First Edition: March 10, 2020

Kaiser Health News: As Youth Suicides Climb, Anguished Parents Begin To Speak Out
Alec Murray was 13. He enjoyed camping, fishing and skiing. At home, it was video games, movies and books. Having just completed middle school with “almost straight A’s,” those grades were going to earn him an iPhone for his upcoming birthday. Instead, he killed himself on June 8 — the first day of summer break. (Jayson, 3/10)

Kaiser Health News: Dental Shock: Six Pulled Teeth And One Unexpected Bill
The ache in three of Kathy McCracken’s teeth started almost four years ago. It was hard for her to chew and swallow. She was sensitive to both hot and cold food. “Pain, pain, pain” was how McCracken, now 69, described the feeling. After taking X-rays, she said, her dentist told her six teeth would need to be pulled. She had two teeth with exposed roots, holes in another two, one tooth with a cap that had a cavity underneath, and a piece of a tooth left from one that had been pulled, she said. (Knight, 3/10)

Kaiser Health News: New Federal Rules Will Let Patients Put Medical Records On Smartphones
Federal officials on Monday released groundbreaking rules that will let patients download their electronic health records and other health care data onto their smartphones. “Patients should have control of their records, period. Now that’s becoming a reality,” said Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar. “These rules are the start of a new chapter in how patients experience American health care.” Officials said the rules likely will give patients a greater say in health care decisions and put an end to a long-standing practice in which some doctors and hospitals resist handing complete medical files over to patients upon demand. (Schulte and Fry, 3/9)

Kaiser Health News: Heart Association Puts Halt To Bayer’s Giant Displays Of Baby Aspirin
The large red-and-white bins at Walmart pharmacies across the country read, in bold all-caps type: “Approximately every 40 seconds an American will have a heart attack. ”Inside the 3-foot-tall cartons, adorned with the American Heart Association and Bayer logos, were dozens of boxes of low-dose Bayer aspirin.The implication was that everyone could reduce their heart attack risk by taking a “baby aspirin.” But recent studies have found that’s not the case. (Galewitz, 3/10)

The New York Times: Even If Bernie Sanders Wins, Medicare For All Almost Certainly Won’t Happen
With the Democratic presidential contest down to a two-person race, Senator Bernie Sanders has declared that he will wield his signature issue, Medicare for all, as a crucial distinction between his campaign and the surging candidacy of former Vice President Joseph R. Biden. “Joe essentially wants to maintain what I consider to be a dysfunctional and cruel health care system,” Mr. Sanders said this week, adding that he hoped they could devote an entire debate to the issue. But an even bigger hurdle than winning the presidency stands between Mr. Sanders and his goal of generous government health insurance for all Americans: Congress. (Goodnough and Abelson, 3/9)

The New York Times: Strikes And Attack Ads: The Hard Road Other Countries Took To Single-Payer
It is a common refrain from Bernie Sanders on the campaign trail: The United States is the only developed country that does not provide health coverage to all residents. “Canada can provide universal health care to all their people at half the cost,” he said at a recent Democratic debate. “The U.K. can do it. France can do it. Germany can do it. All of Europe can do it.” Mr. Sanders is right: All these countries provide universal coverage. But what he doesn’t talk about is the excruciating battle they went through to get there. (Bui and Kliff, 3/10)

The New York Times: Pelosi, Seeking To Insulate House Majority, Presses Plan To Lower Health Costs
Speaker Nancy Pelosi is preparing to unveil a sweeping plan to lower the cost of health care, moving to address the top concern of voters while giving moderate Democrats who face tough re-election races a way to distance themselves from the Medicare for All plan embraced by the progressive left and derided by Republicans as socialism. The legislation, timed to coincide with the 10th anniversary of the Affordable Care Act, is part of a major push by Democrats to position themselves as the party of health care before the 2020 elections. (Stolberg, 3/9)

The Associated Press: As Labs Ramp Up, Who Can Get Tested In US For Coronavirus?
Can any American who’s sick get tested for the worrisome new coronavirus? That’s been a complicated question, one that’s left doctors, patients and some health experts frustrated and concerned. U.S. health officials say more and more public and private laboratories are now able to test for the virus. But some experts have wondered why it’s taken so long, and what that means to efforts to spot and stop the outbreak’s spread. (3/9)

