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Even as President Trump boasts that he has “eliminated the core of Obamacare,” his health secretary is taking credit for making the law work better than ever. What gives? ... A review of the administration’s assertions suggests that some are valid while others are sheer hooey. (Pear, 10/6)

Insurers in the individual market performed better financially in the first six months of 2018 than they have in all of the years of the Affordable Care Act, according to a brief released Friday. The brief from the Kaiser Family Foundation shows insurers returning to the levels of profitability seen before the passage of the ACA, but notes recent actions from the Trump administration "cloud expectations for the future." (Hellmann, 10/5)

Ohioans who have Obamacare plans will see premium increases averaging 6.3 percent for health-insurance coverage in 2019, according to the Ohio Department of Insurance. ... Insurers say a stabilizing marketplace has allowed them to increase premiums less and expand coverage to more counties in Ohio for 2019, after a year in which insurers largely blamed instability in Washington, D.C., for cost increases averaging 21 percent. (Christ, 10/7)

The moment conservatives have dreamed about for decades has arrived with Brett Kavanaugh joining the Supreme Court. But with it comes the shadow of a bitter confirmation fight that is likely to hang over the court as it takes on divisive issues, especially those dealing with politics and women's rights. With Kavanaugh taking the place of the more moderate Anthony Kennedy, conservatives should have a working majority of five justices to restrict abortion rights, limit the use of race in college admissions and rein in federal regulators. (Sherman, 10/7)

Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) said on Sunday that she does not think the Supreme Court will overturn Roe v. Wade now that Justice Brett Kavanaugh is a member, but that lower-level judicial and legislative decisions will instead undermine the landmark decision, which legalized abortion. "It matters if they overturn Roe v. Wade, which I doubt they're gonna do," Hirono told ABC's "This Week." (Keller, 10/7)

The politically convenient, scientifically baseless theory that sexual assault so traumatized Christine Blasey Ford she mixed up her attacker is now something like common wisdom for many Republicans. President Trump explicitly endorsed the theory Saturday, shortly after Brett M. Kavanaugh was narrowly confirmed as a Supreme Court judge, telling reporters he was “100 percent” sure Ford accused Kavanaugh in error. (Selk, 10/7)

U.S. regulators Friday expanded the use of Merck's cervical cancer vaccine to adults up to age 45. The vaccine was previously only for preteens and young adults through 26. The Food and Drug Administration approved Gardasil 9 for women and men through 45. (Johnson, 10/5)

The vaccine is Gardasil 9, made by Merck, and had been previously approved for minors and people up to age 26. It works against the human papillomavirus, HPV, which can also cause genital warts and cancers of the vulva, anus, penis and parts of the throat. The virus has many strains. It is sexually transmitted, and most adults encounter at least one strain at some point in their lives. The vaccine protects against nine strains, including those most likely to cause cancers and genital warts. (Grady and Hoffman, 10/5)

Experts say the vaccine, which protects against nine HPV strains, is most effective when administered before the initiation of sexual activity. But data also indicate that the vaccine can benefit the older group. That’s because even though many adults have been exposed to some types of HPV, most have not been exposed to all nine types covered by the vaccine. Merck, which manufacturers the vaccine, requested the expanded age range this year. In June, the FDA granted the application priority review. (McGinley, 10/5)

Akcea Therapeutics finally earned a U.S. drug approval. The Food and Drug Administration announced Friday it had approved the company’s drug, inotersen (Tegsedi), which aims to treat a rare and fatal condition known as hATTR. It’s a major win for Akcea, after the FDA declined to approve another of the company’s drugs, Waylivra, based on the same technology. But Tegsedi was approved with a black box warning — the strongest type the FDA can put on a prescription drug. (Sheridan, 10/5)

Ever heard of these food additives? Synthetically-derived benzophenone, ethyl acrylate, methyl eugenol, myrcene, pulegone, or pyridine? These compounds can help mimic natural flavors and are used to infuse foods with mint, cinnamon and other flavors. You've likely never seen them on food labels because food manufacturers are permitted to label them simply as "artificial flavors." (Aubrey, 10/6)

