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This is one of Trump’s go-to lines about premium increases under the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare. He warns of premium increases of 40, 50, 60 percent — and alleges that the Obama administration is trying to delay open enrollment, scheduled for Nov. 1, until after the election because the drastic rate hikes will be “election-defying.” Are his claims accurate? (Lee, 9/26)

Neither camp has publicly floated names of the people likely to lead HHS and its component agencies, which include the CMS, the Food and Drug Administration, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health. ... But Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump have reportedly tapped policy experts with some healthcare experience for their transition teams. (Muchmore, 9/24)

At first blush, the tobacco tax measure on California’s November ballot looks pretty straightforward. Proposition 56 would raise the price of a pack of cigarettes by $2 and tax e-cigarettes for the first time. Proponents say the higher price would prevent kids from smoking and lower health care spending because people won’t suffer as much from tobacco-related illness.What’s not spelled out is how exactly money raised through the measure would be spent. (Bartolone, 9/23)

Five states — California, Arizona, Nevada, Maine and Massachusetts — are voting this fall on whether marijuana should be legal for recreational use. That has sparked questions about what we know — and don’t know — about marijuana’s effect on the brain. Research is scarce. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency classifies marijuana as a Schedule I drug. That classification puts up barriers to conducting research on it. (Bebinger, 9/26)

State campaign finance records released Friday show that United for Care, the group behind the constitutional amendment, called Amendment 2, raised $20,000 last week, most of it from donations $1,000 or less.No on 2, the campaign opposing the measure, raised just $1, but they've started using major donations to produce and buy ads. Records show that Drug Free Florida, the political committee opposing medical marijuana, spent more than $1.3 million that same week, most of it going to Jamestown Associates, an ad buying firm. (Auslen, 9/23)

The administration will only receive a fraction of the $37 million that is provided in a short-term continuing resolution to implement a recently-passed law addressing opioids, Democrats say. Republicans and Democrats disagree over how much new opioid funding — which both sides support — is included as part of the stopgap spending measure. The GOP-backed continuing resolution to keep the government funded through Dec. 9 was introduced on Thursday. A procedural vote on the measure is slated for Tuesday. (McIntire, 9/23)

Democrats in both chambers are threatening to reject the GOP's latest budget proposal because it ignores the city's lead contamination but provides relief for flood victims in Louisiana. Republican leaders will have five days to avert a shutdown when they return to Capitol Hill next week. (Ferris, 9/26)

Democrats in both chambers have threatened to reject the GOP’s latest budget proposal because it ignores the city’s lead contamination but provides relief for flood victims in Louisiana. The letter from caucus chairman G.K. Butterfield (D-N.C.), along with two other members from Michigan, does not specifically say they will vote against the spending bill if it doesn’t include the money for Flint. (Ferris, 9/23)

A program that encourages the development of treatments for rare pediatric diseases could be extended until December under a compromise between liberal stalwarts Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and sponsors of a bill to extend the program for five years. As of now, there is language in a pending continuing resolution to extend the program through Dec. 9, the same time period as the stopgap spending bill. The Senate is slated to take a procedural vote on the bill, which Democrats oppose for other reasons, on Tuesday. (Owens, 9/22)

A group of Democratic senators sent a second letter to Aetna’s CEO on Friday, demanding the company answer questions about its decision to pull out of Obamacare exchanges. The senators sent another letter to CEO Mark Bertolini earlier this month, but they said Aetna failed to answer their questions. Aetna announced this summer it would be withdrawing from most Obamacare exchanges after suffering losses. Some members have questioned the timing of the announcement, which came after the Department of Justice challenged Aetna’s proposed merger with Humana. (Owens, 9/23)

The senators had written Bertolini on Sept. 8, asking the Aetna chief about his decision to withdraw from 11 Affordable Care Act exchanges after the Justice Department challenged Aetna’s proposed merger with Humana. The senators asked Bertolini to respond to 12 questions, including “what exact costs Aetna will incur now that the Justice Department has challenged the merger” and how much it will cost the company if the merger is ultimately blocked. They also asked Bertolini why his company agreed to pay Humana a $1 billion breakup fee if the merger were not approved and whether the company was aware this payment would endanger its participation in the ACA exchanges. (Radelat, 9/23)

