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The Trump administration announced Thursday a ban on most flavored e-cigarette pods. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar declared that the plan “protects our kids without causing unnecessary disruption.” But more disruption of an unacceptable status quo is needed. The National Institutes of Health’s 2019 Monitoring the Future survey found last month that teenagers drink, abuse opioids and smoke tobacco less than in previous years. But a quarter of 12th-graders reported vaping nicotine in the previous month. Nearly 12 percent reported doing so daily. Nearly 10 percent say they vape because they are hooked. Even as traditional cigarette use is down, a new generation is becoming addicted to nicotine through vaping. (1/2)

The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday announced a ban on flavored e-cigarettes in an ostensible effort to thread the needle between preventing youth nicotine addiction and promoting adult tobacco cessation. But don’t think this will silence e-cigarette critics or make teens stop vaping. The FDA has been under relentless political pressure to restrict e-cigarette sales amid rising teen use. One of the biggest public-health achievements of the last decade has been the decline in teenage smoking. (1/2)

The number of young people consuming nicotine products has skyrocketed to its highest total in 19 years. The nicotine-addiction industry is working overtime to get young people hooked as early as possible to ensure the long-term survival of this market. If it means trading young people’s health for a few extra dollars, greed wins the argument every time. (1/2)

I've covered things that injure, sicken and kill kids and adults for more than 30 years. From auto safety to medical errors, I've competed to break stories on the latest deadly defect or health policy change, most recently on electronic cigarettes. In late August, I added vaping-related lung illnesses to the beat. Last month, I added marijuana, psychosis and other mental illness. It's a pretty solitary place to be. (Jayne O'Donnell, 1/3)

Democratic presidential candidates are repeating one of President Obama’s worst mistakes, one that arguably cost Democrats the 2010 midterms. Rather than focusing on bringing down medical costs—which are ever on the rise—Democrats are pushing policies that primarily aim to expand coverage and shift costs to taxpayers. (Bobby Jindal, 1/2)

As a slogan, Pete Buttigieg’s health plan looks straightforward: “Medicare for All Who Want It.” Rather than force every American into a government health system, PeteCare would offer a “public option.” Anyone who wants to could buy into the program. Everybody else, Mayor Pete seems to suggest, would be left alone. But about halfway through his 10-page plan comes an understated line: “Individuals with no coverage will be retroactively enrolled in the public option.” (1/2)

As we begin 2020, the impeachment cloud continues to hang over Washington. The House vote and the president’s defiant response has dominated the headlines, and that won’t change in the new year with the prospect of a likely Senate trial in the next few weeks. The cloud of controversy threatens to keep members of Congress from working on many of the nation’s problems they were hired to solve. There is one issue, however, that lawmakers can’t avoid during this impeachment fight — health care. (J. Kevin A. McKechnie, 1/2)

Americans have witnessed fierce debates on health-care policy focused on various proposals, including Medicare-for-all. Whatever your take on such proposals, it’s important to remember that there are other ways to expand access to affordable health care. One promising idea — which wouldn’t cost taxpayers a dime and may actually save money — is to expand the role of highly trained nurse practitioners in providing primary care. (Lusine Poghosyan, 1/2)

In a victory for the health care industry lobbyists who leaned heavily on the Massachusetts delegation and others, Congress and President Trump agreed in December to a $1.4 trillion appropriations package that permanently repeals a medical device tax, a so-called “Cadillac” tax on high-end insurance plans, and a tax on health insurers — all of which were baked into President Obama’s 2010 law as a way to offset the costs of providing health care to millions more Americans. (1/3)