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People newly insured under the Affordable Care Act were sicker, used more medical care and had higher medical costs than those who already had coverage, the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association said Tuesday in a new study of its policyholders. Because insurers’ premiums have to cover their medical expenses, the new report helps explain why Blue Cross plans have sought, and insurance commissioners have approved, substantial rate increases in many states. (Pear, 3/30)

Health insurers gained a sicker, more expensive patient population after the Affordable Care Act expanded coverage in 2014, according to an early look at medical claims from the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, which represents the most common brand of insurance. Newer customers had higher rates of diabetes, depression and high blood pressure, among other conditions, the association said in a report released Wednesday. (3/30)

Medical costs for individuals who obtained coverage through the ACA’s insurance exchanges were, on average, 22 percent higher than those with employer-based coverage in 2015, according to the association. Average monthly medical spending per member was $559 for individual enrollees in 2015, for example, versus $457 for group members. ... Under the law, no one can be denied coverage because of a pre-existing medical condition. Researchers and policy experts have always predicted that new enrollees during the first few years would include many older, sicker consumers who previously lacked insurance. (Sun, 3/30)

"What we don't know is where we go from here," said Alissa Fox, senior vice president at the Blue Cross association, which represents 36 independent Blue Cross Blue Shield insurers. (Luhby, 3/30)

The report was released by the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, which represents the Blue insurers, most of which are not-for-profit. The group may be airing an early defense for further premium increases, said Sam Glick, a partner with consulting firm Oliver Wyman, a unit of Marsh & McLennan Cos. “It’s making it clear the populations they are serving may be higher cost, and trying to lay some of the groundwork for rate increases and defending their tax-exempt status,” he said. A spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services said it was “no surprise that people who newly gained access to coverage under the Affordable Care Act needed health care,” noting that people with pre-existing health conditions often couldn’t buy plans before ACA changes in 2014. (Wilde Mathews, 3/30)

A proposal offered by a group of legislators as an alternative to Gov. Asa Hutchinson’s managed-care plan will not be included in the governor’s call for a special session next week on Medicaid, a spokesman for Hutchinson said Tuesday. The governor has said he will call a special session starting April 6 to ask lawmakers to consider his plan for continuing and modifying the state’s Medicaid expansion program and his plan to contract with a private company or companies to manage parts of the state Medicaid program. (Lyon, 3/30)

Hutchinson spokesman J.R. Davis said the governor has no plans to offer for consideration a plan supported by some legislators aimed at curbing the growth in state Medicaid spending without hiring managed-care companies. Hutchinson believes that the managed-care plan is "the best plan to achieve the savings we're looking to achieve," Davis said. To the contrary, state Rep. Michelle Gray, R-Melbourne, a managed-care opponent, said Hutchinson should include proposals by proponents and opponents of managed care on the special session agenda. "I'm disappointed that he's not going to let the Legislature decide policy," she said. (Davis, 3/30)

Hutchinson wants to modify the Medicaid expansion, which he is renaming Arkansas Works, and to utilize managed care, which he says will reduce Medicaid costs. But an alternative plan called Diamond Care is being circulated by some lawmakers, including Representative Justin Boyd. "There's not real clear data that (managed care) does everything it's being promised to do,” Boyd said. "There is concern it might not (save money), or that it may actually cost more." Instead of contracting out managed care services, Diamond Care would hire companies with incentives to reduce costs and work to improve efficiency in the state’s Medicaid system. (Hibblen and Whites-Koditschek, 3/29)

After clearing a key Senate committee Monday, sponsors of the bill to reauthorize Medicaid expansion are making sure they have the votes needed to pass the full Senate. At a press conference Tuesday morning, lawmakers and advocates urged senators to pass the legislation – saying 48,000 newly-insured people will keep their coverage without costing taxpayers more money. Senate Majority Leader Jeb Bradley has been a key supporter of the measure. “This is a bi-partisan plan, it’s a New Hampshire plan – it’s not Obamacare. It involves 48,000 of our friends and neighbors, many of whom do not qualify for the benefits of the Affordable Care Act. It’s helped make a more productive work force.” (Sutherland, 3/29)

