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Two Republican lawmakers are breaking with their party’s long-stated goal of repealing ObamaCare by putting forward a healthcare plan that leaves parts of the system in place. While the new bill from Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Texas) and Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) is a departure from the core Republican idea of full repeal, it could provide a roadmap for changes that could be enacted under a GOP president. (Sullivan, 5/23)

After years of failed GOP efforts to repeal Obamacare, a top Texas Republican lawmaker is taking a new tack on health care: proposing an alternative. Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Dallas, and Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., are behind a bill that they say would offer Americans a choice. Taking a page from the Donald Trump political playbook, they’ve given it a name oozing with confidence — “The World’s Greatest Healthcare Plan Act of 2016.” (Leslie, 5/23)

While the bill does not repeal the 2010 health care law, it would repeal both the individual and employer mandates and limits the “non-essential” products that plans would have to cover. ... Sessions and Cassidy’s bill comes as a House GOP task force is drafting an alternative to the Affordable Care Act, which Republicans met to discuss earlier this month. (McIntire, 5/23)

The 50 or so farmworkers who signed up for help [enrolling in a health plan] missed this year’s ACA open enrollment period. But they’re offered a second chance. A special open-enrollment period allows consumers who experience certain life events – a change in marital or immigration status, for example – to apply after the main enrollment period has ended. Entering the country on an H-2A work visa is considered a qualifying life event, making migrant workers eligible for the special-enrollment period. (Porter-Rockwell, 5/24)

Many Georgians may see their monthly premiums rise by double-digit percentages on the state health insurance exchange in 2017, an analysis of health insurers’ proposed rate requests shows. If approved by regulators, these rates will vary significantly depending on the plan, the region of the state and the insurer. (Miller, 5/23)

A bill to expand Medicaid eligibility in Oklahoma so that the state could tap into an infusion of federal funding available under the Affordable Care Act appears to be dead, the state's Senate leader said on Monday. With just one week remaining before lawmakers are set to adjourn, Senate President Pro Tem Brian Bingman said there isn't enough support in the Republican-controlled Senate to approve the plan. A proposed $1.50-per-pack tax increase on cigarettes to help pay for the state's share was defeated in the Oklahoma House last week, and Bingman said that proposal is also likely dead for the year. (5/23)

The state Medicaid agency board Monday postponed its vote on a 25 percent provider rate cut, planning to vote once the agency knows more about its appropriation from the Legislature. Nico Gomez, Oklahoma Health Care Authority chief executive officer, said he proposed the rate cut in March amid concerns that the agency would see a major cut in state money for the next fiscal year, which starts July 1. However, because the Legislature hadn't proposed a budget as of Monday afternoon, Gomez advised the board to wait to make such a significant decision. (Cosgrove, 5/23)

Most Idahoans are unhappy with the Legislature's inaction on Medicaid expansion but supported doing away with the requirement for a pistol permit within city limits, according to the latest polling released by Idaho Politics Weekly. This year's legislative session ended without any action from lawmakers on addressing health coverage for the estimated 78,000 uninsured Idahoans in the "Medicaid gap," and the polling, done by the Salt Lake City firm Dan Jones and Associates, found 64 percent of respondents disagree with this action, while 30 percent agree and 7 percent didn't know. (Brown, 5/23)

Americans who live in the two biggest states that haven’t expanded Medicaid have more complaints about health care costs and quality, according to a new survey released by the Texas Medical Center Health Policy Institute in Houston. They’d also like their states to expand Medicaid. The survey, conducted by marketing research firm Nielsen, assessed attitudes about the health care system, and possible solutions, in five populous states: Texas, California, Florida, New York and Ohio. (Feibel, 5/24)

The House bill providing money to fight the Zika virus would strip the Department of Health and Human Services of funding it plans to use for implementation of the bipartisan Medicare payment overhaul that was enacted last year. In a letter to the House Appropriations Committee obtained by Morning Consult, the Department of Health and Human Services wrote that it plans to use $108 million of its “Nonrecurring Expenses Fund” to invest in “the development of information technology and other systems needed to effectively implement several provisions” of the Medicare Access and Chip Reauthorization Act, or MACRA. (Owens, 5/23)

The House and Senate have both passed funding to combat the Zika virus, but there appears to be little chance Republicans will reach a deal before the Memorial Day recess. The bills passed by the House and Senate last week are vastly different in terms of size, timeline and offsets. One is broadly bipartisan; the other is facing a veto threat from the White House. (Ferris, 5/24)