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Nebraska announced Friday that is pulling out of the ObamaCare marketplace in the state, becoming the latest insurer to cite financial losses when reducing participation in the healthcare law. The move is especially significant given that it is a Blue Cross plan, which form the backbone of the ObamaCare marketplaces. Nebraska, though, will still have two insurers, Aetna and Medica, on its marketplace next year. (Sullivan, 9/23)

A patient in cardiac arrest was mistakenly not resuscitated because clinicians confused him with a patient who had a do-not-resuscitate order on file. Another patient was given an okay to undergo surgery based on a different patient’s records and was found dead in his hospital room the next day. Such patient-identification mix-ups are common and can have deadly consequences, according to a report from the ECRI Institute, a nonprofit research group that studies patient safety. (Beck, 9/25)

Are you sober enough to drive? The familiar way to test levels of blood alcohol (without actually drawing blood) is with breathalyzers. They are used by police trying to identify drunk drivers and in ignition-locking devices designed to prevent intoxicated people from starting a car. But breath analysis can be distorted by such factors as ambient humidity and the use of mouthwash. Research has shown that sweat might provide a more reliably accurate medium. (Szokan, 9/23)

The state’s Division of Medical Quality Assurance launched flhealthsource.gov last year, giving consumers a searchable database containing information about every doctor in the state. The Division of Medical Quality Assurance “strives to become the leader in health care quality regulation,” said director Lucy Gee. “The website redesign serves as another example of how (the agency) remains committed to serving the people of Florida. ”In addition to looking up a doctor’s criminal offenses and disciplinary action, consumers can see information about his or her education, training and specialty certifications. They can also find out where doctors have staff privileges and academic appointments. (9/23)

There’s a revolution taking place in emergency medical services, and for many, it could be life changing. From the increasingly sophisticated equipment they carry and the new lifesaving techniques they use, to the changing roles they play in some communities—providing preventive care and monitoring patients at home—ambulance crews today are hardly recognizable from their origins as “horizontal taxicabs.” (Landro, 9/25)

The analysts at P.H.I., a nonprofit research and consulting group, sift through federal data each year to see how the nation’s swelling corps of home care workers is faring. That’s how we know that the aides who care for disabled people and older adults in their homes — helping them bathe and dress, preparing their meals, doing laundry and housekeeping — earned a national median of $10.21 an hour in 2005, adjusted for inflation. (Span, 9/23)

The Visiting Nurse Service of New York, one of the largest nonprofit home health care agencies in the United States, likes to highlight a lineage going back to its founder, Lillian Wald, who began nursing the poorest immigrant New Yorkers in their homes in 1893. Whatever its outcome, a federal whistle-blower lawsuit served on the agency on Thursday showcases how far today’s billion-dollar entity has come from its early days, when Ms. Wald’s visiting nurses charged a dime, or nothing at all, for their services. (Bernstein, 9/23)

You must lose weight, a doctor told Sarah Bramblette, advising a 1,200-calorie-a-day diet. But Ms. Bramblette had a basic question: How much do I weigh? The doctor’s scale went up to 350 pounds, and she was heavier than that. If she did not know the number, how would she know if the diet was working? The doctor had no answer. (Kolata, 9/25)

The 37-year-old woman began to weep as she told her story to Dr. Michael L. Parks. Her job required her to be on her feet all day, Dr. Parks recalled, and she was in constant pain from knee arthritis. She had seen an orthopedic surgeon, hoping to discuss knee replacement, but he dismissed her complaints, telling her she was too fat and should just go on a diet. (Kolata, 9/2)