The Associated Press: Experts: Rapid Testing Helps Explain Few German Virus Deaths
Germany has confirmed more than 1,100 cases of the new coronavirus but — so far — just two deaths, far fewer than other European countries with a similar number of reported infections. Experts said Monday that rapid testing as the outbreak unfolded meant Germany has probably diagnosed a much larger proportion of those who have been infected, including younger patients who are less likely to develop serious complications. (3/9)

The New York Times: Some Hospitals Are Close To Running Out Of Crucial Masks For Coronavirus
As hospitals around the country prepare for an influx of highly infectious coronavirus cases, their supplies of a crucial type of respirator mask are dwindling fast. “We’re not willing to run out of N95 masks,” Dr. Susan Ray, an infectious disease specialist at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta, said in a phone interview, referring to the masks by their technical name. “That’s not O.K. at my hospital.” (Goodnough, 3/9)

Politico: Hospitals Gird For Coronavirus Surge After Years Of Cutbacks
Hospitals for years have faced economic pressures to cut costs and reduce in-patient treatments as the nation tried to slow down health spending. Now the hospital industry is facing a reckoning. With a potential surge of coronavirus patients, there may not be enough beds, equipment and staff to handle an epidemic. Executives face tough decisions about who could have to be isolated and, in some cases, need oxygen, ventilators and protective gear that’s already in short supply. (Goldberg and Roubein, 3/10)

Stat: If Covid-19 Gets Bad, Triage Will Be Needed. Are We Ready For That? 
The emergence of a new infectious disease that rapidly spreads around the world, like Covid-19, makes disaster planning experts move into overdrive. Lessons learned over the last decade can help cope with the spread of the novel coronavirus. (Wynia and Hick, 3/10)

The Washington Post: How Massachusetts General Hospital Is Preparing For Coronavirus
Six weeks in, the dozens of doctors, nurses and other staffers leading the emergency response to the novel coronavirus are crammed into a small conference room. They line the walls and sit on the floor. “This is not a secret to anyone in the room: The anxiety is incredibly high in every part of the community and in the hospital,” said Paul Biddinger, a doctor who specializes in emergency medicine and is a key leader of the hospital’s response. (Brown, 3/9)

The New York Times: Trump Floats Economic Stimulus In Response To Coronavirus
President Trump moved on Monday to address the economic effects of the widening coronavirus crisis by announcing that he would work with Congress on tax cuts and other measures after the worst stock market drop in more than a decade. The president, who played down the virus threat earlier in the day, made an unscheduled evening appearance in the White House briefing room after two Republican members of Congress who have spent time with him in recent days, including one who just rode with him on Air Force One, put themselves into quarantine following exposure to the virus. (Baker, Haberman and Karni, 3/9)

The Washington Post: From Tweet Eruptions To Economic Steps, Trump Struggles For Calm Amid Market Meltdown And Coronavirus Crisis
President Trump confronted one of the most perilous days of his presidency Monday by first erupting in a barrage of commentary that failed to calm the cratering financial markets, struggling to inspire confidence that his administration could stop the spread of the novel coronavirus. But by the time the sun set in Washington, Trump sounded momentarily chastened by the turbulence and previewed a raft of emergency measures to shore up the economy. “We have a very strong economy,” the president told reporters, “but this blindsided the world.” (Rucker, Costa, Parker and Dawsey, 3/9)

Politico: White House Points Fingers As It Plots Coronavirus Stimulus
Then there was the blame game. One senior administration official blamed the national security staff for bungling the early coronavirus response. Other aides blamed the vice president’s office, which has taken the lead on the response. “The Office of the Vice President seems way in over their heads,” one White House official said, referring to the coordination and messaging. “They don’t know what they’re doing.” Separately, some aides took issue with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Robert Redfield, who’d dutifully stood by Trump during his Friday visit to the Atlanta agency and commended the president for his “decisive leadership.” (Cook, 3/9)

The New York Times: Economy Faces ‘Tornado-Like Headwind’ As Financial Markets Spiral
The fast-spreading coronavirus and a plunge in oil prices set off a chain reaction in financial markets on Monday, a self-perpetuating downward cycle that could inflict serious harm on the global economy. What started last month as unease about a potential economic slowdown in China has evolved into a borderline panic, with the S&P 500 on Monday crashing nearly 8 percent. The mayhem is threatening to roil the underlying global financial system and the abilities of companies large and small to survive a potential economic monsoon — a downward spiral that is fed and intensified by these destructive forces. (Phillips, Eavis and Enrich, 3/9)