Abortion foes in Oregon are trying a new approach to advance their cause in one of the most progressive states in the country — making it about money, not morality. They’re relying on anti-tax sentiment to win support for a Nov. 6 ballot initiative that would ban the vast majority of public funding for the procedure, rather than the making it a referendum on the procedure itself as they have in more conservative states like Texas. (Colliver, 10/6)

A group that supports abortion rights wants a federal appeals court to revisit its split decision upholding a Louisiana law that requires abortion providers to have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals. The Center for Reproductive Rights asked in documents filed Friday that the full 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rehear the case. A panel of judges on the appellate court, in a split 2-1 decision last month, upheld the law. (Johnson, 10/6)

Kaiser Health News: The Feds’ Termination Of A Tiny Contract Inflames Bitter Fight Over Fetal Tissue

Federal health officials announced late last month they had terminated their contract with a company that supplies human fetal tissue for medical research and were checking that similar contracts, as well as studies conducted with that tissue, comply with federal law. The seemingly innocuous release about a tiny government contract, which came out as Americans focused on Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court, belied the big stakes and contentious issue behind it. Government officials are considering pulling federal funding for a decades-old form of research that has yielded a number of medical advances, including the polio vaccine. (Huetteman, 10/8)

The proposed tie-up between Dallas-based Baylor Scott & White Health and Houston-based Memorial Hermann Health System poses an increasingly important antitrust question given the prevalence of cross-market hospital mergers, regulatory experts said. The combination of the biggest systems in Texas would produce a 68-hospital organization with two health plans, about 73,000 employees and nearly $15 billion in annual revenue. (Kacik, 10/6)

HCA Healthcare's recipe for success in a complex and technical industry is pretty simple. It comes down to size, deep pockets and unparalleled operational savvy. The sheer size of Nashville-based HCA, the nation's largest health system with 178 hospitals and thousands of other facilities, has given it an advantage over others by allowing it to spread the expense of back-office functions, the latest technology, and tasks like billing and purchasing supplies across its vast network, driving efficiency and lowering unit costs. (Livingston, 10/6)

Months in prison didn't rid Daryl of his addiction to opioids. "Before I left the parking lot of the prison, I was shooting up, getting high," he says. Daryl has used heroin and prescription painkillers for more than a decade. Almost four years ago he became one of more than 200 people who tested positive for HIV in a historic outbreak in Scott County, Ind. After that diagnosis, he says, he went on a bender. (Harper, 10/5)

The heroin needles, the pile of excrement between parked cars, the yellow soup oozing out of a large plastic bag by the curb and the stained, faux Persian carpet dumped on the corner. It’s a scene of detritus that might bring to mind any variety of developing-world squalor. But this is San Francisco, the capital of the nation’s technology industry, where a single span of Hyde street hosts an open-air narcotics market by day and at night is occupied by the unsheltered and drug-addled slumped on the sidewalk. (Fuller, 10/8)

As the opioid epidemic continues to generate staggering numbers of fatalities, Marylanders might consider whether to stock up on an antidote to overdoses that’s called naloxone. The medication comes in the form of a nasal spray, called Narcan, or an injection, called Evzio. The FDA-approved prescription medications can counteract the life-threatening effects of an opioid-related overdose. (Reed, 10/5)

Preventing an extra single degree of heat could make a life-or-death difference in the next few decades for multitudes of people and ecosystems on this fast-warming planet, an international panel of scientists reported Sunday. But they provide little hope the world will rise to the challenge. The Nobel Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change issued its gloomy report at a meeting in Incheon, South Korea. (Borenstein, 10/8)

The report, issued on Monday by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a group of scientists convened by the United Nations to guide world leaders, describes a world of worsening food shortages and wildfires, and a mass die-off of coral reefs as soon as 2040 — a period well within the lifetime of much of the global population. The report “is quite a shock, and quite concerning,” said Bill Hare, an author of previous I.P.C.C. reports and a physicist with Climate Analytics, a nonprofit organization. “We were not aware of this just a few years ago.” The report was the first to be commissioned by world leaders under the Paris agreement, the 2015 pact by nations to fight global warming. (Davenport, 10/7)

