The suit is being filed in Superior Court on behalf of patients who have been civilly committed to state mental health facilities and names the mental health department and its inpatient facilities as defendants. (Rigg, 1/26)

Amid an impasse in negotiations, registered nurses all around the University California system rallied Thursday at hospitals and on campuses to protest contract proposals that they say would impede their ability to provide quality patient care and undermine their well-being in retirement. ...Roughly 14,000 RNs at the five major UC medical centers, 10 student health centers, and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory are represented by the California Nurses Association in these contract negotiations. (Anderson, 1/27)

The board of the District’s troubled public hospital voted Friday to hire a national business consulting firm to help rescue the facility from organizational and financial turmoil, setting the stage for new leadership at a hospital plagued by allegations of mismanagement and questions about patient safety. Mazars USA, an accounting and financial consulting firm that is headquartered in New York and has offices in nine states, is the board’s unanimous choice to run United Medical Center in Southeast Washington. If approved by the D.C. council, Mazars would take the reins from Veritas of Washington, whose contract the council terminated in November. (Jamison, 1/26)

Nashville's cash-strapped public hospital would get $13.2 million in emergency funds to keep it afloat until the end of its fiscal year under a proposal unveiled Friday by Mayor Megan Barry's administration, but the plan comes with some strings attached. Barry's plan for the first time ties the funding for the hospital to cuts in other Metro programs. The administration is proposing $2.4 million in cuts to Metro programs and an across-the-board hiring freeze for all Metro Departments. (Boucher and Wadhwani, 1/26)

Partners HealthCare, the state’s largest health system, is poised to get even bigger, after two state regulators said they wouldn’t block its acquisition of Massachusetts Eye and Ear despite concerns the deal could raise health care costs for consumers. The blessings from regulators are a welcome victory for Partners, which has faced intense scrutiny in its efforts to expand within the state. (Dayal McCluskey, 1/26)

St. Cloud-based CentraCare Health has spent more than $40 million over the past 18 months buying three physician practices in central Minnesota — moves that the health system says were needed to make sure patients in the region didn’t lose access to doctors and services. Health systems have been buying physician practices for many years, and health economists have argued the consolidation contributes to higher health care prices as systems gain market power in negotiating with health insurers. (Snowbeck, 1/26)

Dennis Peron, the cannabis activist who fired up the movement to legalize medical marijuana in California, died on Saturday in a San Francisco hospital. He was 72. Also a prominent figure in San Francisco's gay community, he was credited as a pioneer in recognizing the health benefits of pot during the height of the AIDS crisis in the 1980s. "A man that changed the world," was how his brother Jeffrey Peron remembered him on Facebook. "It is with a heavy heart that I announce the passing of my brother Dennis Peron." (Goldberg, 1/28)

Distractions during driving include texting and talking on cellphones, eating and drinking, talking to passengers, changing music on the radio and even grooming, experts say. And while some forms of distracted driving may involve only brief and occasional behavior, many drivers use their mobile devices habitually, almost constantly. The AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety says distraction plays a role in nearly six out of 10 teen crashes, four times as many as official estimates based on police reports. (Miller, 1/26)

Patients from Johns Hopkins Medicine and MedStar Health are among those who can now see their medical records in one place on their iPhones because of an upgrade Apple made to its Health app. Apple announced the upgrade Friday. The upgrade means iPhone users will no longer have to log on to the websites of several doctors or hospitals to view their medical information. They can also opt to receive notifications when their information is updated. The sensitive data will be encrypted and protected with iPhone passwords. (McDaniels, 1/26)

A record low 6 percent of Chicago high schoolers reported smoking cigarettes in 2017, the city announced Monday. This rate is down from 13.6 percent in 2011, according to findings from a new report by the Chicago Department of Public Health. The drop in teen smoking comes after Chicago raised the minimum age of buying tobacco products from 18 to 21 in 2016. (Whitehair, 1/29)

An Orono senior home has been cited for neglect after a resident fell and was left on the floor of her room for nearly 10 hours, and later died. A state Health Department investigation found that several employees at the Trails of Orono, an assisted-living facility, failed to respond to an activated bed alarm, and also failed to make regular checks on the resident on the night of her fall in August of last year. (Serres, 1/27)

Industry leaders estimate that 70 percent of the more than 1,600 recreational and medical dispensaries in the state are still dealing in cash. ...The Wild West situation stems from marijuana remaining illegal under federal law, which prompts banks that might open accounts and extend loans to fear money-laundering charges. (Fimrite, 1/28)