Led by Barbara Boxer and Patty Murray, a coalition of 11 Senators sent a letter to the U.S. Olympic Committee on Monday requesting information on how the committee will protect athletes from the Zika virus at the Rio Olympics in August. Signed by 10 Democrats and one independent senator, the letter to USOC chairman Larry Probst asks “what steps the USOC is taking to assist and protect our athletes against the spread of the Zika virus.” (Axon, 5/23)

The letter cited recent information from the Centers for Disease Control showing a link between the disease and a birth defect, microcephaly, a condition in which babies are born with undersized brains and skulls. USOC CEO Scott Blackmun responded by outlining steps the federation has taken, including the forming of an infectious disease advisory group with doctors who are available to answer athletes’ questions about the virus. Blackmun said the USOC has created a medical emergency response plan to “provide pre-identified medical management strategies for any illness or injury in Rio.” (Pells, 5/23)

World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Margaret Chan lashed out at family planning and mosquito control "failures" as root causes of the ongoing Zika crisis in an address to the World Health Assembly Monday. (McKirdy, 5/24)

A summer flu seemed to be sweeping through Rachel Heid’s riverfront neighborhood. Pale and shaky, she left work with a fever. Neighbors had the same symptoms, and a contractor at her home felt so sick he went to the hospital. Heid thought the neighborhood children were passing a bug around their circle. She never suspected a virus carried by bugs hovering around their birdbaths and tarp-covered boats — until health officials left pamphlets at their houses asking for blood samples if they recently suffered from fevers and joint or muscle pain. (Kay, 5/24)

The number of pregnant women in Florida with the Zika virus climbed from nine to 36 following new federal guidelines outlining how the cases will be counted. (Ochoa, 5/23)

National Football League officials improperly sought to influence a government study on the link between football and brain disease, according to a senior House Democrat in a report issued Monday. New Jersey Representative Frank Pallone says the league tried to strong-arm the National Institutes of Health into taking the project away from a researcher who the NFL feared was biased. (Taylor, 5/23)

Senior health officials at the NFL improperly tried to intervene in a government study into the risks of brain injury from football, according to a report by congressional investigators released Monday. At least a half-dozen NFL officials tried to change the direction of a study by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which was funded by a $30 million donation from the football league. (Ferris, 5/23)

The House Energy and Commerce committee will mark up a major mental health reform bill in June, panel spokeswoman Jennifer Sherman said Monday. The bill from Rep. Tim Murphy (R-Pa.) has long been delayed amid controversy, but Republicans have recently been circulating a draft of revisions. (Sullivan, 5/23)

Wall Street expressed growing doubts about a pending $54 billion merger of U.S. health insurers Anthem Inc and Cigna Corp on Monday as news of management squabbles added to concerns over its review by antitrust regulators. Cigna shares closed down 4 percent at $126.15, well below Anthem's original $188 per share offer of cash and stock announced last July. Anthem shares fell 1.8 percent to $133.18. (5/24)

U.S. opposition to proposed mergers in the pay-TV, mobile-phone and airline industries suggests a tough battle ahead for two health insurer deals: Anthem Inc.’s takeover of Cigna Corp. and Aetna Inc.’s bid for Humana Inc. It’s the job of antitrust officials to make sure that deals don’t harm competition, and they commonly do that by evaluating local markets for conflicts. ...But antitrust enforcers with the Obama administration’s Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission have shown a willingness to change that playbook and take a wider look at competition. (McLaughlin, 5/23)

The Wall Street Journal got a hold of correspondence Monday that suggests there may be some tension between insurance giants Anthem and Cigna, two companies that have proposed a $48 billion merger. (Gorenstein, 5/23)

Cancer patients and survivors are lobbying lawmakers to make Michigan the latest in a long line of states to require equal insurance coverage of chemotherapy regardless of whether the drugs are given by needle or taken orally. The push addresses the tendency for chemo pills to cost patients much more out of pocket, both because they are more expensive and because health insurers cover them differently than IV chemo. (Eggert, 5/21)

Nearly half of therapists in California don’t take insurance, according to a recent survey from the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists. The same is true of psychiatrists. (Dembosky, 5/24)

Vermont is poised to become the first state to require public and private health insurance to cover vasectomies without copays and deductibles under a bill Democratic Gov. Peter Shumlin signed into law Monday. The legislation inserts into state law mandates from the federal Affordable Care Act but goes beyond them to include additional birth control methods, such as vasectomies. (5/23)