At the same time, however, the report is being received with hope in some quarters because it affirms that 1.5 degrees Celsius is still possible — if emissions stopped today, for instance, the planet would not reach that temperature. It is also likely to galvanize even stronger climate action by focusing on 1.5 degrees Celsius, rather than 2 degrees, as a target that the world cannot afford to miss. “Frankly, we’ve delivered a message to the governments,” said Jim Skea, a co-chair of the IPCC panel and professor at Imperial College London, at a press event following the document’s release. “It’s now their responsibility … to decide whether they can act on it.” He added, “What we’ve done is said what the world needs to do.” (Mooney and Dennis, 10/7)

Half a degree may not sound like much. But as the report details, even that much warming could expose tens of millions more people worldwide to life-threatening heat waves, water shortages and coastal flooding. Half a degree may mean the difference between a world with coral reefs and Arctic summer sea ice and a world without them. (Plumer and Popovich, 10/7)

As a specialist in Alzheimer's prevention, Jessica Langbaum knows that exercising her mental muscles can help keep her brain sharp. But Langbaum, who holds a doctorate in psychiatric epidemiology, has no formal mental fitness program. She doesn't do crossword puzzles or play computer brain games. "Just sitting down and doing Sudoku isn't probably going to be the one key thing that's going to prevent you from developing Alzheimer's disease," she says. (Hamilton, 10/8)

Laurie Scherrer was a workaholic sales executive when she began forgetting customers and losing her ability to perform simple math calculations. Five years ago, at age 55, she learned she has early-onset Alzheimer’s disease and frontotemporal dementia. After a “self-inflicted pity party,” Mrs. Scherrer said, she sprang into action. She created plans that would enable her to pursue an active life while also protecting her as the disease progressed. (Garland, 10/5)

The 10-year-old girl suffered from persistent asthma, but the cause was unclear. Tests ruled out everything from pet hair to cockroaches. Then the girl's mother thought of a possible trigger. “Her asthma does seem to get worse whenever her dad punches a hole in the wall," she told Dr. Nadine Burke Harris. "Do you think that could be related?” (O'Donnell, 10/5)

Chance the Rapper says he's donating $1 million to help improve mental health services in Chicago. The Chicago native made the announcement Thursday during a summit for his nonprofit organization SocialWorks , saying those involved "want to change the way that mental health resources are being accessed." (10/5)

Are you depressed? If you’re not sure, it’s no surprise. Perpetual sadness isn’t the only symptom. Anger, back pain, sleep disturbances and even indecisiveness could all be signs of depression. (Blakemore, 10/7)

Women can experience lingering health problems years after workplace sexual harassment or sexual assault, a new study finds. These health problems can include high blood pressure, poor-quality sleep, anxiety and symptoms of depression, the researchers found after doing medical exams of about 300 women. (Geggel, 10/6)

Researchers also found that women who said they had been subjected to sexual harassment were more than twice as likely to have untreated high blood pressure than were women who did not experience such harassment. And women with a history of either sexual assault or sexual harassment were roughly twice as likely to suffer sleep problems at midlife than their counterparts who did not report gender-based mistreatment. (Healy, 10/5)

Therapy dogs can bring more than joy and comfort to hospitalized kids. They can also bring stubborn germs. Doctors at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore were suspicious that the dogs might pose an infection risk to patients with weakened immune systems. So they conducted some tests when Pippi, Poppy, Badger and Winnie visited 45 children getting cancer treatment. (Stobbe, 10/5)

Calvin Brown doesn’t have a primary care doctor — and the peripatetic 23-year-old doesn’t want one. Since his graduation last year from the University of San Diego, Brown has held a series of jobs that have taken him to several California cities. “As a young person in a nomadic state,” Brown said, he prefers finding a walk-in clinic on the rare occasions when he’s sick. (Boodman, 10/6)