Krista Sizemore's brain was crying out for heroin. But she knew she was pregnant. She knew her baby needed her to stay safe. She knew what could happen if she used again. ... But when Sizemore tried to get help from a top addiction doctor in Northern Kentucky, the insurance blocked the first attempt. ... During a nationwide epidemic in which one American dies every 19 minutes from opioid or heroin overdose, addiction doctors say insurance barriers to medication that can save lives are instead putting them at risk for death. (DeMio and O'Donnell, 9/25)

In the first six months of this year, more than 80 people died from an overdose of heroin and other opioids. And the epidemic doesn’t appear to be slowing, according to law enforcement, health care and treatment officials who met for a roundtable on drug abuse and diversion in the Twin Cities last week. At the meeting, Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals, a St. Louis-based company, announced the donation of 30,000 drug deactivation pouches that will be handed out to people locally who want to easily dispose of opioids at home. Up to 1.35 million prescription pills, patches or liquid doses of opioids can be destroyed if every pouch is filled to its 45-pill capacity. (Chanen, 9/25)

The three-day program, held at the Betty Ford Center in Irving, strives to help children 12 and younger learn about addiction and teaches them that their parents’ problems are out of their control. "Often in families where there is addiction, children have to grow up too fast,” said Jerry Moe, national director of children's programs at the Betty Ford Center. (Toledo, 9/25)

A new video uploaded Friday shows another case of a child standing helplessly by an adult unconscious from a drug overdose. The scene, filmed by an onlooker in a supermarket, is the most recent public example of children who witness their parents' overdose. Earlier this month, the Ohio police department shared a graphic photo of a 4-year-old in a car with two overdosed adults sprawled out in the front seats, hoping to make a very public statement about the dangers of the continuing opioid overdose epidemic throughout the United States and its unintended consequences on children. (Tan, 9/23)

Jamie Landrum has been a police officer for two years in District 3 on the west side of the Cincinnati. In late August, the city was hit by 174 overdoses in six days. Landrum says officers were scarce. "We were literally going from one heroin overdose, and then being on that one, and hearing someone come over [the radio] and say, 'I have no more officers left,' " Landrum says. Three more people overdosed soon after that. (Harper, 9/25)

Authorities were trying Sunday to discover the types of drugs involved in a spate of overdoses that killed seven people in the Cleveland area a day earlier. The deaths Saturday was the latest outbreak of drug overdose deaths in Ohio. (9/25)

Tennessee has made progress in fighting the opioid epidemic. The state has declared the massive problem the No. 1 public health crisis in the state and painkiller prescriptions have fallen from 8.5 million to 7.8 million over the past three years. Companies like BlueCross BlueShield Tennessee are funding efforts to keep prescription drugs from the wrong hands and medical schools are working with a future generation of doctors to curb overprescribing pills. (Plazas, 9/25)

The terrified toddler in the pink pajamas prods, pulls and cries, but she is powerless to wake her mother. The 36-year-old mother, identified by news outlets as Mandy McGowen, lies unconscious in the toy aisle of a Lawrence, Mass., Family Dollar store, after an apparent drug overdose, police said. Even for law enforcement veterans such as Lawrence Police Chief James Fitzpatrick, the dramatic video shot by a store employee Sunday is hard to watch. (Holley, 9/24)

Cancer cells remain elusive and tough to locate, but a new crop of nuclear-imaging tests promises to lead to more accurate prognosis and treatment.  The tests use imaging agents that combine radioactive isotopes with targeted molecules that can spot cancer at the cellular level. The ability to accurately locate the cancers helps physicians make better and earlier diagnoses—and may eventually make possible targeted nuclear-medicine therapies that identify and kill cancer cells, but not the surrounding healthy cells. (Or, 9/25)

With two decades of cancer research under his belt, Tom Marsilje is no stranger to project deadlines. But he’s never faced one quite like this before. He’s racing against the clock in an improbable quest to cure his own incurable colon cancer before it takes him away from his wife and their two little girls. (Robbins, 9/26)

There’s been a lot of excitement about immunotherapy as a tool to treat cancer. But as leading experts gathered here on Sunday, several struck an unexpected note of caution. (Begley, 9/25)