There’s a lot of drama here, as business stories go. Is the company going to be definitively exposed as the Enron of biotech startups? Or will it be vindicated as a misunderstood and unfairly persecuted innovator that, well, made a few mistakes. If the former, you get the sense only a talent on a par with David Simon‘s could coherently dramatize the shortcomings of the multiple institutions implicated in this mess. The story is compelling even without the appearance to date of the most important characters — real-life patients who may have been harmed by Theranos’ faulty blood tests. (Brooks, 5/23)

A federal judge in Cincinnati temporarily blocked the implementation of a state law that would have effectively de-funded 28 Ohio Planned Parenthood clinics, in a ruling on Monday. U.S. District Judge Michael Barrett granted a two-week stay halting the diversion of federal funding in a ruling on a May 11 lawsuit filed by Planned Parenthood of Greater Ohio and Southwest Ohio. The Ohio law signed in February by Republican Governor John Kasich stripped $1.3 million in federal taxpayer funds from any healthcare organization that provides abortion services. The law was scheduled to go into effect on Monday. (Palmer, 5/23)

On Monday afternoon, Judge Michael R. Barrett in Cincinnati granted Planned Parenthood's request to delay the law. He granted a temporary restraining order, which will last until June 6. "There is also no doubt that the Ohio Legislature enacted (this law) for the purpose of placing a substantial obstacle in the path of a woman seeking to obtain an abortion," Barrett wrote in the order. (Balmert, 3/23)

Ruling that Planned Parenthood had demonstrated a "likelihood of success" in the courts, Barrett granted a temporary restraining order through June 6 in ordering the state to reinstate its terminated contracts with the group. For more than 20 years, Planned Parenthood — which offers abortions at three of its 28 Ohio clinics — received federal grants and state money to offer non-abortion programs such as breast and cervical cancer screening, sexually-transmitted-disease testing, a Healthy Moms-Healthy Babies program and other services. But lawmakers voted early this year to terminate funding, for any purpose, to any abortion provider. (Ludlow, 5/23)

Law enforcement authorities cannot use a noise provision in the Maine Civil Rights Act to restrict anti-abortion protesters outside a clinic in Portland, a federal judge ruled Monday. U.S. District Judge Nancy Torresen ruled in favor of a Lewiston pastor who said his rights were violated and that he was targeted because of his views. The Rev. Andrew March sued after the attorney general used the state law to prevent a church member from getting too close to the Planned Parenthood clinic. (5/23)

A bill to bar public funding for entities that provide abortions, legislation that could be used to prevent Planned Parenthood from opening an abortion clinic in New Orleans, passed the full Senate on Monday (May 23). The bill now heads to the desk of Gov. John Bel Edwards. (Litten, 5/23)

The debate over abortion, a focus of incessant controversy in the Americas, is heating up north and south as the region faces the election of a new U.S. president, a ruling by the highest U.S. court and the risk of the Zika virus in dozens of nations. Abortion plays a role in every U.S. election and this one, to choose a successor to President Barack Obama in November, is no exception. (Wulfhorst, 5/23)

As a Supreme Court decision on abortion rights is highly anticipated in the United States, few are as uniquely positioned to assess its impact as reproductive rights attorney Kathryn Kolbert, who argued the last major abortion case before the high court. In that 1992 challenge, the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling legalizing abortion survived, but the Supreme Court allowed for such state regulations as waiting periods. The decision was written by Justices Sandra Day O'Connor and David Souter, who have retired, and Justice Anthony Kennedy. (Wulfhorst, 5/23)

Across the nation, abortion-rights activists are closely following Monday’s appeals court hearing involving an Indiana woman convicted of killing the premature infant she delivered after ingesting abortion-inducing drugs. Lawyers for 35-year-old Purvi Patel will ask the Indiana Court of Appeals court to throw out the convictions that led to her 20-year prison sentence. Patel’s case is one of more than a dozen recent cases cited by abortion-rights supporters in which women were arrested or convicted in connection with self-induced abortion. The issue is a volatile one, in part because many anti-abortion leaders say they do not favor prosecutions of women for their own abortions, even as they urge crackdowns on doctors who provide them. (Crary, 5/23)

Republicans are criticizing Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert McDonald after he compared wait times to receive VA health care to the hours people wait for rides at Disney theme parks. McDonald has told reporters on Monday that the VA should not use wait times as a measure of success because Disney doesn't either. (5/23)

