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A controversial bill to require vaccinations for all California school children ran into trouble Wednesday, when its author delayed a key Senate committee vote after enraged parents opposed to the legislation demanded lawmakers answer a central question: Don't all kids -- whether they are vaccinated or not -- have a right to a public education? (Seipel, 4/15)

Bowing to concerns from parents and lawmakers that children would be denied an education, a state senator on Wednesday delayed a vote on a bill requiring most California parents to vaccinate their children as a condition of enrolling them in private or public schools. (White, 4/15)

Opting out of vaccines for potentially deadly diseases like the measles will become much harder in Colorado after the Board of Health on Wednesday voted for a set of tougher rules for parents seeking exemptions. The new rules mark a striking change in Colorado after a bill that aimed to increase immunizations got watered down during the 2014 legislative session. Then the widely publicized measles outbreak tied to Disneyland in California heightened concerns about highly contagious diseases like the measles. (Kerwin McCrimmon, 4/15)

The state Board of Health on Wednesday passed new immunization rules that officials say strengthen school policies and will improve the state's low vaccination rates. The new rules, effective July 2016, will require parents seeking non-medical exemptions from school and child-care vaccine requirements to submit them more than once. They will be required at each age when recommended vaccines are due for pre-kindergartners and annually from kindergarten through 12th grade. (Draper, 4/15)

Gov. Chris Christie opposes requiring businesses to give workers paid sick days, calling it another onerous regulation that deters companies from investing in New Jersey. That hasn’t stopped officials in nine municipalities, including Newark, Jersey City and Montclair, from passing paid-sick-leave laws and enforcing them—without the consent of Mr. Christie or the state Legislature. (Dawsey, 4/15)

Since 2005, monthly health insurance premiums for state workers in Florida have stayed the same. But a bill making its way through the Florida House could make big changes to the state group employee health plan, which covers more than 300,000 state employees and their families. (Watts, 4/15)

More than a dozen states, plus the District of Columbia, are considering controversial medically assisted death legislation this year. The laws would allow mentally fit, terminally ill patients age 18 and older, whose doctors say they have six months or less to live, to request lethal drugs. (Monir, 4/15)

After stalling last year because of funding concerns, a scaled-back plan to expand health coverage to Californians in the country illegally passed its first Senate committee on Wednesday. But SB 4, which would make undocumented immigrants eligible for Medi-Cal and seek a federal waiver allowing them to purchase unsubsidized health insurance on the state exchange, still faces its biggest hurdles over cost. (Koseff, 4/15)

The Texas Senate has voted to partially consolidate the state's health and human services bureaucracy — but stopped short of creating a single, super entity as proposed amid a no-bid contract scandal. Senators unanimously approved merging three agencies beginning next year — the Health and Human Services Commission, the Department of Aging and Disability Services and the Department of Assistive and Rehabilitative Services. (4/15)

On Tuesday, a new bill was introduced to the Colorado Senate directly in response to the horrific attack. The bill, its supporters say, would make it easier for prosecutors to bring murder charges against those, like Lane, who are accused of killing a fetus. The new measure’s opponents, however, have argued that the bill is too similar to previous proposals in the state that would have included fetuses in the state’s definition of a person. (Ohlheiser, 4/15)

ProHealth Care is betting that its agreement with Indiana University Health to oversee its cardiothoracic surgery program will enable it to offer new procedures and remain competitive in an important service line. The three-year agreement marks the first time a health system in the Milwaukee area has partnered with an out-of-state health system to run one of its program. The agreement was announced more than a year ago, but took longer than expected to put in place. (Boulton, 4/15)

Across Greater Minnesota, nursing homes are in a bind, trying to keep nurses from being scooped up by better paying jobs, often at hospitals. That's especially true in southeast Minnesota where nursing home workers are often lured away by higher-paying jobs and working conditions at Mayo Clinic. (Baier, 4/15)

An influential state senator wants to repeal laws that were designed to curb health care costs, arguing that they have actually accomplished the opposite. A bill introduced by Sen. Tom Apodaca, the Henderson County Republican who chairs the Senate Rules Committee, would eliminate the state’s certificate-of-need laws. Intended to prevent excessive facilities and equipment, the CON program requires hospitals and other medical providers to get state approval for expansions and major acquisitions. (Alexander, 4/16)

A handful of the people connected with the Charlotte Central School who tested positive for tuberculosis earlier this year are declining treatment with antibiotics that can wipe out the infection before an infected person becomes sick, a Vermont Health Department official said Wednesday. (Ring, 4/15)

Brian and Laura Beth Johnston of Madison learned in December that their 4-year-old son, Fraiser, has autism. But because their private insurance doesn't pay for the therapy he needs, Fraiser has gone without services that could help him with language development and other skills, his mother said. The diagnosis alone cost the couple $1,200. A new Mississippi law is designed to help people like the Johnstons as they try to help children with autism spectrum disorder, Gov. Phil Bryant said during a news conference Wednesday. (Pettus, 4/15)