Latest California Healthline Stories
Medi-Cal Redesign Plan Would Include Premium, Cap on Dental Care, Expansion of Managed Care Coverage
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R), as part of his $112 billion state budget proposal, on Monday announced his “long-awaited” plan to redesign Medi-Cal, including a proposal to enact a monthly premium for 550,000 beneficiaries whose annual incomes exceed certain levels, the Contra Costa Times reports.
Criticism of Proposition 71 Oversight Committee Examined
The New York Times on Tuesday examined the Independent Citizens Oversight Committee created by Proposition 71 and some “difficult issues emerging” for ICOC following its meeting Jan. 6.
Northern California grocery store employees represented by the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 588 on Dec. 19, 2004, voted 83.2% in favor of ratifying a contract negotiated last month with Albertsons, Safeway and Kroger, Reuters/Los Angeles Times reports (Reuters/Los Angeles Times, 1/8).
Few Employers Offer Health Savings Accounts, Few Employees Sign Up, Studies Find
Since the introduction of health savings accounts as part of the 2003 Medicare law, “only a handful of employers have begun to offer the accounts and very few employees have chosen them,” the New York Times reports.
Federal Public Health Officials Promote New Preventive Care Benefits in Medicare
Government and public health officials in a news conference on Monday encouraged Medicare beneficiaries to utilize new preventive care benefits that took effect Jan. 1 under the Medicare law, saying that preventive services are underused and can help save lives and money, the AP/South Florida Sun-Sentinel reports.
Supreme Court Declines To Hear Insurer Appeal in Class-Action Suit Filed by Doctors
The Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear an appeal filed by six health insurers in a bid to stop a class-action lawsuit brought by more than 600,000 doctors who claim the companies underpaid them for treating patients, Bloomberg/Hartford Courant reports.
The Washington Times on Saturday examined how the new Medicare law is “expected to increase the nation’s demand for pharmacists, who already are in short supply.”
Overall spending for health and human services programs would increase “by an undisclosed percentage” under Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s (R) fiscal year 2005-2006 state budget proposal, although funding for some health care and welfare programs would be reduced, the Los Angeles Daily News reports.
President Bush on Friday “threw his weight behind” a proposed bill that would limit the number of lawsuits from workers who claimed to have been injured from asbestos and compensate the most injured plaintiffs through an industry-financed trust fund — “an effort to resolve the longest-running mass tort litigation in U.S. history,” the Los Angeles Times reports.
Assembly Members Introduce Prescription Drug Safety Legislation
Assembly Majority Leader Dario Frommer (D-Glendale) and Assembly member Wilma Chan (D-Oakland) last week introduced two bills addressing prescription drug safety, Knight Ridder/Contra Costa Times reports.