Critics said Monday that Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert McDonald had trivialized the long-standing problem of lengthy wait times for appointments at California’s veterans medical centers by comparing them to waiting in long lines at Disneyland. (Ybarra, 5/23)

The secretary of Veterans Affairs said Monday that the VA is “close” to filling the long-vacant position as head of the St. Louis VA, but cautioned that pay and politics could again thwart efforts to fill the job. It has been open almost three years, and finalists have backed out because of what Robert McDonald described as concern over pay or taking a top position in a federal department under heavy public and congressional scrutiny. (Raasch, 5/24)

The nation seems to be kicking its smoking habit faster than ever before. The rate of smoking among adults in the U.S. fell to 15 percent last year thanks to the biggest one-year decline in more than 20 years, according to a new government report. The rate fell 2 percentage points from 2014, when about 17 percent of adults in a large national survey said they had recently smoked. The smoking rate has been falling for decades, but it usually drops only 1 point or less in a year. (Stobbe, 5/24)

Use of electronic cigarettes and other vaping devices has stalled in the United States as more Americans question their safety, according to a new online Reuters/Ipsos poll. About 10 percent of the 9,766 adults surveyed between April 19 and May 16 use the devices, the same percentage as in a similar Reuters/Ipsos poll in May, 2015. This year, however, a growing percentage of participants expressed negative attitudes toward e-cigarettes. Forty-seven percent of respondents said vaping was not healthier than smoking conventional cigarettes compared with 38 percent who felt that way a year ago. (Mincer, 5/24)

The world's largest insurer is ditching tobacco assets worth $2 billion, saying it can't continue to invest in an industry that kills six million people per year. (Kottasova, 5/23)

It all starts with a $20 to $30 purchase. That's the average street price of heroin today, according to Framingham Police. But if that one purchase is a bad batch, too strong, or if the user injects too much, that's all it takes to cause an overdose. Although the proliferation of the overdose-reversal drug Narcan— the market name for naloxone —has saved innumerable lives, more than 1,000 people are dying a year in Massachusetts from heroin and other opioid overdoses. When you crunch the numbers, that overdose costs a whole lot more than $20. (Avery, 5/23)

Americans in different parts of the country are known to vary significantly in their consumption of particular foods — be it spicy chili, cream-cheese covered bagels or collard greens. Recent federal government data shows that the country is equally diverse in its consumption of intoxicating substances. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration annually surveys Americans age 12 and older about whether they use opioid painkillers for non-medical reasons or consume any marijuana, alcohol or cocaine. States are ranked into quintiles based on what proportion of their population uses each substance, thereby creating a “top 10 list” for all four. (Humphreys, 5/23)

For Dr. Ross Macdonald, every person who enters New York City’s main jail with an opioid addiction represents an opportunity for treatment, and the possibility of saving a life. As the medical director of the city’s correctional health program, he ensures that offenders who come in on methadone continue to receive it. And he and his staff try to persuade as many addicted inmates as possible to get started on methadone before they leave the jail. (Vestal, 5/23)

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.V.) and a handful of other Democrats on Monday announced a bill that would impose a 1-cent-per-milligram excise tax on every opioid pill sold. The money raised through the tax would then be used to fund opioid addiction treatment. Republicans and Democrats alike say the legislation currently making its way through Congress is only the beginning of lawmakers’ work to address the opioid epidemic. For some Democrats, this comes with a threat of aggressively targeting drug companies in the future. Although the Manchin bill has very little chance of passage in the current Congress, the move signals that Democrats are not going to let the issue drop without pressing for more financial accountability from the drug industry for opioid abuse. (Owens, 5/23)

Missouri’s failure to set up a statewide prescription drug monitoring program during the 2016 legislative session will continue to affect other states. Each of the eight states bordering Missouri already has a program that notifies doctors when their patients have been prescribed dangerous amounts of addictive painkillers from multiple providers. Rep. Holly Rehder, R-Sikeston, says without a program of its own, Missouri is negatively affecting the efforts of others to stop drug dealers and prevent addiction. (Daily, 5/23)

