$417 Million Awarded in Suit Tying Johnson’s Baby Powder to Cancer READ
In what may be the largest award so far in a lawsuit tying ovarian cancer to talcum powder, a Los Angeles jury on Monday ordered Johnson & Johnson to pay $417 million in damages to a medical receptionist who developed ovarian cancer after using the company’s trademark Johnson’s Baby Powder on her perineum for decades.
Aetna faces class-action lawsuit over HIV disclosures READ
Legal groups on Monday filed a class-action lawsuit against the health insurer Aetna, alleging the company violated the privacy of its customers by sending many of them letters through which the phrase “filling prescriptions for HIV” was visible through envelope windows… The federal suit alleges the breach affected as many as 12,000 Aetna customers living in 23 states.
The debate over single-payer healthcare in California isn’t going away. Here’s why READ
A bill to establish single-payer healthcare screeched to an abrupt halt earlier this summer — but that hasn’t blunted its continuing influence on California politics. Calls for a sea change in the state’s healthcare system have proven remarkably durable, even after Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon shelved a measure in June that would have made the state responsible for paying all of its residents’ medical costs. A recently filed ballot initiative, budding campaigns against sitting lawmakers — including a recall effort against Rendon — and new plans for legislators to wrestle with how to achieve universal healthcare have taken shape in recent weeks, and the conversation is poised to take on national heft as Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders prepares to introduce a “Medicare for all” measure in the fall.