[Martina] Herrera, from San Pablo, is in remission from uterine cancer, a cancer that has been removed and one for which she underwent chemotherapy for eight months. Four months into her treatment, her legs froze. Herrera is also a client of the Charlotte Maxwell Clinic, a facility that offers alternative therapies like reiki (a form of touch therapy), massage, guided meditation, herbal treatments, acupuncture and other homeopathic treatments to patients who are also receiving traditional cancer therapies. Because Herrera has a low income, she receives her treatments for free. (9/23)

The use of the PSA test to check average-risk men with no symptoms of cancer has always been somewhat controversial. But in 2012, an influential federal advisory panel, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, declared that routine PSA testing should be abandoned, even for high-risk men. (Rush, 9/25)

Free, walk-in PSA screening-fests, often at manly events such as car shows, became a big thing, especially during September, which is prostate cancer awareness month. Advocacy groups, urologists, and hospitals embraced the strategy, presuming that catching cancer early would save lives. But that strategy - like that presumption - is now seen as dangerously simplistic. (McCullough, 9/25)

There's growing evidence that a physical injury to the brain can make people susceptible to post-traumatic stress disorder. Studies of troops deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan have found that service members who suffer a concussion or mild traumatic brain injury are far more likely to develop PTSD, a condition that can cause flashbacks, nightmares and severe anxiety for years after a traumatic event. (Hamilton, 9/26)

Having kids eat eggs and peanuts early in life may reduce their risk of developing allergies to these foods later, a new analysis suggests. Researchers analyzed information from nearly 150 studies involving more than 200,000 children. These studies looked at exactly when certain foods were introduced to children during their first year of life. (Rettner, 9/23)

The term "bioidentical hormone" doesn't really have a standard definition. In general, it's taken to mean hormones that have the same chemical and molecular structure as hormones produced in the human body. These days, there are FDA-approved versions of bioidentical hormones, and there are alternative, custom-prepared varieties — like the one Foster uses — made in specialized "compounding" pharmacies. Studies show that up to a million or more women take the custom-made hormone medications, and the number is increasing. But the trend frustrates and even alarms many doctors because custom-compounded varieties aren't FDA approved, nor do they carry labels detailing the risks and possible side effects of all types of hormone therapy. (Zimmerman, 9/23)

If people are sleepless in Seattle, it may not be only because they have broken hearts. The American Medical Association issued a warning in June that high-intensity LED streetlights — such as those in Seattle, Los Angeles, New York, Houston and elsewhere — emit unseen blue light that can disturb sleep rhythms and possibly increase the risk of serious health conditions, including cancer and cardiovascular disease. (Ollove, 9/25)

Many people take for granted the addition of fluoride into public drinking water systems that aims to prevent tooth decay. It’s a seven-decade-old public health effort. But it’s not nearly as universally accepted as one might think. At least seven cities or towns across the country debated it just this summer. (Tan, 9/26)

Just ask any one of the 300,000 Americans who, in any given year, develop kidney stones: What if the excruciating pain of passing one of those little devils could be prevented by strapping yourself into a make-believe runaway mine train, throwing your hands in the air and enduring G-forces as high as 2.5 for about three minutes? Would you do it? (Healy, 9/26)

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an estimated 6 million to 12 million infestations occur each year in the United States among children 3 to 11. Lice are white, sesame seed-sized parasites that attach themselves to hair and feed on blood. They can live on hair found on the head, body and in the pubic area. If allowed to reproduce, a proliferation of lice will cause an itching sensation that can only be stopped once the lice and their eggs — called nits — are removed. (Hsieh, 9/23)

A new ice age is here. And it’s making amazing promises of pain-free joints and sculpted abs. Cryotherapy – a freezing treatment turned piping-hot health trend – is being hyped by spas across the country, many of which sprang up within the last year. (Lauerman, 9/23)