Latasha Haynes was 34 when she almost died of the flu last year. What started as a little coughing and fatigue ended with two blood transfusions and a diagnosis of congestive heart failure weeks later. Flu had caused damage to her heart muscles and the saclike tissue around it. She survived, but just barely, and it took her months to recover. Haynes, who has a photography business in Tacoma, Wash., and came down with the flu in January 2017, was one of the estimated 30.9 million people who got the flu during the 2016-2017 season. (Correll, 10/6)

A mother’s milk, rich in an exquisitely tailored mix of fats, proteins, vitamins and minerals, provides all the nutrition a helpless infant requires — and more. Breast milk is thought to protect against disease, set up a healthy digestive system and even influence a child’s behavior. And yet we know a lot less about this important substance than we could, says lactation researcher Katie Hinde of Arizona State University. (Wessel, 10/6)

Up in the convention center balcony on Day 1 of the World Health Organization’s tobacco treaty negotiations last week, two men posted invitations to a party on the lake. The event, called the “Nicotine Is Not Your Enemy Soirée,” was held at La Potinière, a posh restaurant with views of the city’s soaring Jet d’Eau fountain and the Alps beyond. (Kaplan, 10/7)

If you’re like me, you’re spending portions of your day rubbing your eyes and blowing your nose. It’s fall, which means ragweed is releasing pollen into the air — and people with ragweed allergies are trying to cope. If you’re like me, you think that by taking an antihistamine every day, you are doing all you can to keep your symptoms at bay. But otherwise, you muddle through your days, tissues by your side, secretly hoping for a hard frost to kill all those pollen-producing weeds. (Adams, 10/7)

Paige Thesing has struggled with insomnia since high school. "It takes me a really long time to fall asleep — about four hours," she says. For years, her mornings were groggy and involved a "lot of coffee." After a year of trying sleep medication prescribed by her doctor, she turned to the internet for alternate solutions. About four months ago, she settled on a mobile phone meditation app called INSCAPE. (Chatterjee, 10/8)

Let’s start with a number that many have come across in math class: pi, the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter. It begins with 3.14159 . . . and carries on forever. It is infinite and irrational, never ending and never repeating, and people are drawn into its orbit. To some, the attraction is spiritual; to others, the pull may be explained by the “because it’s there” reasoning of mountaineers. Memory athletes — so called because of their intensive training in games of the mind — in particular are drawn to the endlessness of pi. (Hooper, 10/7)

The number of hours you log at work each week can have a significant impact on your health and your longevity -- especially if you overwork. Based on full- and part-time workers' hours, people in the United States work an average eight hours every week day, adding up to 40 hours per week, according to 2017 data from the US Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics. (Howard, 10/8)

The accident typically happens on a spring or summer weekend, mostly to men, and the results can be severe: lacerations, fractures and even amputations. From 2006 to 2013, an estimated 51,151 people were injured while mowing the lawn, and 12,243 of them wound up losing a body part. (Bakalar, 10/5)

Wake up this morning with a nagging pain in your head or neck or back? You’re not alone. Chronic pain impacts about 116 million American adults, which is more than a third of the U.S. population. With more and more folks reluctant to pop pills to make the pain go away, medical experts are offering some alternatives. Cherries or ginger sound good? There are many foods that can help you manage pain. They may not be magic bullets, but there are some potentially pain-relieving foods that are worth giving a try. (D'Souza, 10/4)

It was early in their courtship seven years ago when Manuel Villanueva warned his now-husband, “I come as a package of three.” The other parts of that deal: his father, Ramon Villanueva, whose failing kidneys forced him to stop working, and his mother, Maria Guadalupe Olague. Now they live as a family unit of four — six, if you count the cats — in a Highland Park two-bedroom apartment. As caring for his parents has increasingly taken a toll on his finances, time and psyche, Manuel Villanueva has taken up a matter-of-fact mantra to soldier on: “Adapt and understand your reality.” (Mason, 10/7)

Hurricane Florence hit older Tar Heels harder. That’s the takeaway from a state-compiled list of the adults who died as a result of the catastrophic storm. It shows that two out of three North Carolinians who died during or as a result of Florence were 60 or older, and nearly half were 70 or older. The median age of adults who died during or as a result of the storm was 67, while the statewide median age is 38.3. (Goldsmith, 10/8)

