First Edition: July 3, 2019

Kaiser Health News: Newly Blue Maine Expands Access To Abortion
While abortion bans in Republican-led states dominated headlines in recent weeks, a handful of other states have expanded abortion access. Maine joined those ranks in June with two new laws ― one requires all insurance and Medicaid to cover the procedure and the other allows physician assistants and nurses with advanced training to perform it. With these laws, Maine joins New York, Illinois, Rhode Island and Vermont as states that are trying to shore up the right to abortion in advance of an expected U.S. Supreme Court challenge. What sets Maine apart is how recently Democrats have taken power in the state. (Wight, 7/3)

Kaiser Health News: American Medical Students Less Likely To Choose To Become Primary Care Doctors
Despite hospital systems and health officials calling out the need for more primary care doctors, graduates of U.S. medical schools are becoming less likely to choose to specialize in one of those fields. A record-high number of primary care positions was offered in the 2019 National Resident Matching Program — known to doctors as “the Match.” It determines where a medical student will study in their chosen specialty after graduation. But this year, the percentage of primary care positions filled by fourth-year medical students was the lowest on record. (Knight, 7/3)

The Associated Press: States’ Delay Request For Arguments In ‘Obamacare’ Lawsuit
A federal appeals court Tuesday rejected a request to delay next week’s hearing on the constitutionality of President Barack Obama’s health care law. Eighteen Republican-dominated states opposed to the law said they needed more time to prepare answers to complex issues the appeals court raised in a recent filing as they prepared for the hearing. States supporting “Obamacare” had opposed the delay, saying it would contribute to uncertainty for insurance companies, regulators and people who need health care coverage. (McGill, 7/2)

The New York Times: Government Watchdog Finds Squalid Conditions In Border Centers
Overcrowded, squalid conditions are more widespread at migrant centers along the southern border than initially revealed, the Department of Homeland Security’s independent watchdog said Tuesday. Its report describes standing-room-only cells, children without showers and hot meals, and detainees clamoring desperately for release. The findings by the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General were released as House Democrats detailed their own findings at migrant holding centers and pressed the agency to answer for the mistreatment not only of migrants but also of their own colleagues, who have been threatened on social media. (Kanno-Youngs, 7/2)

NPR: DHS Watchdog Describes Crammed Detention Centers, A Ticking Time Bomb
Inspectors from DHS’s Office of Inspector General in June visited Border Patrol facilities and ports of entry across the Rio Grande Valley in Texas, the busiest sector in the country for illegal border crossings. “We are concerned that overcrowding and prolonged detention represent an immediate risk to the health and safety of DHS agents and officers, and to those detained,” they wrote. In its response to the report, the Department of Homeland Security says the surge of migrants crossing the Southern border has led to an “acute and worsening crisis.” (Rose and Burnett, 7/2)

The Associated Press: Government Photos Show Detained Migrants Pleading For Help
As public outrage grows over the conditions in which thousands of people — some no more than a few months old — are being held by the U.S. government, the report offered new cause for alarm. It quotes one senior government manager as calling the situation “a ticking time bomb.” “Specifically, when detainees observed us, they banged on the cell windows, shouted, pressed notes to the window with their time in custody, and gestured to evidence of their time in custody,” the report says. BuzzFeed first reported on a draft version of the report, which blurs most faces in the photos. (7/2)

Reuters: ‘Help, 40 Days Here’: Photos Show Migrants Crammed Into U.S. Border Facilities
Security incidents among men at RGV facilities included detainees clogging toilets in order to be released from cells, migrants refusing to return to cells, and special operations teams brought in to show that Border Patrol was prepared to use force, the report on Tuesday said. Migrants banged on cell windows and shouted when investigators visited. Most single adults had not had a shower despite several being held as long as a month. One photo showed a man in a cell with 88 men, that was built to hold 41, holding a message reading: “Help 40 Day(s) Here.” (7/2)