The Washington Post: Stock Market Nears Bear Market As Dow Falls 2,000 Points, Trading Halted
The Dow Jones industrial average shed 2,014 points, or 7.8 percent, on Monday, the largest decline since the financial crisis. Stocks fells so sharply, they tripped a so-called “circuit breaker” that halted trading for 15 minutes. Oil prices tumbled 25 percent, its worst day since the 1991 Gulf War, as the coronavirus weakens demand for fuel, with Saudi Arabia and Russia refusing to scale back production. (Long, Heath, Englund and Telford, 3/9)

The Washington Post: Two GOP Congressmen Who Interacted With Trump Say They Are Quarantining Due To Contact With Coronavirus Carrier
The incoming White House chief of staff, Rep. Mark Meadows of North Carolina, was among three Republican congressmen who said Monday that they were quarantining themselves because of suspected contact with a confirmed carrier of the coronavirus. A spokesman, Ben Williamson, said that Meadows learned this weekend that he “may have come in contact” with the individual who attended the annual Conservative Political Action Conference in suburban Washington late last month. Meadows tested negative for the virus and is not displaying symptoms but is remaining home in self-quarantine until Wednesday, Williamson said in a statement. (DeBonis, 3/9)

Politico: Coronavirus Gets Real For An Aging Senate
They traverse the country every week by plane, appear at events with hundreds of people and shake countless hands. They work in a sprawling complex with a constant influx of tourists. And two-thirds of them are over the age of 60. In other words, U.S. senators are among those most at-risk of contracting — and potentially succumbing — to the coronavirus that is spreading rapidly around the globe. (Desiderio and Levine, 3/9)

The Hill: Anxiety Over Coronavirus Grows On Capitol Hill 
Pressure is mounting on congressional leaders to cancel votes and restrict activity in the Capitol to avert a coronavirus outbreak. Several lawmakers appearing at the recent American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) conference and Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) gatherings in the Washington, D.C., area interacted with individuals who have since tested positive for the highly contagious virus. (Wong and Lillis, 3/9)

Politico: Hill Leaders Struggle With Twin Coronavirus Challenges: Protect The Nation — And Themselves
Congressional leaders face an increasingly irreconcilable challenge: insulating the nation from the fallout of the coronavirus epidemic while protecting themselves from contracting the illness. Speaker Nancy Pelosi made clear Monday there are no plans to shut down the Capitol — or restrict public visitors — even as roughly a half-dozen lawmakers announced plans to self-quarantine and alarm spread across Capitol Hill and the country about the fallout from the virus. (Caygle and Cheney, 3/9)

The Washington Post: Secret Service Faces Challenge Protecting Trump From Coronavirus Exposure
Air Force One touched down near Orlando on Monday, and President Trump disembarked, shaking hands with local politicians on the tarmac before heading directly to a rope line where he grasped the outstretched hands of supporters. It was a routine photo op — but one that has some former Secret Service agents flagging as unsafe and worth scaling back or ending entirely amid the threat of the highly contagious novel coronavirus. (Nakamura, 3/9)

The Hill: Trump Has Not Been Tested For Coronavirus, White House Says
President Trump has not been tested for the novel coronavirus, the White House said in a statement late Monday, despite being in contact with multiple lawmakers who have since gone into self-imposed quarantine. “The President has not received COVID-19 testing because he has neither had prolonged close contact with any known confirmed COVID-19 patients, nor does he have any symptoms,” White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham said in a statement. “President Trump remains in excellent health, and his physician will continue to closely monitor him.” (Samuels, 3/9)

The Washington Post: Coronavirus Threatens To Pose An Unprecedented Challenge To The 2020 Elections
When asked what kept him up at night, Ben Wikler, who is responsible for delivering a must-win state in November as chairman of the Wisconsin Democratic Party, used to answer, “unknown unknowns.” He no longer has to wonder what such a risk might look like. Presidential campaigns, parties and state election officials are scrambling to heed health warnings while safeguarding the democratic process against a growing coronavirus epidemic whose scope is difficult to predict. (Stanley-Becker and Viebeck, 3/9)