Hampshire's expanded Medicaid program has been one of the top State House policy debates this year. But it's something local governments are mulling over as well. In City Halls across the state, officials say the program has led to some significant savings: in the slice of taxpayers’ money set aside for medical and prescription aid, and indirect savings in other areas. (McDermott, 3/26)

States that expanded Medicaid programs using federal funding are reaping economic benefits, a new study finds as the long-running healthcare debate rages anew in Tennessee's legislature. Tennessee is among 19 states that have, thus far, opted to not expand coverage to those who fall in the uninsured gap between qualifying for traditional Medicaid and being qualified to buy insurance on the federally run exchange. (Fletcher, 3/28)

The Legislature on Tuesday shelved health care reform legislation designed to provide coverage for the working poor and other needy Nebraskans after 90 minutes of often impassioned debate. ... This year's proposal would have established a three-year pilot project that could have accessed $1.8 billion in federal funding matched by a $63 million appropriation from a health care cash fund without any expenditure from the state tax-supported general fund. Opponents of the measure argued that state funding for the program is unsustainable and would crowd out other state priorities. (Walton, 3/29)

Sen. John McCollister of Omaha told colleagues during legislative debate his bill, LB 1032, addressed many of the concerns expressed in past debates about Medicaid expansion. “In a wider application of the Golden Rule, how can we turn our backs on 97,000 fellow Nebraskans? More simply put, how can we turn our backs on our neighbors when the remedy is so easy?” McCollister asked. (Martin, 3/29)

Supporters described the proposal as the nation's most conservative approach to covering the so-called Medicaid gap population, which exists because tax subsidies are only available to people with household incomes between 100 percent and 400 percent of the federal poverty level. But opponents, including Gov. Pete Ricketts, had raised concerns about the bill's long-term costs. (Schulte, 3/29)

An advocate for people with disabilities, like herself, Lynn Redding watched as lawmakers voted 28 to 20 to kill the proposal. "I'm very angry," she said. "I don't know what it's going to take to get Nebraska to have health insurance for people to get health insurance so they don't die." Sen. John McCollister called it the most conservative proposal yet, using federal funds to allow people to buy private insurance. They had support of some in the business community, and some Republicans. Redding said, "We had people signed on this year that had never signed on, so it's a big deal. This was going to be the opportunity of a lifetime for Nebraska." (White, 3/29)

The Supreme Court on Tuesday issued an unusual order indicating that the justices are trying to avoid a 4-to-4 deadlock in a case pitting religious freedom against access to contraception. The order, which was unsigned, directed the parties to file supplemental briefs in Zubik v. Burwell, No. 14-1418, which was argued on Wednesday. The case was brought by religious groups that object to providing insurance coverage for contraception to their female workers. (Liptak, 3/29)

As for the potential compromise, the justices asked the lawyers specifically if the religious organizations might inform their insurers when initially contracting for insurance that they do not wish to offer contraceptive coverage. At that point, the insurance company, “aware that petitioners are not providing certain contraceptive coverage on religious grounds — would separately notify petitioners’ employees that the insurance company will provide cost-free contraceptive coverage, and that such coverage is not paid for by petitioners and is not provided through petitioners’ health plan.” (Rovner, 3/29)

The court set an April 20 deadline, suggesting that the justices want to resolve the case by late June. A 4-4 tie would leave different rules in place in different parts of the country because lower courts have issued conflicting rulings. (3/29)

The court’s request will require plaintiffs to review their legal and theological positions. To date, Catholic bishops, in particular, have said they object to any system that uses their health plan as a vehicle for providing something they believe to be immoral, even if they are not directly involved in handling or paying for contraception. But some critics have said the bishops have much to lose from an adverse ruling and that they may be better off claiming a victory if the opportunity presents itself. The Obama administration could face a similar dilemma. Federal officials have worked for years to refine a system that they believe could address religious objections—while simultaneously responding to calls from women’s groups that they hold firm on keeping contraception covered for everyone through the Affordable Care Act. (Kendall and Radnofsky, 3/29)