CNN: Watchdog Finds Extreme Overcrowding In Border Patrol Facilities In Unannounced Inspections
The watchdog found additional violations of detention policy, such as a lack of hot meals, inadequate access to showers and limited access to a change of clothes. For example, children at three of the five Border Patrol facilities did not have access to showers, despite a policy requiring that “reasonable efforts” be made to provide showers to children who are in detention for 48 hours. And many single adults were found to have been receiving only bologna sandwiches to eat, causing some on the diet to become constipated and require medical attention. (Sands, 7/2)

USA Today: Images Of Border Patrol Migrant Overcrowding Released
This image released in a report on July 2, 2019, by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Inspector General Office (OIG) shows 88 adult males in a cell for a maximum capacity of 41 overcrowding a Border Patrol facility on June 12, 2019, in Fort Brown, Texas. (7/2)

Houston Chronicle: Joaquin Castro Sneaks Camera Into Border Patrol Facility, Shares Photos Of Migrants Who ‘Need Help’
When Democratic lawmakers toured Border Patrol facilities Monday, officials asked them to surrender their phones. But one Texas congressman was able to sneak a device in, capturing the conditions and the migrants being held there. (Sabawi, 7/2)

Reuters: House Panel To Hold Hearing On Treatment Of Migrant Children
The House Oversight Committee has scheduled a hearing next week on the separation and treatment of immigrant children and has launched an investigation into reports of offensive Facebook posts by border patrol officers, the panel said on Tuesday. Representative Elijah Cummings, the committee’s Democratic chairman, said the panel had invited Acting Secretary Kevin McAleenan from the Department of Homeland Security and Acting Commissioner Mark Morgan from U.S. Customs and Border Protection to testify on July 12. (7/2)

The New York Times: Top Border Officials Condemn ‘Highly Inappropriate’ Secret Facebook Group
Top officials in the agency overseeing border security condemned a secret Facebook group for current and former Border Patrol agents that featured jokes about migrant deaths, obscene images of Hispanic lawmakers and threats to members of Congress as the lawmakers themselves on Tuesday amplified their criticism of the agency. (Kanno-Youngs, 7/2)

The Associated Press: AP Explains: How Facebook Handles Speech In ‘Secret’ Groups
U.S. Border Patrol agents are under fire for posting offensive messages in a “secret” Facebook group that included sexually explicit posts about U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and dismissive references to the deaths of migrants in U.S. custody. The existence of that group was reported Monday by ProPublica. Prior to that, few people outside the group had ever heard of it. Facebook enforces complex guidelines against hate speech, abuse and other categories when it comes to users’ posts to their friends or to the public. (7/3)

Arizona Republic: Sen. Martha McSally Condemns Arizona Border Patrol Officers’ Posts
Antolin Rolando Lopez-Aguilar was running. He had just crossed the border illegally near the Mariposa Port of Entry in Nogales, and the sound of a Border Patrol F-150 was close behind him. He reached back and touched the hood of the moving vehicle, trying to push off from the truck that was chasing him. The truck accelerated again, knocking Lopez-Aguilar to the ground before grinding to a halt. Court documents filed in a federal case against the truck’s driver, Border Patrol Agent Matthew Bowen, allege the vehicle was inches from running Lopez-Aguilar over when it stopped. (Hinkle, 7/2)

The Associated Press: ‘And Now We Are Alone’: Extended Family Separated At Border
A 12-year-old boy entered the U.S. from Mexico with his brother and uncle, fleeing violence in Guatemala, but is now without them in a packed Texas border facility. Honduran sisters, 8 and 6, were taken from their grandmother when they arrived. An 8-year-old Guatemalan boy was separated from his aunt and cousin. (7/2)