Stat: Groups Launch $125M Effort To Accelerate Coronavirus Drug Deveopment
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, along with the charitable group Wellcome and Mastercard, announced Tuesday that they were launching a $125 million effort to speed up the development of drugs to treat the novel coronavirus. The initiative, known as the Covid-19 Therapeutics Accelerator, will not be enough to develop even a single new medicine. But Trevor Mundel, the president of the Gates Foundation, said the funding could provide important funds to companies and academic researchers immediately, before government funding will be available. Mundel estimates that two dozen companies, evenly divided between large pharmaceutical firms and small biotechs, could be involved in the effort. (Herper, 3/10)

The New York Times: F.D.A. Warns 7 Companies To Stop Claiming Silver And Other Products Treat Coronavirus
The Food and Drug Administration said on Monday that it had warned seven companies to stop selling products that claim to cure or prevent the coronavirus, saying such products were a threat to public health because they might prompt consumers to stop or delay appropriate medical treatment. It was the first time that the agency, along with the Federal Trade Commission, had issued warning letters for unapproved products related to the coronavirus, which causes the illness Covid-19. (Hauser and Diaz, 3/9)

The Washington Post: FDA, FTC Warn Companies Selling Fraudulent Coronavirus Covid-19 Products
The targeted products include teas, essential oils and colloidal silver. There is no cure or treatment for covid-19, the federal authorities said. Treatments and vaccines are in the early stages of development and haven’t been fully tested for safety and effectiveness. The only treatment available is supportive care — such as providing oxygen for people who are having trouble breathing. (McGinley, 3/9)

The Washington Post: Coronvirus Evacuees From Grand Princess To Head To Texas As Residents Are ‘Mad And Scared’
When the first planeload of evacuees arrived direct from China in early February, city officials learned that one woman was sick with the novel coronavirus. They said they were told to scramble an ambulance and find her a hospital bed. When the second plane arrived 10 days later from the virus-ridden Diamond Princess cruise ship, the city was told to have seven ambulances waiting on the tarmac. (Hernandez and Satija, 3/9)

The Associated Press: Thousands On Virus-Hit Cruise Ship Await Disembarkation
“Everyone was hollering and clapping” as the giant vessel sailed under the Golden Gate Bridge and entered the harbor, passenger Karen Schwartz Dever said. About two dozen people who need acute medical care were taken off the ship, although it wasn’t clear how many had tested positive for the new virus, COVID-19, said Brian Ferguson, a spokesman for the California Office of Emergency Services. (3/10)

The New York Times: C.D.C. And State Department Say To Avoid Cruises: What Travelers Need To Know
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the State Department are urging Americans to avoid cruise ships as the coronavirus continues to spread, but most sailings are continuing as scheduled, leaving travelers unsure of whether to follow the government’s guidance or continue with their plans. “Recent reports of Covid-19 on cruise ships highlight the risk of infection to cruise ship passengers and crew,” the C.D.C. said in its latest travel advisory. “Like many other viruses, Covid-19 appears to spread more easily between people in close quarters aboard ships.” (Mzezewa and Weed, 3/9)

Stat: People ‘Shed’ Coronavirus Early, But Most Likely Not Infectious After Recovery
People who contract the novel coronavirus emit high amounts of virus very early on in their infection, according to a new study from Germany that helps to explain the rapid and efficient way in which the virus has spread around the world. At the same time, the study suggests that while people with mild infections can still test positive by throat swabs for days and even weeks after their illness, those who are only mildly sick are likely not still infectious by about 10 days after they start to experience symptoms. (Branswell, 3/9)

The Wall Street Journal: Coronavirus Symptoms Start About Five Days After Infection, New Research Finds
Most people who catch Covid-19—the disease caused by the novel coronavirus—start showing symptoms roughly five days after infection, disease analysts at Johns Hopkins University said on Monday, in the largest such study of known cases world-wide. Their findings firm up estimates of the virus’s incubation period before signs of fever, coughing and respiratory distress appear, offering support for current public-health control measures that recommend a 14-day monitoring and quarantine period for people who have been exposed to infection. Some state health agencies are recommending people isolate themselves for that period after returning from any international travel. (Hotz, 3/9)