Every movement needs a champion, and in the largely rural counties of western North Carolina, Richie Tannerhill is a champion of the recovery-oriented care movement for people with mental health and substance abuse issues. Recovery-oriented care is founded on the belief that people with behavioral health problems need guideposts to help them find their own routes back to a productive life -- that medication compliance and symptom control aren’t ultimate treatment goals. Advocates of this approach, which involves community-based supports to help people reintegrate into their communities, fear it could be undermined by the omnibus mental health bill sponsored in Congress by Rep. Tim Murphy, a Pennsylvania Republican and clinical child psychologist. (Sisk, 5/24)

Both of Richie Tannerhill’s parents had mental health and substance abuse disorders. His dad was sentenced to an extended prison term, and Tannerhill said he was “passed around from friend to friend, family member to family member.” By the age of 4, he’d lived in five states. His first arrest came when he was in third grade and got caught breaking into a school. He was dealing drugs at 12, and by 14 had sampled pills, mushrooms, cocaine and LSD. At 15, he landed in the behavioral health unit of a hospital in Kailua, Hawaii, and a year later, a Nebraska prison, charged with breaking into two restaurants. (Sisk, 5/24)

About a dozen attorneys general, led by Maura Healey, are asking Congress to allow the nation’s top public health agency to study gun deaths, just as it studies deaths caused by auto accidents. (Levenson, 5/24)

Black patients diagnosed with liver cancer were more likely to die and less likely to receive lifesaving transplants than white patients, researchers reported Monday. The disparities are so great that race alone is the biggest predictor of who is likely to die from liver cancer, the researchers told a big conference in San Diego called Digestive Disease Week. (Jarrett, 5/23)

Antibiotics can save lives, but sometimes they can work too well. Most antibiotics can't tell the difference between good and bad bacteria. That means the medicines kill helpful bacteria in your gut while they're obliterating the bacteria making you sick. The helpful bacteria make up what's known as your microbiome. Damaging the microbiome can cause a number of health problems, including making people more vulnerable to infections from other bacteria such as Clostridium difficile, which can cause debilitating diarrhea and be difficult to treat. (Sofia, 5/23)

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) gives U.S. patients the right to access their medical records and control who else has access to the information, physicians note in an essay in the Annals of Internal Medicine. But in reality, the contents of electronic records may be limited by doctors’ concerns about disputes with patients about what the records say, fear of malpractice litigation, and questions about how much information to give certain individuals like minors and people with mental illness, these physicians argue. (Rapaport, 5/23)

The rapid growth of telehealth services for mental and behavioral care means employers should consider the rewards and risks associated with this delivery of health care, particularly when it comes to privacy and state laws. ... Telebehavioral counseling and other services are providing more and more people with the help they need by bringing the treatment to the privacy of an individual's home, eliminating the need to take time off from work and the fear of stigma, Wojcik said. (Douglas, 5/23)

Swallowing a robot is normally cause for a trip to an emergency room to get that Transformer out of your 3-year-old. But instead of fishing this tiny robot out of your stomach, doctors are having you swallow it – on purpose. Scientists have created a tiny robot that can be swallowed and sent to retrieve objects that were errantly ingested. (Welsh, 5/23)

Vanderbilt University Medical Center is leading a push to bring independent hospitals from around the state under a single umbrella network that would reshape access to care around Tennessee. Nearly five years in the making, the statewide Vanderbilt Health Affiliated Network would be unprecedented in its scope, reaching from Memphis to Johnson City — and beyond. (Fletcher, 5/23)

The U.S. government on Monday threatened to cut off Medicare and Medicaid funding to a government-run hospital in Rapid City — the third South Dakota hospital serving Native Americans that's been found to have serious deficiencies in recent months. Inspectors with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which administers the government's health care programs for the needy, disabled and elderly, found problems at Sioux San Hospital in Rapid City during an unannounced survey earlier this month. The hospital is run by Indian Health Service, which provides health care to tribal members through a network of hospitals on and off reservations as part of the U.S. government's treaty obligations to Native American tribes. (5/23)

Florida will spend $58 million more next year on mental health care, with $16 million addressing staffing and safety deficits in the state’s mental hospitals, the Sarasota Herald-Tribune reports. (5/23)

Due to a massive drop in projected revenues, the Governor is trying to cut spending for the next two-year budget cycle by eight percent. He said he is trying to cut spending levels back to where they were ten years ago. (Beck, 5/23)