Researchers have successfully transplanted healthy human cells into mice with spinal cord injuries, bringing the world one step closer to easing the chronic pain and incontinence suffered by people with paralysis. The research team did not focus on restoring the rodents’ ability to walk; rather, it helped remedy these two other debilitating side effects of spinal cord injury. If successful in humans, the findings could someday ease the lives of those with these distressing conditions, said Dr. Arnold Kriegstein, co-senior author of the study and director of the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regeneration Medicine and Stem Cell Research at UC San Francisco. (Krieger, 9/23)

Union nurses and Allina Health will return to bargaining for the first time since nearly 5,000 nurses at five Minneapolis-area hospitals went on strike nearly three weeks ago. The Minnesota Nurses Association and Allina say federal mediators asked both sides to resume negotiations. A session is scheduled Tuesday. (9/24)

In her first round of nurse contract talks since becoming Allina’s CEO, [Penny] Wheeler has become a lightning rod, deciding to take on the nurses’ costly health insurance benefits even as competing hospital systems punted on the issue and quickly reached three-year contracts that only changed nurses’ wages.Her stance, to some, has put her in conflict with her own views. In the past, she has questioned the value of high-deductible health insurance, and yet now she wants to move nurses from their low-deductible union plans to a menu of lower-cost Allina corporate options. Two of those options are high-deductible plans.

Two state agency heads have ruled against Connecticut hospitals’ claims that the state tax on hospitals is illegal, clearing the way for the industry to take the state to court. Hospitals have long bristled at the tax, imposed during a budget crisis in 2011 and increased by hundreds of millions of dollars since then. Last year, 24 hospitals and the Connecticut Hospital Association challenged the tax, seeking declaratory rulings on its legality from the departments of social services and revenue services. On Thursday, Social Services Commissioner Roderick L. Bremby and Revenue Services Commissioner Kevin B. Sullivan issued a 179-page ruling rejecting the hospitals’ arguments that the tax violated the Connecticut and U.S. constitutions, as well as state statute. (Becker, 9/23)

An outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease at the University of Washington Medical Center that sickened four people, including two who died, appears to be contained, King County health officials said Saturday. It has been 11 days since UW Medicine officials installed filters, flushed water systems and took other steps in the hospital’s Cascade Tower to prevent the spread of Legionella bacteria, which cause the type of serious pneumonia. (Aleccia, 9/24)

California consumers will have the strongest protections in the nation against getting blindsided by unexpected out-of-network medical bills as part of legislation signed into law by Gov. Jerry Brown.AB72 was one of 10 consumer-protection measures — eight related to health care — signed Friday by the governor. They include a law that will require health insurers to notify their policyholders when regulators think their price hikes are too high, and one that will allow people to be informed of their rights to timely access to health care and to an interpreter. The surprise medical bill legislation is designed to prevent patients, many of whom checked in advance to make sure their doctor and hospital were in their insurer’s list of contracted providers, from getting hit with out-of-network charges after undergoing a procedure or agreeing to services. (Colliver, 9/23)

At a court hearing Friday for the Miami Herald’s lawsuit against Miami-Dade seeking the locations of traps in Miami Beach where mosquitoes carrying the Zika virus were captured, a county attorney said the Florida Department of Health had instructed local officials not to disclose the information — a statement the state agency strongly denied afterward. The suit seeks disclosure of the Zika-positive mosquito trap locations on grounds that the information would help the public make decisions about precautions to take if they live or work nearby, and also inform the community debate on the use of the controversial insecticide naled. (Chang, 9/23)

Summer is over in the Bay Area, but the West Nile virus season is sticking around. Adult mosquitoes recently collected in portions of the 95112, 95131 and 95133 ZIP codes have tested positive for the virus, which can sicken and in severe cases kill humans. In response, the Santa Clara County Vector Control District plans to fog the area. (Green, 9/23)

The Obama administration has proposed barring states and other recipients of federal family planning grants from placing their own eligibility restrictions on where the money can go, which would undermine the efforts of 13 Republican-led states to prevent such money from going to Planned Parenthood. (9/24)