The rare, post-oral argument order in the already contentious case provided new glimmers of hope to both sides. The challengers believe the order means the court won’t uphold the existing accommodation. "They wouldn’t be asking about alternatives to the accommodation if they [found it acceptable],” said Eric Rassbach, deputy general counsel at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which represents an order of Catholic nuns, Little Sisters of the Poor, in the case. But government allies are heartened that the court appears strongly concerned with ensuring that employees can seamlessly access contraception through their health plans. (Haberkorn, 3/29)

The reality of an ideologically divided, evenly split, one-man-down Supreme Court became apparent Tuesday: The justices deadlocked on a major organized-labor case and tried to avoid a second stalemate by floating their own policy compromise on the Affordable Care Act’s contraception mandate. The actions underscored how the death of Justice Antonin Scalia has upended business as usual at the Supreme Court. They also provided a preview of the kind of tentative decisions that may be all the eight-member court can muster as it faces a docket filled with election-year controversies. (Barnes, 3/29)

The post-Scalia era burst forth Tuesday at the Supreme Court in a pair of developments that reveal the new dynamic of an eight-member panel equally divided between conservatives and liberals. ... In a separate order later Tuesday, the justices took the extraordinary step of framing their own compromise to a dispute between religious organizations opposed to contraception and the Obama administration, which seeks to ensure female employees receive insurance coverage under the Affordable Care Act. At last week’s arguments the case appeared headed for another 4-4 split between the court’s conservatives and liberals. (Bravin, 3/29)

President Obama, confronting a national epidemic of heroin and prescription drug abuse, met here Tuesday with recovering addicts, doctors and law enforcement officials to underscore his determination to tackle a problem some critics say he left until too late in his administration. “We are seeing more people killed because of opioid overdose than from traffic accidents — I mean, think about that,” Mr. Obama said at a meeting of the National Rx Drug Abuse and Heroin Summit. “It has to be something right up at the top of our radar screen.” (Landler, 3/29)

Obama's appearance at the conference came as his administration issued proposed regulations and announced new funding for states to purchase and distribute the opioid overdose reversal drug, naloxone, and to train first responders and others on its use. The actions also coincide with a commitment from 60 medical schools to heighten training for prescribing opioids. (3/29)

Given its widespread reach, administration officials announced a wide range of actions to fight the epidemic, such as expanding access to drug treatment, bolstering efforts to ensure health coverage for substance abuse and mental health are on par with benefits for other medical services, investing in partnerships between law enforcement and communities, and providing guidance on using federal funds to start or expand needle exchanges. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, meanwhile, said he will release a report later this year on substance use, addiction and health, similar to the landmark surgeon general’s report on smoking released 50 years ago that focused public attention on that issue. (Ungar, 3/29)

President Obama mounted his bully pulpit Tuesday in an attempt to change the focus on heroin and opioid addiction from a criminal problem to a health issue. It would be a major shift in emphasis if he succeeds. “The only way that we reduce demand is if we’re providing treatment and thinking about this as a public health problem and not just a criminal problem,” he said to cheers and applause. Obama also acknowledged that more attention is being paid to addiction as a health issue now that it is seen as a growing threat to white communities, instead of primarily a low-income black and brown police matter. (Davidson, 3/29)

Among the new measures the Obama administration outlined was stepped-up enforcement of laws that require health plans’ coverage of mental-health and substance-abuse treatment to be comparable to medical and surgical benefits. A new rule by the Department of Health and Human Services will improve access to drug treatment for people enrolled in Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program by requiring such parity. The move is expected to benefit more than 23 million people, according to the White House. (Campo-Flores, 3/29)

The problem affects all age groups and rural, urban and suburban areas, he said. Rural areas, though, are especially hard hit, he added. Obama noted that the administration has allocated about $94 million in new funds to 271 community health centers (including two in Georgia) to expand treatment for drug addiction. “We’re putting enormous resources’’ into stopping illegal drugs from entering the country, Obama said. But he added, “Treatment is greatly underfunded.” (Miller, 3/29)