The Washington Post: Toddler Who Died After Being Taken Into Custody At The Mexican Border Suffered Multiple Diseases
A Guatemalan toddler who spent several days in Border Patrol custody this spring died of complications related to “multiple intestinal and respiratory infectious diseases,” according to an El Paso County medical examiner’s office report issued Tuesday. Wilmer Josue Ramirez Vasquez, who was 2½ , died May 14 after several weeks in an El Paso hospital. (Moore and Sacchetti, 7/2)

CBS News: Del Rio, Texas: Border Patrol Searches For Missing 2-Year-Old Girl In Rio Grade Today
Divers are searching for a 2-year-old girl believed to have gone missing in the Rio Grande River near Del Rio, Texas, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) announced Tuesday. Agents from the Del Rio Border Patrol Station said a woman from Haiti told them Monday that she had lost her daughter, a national of Brazil, while crossing the river. (Linton, 7/2)

The Associated Press: Show Of Hands On Immigrant Health Care Belies A Thorny Issue
In one unanimous show of hands, Democratic presidential candidates moved to the mainstream the idea of full health insurance for people who don’t have legal permission to be in the United States. But turning that debate-night moment into reality would mean reversing longstanding federal policies that have only gotten stricter. The idea is so new that independent experts say they don’t have a reliable cost estimate. Politically, it wouldn’t happen without a pitched battle. (7/3)

The Hill: GOP Sees Potent Trump Attack Line: Health Care For Immigrants
Democrats running for president handed Donald Trump a potent attack line last week when they promised that their government health insurance plans would cover undocumented immigrants. It merged two of President Trump’s favorite campaign issues — health care and immigration — and could help him in battleground states where white, middle-class voters are worried about both. (Hellmann, 7/2)

The Associated Press: Trump Transforms 2020 Immigration Debate-For Democrats
The intensity of President Donald Trump’s hardline approach to immigration hasn’t just pushed the Republican Party rightward — it’s also moving Democrats in ways that are profoundly transforming the immigration debate. Gone are hopes for a big, bipartisan immigration overhaul once envisioned in Congress. With dire conditions taking hold at the border, and deportations stoking fear in immigrant communities, groups on the left are no longer willing to engage in the trade-offs that had long been cornerstones to any deal. (7/2)

The Washington Post: At Border, Grim Realities Of Crisis Collide With 2020 Campaign Politics
Homeland Security officials thought they finally were getting a handle on the crisis at the Mexican border, after warning for months that agents and holding cells were beyond “the breaking point.” The record surge of Central American families has started to abate. The Mexican government has launched a broad crackdown after a deal with President Trump. And in a rare example of bipartisan action, lawmakers last week approved $ 4.6 billion in supplemental funding, most of it to improve care for minors who arrive without parents. (Miroff, Linskey and Dawsey, 7/2)

The New York Times: Cory Booker Proposes Drastic Changes To Immigration Detention System
Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey on Tuesday announced a plan to drastically alter the nation’s immigration detention system through an executive order on his first day in office if he is elected president. In an effort to draw stark contrast to the immigration detention policies of the Trump administration, Mr. Booker’s platform simultaneously establishes a new, stronger set of civil detention standards for facilities operated by the Department of Homeland Security, and directs the department to phase out any contracts with private prison facilities and county or local prisons over three years. (Corasaniti, 7/2)

The Washington Post Fact Checker: Would Medicare-For-All Mean Hospitals For None?
In a crowded stage featuring many candidates who support Medicare-for-all, Delaney stood out with a doomsday prediction that it would force all hospitals to close. Shifting the U.S. health-care industry to a single-payer system such as Medicare-for-all would be a huge endeavor, and it’s impossible to foresee every potential consequence. But we couldn’t find any expert or research study supporting the former Maryland congressman’s claim that Medicare-for-all would cause widespread hospital closures. (Rizzo, 7/3)