The New York Times: Concern For The ‘Extremely Vulnerable’ Over The Coronavirus
As the head of a homeless shelter in San Diego, Bob McElroy knows firsthand how epidemics can turn deadly for people living on the streets. Three years ago an outbreak of hepatitis A, an otherwise preventable and treatable disease, killed 20 people in San Diego County alone, most of them homeless. Now as the coronavirus spreads across the country, Mr. McElroy is faced with a new threat, one that he can only hope to ward off with a stockpile of hand sanitizer. Under a single tent in downtown San Diego, his shelter sleeps more than 300 people, a majority of them over 50 years old, a warehouse of human beings arrayed like cadets in military barracks. Numbered bunk beds are spaced just two feet apart. (Fuller, 3/10)

The Wall Street Journal: Fever-Detecting Goggles And Disinfectant Drones: Countries Turn To Tech To Fight Coronavirus
Drones spray disinfectant over South Korea. Police wear thermal imaging goggles to detect fevers in China. And a chatbot fields coronavirus questions in Australia. The tech industry has long touted how ubiquitous connectivity, flashy gadgets and big data can improve people’s lives. The novel coronavirus epidemic is putting that bold promise to the test. Health officials across Asia-Pacific, home to the first waves of virus contagion, have sought to repurpose existing technology to combat the fast-spreading virus. (Martin and Lin, 3/10)

The Wall Street Journal: Coronavirus School Closures Expose Digital Haves And Have-Nots
The ability of schools across the country to hold classes remotely is being tested as more close in an effort to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus. Also being tested: the ability of families to get their homes tech-ready so children can log in to virtual classrooms. More than 23,500 students across 33 campuses of the Northshore School District in suburban Seattle began joining Zoom or Microsoft Teams meetings with their teachers on Monday morning and completing assignments via Google Classroom. (Jargon, 3/10)

The New York Times: Coronavirus Brings A New Legislative Push For Paid Sick Leave
The United States is one of the only rich countries not requiring employers to give their workers paid time off when they’re sick. It has become an urgent issue for more Americans because of the coronavirus outbreak. Citing the crisis, Democrats in Congress are trying to pass a new version of a sick leave bill that has been stalled in Congress since 2004 — and expand it to add 14 days of immediately accessible paid sick leave in the case of a public health emergency. (Miller, 3/10)

The Washington Post: Workers Without Paid Sick Leave Confront Coronavirus
Marty Flynn knows Orlando’s restaurants. The son of a bartender, he is 29 and has already worked at six. Chili’s. Bahama Breeze. Crave. Johnnie’s Hideaway. The Meatball Stoppe. Now he’s a sushi chef. “Every restaurant I’ve worked at, it’s been the same: No sick leave,” Flynn said, just like it was with his mom, the bartender. “I remember being home alone as a kid because I was sick and she couldn’t take time off. You just have to work through it unless you’re dying.” (Bhattarai and Whoriskey, 3/9)

The Associated Press: Spotty Sick Leave Policies Limit Options For Avoiding Virus
A barber in Beijing is supporting his wife and child by charging food and other expenses to a credit card while he waits for his employer’s shop to reopen. A waiter at a barbecue restaurant in Kansas City, Missouri, washes his hands more often and hopes for the best. A parcel delivery driver in Britain worries about getting sick from the people who sign for their packages. While white collar workers trying to avoid contagion can work from home or call in sick if they experience symptoms of the virus, such precautions are not an options for the millions of waiters, delivery workers, cashiers, ride-hailing drivers, museum attendants and countless others who routinely come into contact with the public. (3/10)

The Washington Post: Is It Really A Good Idea To Close Schools To Fight Coronavirus?
Students in the Lake Washington School District in the Seattle suburbs were so nervous about the novel coronavirus they started a petition urging officials to close the schools. No one in a classroom had been diagnosed with the disease, but more than 15 people in the region had died of it, and students thought: Why take a chance? (Strauss, 3/9)

The Washington Post: D.C., Md., Va. Coronavirus: Quarantines And Closures In Washington Region
Authorities in the Washington area took different approaches Monday as they scrambled to stop the spread of coronavirus: D.C. officials asked hundreds of churchgoers to self-quarantine, while officials in Maryland and Virginia said cases of the virus within their borders did not require such measures. (Nirappil and Tan, 3/9)