Colorado hospitals hiked prices by 76 percent over a seven-year stretch as they pushed their profits to among the largest in the nation and built more aggressively than hospitals in all but one other state, according to data the state plans to use to change spending priorities. Along the way, hospitals doubled their administrative costs from 2009 through 2016 and contributed to residents in the state’s mountainous west region paying the highest insurance rates in the nation, according to the information collected for the Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing. (Osher, 10/4)

Residents and businesses affected by the lead-contaminated water crisis in Flint are asking a judge to reinstate Republican Gov. Rick Snyder and other Michigan officials as defendants in a class-action lawsuit. (10/7)

Two years ago, a man died of an apparent drug overdose after being held at the Clackamas County Jail in Oregon City, Ore. This week, video emerged in which sheriff’s deputies could be heard laughing as the man thrashed uncontrollably in a padded cell before he died. They joked that he could be used as a cautionary example to warn students about the dangers of drugs. (Fortin, 10/6)

When Jason Nemes, a Republican legislator in deeply conservative Kentucky, proposed a bill allowing the sale of medicinal marijuana this year, he included strict conditions to prevent doctors from rampantly prescribing the drug. After all, Nemes has no interest in actually legalizing pot: He hasn’t smoked, he’s decidedly anti-drug and, until recently, he was even skeptical of marijuana’s effectiveness for treating conditions like cancer or epilepsy. (Sutton and Marinucci, 10/6)

Families living on one of the Marine Corps’ largest bases are ramping up criticism of the private company that manages their homes, saying it is ignoring long-standing problems with mold and structural defects that were exacerbated after Hurricane Florence slammed North Carolina last month. Even before the hurricane unleashed devastation across the Carolinas, several spouses were working to draw attention to what they called a lackadaisical attitude by Atlantic Marine Corps Communities about the conditions inside Camp Lejeune’s private housing — from leaky and crumbling ceilings to 70-foot-tall rotting trees in danger of collapsing. (Wax-Thibodeaux, 10/6)

[Rick] Scott’s statement, which came during a debate against U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, is at odds with other Republican politicians and followed years of Scott fighting against heavy government involvement in providing health care. Even before he launched his first campaign for governor, Scott ran television ads decrying the idea of having a “public option” as part of the federal health care overhaul pushed by then-President Barack Obama. (Sexton, 10/5)

An ensemble of nurses and therapists at Baltimore Healthy Start Inc. are trying to prevent moms from dying. The East Baltimore nonprofit holds “belly buddy” classes that teach meditation, needlework and scrap-booking to ease stress. Nurses make home visits to check on moms’ well-being. Transportation and daycare are provided so pregnant women can get to checkups. Several weeks after delivery, moms are offered gift cards as an incentive to come back to the doctor’s office. Complications can take moms by surprise weeks after delivery. (McDaniels, 10/4)

The federal government has suspend operations at a Southwest Key shelter for unaccompanied migrant children in Youngtown, a spokesman for the non-profit confirmed on Friday. The Southwest Key spokesman said its Hacienda Del Sol facility was shuttered following an unspecified incident. Southwest Key reported the incident to local law enforcement, the federal government, and state regulators, spokesman Jeff Eller said. (Philip, 10/5)

The Silent Spring Institute will study how PFAS chemicals affected the health of children in Portsmouth and on Cape Cod. ...It'll look at the effectiveness of early childhood vaccines in kids who drank PFAS-tainted water at Pease International Tradeport and in Hyannis, Massachusetts. (Ropeik, 10/6)

Dozens of children in bright blue t-shirts roared and bounced across the bleachers. Meanwhile, a handful of breakdancers somersaulted across the gym floor and froze in gravity-defying holds. A minute later, the purpose of the last week’s rally in Charlotte became clear when a rapper yelled “We’re getting asthma under con….” and the school-age children screamed “troll!” (Duong, 10/5)

This year, California dialysis clinics — and their profits — are in a powerful union’s crosshairs. On Nov. 6, the Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West union hopes to deliver a stinging blow with a ballot measure designed to limit clinic profits. (Tuller and Rowan, 10/5)