During an emotional and often intensely personal panel discussion, President Obama listened Tuesday as a 35-year-old mother of two described her descent from prescription drugs into heroin addiction. “It slowly happened,” said Crystal Oertle of Ohio as she sat beside the president. “It is crazy to think of the things I did, but it was necessary for me to function.… I’ve had to steal. I have stolen from department stores to feed my habit. I have been involved in drug busts a couple of times.” She has now marked a year of recovery. (Jaffe, 3/29)

After getting shot in the leg at age 18 during a gang fight in Tacoma, Washington, Raymond Power found relief in OxyContin and Percocet. When the prescription painkillers became too expensive, he found a cheaper alternative: heroin. (Hotakainen, 3/29)

On weekdays, Dr. Patrick H. Conway is one of the most powerful doctors in America, steering federal health programs that spend nearly $1 trillion a year while shaping health policies that affect tens of millions of citizens. On many weekends, he is just another doctor in blue sterile gloves and a yellow gown with a stethoscope around his neck, comforting children and training young physicians, many of whom have no idea of his other role. (Pear, 3/29)

Former members of the military ... are being refused benefits at the highest rate since the system was created at the end of World War II, the report said. More than 125,000 Iraq and Afghanistan veterans have what are known as “bad paper” discharges that preclude them from receiving care, said the report, released Wednesday by the veterans advocacy group Swords to Plowshares. The report for the first time compared 70 years of data from the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs. (Philipps, 3/30)

Amanda Hensley started abusing prescription painkillers when she was just a teenager. For years, she managed to function and hold down jobs. She even quit opioids for a while when she was pregnant with her now 4-year-old son. But she relapsed. Hensley says she preferred drugs like Percocet and morphine, but opted for heroin when short on cash. By the time she discovered she was pregnant last year, she couldn't quit. (Tribble, 3/30)

You can now obtain naloxone, a medicine that reverses heroin overdose, from pharmacies without a doctor's prescription, thanks to a bill that Gov. Rick Scott signed into law on Friday. "Expanded naloxone pharmacy access is good public health policy that will save lives," said Dr. Kevin Sherin, director of Orange County health department. "I commend the governor and the Legislature for acting quickly." (Miller, 3/27)

Law enforcement officials are pushing back against a bill that allows people to drop off illegal drugs, such as cocaine and heroin, and drug paraphernalia at police stations. Currently police stations accept unused prescription drugs in designed drop boxes. (Sutherland, 3/29)

Many relatives and friends providing financial support or care to people with dementia have dipped into their retirement savings, cut back on spending and sold assets to pay for expenses tied to the disease, according to a survey released Wednesday by the Alzheimer's Association. About one in five go hungry because they don't have enough money. (3/30)

First, Alzheimer's takes a person's memory. Then it takes their family's money. That's the central finding of a report published Wednesday by the Alzheimer's Association on the financial burden friends and families bear when they care for someone with dementia. "What we found was really startling," says Beth Kallmyer, vice president of constituent services for the organization. "The cost of paying for care was putting people in a situation where they had to make really difficult choices around basic necessities — things like food, medical care, transportation." (Hamilton, 3/30)

An estimated 5.4 million Americans — including 210,000 Ohioans and 30,000 central Ohioans — have Alzheimer’s disease, according to the Alzheimer’s Association’s annual Facts and Figures report being released today. Nearly 16 million friends and family members, such as [Deneen] Day, provide financial, physical and emotional support, often without asking for help despite their own needs. (Pyle, 3/30)

With limited time left before the 2016 elections, the Obama administration may be hamstrung in what it can do to advance Vice President Joe Biden’s cancer moonshot. But Biden has made clear he also sees hope in philanthropic investments, like a major venture announced Tuesday at Johns Hopkins University. (Scott, 3/29)

Poison comes in many forms for addicts: Alcohol and drugs usually come first to mind, but gambling -- often overlooked -- is of increasing concern to state officials and rehab centers. The number of problem gamblers has grown in recent years with an explosion of betting opportunities available at the touch of a smartphone screen. That is particularly true during this month’s annual “March Madness” college basketball tournament. (Ibarra, 3/30)

Spring is coming. That means baseball, cherry blossoms and mosquitoes. Those mosquitoes are why the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has called for a Zika virus summit at the White House on Friday. (Gorenstein, 3/29)