The Hill: Poll: Most Favor Medicare For All If They Can Keep Their Doctors 
A majority of voters support “Medicare for all” if they can keep their doctors, even if that means a diminished role for private insurance, a new poll finds. The Morning Consult/Politico survey reports that 55 percent of voters support a Medicare for all system when told it would diminish the role of private insurers but that people could keep their doctors.  (Sullivan, 7/2)

The New York Times: Elizabeth Warren Calls On Former F.D.A. Chief To Quit Pfizer Board
Senator Elizabeth Warren on Tuesday called on Dr. Scott Gottlieb, the former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, to resign from the board of Pfizer, saying his decision to join one of the country’s leading pharmaceutical companies “smacks of corruption.” Ms. Warren, who is seeking the Democratic presidential nomination, said in a public letter to Dr. Gottlieb that the revolving door between government and industry “makes the American people rightly cynical and distrustful about whether high-level Trump administration officials are working for them, or for their future corporate employers.” (Kaplan, 7/2)

Reuters: Senator Warren Asks Former FDA Chief Gottlieb To Resign From Pfizer Board
Gottlieb, who won bipartisan support for his efforts to curb use of flavored e-cigarettes by youths, stepped down from the FDA in April, a role he had held since May 2017. He was named to Pfizer’s board last Thursday and was added to the board’s regulatory and compliance as well as the science and technology committees. (7/2)

The New York Times: Trump Expresses Shock At Homelessness, ‘A Phenomenon That Started Two Years Ago’
For decades before moving into the White House, President Trump lived in the heart of Manhattan but apparently never noticed that his hometown had a homelessness problem. Until now. In a puzzling series of comments during an interview over the weekend, Mr. Trump professed his concern about people living on the streets in America’s biggest cities, declaring that it is “a phenomenon that started two years ago.” (Shear, 7/2)

Politico: Newsom On Trump Homeless Threat: ‘I Don’t Know That He Knows What It Means’
California Gov. Gavin Newsom turned Donald Trump’s threat to “intercede” on homelessness back on the president Tuesday, welcoming federal help but faulting Trump for floating budget cuts to safety net programs. “It sounds like the president of the United States recognizes he has work to do on this issue,” Newsom said, spinning the president’s comments as “encouraging” — while rebuking Trump for proposals that would mean “decreasing the social safety net to address the reasons people are out on the streets and sidewalks in the first place,” questioning if Trump was “familiar with the tenets or details of his budget.” (White, 7/2)

The Washington Post: LA Mayor To Trump: Let’s Fix Homeless Crisis
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti proposed forming a politically unlikely partnership Tuesday to take on the city’s homeless crisis: with President Donald Trump. The Democratic mayor whose downtown streets have become home to filthy, drug-infested encampments for thousands of people issued a public invitation for the president to walk the streets with him and see firsthand the suffering and desperation. The growing homeless crisis in L.A. and across the nation “is not his fault, nor is it my fault, it is something that has been decades in the making,” the mayor said, noting that both Democratic and Republican cities have too many people on the streets. (Blood, 7/2)

The Associated Press: Hospitals Commit $ 2M To Baltimore Anti-Homelessness Effort
Ten hospitals in the Baltimore area have committed $ 2 million to help homeless families and individuals get permanent housing and supportive services. Mayor Bernard “Jack” Young announced on Tuesday the effort expected to benefit up to 400 people. Terry Hickey, director of the Mayor’s Office of Human Services, says the pilot program is meant to show housing can result in savings in health care costs. (7/2)

The Wall Street Journal: New Rule To Test Union Membership, Finances
Two of the nation’s most powerful unions face a potential loss of members and millions of dollars when a Trump administration rule takes effect Friday in the latest big test for organized labor. The rule will prohibit states from automatically collecting dues from home-care workers’ paychecks. About eight states currently allow the unionization of people who provide in-home care to the disabled and elderly and whose pay is subsidized by the government. The Service Employees International Union and American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees represent the vast majority of unionized home-care workers. (Maher, 7/3)