State officials chose NextPhase Medical Devices as the setting to celebrate the beginning of Manufacturing Month in New Hampshire. Zenagui Brahim, president of New Hampshire Manufacturing Extension Partnership in Concord, was at NextPhase on Airport Drive in Rochester on Friday to talk about the company’s efforts to connect high school students with advanced manufacturers. Brahim said last year 1,865 students from 50 high schools visited 55 manufacturers in New Hampshire as part of the monthlong effort. (10/7)

Like what UT Health Austin is doing for cancer, gynecological disorders, multiple sclerosis, arm and leg pain, and work-related illnesses at its clinics at the University of Texas, Dell Children’s Medical Center of Central Texas is now doing the same for hearing loss: bringing all of the patient’s resources under one roof. This summer it began seeing patients at the Hearing Center, which is located in the Strictly Pediatrics building near the hospital. (Villapando, 10/5)

One year after a devastating series of wildfires ripped through Northern California wine country, destroying thousands of homes, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' first experience cleaning up after a wildfire has turned into an expensive bureaucratic mess and California's top emergency official suspects fraud played a role. (Elias, 10/8)

Carlton Palms — a Florida home for people with severe disabilities beset by rapes, rats and abuse — officially shut its doors Saturday, state officials announced. The last of its 190 residents moved to a new community-based home over the weekend after years of abuse, violence and death perennially plagued the institution. (Madan, 10/6)

ater restrictions at a north Baltimore apartment complex have been lifted after several residents fell ill with Legionnaires’ disease, according to the manager of the complex and a letter from the health department. The Baltimore City Health Department lifted the restrictions at The Metropolitan of Baltimore on Loch Raven Boulevard on Thursday, after nearly a month of a partial shutdown. Legionnaire’s disease is a severe form of pneumonia that may spread through airborne water particles. (Rentz, 10/5)

San Francisco Mayor London Breed, Assemblyman David Chiu and Sen. Scott Wiener released statements Friday opposing Proposition C, a local ballot measure that would raise taxes on the city’s largest businesses to fund an array of homelessness services. ...The measure would impose an average of about 0.5 percent in gross receipts tax on corporate revenue above $50 million, impacting between 300 and 400 of the city’s biggest corporations. (Fracassa, 10/5)

The ribbon-cutting and official opening is still months away, but a new research building rising here within blocks of the Mayo Clinic has already filled most of its available space. Normally a routine matter for any new commercial development, finding tenants for the building known as One Discovery Square stands as an early test of Mayo’s multibillion-dollar effort to create a new economy in Rochester. (McKinney, 10/7)

In a harshly worded order scolding state officials for treating the Constitution “like a recommendation,” a Tallahassee judge Friday gave the Department of Health two weeks to begin registering new medical-marijuana operators or risk being found in contempt. Leon County Circuit Judge Charles Dodson, siding with Tampa-based Florigrown LLC, rebuked Gov. Rick Scott, the Scott administration and the Republican-dominated Legislature for failing to properly carry out a 2016 constitutional amendment that broadly legalized medical marijuana. (Kam, 10/8)

It’s been two years since Massachusetts voters approved legalizing marijuana for adults over 21, and state officials are now starting to approve retail pot sales. But on campuses across the state, administrators have a dilemma: they follow federal law, which prohibits people from using marijuana on the property of educational institutions. (Nierenberg, 10/8)

Physicians do many things well. One thing they aren’t good at is showing up to vote. That bad habit starts early, and we believe it can — and must — be changed. We don’t have data from recent elections, but studies from a decade ago show that physicians voted less often than the general population. (Lawyers, in contrast, were more likely to vote than the general population.) Given that health care accounts for almost one-fifth of the U.S. gross domestic product, and that new laws and regulations continuously alter the norms of medical practice, it is both curious and shameful that medical professionals fail to fulfill the basic civic responsibility of voting. (Suhas Gondi, Jonathan Kusner and Yosef Beryland, 10/8)

