Here's The Latest in Health Care:

• Single-payer insurance may be more feasible than previously believed. In 2016, 71 percent of California's health care expenditures were covered by public funds. Will this publicly-funded, single streamlined, nonprofit system show promise over today's inefficient, profit-oriented, multiple insurance payers? Read More

• The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) plans to pay $20 million over the next 18 months to Japanese-headquartered company, Takeda Vaccines, to accelerate the development of a Zika vaccine for the U.S. If approved with the FDA, the first clinical trials of the vaccine on humans could begin next year.  Read More

• Low value services, or services that provide little value to patients, given all the costs and alternatives, account for about 0.5% of total medical services spending. While this may not seem significant, this adds up to approximately $32.8 million of spending in 2013 and equates to just under 8 percent of 1.5 million adults with commercial insurance. Read More

• Carfentanil, which is used as an elephant tranquilizer, is causing a record spike in drug overdoses in the Midwest. The synthetic opioid is 100 times more potent than the prescription painkiller, fentanyl. Officials in Ohio have declared a public health emergency. Read More

Each Friday, Signor Goat reports the latest from the week in health care. Check back next Friday for your dose of our little medical corner of health care news.