Many Americans are unaware of the basic facts about the Zika virus, which is spreading rapidly through the Americas and could reach the continental U.S. this summer. While 87% of people know that Zika is spread by mosquitoes, nearly one in three people mistakenly believe that it also can be spread by coughing or sneezing, like a cold, according to a survey of 1,275 adults from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the National Public Health Information Coalition, a group that serves public relations officers. (Szabo, 3/29)

The main job of state medical boards is to license doctors and to investigate complaints. But their findings are often difficult for the average consumer to access, meaning that many Americans are none the wiser that the doctor they may be visiting is on probation for egregious errors or ethics violations. In a report published Tuesday, Consumer Reports took a deep dive into the list of California doctors on probation — but still practicing — and what they found is unsettling. One pediatrician was disciplined 13 times for what the board cited as being “under the influence of drugs to such an extent as to impair her ability to practice medicine with safety to her patients and public.” An orthopedic surgeon was so inattentive to a man’s fractured thighbone that the patient ended up having to get his leg amputated. One OB-GYN surgically removed the wrong ovary rather than one that was cystic. The list goes on and on. (Cha, 3/29)

We’ve all heard stories of missed diagnoses that turned deadly or horrific surgeries gone awry, but a new Consumer Reports investigation suggests those mishaps may be more common and egregious than many people believe. (3/29)

Facing another round of budget cuts, Louisiana likely can't afford all of its privatized LSU hospitals and could shutter the safety net facilities except for those in Shreveport and New Orleans, the health department's chief financial officer said Tuesday. Jeff Reynolds, undersecretary for the Department of Health and Hospitals, delivered the grim news to a House budget committee as lawmakers grapple with proposals for how to close a $750 million state budget shortfall for the financial year that begins July 1. (DeSlatte, 3/29)

Expanding Medicaid to provide insurance for thousands of more people in Louisiana is just the beginning of a major health care overhaul being planned by Gov. John Bel Edwards' administration. The changes could mean moving away from the state's historic practice of designating regional hospitals across the state as "safety net" health care providers that treat the poor and uninsured. Edwards' decision to accept new federal dollars in expanding Medicaid would be key to that move, Department of Health and Hospitals Undersecretary Jeff Reynolds told lawmakers Monday (March 28), because it would create new revenue streams that DHH could direct toward a broader swath of hospitals and create new incentives based around improved health outcomes. (Litten, 3/29)

Hospitals are increasingly under attack. Earlier this week, the Washington D.C.-based MedStar Health, which runs ten hospitals, was exposed to a computer virus. (Gorenstein, 3/29)

Orlando Health is rolling out system-wide an app that has been developed by two of its physician. Dr. Hamish Munro and Dr. Kevin de la Roza, pediatric cardiac anesthesiologists at Arnold Palmer Hospital of Children, created the EASE app in 2013 to keep families abreast of their loved ones' status in the operating room. (Miller, 3/29)

Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie said he remained concerned Tuesday about Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s plan for Medicaid spending, a sticking point as negotiations over New York’s $154 billion budget inched toward a Friday deadline. In an informal, impromptu conversation with reporters at his Capitol office, Mr. Cuomo, a Democrat, pledged to find $250 million in Medicaid savings before completing a budget agreement with legislative leaders. (Vilensky and Orden, 3/29)

Of this, everyone in the State Capitol seems certain: New York will eventually have a budget. The question is when. ... While a deal appeared close, there was still noticeable aggravation in Democratic ranks over a plan that Mr. Cuomo unveiled in January: finding some $250 million in Medicaid savings, much of which would come from New York City, which accounts for a large chunk of Medicaid spending statewide. (McKinley and Yee, 3/29)

A state agency announced Tuesday that it is cutting reimbursement rates paid to more than 46,000 Medicaid providers by 25 percent -- an amount that the head of the Oklahoma Hospital Association said will have a "market changing" effect on health care in the state. The Oklahoma Health Care Authority, which oversees Medicaid in Oklahoma, announced plans for the rate cuts to take effect in the upcoming fiscal year that begins July 1. The cuts come amid plunging state revenue collections and a roughly $1.3 billion hole in next year's state budget. (3/29)