It is not the economy, stupid. It is health care. Former President Bill Clinton famously won on a general economic message in 1992, delivering his famous “stupid” comment. It resonated among Americans enduring an unemployment rate of nearly 8 percent. Growth was anemic, the stock market was stagnant and the country remained nervously dependent on foreign oil. (10/6)

The recent decision by Congress to direct Medicare reduction readmission penalties for hospitals that serve patient populations with high social needs is a step in the right direction, but it doesn’t go far enough. Certainly, easing up on readmission penalties is a positive development for struggling safety net hospitals, which have long (and correctly) voiced that their patients are more likely to experience complications after leaving the hospital through little fault of their own. (Manik Bhat, 10/5)

The Trump administration's Department of Homeland Security recently proposed a new rule that makes it harder for immigrants to obtain a green card if they use any kind of public benefits while in the United States. In 2014, the waiting period for an application for employment authorization was about two months, according to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. In 2018 the processing time doubled to more than four months. The administration ought to focus on diminishing that backlog, instead of punishing immigrants who go broke while waiting to be allowed to work. (Wouter van Acker, 10/6)

The prospect of another huge healthcare merger—this time involving two of Texas’ more prestigious hospital systems—is the surest signal yet that even the industry’s strongest players are having a difficult time navigating the rapidly shifting healthcare landscape. Baylor Scott & White Health, a dominant system in the Dallas market, and Memorial Hermann, which holds a similar position in Houston, hope to complete their combination by the middle of next year. (Merrill Goozner, 10/4)

Matinas BioPharma (MTNB) shelved development of a prescription formulation of fish oil three years ago. The tiny company, with a stock that trades for pennies, decided investors would be more interested in its drug delivery technology and a small pipeline of anti-infectives. But then Amarin (AMRN) happened. Amarin’s stock price soared to all-time highs — adding nearly $5 billion in market cap — on the readout of a large clinical trial showing its proprietary fish oil drug, called Vascepa, cut the risk of bad cardiovascular events like heart attacks and stroke in patients by an astounding 25 percent. (Adam Feuerstein, 10/8)

In this age of partisan bickering in Washington, we're pleased to spotlight rays of bipartisan congressional cooperation on a national crisis: opioid abuse. After months of hard work, much of it led by U.S. Rep. Michael Burgess, R-Pilot Point, and Texas GOP Sen. John Cornyn, a comprehensive bill to address the medical and social scourge of opioid addiction lacks only Donald Trump's signature to become law. The president, who declared opioid addiction a national emergency, is expected to sign the bill, providing new weapons to curtail an epidemic that has shattered families and communities.  (10/8)

What do you get from putting together the top hospital systems in Dallas and Houston? Maybe a company that can compete with Amazon and Warren Buffett. Or even better, a company that can collaborate with them. This week, Baylor Scott & White Health in Dallas and Memorial Hermann Health System in Houston agreed to a merger that would combine two faith-based, not-for-profit organizations that control about a quarter of the hospital business in their respective hometowns. (Mitchell Schnurman, 10/7)

It’s imperative that San Jose’s O’Connor Hospital and Gilroy’s Saint Louise Regional Hospital remain open to serve Santa Clara County’s growing population. The county already has a shortage of hospital beds. (10/4)

I grew up in a household with no short supply of hunter’s orange, Sunday night football and diesel trucks. I am a stereotypical teenage boy from Montana — and a survivor of anorexia nervosa. Confused? That’s the problem. (Zach Schermele, 10/6)

When my silent assassin emerged last autumn, I pressed my surgeon about the prognosis for a form of peritoneal cancer that strikes women in stealthy fashion. “Do you really want to know?” he replied. “Your cancer is incurable.” As I gazed at him in disbelief, he coolly recommended palliative care at a nearby regional hospital with an easy commute. (Doreen Carvajal, 10/4)

Ten years ago, the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act was signed into law by President George W. Bush. It was a milestone — a major acknowledgment of the importance of mental health. It was also a challenge for the health care system and culture to rectify decades of fragmentation that kept mental health separate and distinct. (Patrick J. Kennedy and Benjamin F. Miller, 10/5)