Like Bill and Melinda Gates before them, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, as the couple’s philanthropic organization is known, will bolster the tens of billions of dollars spent each year by the federal government on life sciences, a field in which the Boston region’s universities, hospitals, research institutes, and biotech companies are second to none. There was a touch of envy that the new project, announced Wednesday, is being launched in the San Francisco Bay Area, where a $600 million research “Biohub” will link the University of California San Francisco, University of California Berkeley, and Stanford University. How could the Manhattan Project of medicine not be based here? But regional bragging rights aside, the effort will be a huge opportunity for Boston’s biomedical research complex. (Dayal McCluskey and Weisman, 9/25)

The medical school has hired a professional recruiting firm to help — something it does for senior positions, but never on such a large scale. It has already brought in four scientists from other institutions. Another 12 are at various stages of the recruiting process; some are to visit in October, and others are nearing decisions. (McDaniels, 9/25)

In the next four days, the California Department of Public Health will decide for the second time whether the state’s largest nursing home operator can stop accepting patients at three of his five skilled nursing facilities in Humboldt County and begin closing the homes. Rockport Healthcare Services, the management company for Los Angeles nursing-home magnate Shlomo Rechnitz, did not spell out in its notification letters why it wants to close the homes. However, Rockport spokesman Stefan Friedman told The Sacramento Bee on Friday that the company has experienced a “severe staffing shortage” in the region, and “we have been unable to recruit and retain sufficient numbers of permanent staff to meet our patients’ needs.” (Lundstrom, 9/24)

Cuyahoga County has frozen its regional health insurance program after discovering a $9.5 million budget shortfall -- plus the depletion of a $12 million health care reserve fund. The problems are in the county's health insurance programs for employees as well as in a regional program, in which municipal governments and other public agencies take advantage of the county's buying power to get low rates. Employee claims in the county employees program, which is self-insured, have been higher than anticipated, County Executive Armond Budish told cleveland.com Wednesday. (Farkas, 9/23)

As the outbreak of infections among children treated at an Anaheim pediatric dental clinic climbed to 20 cases Friday, a doctor at Children’s Hospital of Orange County said the affected children have not only undergone extensive surgeries and received powerful antibiotics, but many have also lost permanent teeth. Five doctors and a team of hospital staff have been caring for the 20 children, who remain hospitalized at CHOC for several days now, said Antonio Arrieta, the hospital’s Director of Pediatric Infectious Diseases. Doctors and staff have been taking X-rays of the children’s jaws and chest area to detect infected areas, and all children have required surgery to rid their bones of the infection, he said. (Bharath, 9/24)

Health officials in Riverside County confirmed Friday that an elementary schoolchild has Hansen’s disease, also known as leprosy. The child appears to have contracted the rare disease from “someone that had been diagnosed with Hansen’s disease who had prolonged, close contact with the child,” said Barbara Cole, director for disease control for the Riverside County Department of Public Health. (Karlamangla, 9/23)

Imagine an annual physical that includes a blood test and brain imaging that reveal whether you are predisposed to Alzheimer's or Parkinson's disease. Then, imagine that any prognosis does not terrify you, but instead empowers you to take simple measures to prevent illness. Physicians and researchers in central Ohio and around the world are working to make that a reality. Such discoveries would represent the Holy Grail of neurological research, said Dr. Brendan Kelley, associate professor of neurology and psychiatry at Ohio State University's Wexner Medical Center. (Viviano, 9/25)

The project to build a suicide barrier on the Golden Gate Bridge could escalate to as much as $198 million and continues to be delayed as officials seek more money for construction. The bridge board voted Friday to formally delay the project until Jan. 9 so a funding plan can be revised. Bridge officials were stunned in July when bids came in almost double the $76 million estimate. Now span officials are noting the project could be as much as $198 million, but caution that that figure is likely high. (Prado, 9/24)

The reaction to opening a medical bill these days is often shock and confusion — for the insured and the uninsured. Prices and deductibles keep rising, policies are drowning in fine print, and doctors are jumping on and off networks. So why hasn’t the growing burden of health care gotten more attention in the presidential campaign? (9/23)