The rate cut would affect more than 46,000 SoonerCare providers who deliver care to thousands of low-income Oklahomans across the state. SoonerCare, Oklahoma's Medicaid program, pays for health care services for almost 800,000 low-income Oklahomans, including 524,000 children. It is the second-largest cost in the state budget, behind education. [Oklahoma Health Care] Authority CEO Nico Gomez said he worried that, if the provider cuts are approved, many providers will stop accepting SoonerCare, and that some rural providers will move their businesses to larger communities to remain financially stable. (Cosgrove, 3/29)

Lawmakers from both parties banded together Tuesday to help Minnesotans hit by estate liens from the Department of Human Services. The department long has recouped the cost of care for elderly or disabled Minnesotans older than 55 on Medicaid by placing claims against their estates. But since 2014, these liens haven’t affected only people in nursing homes. They’ve applied to tens of thousands of otherwise healthy adults older than 55 receiving Medicaid care for routine medical expenses. (Montgomery, 3/29)

California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones says he has "some significant skepticism" about the benefits of Anthem Inc.'s proposed acquisition of rival insurer Cigna Corp. Jones spoke at a public hearing on the proposed $54 billion merger Tuesday in San Francisco. (3/29)

Health insurance premiums are rising by double digits for thousands of Massachusetts retailers and their employees. The Retailers Association of Massachusetts, a trade group, said a survey of its members found that insurance rates are jumping by an average of 11 percent. The increases will kick in April 1, when many retailers and other small businesses renew their health insurance coverage. (Dayal McCluskey, 3/30)

State lawmakers blasted the state surgeon general in January for cutting staff and spending at a time when new HIV cases were spiking in Florida. A month later, the Florida Department of Health quietly revised its figures. The department's division of disease control lowered the number of new HIV cases logged in 2014 from 6,147 to 4,613 — erasing one in four new infections from the rolls that year, state records show. (McGrory, 3/26)

Louisiana's locally-run jails fail to provide inmates with proper HIV testing and treatment, in a state with some of the highest HIV infection rates in the country, according to a report released Tuesday by the National advocacy group Human Rights Watch. Megan McLemore, author of the 70-page report and senior health researcher with Human Rights Watch, called Louisiana "ground zero" for nationwide HIV and incarceration issues from the steps of the Capitol Tuesday. (3/29)

Something Judge Steve Leifman said in his Miami courtroom made the psychologist standing before him snap. Those aren't my parents, the psychologist — who had been calm moments earlier — screamed, pointing out the man and the woman in the back of the room who had raised him, sent him off to Harvard and worked to find him the help he needed. My parents died in the Holocaust. Those people were sent by the CIA. They want to kill me. (Auslen, 3/27)

Shortly before this poverty-stricken city began drawing its drinking water from the Flint River in April 2014 in a cost-cutting move, officials huddled at the municipal water treatment plant, running through a checklist of final preparations. Mike Glasgow, the plant's laboratory supervisor at the time, says he asked district engineer Mike Prysby of the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality how often staffers would need to check the water for proper levels of phosphate, a chemical they intended to add to prevent lead corrosion from the pipes. Prysby's response, according to Glasgow: "You don't need to monitor phosphate because you're not required to add it."(Flesher, 3/30)

There's a new health center to serve some western Detroit suburbs. The Wayne Health Center is a federally qualified health center, meaning it helps serve low-income residents and receives grants to offer medical services to underserved people or regions. (3/29)

A Lenoir City chiropractor who operated a pain clinic in Cookeville, along with a Manchester physician, are named in a suit filed by the state of Tennessee and the federal government for allegedly defrauding Medicare and TennCare. The complaint states that Anderson believed that medical clinics had to have a physician owner, so he recruited several physicians to serve as the sham owners of the four pain clinics while Anderson, and later PMC, managed the clinics. According to the complaint, he was the true owner who controlled the pain clinics during the entire time they were in operation. (Militana, 3/28)