Profitability in the pot industry has attracted attention from federal prosecutors as recently as 2012 in California, but even with a renewed focus on marijuana from U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Arizona operators see little risk in their profits. Only the Department of Health Services knows how much any of the state’s 130 licensed dispensaries earns, but the Medical Marijuana Act that voters approved states that all dispensaries must run as "non-profits." (Randazzo, 1/26)

People who care about basic American freedoms should be grateful to the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, for one thing: He has given liberals another good reason to flock to the polls in November. Mr. McConnell is set to hold a procedural vote this week on a bill that would ban abortion at 20 weeks of pregnancy. The so-called Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, sponsored by Senator Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, is part of a long-term legislative effort by the anti-abortion movement to gut Roe v. Wade and severely curtail abortion access nationwide. (1/28)

These provisions would apparently “protect” healthcare workers who refuse to take part in abortions and those who deem treating transgender patients, and presumably other groups or individuals, objectionable. This approach to allow choice by health care givers regarding their patient encounters undermines the tenets of the Hippocratic Oath and all pledges dealing with the healing arts. (Frederick Greene, 1/26)

Tamesha Means had been pregnant for just 18 weeks when her water broke in 2010. In pain, she rushed to a hospital near her house in Michigan. But because it was a Catholic health center, doctors there did not tell her that continuing her pregnancy could threaten her health and that abortion was her safest option. Instead they sent her home. They did so again when she returned the next day, bleeding, with painful contractions. They were preparing to send her home for a third time when she miscarried at the hospital. (1/28)

If anything is predictable about the vandalism of the Affordable Care Act perpetrated by President Trump and his healthcare henchmen, it's that the costs of their handiwork will be felt by ordinary Americans for years to come. Now, thanks to Covered California, the state's ACA insurance exchange, we have the first estimate of what those costs will be for 2019. The bottom line is premium increases in the range of 16% to 30%. (Michael Hiltzik, 1/26)

Americans are familiar with the horrors of the opioid crisis, and government at every level has tried to respond with spending on treatment programs and more. But one area that deserves more scrutiny is how government programs may be contributing to the epidemic.Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson released a report this month from the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee that connects the dots between Medicaid and the opioid epidemic. The report doesn’t claim too much, conceding that everything from too many prescriptions to drug marketing contributed to the epidemic.Yet Medicaid offers cheap access to astronomical quantities of pills that can be resold on the black market. (1/26)

The idea that spending more on preventive care will reduce overall health care spending is widely believed and often promoted as a reason to support reform. It’s thought that too many people with chronic illnesses wait until they are truly ill before seeking care, often in emergency rooms, where it costs more. It should follow then that treating diseases earlier, or screening for them before they become more serious, would wind up saving money in the long run. Unfortunately, almost none of this is true. (Aaron E. Carroll, 1/29)

Apple has just announced a major upgrade that will allow customers with iPhones and iPads access to their own health records. ... So why might this announcement be earth-shaking? Because it represents the first time a mass consumer platform that is in the hands of tens of millions of consumers daily and for hours on end — the iOS operating system — will get officially sanctioned health care observations from the formal institutional health care system. (Isaac Kohane, 1/26)

You may not need another reason to retire early, but I’ll give you one anyway: It could lengthen your life. That’s the thrust from various research in recent years, and also from a 2017 study in the journal Health Economics. In that study, Hans Bloemen, Stefan Hochguertel and Jochem Zweerink — all economists from the Netherlands — looked at what happened when, in 2005, some Dutch civil servants could temporarily qualify for early retirement. (Austin Frakt, 1/29)

Make no mistake. I am not arguing that efforts to determine the president’s mental state are inherently problematic. What troubles me is weaponizing the rhetoric of disability to remove Trump from office, especially since his behavior has not significantly changed from before he was elected. (Pasquale Toscano, 1/26)

It’s a safe bet that Californians will sour on SB 562 as they learn more about it. Sixty-five percent of residents say they favor single-payer, according to the Public Policy Institute of California. But support drops by nearly one-third after Golden State residents discover the plan would raise taxes. (Sally Pipes, 1/28)

Medicaid was intended to help the most vulnerable Americans like the elderly and the disabled. But in state after state, Medicaid’s expansion to able-bodied, childless, working-age adults has created an unsustainable burden on taxpayers and crowded out resources for the truly needy and other priorities, such as roads and schools. (J.C. Hernandez, 1/27)