Many states are beginning to look at a growing body of research that shows that having a parent behind bars can have a destabilizing effect on an estimated 1.7 million children ... The separation can have costly emotional and social consequences, such as trauma and trouble in schools, homelessness, and bigger welfare and foster care rolls. Some states are encouraging greater contact between the children and their parents by using new technology such as televisiting, or by placing parents in the closest correctional facility. And some are trying to intervene when a parent is charged, tried and convicted of a crime to provide emotional support and a stable home for the children. (Wiltz, 5/24)

In the face of a hepatitis C epidemic, a state lawmaker wants Tennessee prison officials to be able to tell corrections officers which inmates have hepatitis C. Rep. John Mark Windle, D-Livingston, didn't specifically say the Tennessee Department of Correction should test all inmates for hepatitis C. (Boucher, 5/23)

Advocate Health Care recently revealed a new concept, as the provider started to open 56 clinics inside Walgreen stores located across the Chicago area. The in-store health care offices provide physicals and vaccinations, as well as treatment for common illnesses, injuries, cold and flu, ear infections, strep throat, migraines, pink eye and rashes, said Liz Donofrio, manager of public affairs and marketing at Advocate Good Shepherd Hospital in Barrington. (Shields, 5/23)

A joint legislative committee Wednesday will hear pro and con arguments on a ballot measure intended to protect an important source of funding for low-income Californians. The measure, known as the Medi-Cal Funding and Accountability Act, would override the scheduled expiration of a fund used by the state to bring in matching dollars from the federal government for Medi-Cal, California’s version of the Medicaid health care program for low-income people. The fund — financed by hospitals — would become permanent. (Ibarra, 5/24

It's becoming more expensive for older folks to move into senior housing - especially in Philadelphia, which a new survey ranks among the Top 10 most expensive metro areas in the nation for senior living. For example, the median cost for assisted living in the Philadelphia region was $4,663 a month in 2015, ranking the area below Washington, New York, Boston, and Minneapolis but above San Francisco, according to the survey conducted by A Place for Mom. (Arvedlund, 5/23)

Three health care workers have been charged with illegally billing Medicaid from their family clinic in the West Town neighborhood, Illinois State police announced Monday. Hector L. Flores-Arroyo, 56; Mohan C. Rao, 82; and Susana Araujo, 61, were each charged with one count of vendor fraud, two counts of theft and two counts of conspiracy, all felonies, police said. Araujo also faces a felony count of unlicensed practice of medicine. (5/23)

Oregon is expected to take in about $43 million in tax revenue from recreational marijuana this year under a revised estimate by state economists. The state's unexpectedly large tax haul so far prompted economists to revisit their original projections, which had put revenue somewhere between $2 million to $3 million for the whole year. (Crombie, 5/23)

Drug-resistant superbugs account for an estimated 700,000 deaths worldwide today, but that number could rise to 10 million within the next few decades unless new antibiotics are developed. That’s according to a new report commissioned by the UK government, which is proposing a provocative solution to the problem: a 10-year, $40 billion global fund to provide incentives to develop new superbug-fighting drugs. (Ed Silverman, 5/24)

The Obama Administration is unlawfully diverting billions of dollars from taxpayers to insurance companies that sell Obamacare policies. That is the conclusion reached in a legal opinion letter released today by former Ambassador and White House Counsel Boyden Gray. (Grace-Marie Turner and Doug Badger, 5/23)

Gallup polling released last week showed majority support–58%–for replacing the Affordable Care Act with a federally funded health system. The same poll found 51% support for repealing the ACA. There is a basic point that often gets lost in reaction to poll findings like these: They measure the public’s initial response to ideas and words, and proposals such as single payer or ACA repeal that people associate with candidates–but they don’t tell us much about the likely level of support for a policy if there is a real debate about legislation before Congress, with winners and losers laid bare. (Drew Altman, 5/24)

A new bill making the rounds on Capitol Hill has a hospital-centric theme. But private Medicare Advantage insurers with bad quality ratings would also benefit from one surreptitious provision. Last week, Reps. Pat Tiberi (R-Ohio) and Jim McDermott (D-Wash.) introduced the Helping Hospitals Improve Patient Care Act of 2016. A key component of the legislation would take into account socio-economic factors into Medicare readmission rates for hospitals. (Bob Herman, 5/23)

Abortion may be a key issue for evangelical Christian voters, but Samantha Bee says that wasn’t always the case. On Monday night, the “Full Frontal“ host went back in time to the late 1970s to explain how the issue was manufactured by power-hungry leaders of the religious right and then legitimized by the Republican Party. (Lee Moran, 5/24)