The Wall Street Journal: U.S. Indian Health Service Revamps Rules For Sexual-Abuse Reporting At Substance-Abuse Facility
The U.S. Indian Health Service has overhauled sex-abuse reporting practices at a troubled North Carolina substance-abuse treatment center the agency runs after allegations its managers mishandled a 2016 incident. In June, The Wall Street Journal reported that leaders at the Cherokee, N.C. facility and the regional office overseeing it botched the response to allegations that a maintenance worker may have engaged in sexual misconduct with a teenage patient, which the maintenance worker denied. (Weaver, 7/2)

The Associated Press: 2020 Hopeful Buttigieg Pitches Plan To Fight Systemic Racism
Looking to improve his standing with black voters, Democratic presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg pitched a plan Tuesday to tackle “systemic racism” he said exists in housing, health care, education, policing and other aspects of American life. The 37-year-old mayor of South Bend, Indiana, told a predominantly black audience at a Chicago meeting of Rainbow PUSH, the Rev. Jesse Jackson’s civil rights organization, that his plan includes providing more opportunity for minority businesses, strengthening voting rights and reforming the criminal justice system. (7/2)

The Washington Post: A North Dakota Abortion Law Requires Doctors To Misinform Women. The American Medical Association Is Suing.
One of America’s leading medical organizations has filed a lawsuit to block a North Dakota abortion law requiring doctors to tell women that a medication-induced abortion can be “reversed,” an assertion medical experts say is scientifically unsound. The American Medical Association has joined the Red River Women’s Clinic, the last abortion facility in the state, and its medical director, Kathryn Eggleston, to argue that the law violates doctors’ constitutional right to free speech by forcing them to lie to patients. (Epstein, 7/2)

Reuters: Facebook To Tackle Content With Misleading Health Claims
Facebook Inc said on Tuesday it was taking steps to reduce promotion of products based on misleading health-related claims. In a blog post, the social media company said it had made two updates last month to reduce posts with exaggerated or sensational health claims. (7/2)

The Washington Post: Facebook Wants To Limit The Reach Of Bogus Medical ‘Cures’ By Treating Them Like Spam
Facebook will “down-rank” posts that it believes contain health misinformation, meaning those posts will appear in the news feeds of fewer users, and less prominently. The down-ranking will also apply to some posts from Facebook groups devoted to natural treatments, which will show up less often in the news feeds of group members. (Ohlheiser, 7/2)

The Wall Street Journal: Facebook, YouTube Overrun With Bogus Cancer-Treatment Claims
Alphabet Inc.’s YouTube has been cutting off advertising for bogus cancer-treatment channels, a spokesman said. It is working with medical doctors to identify content promoting unproven claims and medical conspiracy theories and has tweaked its algorithms to reduce the number of times these dubious videos are presented to users. Facebook and YouTube detailed their recent actions on cancer-related content after the Journal presented them with its findings. Widespread misinformation sometimes appeared alongside ads, videos or pages for proven treatments, the Journal found. (Hernandez and McMillan, 7/2)

The Wall Street Journal: To Improve Care, Veterans Affairs Asks Patients Their Life Stories
Thor Ringler’s bouncing step, red-framed eyeglasses and flowered-print shirts brighten the colorless hallway at the Madison VA Medical Center where he works. When he bursts into patients’ rooms, he makes sure they feel like individuals in a system that can too often feel impersonal. Mr. Ringler is at the forefront of the Department of Veterans Affairs’ effort to use what is known as “narrative medicine”—in which a patient is asked to tell their life story, and that story is included in their medical record. The goal is to tell doctors, nurses and other medical providers who their patient is beyond blood pressure, heart rate and other statistics on a chart. (Kesling, 7/3)