A new company is aiming to make blood testing an on-demand, at-home service. Founded by a UCF graduate, CHEKD offers an array of blood tests on its Web site and allows consumers to choose a time, date and location for a blood draw, where a phlebotomist meets them. The results of the lab tests are provided on the Web site's secure portal. (Miller, 3/28)

Like most of us, Kathleen Barrowclough, 70, was born with only two kidneys. So, she couldn't save both her brother and her sister, who each needed a kidney transplant to stay alive. (Bergen, 3/29)

Florida Gov. Rick Scott signed a bill Friday, March 25, that will allow terminally ill patients to access medical cannabis to ease their suffering, as reported by the Sun Sentinel. The bill (HB 307) adds medical cannabis to the state’s “Right to Try Act,” which allows terminally ill patients to access experimental drugs that aren’t approved for general use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. (Brosious, 3/28)

Washington's Legislature has passed a bill that would create a number of regulations for companies selling vapor products such as requiring labeling that warns of the health effects of vaping. Senate Bill 6328 was approved by the House on a 74-20 vote Tuesday and will head to the desk of Gov. Jay Inslee. The bill defines vapor products to include e-cigarettes and other vaping devices, as well as the nicotine solutions that go into the device. (3/30)

It’s been a slow burn for medical marijuana in Illinois over the past few months. The state’s relatively strict medical cannabis pilot program kicked off last November and has been plagued by low patient numbers and very little political support from current Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner’s administration thus far. (Brosious, 3/29)

One of the most frightening words a patient can hear from a doctor is “cancer.” We know it from the experience of our families and friends, and the millions of Americans who hear it directly from their doctors each year. In President Barack Obama’s final State of the Union address, he compared the effort required to eradicate cancer to a “moonshot,” summoning the American ingenuity and scientific pursuits that sent humankind to the moon. We believe that it’s time for a full and complete national commitment to rid the world of this disease, because the truth is that ending cancer as we know it is finally within our grasp. (Michael R. Bloomberg and Joe Biden, 3/30)

Another shooting at the U.S. Capitol. This time, in an incident on Monday, 66-year-old Larry Dawson, a Tennessee man known to U.S. Capitol Police for his erratic behavior, was shot and wounded by a police officer when he pulled out what sources later said was a pistol-like pellet gun. What is going on? One possible answer was offered earlier this month by 30-year-old Kyle Odom, who was arrested March 8 after throwing a letter to President Obama over the White House fence. The letter warned the president that there are at least 50 members of Congress, both Republicans and Democrats, who are Martians. Then, in a 21-page manifesto released to the media, Mr. Odom provided the names of these congressional Martians and described how they live “deep underground here and inside the moon.” Law-enforcement officials say that two days before the White House incident, Mr. Odom shot and critically wounded an Idaho minister, believing that the clergyman also was a Martian. (E. Fuller Torrey, 3/29)

During the Obama era, the keenest minds in the conservative movement have had to develop policy responses to the administration’s agenda. But those policies had to be crafted within bounds established by Republican politics — conservative ideas were useful only insofar as conservative politicians could plausibly advocate them. Republican politicians, in turn, had to operate within the bounds of what their voters considered acceptable. And Republican voters, as the 2016 election cycle has made abundantly clear to even those long committed to denying it, are bat-shit crazy. (Jonathan Chait, 3/29)

President Obama seems pretty proud of his six-year-old namesake. And one can easily understand the proclivity of parents to overlook the shortcomings of their own child. But the usual suspects, such as the Center for American Progress (CAP), have weighed in with their own take on a CBO report issued last week: “more coverage, less spending.” By the time you have finished reading this post, I hope you will understand just how misleading that summary judgment about Obamacare is. (Chris Conover, 3/30)

Washington lawyers and journalists are scratching their heads — and spinning scenarios — after a surprise order from the Supreme Court in what is popularly known as the Little Sisters of the Poor case. The case, whose official name is Zubik vs. Burwell, involves a challenge by religious nonprofit organizations to federal regulations requiring that employer-provided health insurance plans include contraception for women at no additional cost to the employee. The Little Sisters, a Roman Catholic order of nuns, operates homes for the elderly. Other plaintiffs include Catholic Charities and the Most Rev. David Zubik, the bishop of Pittsburgh. (Michael McGough, 3/29)