In between trying to find a cure for cancer, billionaire drug developer Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong is committing resources to another vexing problem, the ailing newspaper industry. Soon-Shiong's investment firm Nant Capital is committing $70.5 million to become the second-largest shareholder in Tribune Publishing Co., parent company of the Los Angeles Times, Baltimore Sun and Chicago Tribune, among titles. He also will serve as vice chairman of its board of directors. (Beth Kutscher, 5/23)

Over the past seven years, more than 2,700 residents of St. Louis County have died as a result of heroin or opioid overdose. A sad, stark truth, but deaths related to heroin and prescription drug overdoses have surpassed car accidents as the number one cause of injury-related deaths nationwide. Between 2004 and 2015, hospital utilization for opioid abuse increased 137 percent in Missouri, with the highest rates reported in St. Louis. These alarming statistics are proof that no community is immune, and our own neighborhoods are right in the middle of a growing epidemic that is destroying our families, increasing crime on our streets, and robbing so many Missourians of their futures. (Ann Wagner, 5/22)

The strongest link, the most persistent voice — and now one that can claim a measure of victory — that ties together all these editorial opinions is Miami-Dade County Judge Steven Leifman. In his years on the bench he has evolved into a national expert in the treatment — and, at great cost, the mistreatment — of mentally ill people who get swept into the criminal justice system, often for frightening or dangerous behavior that has left families or law enforcement with few other choices. And jail is absolutely the wrong place for many of the nonviolent offenders, exacerbating their condition — bipolar disorder or schizophrenia, perhaps — rather than addressing it appropriately, humanely and with the goal of rehabilitation. (5/23)

Congress is finally getting serious about hazardous chemicals in household products and industrial goods. The House is expected to vote on Tuesday on a bill overhauling a 1976 chemical safety law that has made it hard for federal regulators to ban toxic substances, even known carcinogens like asbestos. The Senate is expected to follow later in the week. The bipartisan legislation would direct the Environmental Protection Agency to review chemicals to determine whether they threaten human health or the environment. Regulators would be required to give priority to the riskiest chemicals, evaluate at least 20 substances at a time and finish each evaluation in no more than seven years. (5/24)

The National Institutes of Health seems to have discovered what communities across the land already know: The National Football League is an untrustworthy partner. According to a report released Monday by the Democratic staff of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, the NFL pressured the NIH to cancel a $16-million grant to study football-related brain injuries to a prominent Boston brain researcher who the league claimed was biased. The NIH had found no evidence that the researcher, Robert Stern, was biased or subject to a conflict of interest. The House staff agreed. On the other hand, it did assert a conflict of interest on the part of one NFL medical advisor, who applied unsuccessfully for the same grant and then became a leading critic of the award to Stern. (Michael Hiltzik, 5/23)

I don’t eat breakfast. It’s not that I dislike what’s offered. Given the choice of breakfast food or lunch food, I’d almost always choose eggs or waffles. It’s just that I’m not hungry at 7:30 a.m., when I leave for work. In fact, I’m rarely hungry until about lunchtime. So, other than a morning cup of coffee, I don’t eat much before noon. This habit has forced me to be subjected to more lectures on how I’m hurting myself, my diet, my work and my health than almost any other. Only a fool would skip the most important meal of the day, right? As with many other nutritional pieces of advice, our belief in the power of breakfast is based on misinterpreted research and biased studies. (Aaron E. Carroll, 5/23)

The nation took a big step on Friday toward better health, as first lady Michelle Obama unveiled the first updated Nutrition Facts labels for food packaging in more than two decades. She deserves great credit in standing her ground against fierce opposition from food industry lobbyists against the improved labels, which will disclose how much sugar is added to products and list a healthy limit for daily consumption. (5/24)

About a year ago, fast-food chain Chipotle trotted out its “G-M-Over It” campaign, boldly declaring that it would extend its commitment to healthy food by eliminating genetically engineered ingredients from its menu. GMO-fearing burrito eaters rejoiced, while most food scientists rolled their eyes at what they called needless fear over genetically modified organisms. We joined in the eye-rolling. (5/24)

Bayer's $62 billion, all-cash bid for Monsanto is a risky proposition, and not because of the difficulty of raising enough cash for the biggest corporate takeover in German history. Rather, the company that once marketed heroin as a cough medicine should be aware of another kind of risk as it prepares to get deeper into the genetically modified crops that many European countries want no part of. (Leonid Bershidsky, 5/23)