The New York Times: The Zika Virus Is Still A Threat. Here’s What Experts Know.
Remember Zika? With measles and Ebola grabbing headlines, it is easy to forget the health panic of 2016, when Zika was linked to severe birth defects in thousands of Brazilian newborns whose mothers were infected while pregnant, striking fear across the country and much of the Americas. As health officials struggled to halt its spread, the virus galloped through Latin America and the Caribbean that spring and summer and eventually reached the United States, sickening more than 200 people in Florida and Texas and prompting countless travelers to cancel vacations in the tropics. (Jacobs, 7/2)

The Washington Post: Medicare Weighs Whether To Pay For Acupuncture
Seeking ways to address chronic pain without narcotics, Medicare is exploring whether to pay for acupuncture, a move that would thrust the government health insurance program into the long-standing controversy over whether the therapy is any better than placebo. Coverage would be for chronic low-back pain only, a malady that afflicts millions of people. Low-back pain, acute and chronic, ranks as the third-greatest cause of poor health or mortality in the United States, behind only heart disease and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, according to the National Institutes of Health. (Bernstein, 7/2)

The New York Times: Why So Many Of Us Don’t Lose Weight When We Exercise
People hoping to lose weight with exercise often wind up being their own worst enemies, according to the latest, large-scale study of workouts, weight loss and their frustrating interaction. The study, which carefully tracked how much people ate and moved after starting to exercise, found that many of them failed to lose or even gained weight while exercising, because they also reflexively changed their lives in other, subtle ways. But a few people in the study did drop pounds, and their success could have lessons for the rest of us. (Reynolds, 7/3)

Los Angeles Times: As Ebola Outbreak Rages, The World Just Watches. Some Call It ‘Malignant Neglect’
The Ebola outbreak raging through Congo has sickened thousands of people and killed more than 1,500 — even as the number of new victims continues to climb. The situation is dire, but it’s hardly unprecedented. Less than five years ago, an epidemic in West Africa killed more than 11,000 people, shattering communities, destroying economies and leaving a generation of orphans behind. When it was over, world leaders took a solemn vow: Never again. Health officials studied the failures of their sluggish and haphazard response so they would recognize the warning signs of a crisis not to be ignored. (Baumgaertner, 7/2)

The Associated Press: To Boost Milk, Dairy Groups Support High School Coffee Bars
Coffee bars selling $ 3 iced lattes are popping up in high schools, helped along by dairy groups scrambling for new ways to get people to drink milk. It’s one small way the dairy industry is fighting to slow the persistent decline in U.S. milk consumption as eating habits change and rival drinks keep popping up on supermarket shelves. (7/2)

The Associated Press: Republican Who Voted For Medicaid Expansion Concedes
A Virginia Republican lawmaker who voted to expand Medicaid is conceding a heated nomination battle to a conservative challenger. GOP Del. Chris Peace announced Monday that he would not try and litigate a dispute over who should be the Republican nominee for a Richmond-area House of Delegates seat. Peace previously claimed he was the nominee after winning a modified primary. But challenger Scott Wyatt said his victory in a local party convention made him the GOP’s pick. (7/2)

The Associated Press: Black Hospital Patient Attached To IV Arrested In Illinois
Police are investigating why a black man being treated for double pneumonia at a northern Illinois hospital was arrested after a hospital security officer confronted him when he walked outside pushing an IV stand he was connected to. Shaquille Dukes, 24, posted on Facebook that an “overzealous, racist, security officer,” confronted him outside Freeport Health Network while he still was wearing a gown issued from the hospital. Dukes said doctors had suggested he go for a walk and a hospital security officer accused him of trying to steal the IV stand to sell it on eBay. (7/2)

The Associated Press: Medical Marijuana May Be More Accessible In New Jersey
New Jersey expanded its medical marijuana program, including increasing the number of illnesses eligible for cannabis use, boosting the amount that can be dispensed and raising the number of cultivator permits, under a broad new law. Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat, signed the Jake Honig Compassionate Use Medical Cannabis Act on Tuesday at a tavern in Freehold known for holding charitable fundraisers. (7/2)