How would you equip the Centers for Disease Control and the World Health Organization to take on and beat global pandemics like Zika? That, as you should know, is more than a matter of offering up the funding Congress has refused to provide; it means jumping in early enough to keep the viruses off our shores. (Larry Tye, 9/26)

It is an election year. Once again, health care comes to the forefront with the public and the candidates speaking out for and against the Affordable Care Act. But how much do patients really know about how our health-care system works and how current policies affect health care? (Mark Lopatin, 9/25)

“Health insurance premiums and out-of-pocket costs are rising rapidly. What would you do to control them?” If I were advising a candidate on how to respond to that question, here's what I'd recommend he or she say. (Merrill Goozner, 9/26)

ObamaCare won’t work without young Americans like me, and the Obama administration knows it. That’s why the president is holding a Millennial Outreach and Engagement Summit focused on the Affordable Care Act at the White House on Tuesday. But no matter what the president says, many young Americans simply aren’t buying what he’s selling—mainly because we can’t afford it. (David Barnes, 9/25)

But it’s important to remember that many, if not most, of the newly covered Americans became insured through an expansion of Medicaid. Here, too, you hear a lot of bad news: that Medicaid offers poor quality and little choice of providers, that it is expensive for the states to administer and that its growing cost will eventually bankrupt states. As of today, 19 states have still refused to participate in the expansion. Such declarations consider only one side of the equation, though. In most ways, Medicaid offers an excellent return on investment. (Aaron E. Carroll, 9/26)

Insurers have announced that they are sharply raising prices or pulling out entirely. Many consumers will have fewer choices of insurance plans, and many insurance plans will include fewer doctors and hospitals. The turmoil can’t be explained by one factor alone. But many of the most important problems can be understood if you think of an Obamacare marketplace as a particular kind of restaurant: an all-you-can-eat buffet. It can be a solid business, but it’s hard to get the pricing right. (Margot Sanger-Katz, 9/23)

Since the ACA mandates that everyone have health insurance, the federal government provided health insurance to citizens who earn too much to be eligible for Medicaid but too little to pay for insurance. Whether the state created its own exchange or relied on the federal exchange, citizens are allowed a subsidy by the federal government if their income is less than 400 percent of the federal poverty limit. A family of four would have to make slightly less than $100,000 to be eligible for a federal subsidy.If Texas were to expand the Medicaid offering, the result would likely be similar to what California experienced. That was a 51 percent increase in Medicaid recipients. (Alan Preston, 9/24)

A change in how physicians are paid is bringing many benefits to patients. Since the dawn of modern medicine and until recently, payment was generally based on the volume of services doctors provided, a ‘fee-for-service” plan that incentivized doctors to maximize testing and interventions to a level that actually can do harm. (Howard Forman, 9/25)

Time and time again, research has shown that with treatment, people with severe mental illness are less likely to experience tragic consequences, and even return to leading productive lives. The only glimmer of hope that we and other family members have is seeing the nearly unanimous vote earlier this summer, when Congress passed the Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act. The legislation creates a mandatory assisted outpatient treatment program. It empowers providers to take patients before judges in special courts, who can order them to stay on their treatment plans or face hospitalization. ... Sen. Ron Johnson must take action and bring mental health reform to a vote. He cannot afford to stand by while families such as mine continue to suffer. We cannot afford to wait. (Paula John, 9/24)

[H]ere I’ll present a simple modification of health-care payment policies that I think could yield large dividends, too — in health, in finances and in patient satisfaction. The principle is straightforward: Pay physicians a bonus for providing continuity of care. In other words, insurers (including Medicare) would pay a bit extra to a physician who sees a particular patient multiple times over a long period, versus a physician seeing the same patient for the first time. (John Sotos, 9/25)

