Latest California Healthline Stories
Most State Voters Support Increasing Taxes To Insure All Children
About 70% of state voters surveyed support increased taxes to provide health insurance to all children, according to a poll released Tuesday by the California Endowment, the San Luis Obispo Tribune reports. About 1,200 likely state voters participated in the poll.
States Plan To Use More Tobacco Settlement Money for Health Care, GAO Finds
States are planning to use 32% of their share of the 1998 national tobacco settlement on health care programs in 2005, compared with the use of 20% of such funds in 2004, according to a Government Accountability Office report released Tuesday, the AP/Las Vegas Sun reports.
Rubella Eliminated in United States, CDC Officials Announce
Rubella — a virus that can cause birth defects, miscarriages and stillbirths — is no longer present in the United States, CDC officials announced on Monday, the Los Angeles Times reports.
EMS Workers Vote To Join New Union, Leave SEIU
Emergency medical service workers in 19 Northern California counties voted 848-580 to join the National Emergency Medical Services Association, an “upstart” union that represents only paramedics and ambulance workers, the Sacramento Bee reports.
AP/St. Petersburg Times Examines Problems With Canadian Single-Payer Health Care System
The AP/St. Petersburg Times on Sunday examined the Canadian single-payer health care system, which many residents maintain is “badly in need of emergency care” because of long waits for treatment.
Tennessean Examines Debate Over Specialty Hospitals
The Tennessean on Monday examined the recent debate over physician-owned specialty hospitals, which many opponents maintain create a system of “self-referral” that provides physicians with an “unfair advantage because they refer patients to their own hospitals and take the best-insured patients.”
Washington Post Examines Study on Problems With Computerized Physician Order Entry Systems
The Washington Post on Tuesday examined a study published earlier this month in the Journal of the American Medical Association that identified common errors associated with a computerized physician order entry system.
Unions File Suit in Superior Court Alleging Video News Releases Violate State Law
Officials for the California Labor Federation, the California Nurses Association and the Service Employees International Union on Monday filed a lawsuit in Sacramento Superior Court against the California Labor and Workforce Development Agency and the Health and Human Services Agency, alleging that video segments produced by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s (R) administration violate state law because they used government resources to produce propaganda, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.
San Francisco Mayor Newsom Proposes Moratorium on New Medical Marijuana Clubs
San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom (D) on Monday requested a moratorium on new medical marijuana clubs in the city, “after learning that one plans to open on the ground floor of a city-funded welfare hotel,” the San Francisco Chronicle reports.
Attorneys for the Department of Justice and several large tobacco companies have “met secretly” with a court-appointed mediator in an effort to settle a DOJ civil racketeering lawsuit against the companies — a “striking turn” at a time when the two sides “are feeling new pressure to resolve the case,” the Wall Street Journal reports.