On March 23, the Supreme Court heard oral argument in Zubik v. Burwell, consolidated cases that include the case against the Little Sisters of the Poor. Under a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services mandate, the government wants the Little Sisters to provide all information about their employees and health insurance policies necessary to direct plan administrators to cover 17 types of contraceptives, including some that may cause early abortions. The Little Sisters do not want to authorize the government or their insurance administrators to do what their religious convictions expressly prevent them from doing themselves. (Annie MacLean, 3/29)

Proponents argue that the technology is unsafe, irresponsible, and hurts the business of licensed professionals. But by this logic, the home thermometer, too, is a dangerous tool in the hands of untrained people. Thermometers inserted, timed, and read by doctors or nurses are safer, more accurate, and more responsible. If you are sick enough to need to take your temperature, you are sick enough that you must see a doctor or at least a nurse. The same alarmists might worry that the more inexpensive thermometers have become, the more people have used them. This, after all, is how dangerous technologies spread. More importantly, allowing millions of people to take their own temperatures cuts into the fees that doctors could charge if only the home thermometer could be banned and the existing supply confiscated. (Newt Gingrich, 3/30)

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), a constant critic of group purchasing organizations, wants to examine whether federal provisions that allow GPOs to collect administrative fees drive up patients' healthcare costs. Although federal law prohibits hospitals from taking kickbacks from suppliers in exchange for their business, the “safe harbor” provision allows GPOs to collect an administrative fee from suppliers for their role in the negotiation process. Critics argue that the fees—which are often a percentage of the purchase price—give GPOs an incentive to negotiate higher prices instead of cutting the best possible deal for their members. (Adam Rubenfire, 3/29)

The sudden widespread disruptions in Kentuckians’ access to health care and public benefits raise a host of questions. Do the unexplained Medicaid and food stamp cancellations and day-long waits to talk to a case worker arise from a conscious decision by the Bevin administration to reduce assistance rolls? Or, are they the result of “unforeseen technical issues” that accompany the rollout of any big new software program, as Health and Family Services Secretary Vickie Yates Brown Glisson said in a press release last week? (3/29)

The Legislature went on spring break without doing enough to address the crises of funding, staffing and capacity at the state’s inpatient psychiatric hospitals. Where is the advocacy at the Statehouse on behalf of the most critically mentally ill? (Rhonda Holman, 3/28)

A push in the Kansas Legislature is underway to privatize the Osawatomie and Larned state hospitals. That’s not a good idea. Fixing the problems at the facilities is a top priority that requires the attention of all state officials, particularly at Osawatomie, which serves people with severe psychiatric problems. (3/29)

In East Tennessee, residents of rural counties, particularly the Upper Cumberland counties along the Kentucky border, are significantly less healthy than those living in the Knoxville metropolitan area, a national survey shows. The disparity, which mirrors poverty and education levels, shows the need for more effective health initiatives for rural counties in Tennessee. (3/28)

The numbers, as they say, do not lie. It's the people inventing those numbers for their own benefit that should make you suspicious as hell. For instance, the Florida Department of Health came up with a brand-new tally of recent HIV cases in the state, as reported by the Times' Kathleen McGrory. The original number was 6,147 new cases in 2014, which had a lot of people questioning why Florida was intent on cutting health funding and staff. Not long afterward, the department decided there were actually only 4,613 new cases, an almost 25 percent reduction. (John Romano, 3/28)

How Florida treats mentally ill people and those trapped in substance abuse will undergo a historic overhaul thanks to laws that the state Legislature passed this year, given a tremendous push by Miami-Dade’s delegation. (3/28)

Thinking back to the events in Ferguson in August 2014, all will agree that we are an interconnected community, and what happens in one jurisdiction affects us all and demonstrates the integrated nature of our local government services. We take great pride in our community-based firefighters who support our distinctive neighborhoods. But we also work, shop and enjoy our larger community every day. Our families rely upon the fire and ambulance services provided throughout the metro area, not just in the neighborhood where we reside. We would all benefit by having consistent, reliable fire and ambulance service across our region. (Garry Earls, 3/30)