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Whether to establish a state-run, single-payer health-care system is shaping up to be one of the main differences among the candidates for governor in California in the run-up to the June primary election. ...Implementing a single-payer system would require tens of billions of dollars in new taxes - and thereby lead the Golden State into financial ruin. (Pipes, 12/11)

Johns Hopkins Health System, Baltimore, named Duke University Hospital President Kevin Sowers as its own president. Sowers replaces Ronald Peterson, who announced in June that he planned to retire at year-end. Sowers, who has been at Duke for 32 years and was president of the hospital for eight, also will serve as executive vice president of Johns Hopkins Medicine. He will start at the organization on Feb. 1, becoming the second president ever of the system. Prior to his current position at Duke, Sowers was chief operating officer for Duke University Hospital, and had experience in other administrative positions. (Barr, 12/11)

Johns Hopkins Health System stepped outside its ranks and tapped Kevin W. Sowers, a nurse and career executive with the Duke University Health System, as the new president and executive vice president of Johns Hopkins Medicine. He will succeed Ronald R. Peterson, who is retiring at the end of January after 44 years at the medical institution. He will be an adviser for a year to help with the transition. (McDaniels and Cohn, 12/11)

A second top leader at Fenway Community Health Center has been forced out following disclosures that Fenway mishandled complaints about a high-profile doctor who allegedly sexually harassed and bullied staff members for years. (Pfeiffer and Healy, 12/11)

The director of the city’s future sobriety center — a building where Austin police officers will be able to bring intoxicated people instead of taking them to jail or a hospital — was introduced Monday at the center’s future site. (Hall, 12/11)

The number of deaths from drugs and deaths from cardiovascular disease are among the reasons Tennessee slipped a spot in the annual health ranking from United Health Foundation. The number of drug deaths nationally increased 7 percent over the last five years, but those in Tennessee jumped 27 percent in the same time, said Dr. Rhonda Randall, chief medical officer of UnitedHealthcare Retiree Solutions. (Fletcher, 12/11)

The Million Veteran Program is collecting blood and information from veterans across the nation for research into illnesses that could lead to breakthroughs in treatment and cures. Researchers plan to use the samples to study diseases such as diabetes, cancer and military-related illnesses like post-traumatic stress disorder. (Jones, 12/11)