I was both an observer and a participant in a teenage rape. I was 17, and it was 1969, about a year before I would be drafted into the Army. I went to a small Catholic school in Pittsburgh called St. Justin, for the children of mostly blue-collar workers, and I had been invited to a party by a friend from another Catholic high school. Many football players from that school would be there. I wasn’t very popular with these boys at the time, so I went; I wanted to be friends with them. I knew a few of them and wanted to get to know the rest. These boys were from the suburbs, and their parents mostly had more money than mine. (Don Palmerine, 10/5)

The newest version of the Apple Watch will feature a heart monitor app that can do a form of an electrocardiogram. Many have greeted this announcement as a great leap forward for health. The president of the American Heart Association even took part in the product launch. For a more measured response, it’s worth looking at potential downsides, and it turns out there are a few. (Aaron E. Carroll, 10/8)

I marked an anniversary last week by getting a flu shot. It has been 100 years since the pandemic of 1918, during which an estimated 50 million people worldwide — 675,000 in the United States — died from influenza. Last year, according to the Centers for Disease Control, the flu killed more than 80,000 people in the U.S.Avoiding becoming a statistic is not my primary motivation for getting the shot. (Kelly Maynard, 10/5)

In the divisive political debate over gun laws, it's been tough going to get agreement on the right way forward in curbing massive gun violence. Our best hope for real action has to start with plowing areas where there is common ground. That's why we're encouraged by President Donald Trump's declaration that a ban on bump stocks is "two or three weeks away." It's long overdue. (10/8)

Is the United States under attack from Chemical Weapons in the form of dangerous and toxic chemicals, as defined by the Chemical Weapons Convention, camouflaged as narcotics for illicit distribution resulting in death tolls rivaling those levels from the Chemical Warfare of WW I? I only see the “body count” increasing, from 13,000 deaths in 2015 to over 19,000 in 2016 and 27,000 in 2017 according to the Centers for Disease Control and NBC. That represents a 40 percent increase in each of the last few years or a doubling in two years – with no end in sight. (John M. DeMaggio, 10/7)

It started, as it does for thousands of women every year, with a routine mammogram, and its routine process of having my breasts — like a lump of dough — manipulated by another woman’s hands and placed, albeit gently, into tight compression. It’s never comfortable, but you get used to it because you have to. Unlike previous years, though, my next step was a biopsy, for which I lay face down, my left breast dangling through a hole in the table. Several hands reached for what’s normally a private and hidden body part and moved it with practiced ease, compressing it again into position for the radiologist’s needles, first a local anesthetic and then the probes needed to withdraw tissue for sampling. (Caitlin Kelly, 10/8)

The scene in a tiny pocket park outside Plaza Mariachi here on Nolensville Pike last Wednesday was like a tableau from a Norman Rockwell painting, 21st-century style. Surrounded by signs advertising the Hispanic Family Foundation, Dubai Jewelry, the Dominican Barber Shop and restaurants offering Peruvian, Chinese, Mediterranean and Indian food — as well as a Game Stop franchise and H&R Block — was a small sign that read, “Today: Free trees.” (Margaret Renki, 10/7)

My name is Neal, and I’m a marijuana addict. A year ago I wouldn’t have said that, because it would have meant giving up marijuana. I would rather have given up breathing. When I had my first cup of coffee in the morning, I pressed the little button on my vape pen, waited for the blue glow, took a huge inhale and then blew it into the mug so that I could suck in the THC and caffeine at the same time. Then I took another hit, and another. In the afternoons, I’d smoke a bowl, or pop a gummy bear, or both. At night, I got high before eating dinner or watching the ballgame. Maybe I’d stop getting stoned a little bit before bed, but what was the point? If I went to bed high, I could wake up high, too. (Neal Pollack, 10/6)

Every day, it seems like a new celebrity opens up about their struggle with mental illness. Most recently, Emma Stone told Glamour about her life-long struggle with anxiety. Many people are praising these celebrities for being honest about their mental health, saying their efforts break the stigma. Meanwhile, others still feel the pain of that stigma acutely and believe there is much more work to be done before it's broken. Have celebrities changed the stigma when it comes to mental health? (10/5)