The Wall Street Journal: Coronavirus Epidemic Is Close To A Pandemic, WHO Says
The new coronavirus is now close to becoming a pandemic, the World Health Organization said Monday, a day in which global financial markets plummeted and Italian officials extended a lockdown for the entire country. “We’re reaching that point,” Michael Ryan, executive director of the WHO’s health emergencies program, said in a Monday news conference. “We’re very close.” The WHO generally defines a pandemic as a disease that has become widespread around the world. The viral epidemic reached a new stage globally Monday, with confirmed cases outside China tripling over the past week. (Calfas, McKay and Ping, 3/9)

The New York Times: Italy Announces Restrictions Over Entire Country In Attempt To Halt Coronavirus
Italy on Monday became the first European country to announce severe nationwide limits on travel as the government struggled to stem the spread of a coronavirus outbreak that has hobbled the economy, threatened to overwhelm public health care and killed more people than anywhere outside China. The measures, announced in a prime time news conference by the country’s prime minister, Giuseppe Conte, sought to adopt the kind of drastic limits that may be working to control the virus in China, an authoritarian regime. (Horowitz, 3/9)

Stat: New Trump Rules Aim To Fuel Sharing Patient Health Records By Smartphone
President Trump’s top health care aides on Monday said they will finalize federal rules requiring health providers and insurers to make health records available to patients in an easily accessible electronic format, a policy shift aimed at fueling broader efforts to use patient data to develop new software tools and services. In a briefing with reporters, Trump’s aides essentially doubled-down on policies they first announced last March, saying they will press forward with the rules despite warnings from electronic health record companies and some hospitals that they could compromise the privacy of patient information. (Ross, 3/9)

Stat: Medicare Chief Touts Patient Access To Health Data, Efforts To Guard Privacy
After a year of intense lobbying, the Trump administration on Monday finalized federal rules to give patients easier electronic access to their medical records and fuel a freer exchange of health data to improve their care. The president’s top aides characterized the implementation of the rules as a watershed moment in American health care, unlocking health information that is now inaccessible to patients and technology companies seeking to use it to develop digital products and services. (Ross, 3/9)

The Wall Street Journal: Sharing Your Digital Health Data: New Rules Ease Access
By standardizing the way data must be shared and mandating that individuals have digital access to their own health records, the regulations are widely expected to benefit a mushrooming industry surrounding health data. The records hold a wealth of intimate information—the history of patients’ illnesses, prescriptions, laboratory results and sometimes genetics—and are seen as increasingly valuable to companies that can crunch vast databases to develop health-care services. Apple Inc., Alphabet Inc.’s Google and Microsoft Corp., which are making inroads in health care, have generally backed the main rule, as have some consumer groups. Consumers often face barriers to getting personal medical information to share between doctors or feed to smartphone apps and web portals that provide health services. (Wilde Mathews and Evans, 3/9)

The Washington Post: Obesity Now Affects 42 Percent Of U.S. Adults, CDC Says
Some 42.4 percent of U.S. adults now qualify as obese, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, with no real difference in prevalence between men and women. People who are obese have a body mass index (BMI) — which is an indicator of body fatness calculated from a person’s height and weight — of 30 or higher. Those with a BMI of 40 or higher, described as having extreme obesity, represent 9.2 percent of the adult population, with women outnumbering men. (Searing, 3/9)

The New York Times: In A Plan To Bring Yoga To Alabama Schools, Stretching Is Allowed. ‘Namaste’ Isn’t.
Across Alabama, yoga is freely taught at dozens of studios, in Christian churches and inside prisons. But for nearly three decades, it has been illegal to teach yoga — a combination of breathing exercises and stretches with connections to Hinduism and Buddhism — inside the state’s public school classrooms, with detractors warning it would amount to a tacit endorsement of a “non-Christian” belief. (Rojas, 3/9)

The New York Times: The Governor And The $6 Billion Budget Gap
In the curious case of New York State’s $6 billion budget gap, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo has a list of leading suspects: local officials and county staffers, whom he blames for negligently allowing Medicaid costs to skyrocket. But Mr. Cuomo, a Democrat, may have left out the biggest perpetrator. The governor and state budget officials have said that a statewide minimum-wage increase, along with a push to increase enrollment in Medicaid, a state and federal program that provides health care to low-income residents, are among the biggest reasons the budget deficit is so large. (McKinley, 3/10)