When I started my nursing career nine years ago, I was confident that my nursing education prepared me with the fundamentals of the profession — anatomy and physiology, pharmacology, clinical skills, and more. What I wasn’t prepared for was that some of the basic aspects of health that we ensure for our patients, like nutrition, rest, and removal from constant stressors, aren’t necessarily guaranteed for nurses. ... nurses need undisturbed break time on each shift to balance the emotional and physical demands required to provide high-quality care to patients and to keep more front-line nurses at the bedside. (Vanessa Patricelli, 9/23)

Sometimes a source gives information to journalists before a public announcement in exchange for an agreement that the journalist won't publish the information until an agreed-upon time. This process -- called an embargo -- is actually reasonable and beneficial to the public, because it gives reporters time to dig into a technical subject without feeling that they have to only skim the paper quickly and dash off an article so they can be the first to publish and get the scoop. The FDA's “close hold” embargo is an innovation I’d never heard of, however: It forbids reporters to talk to any third parties until the embargo date and time. (Megan McArdle, 9/23)

Most of the chemicals added to food and beverages — from cheese to chips to chicken soup — are never reviewed by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) before those products are sold in grocery stores. ... Responding to a court-approved settlement agreement, the FDA recently issued a final rule on its process for handling substances in food that are “Generally Recognized as Safe,” also known as GRAS. The problem is, generally recognized as safe is an oxymoron. Under the GRAS process, ingredients can bypass FDA safety reviews, and the manufacturers themselves can determine a substance is safe without ever informing the FDA that they are using it in food. (Sen. Edward J. Markey, D-Mass., 9/23)

Currently, New Mexico receives four dollars in federal funds for every state dollar invested in Medicaid. This money goes directly into patient care and supports over 50,000 mostly private-sector jobs in the state. Rather than maximizing this $4 to $1 return on investment, New Mexico underfunded the Medicaid budget in the 2016 legislative session. (Abuko Estrada And Sireesha Manne, 9/26)

If you’re a pregnant woman and have a backache or headache, or a fever, your options for over-the-counter treatment basically boil down to one medication: the pain reliever acetaminophen, better known as Tylenol. Doctors advise against using nonsteroidal anti-inflammatories, like ibuprofen and aspirin, during late pregnancy because they can compromise fetal circulation and have other adverse consequences. (Moises Velasquez-Manoff, 9/24)

The Zika virus has arrived in the United States, threatening reproductive-age American women with the prospect of compromised pregnancies — and returning the country to its decades-long debate over reproductive rights. If a pregnant American woman wanted to end a Zika-compromised pregnancy, could she? If she wanted to prevent pregnancy until she knew that any Zika risk was past, could she find the contraception she would need? (Rebecca Kreitzer and Candis Watts Smith, 9/26)

California made 465,873 marijuana-related arrests between 2006 and 2015. Nationwide, despite spending billions on the war on drugs, drug abuse remains at unacceptable levels. Illegal production has degraded the environment, often in pristine wilderness areas, and black market producers do not pay taxes. As a law professor, I also am troubled that respect for the law diminishes when we criminalize conduct that so many people engage in, especially when people of color are arrested on marijuana charges far more frequently than white offenders, despite similar use across racial groups. Still, the more extravagant claims that some proponents of legalization make leave me skeptical. (Michael Vitiello, 9/24)

On Oct. 1, the honeymoon ends for Piedmont Healthcare and Athens Regional Medical Center (ARMC), and the realities of their marriage will set in. Next week Athens Regional, with 350 beds, will become the second-largest facility in Piedmont’s system and the only one with a residency program. ARMC will be Piedmont’s seventh hospital. (Meera Naqvi, 9/24)

Allowing heroin users to shoot up at a government-sanctioned medical facility is a radical idea. When a King County task force studying the regional heroin and opioid crisis proposed a so-called “safe injection site,” it appropriately generated controversy. But peel back the skepticism and fear. Reams of research in Canada, Europe and Australia show that such a facility could reduce rates of overdose and HIV infection, increase rates of treatment and cut down on public drug consumption and the health hazard of discarded needles on the street. It could even save money. It is a radical idea that King County should try. (9/22)