Latest California Healthline Stories
California Healthline Rounds Up Presidential Election News, Features
Several newspapers recently published stories about health care and the presidential election.
The Sacramento Bee on Wednesday examined the Howard Jarvis Taxpayer Association’s history of political endorsements, including its opposition to Proposition 63, a measure on the Nov. 2 statewide ballot that would increase taxes by 1% for state residents with taxable annual incomes of more than $1 million to fund mental health programs.
Group Files Suit Against Los Angeles County To Stop Closure of King/Drew Medical Center Trauma Unit
The not-for-profit Friends of Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center has filed suit against Los Angeles County and the county Department of Health Services to prevent the closure of the hospital’s trauma center, the AP/San Diego Union-Tribune reports.
Report Finds Increases in Height, Weight Among U.S. Residents
U.S. residents are about one inch taller and 25 pounds heavier on average in 2002 than they were in 1960, according to a report released Wednesday by the National Center for Health and Statistics, the Washington Post reports.
CDC Convenes Panel To Discuss Ethical Questions on Vaccines
For the “first time in its history,” CDC has established a permanent panel of vaccine distribution ethicists “to help the agency navigate the life-and-death questions,” such as who should have the highest priority to receive the flu vaccine in the current shortage and how any future epidemics should be addressed, the New York Times reports.
Schwarzenegger Appoints Heath Care Officials
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) on Tuesday announced several appointments to state positions related to health care.
San Francisco Mayor Joins Hotel Workers’ Picket Line
San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom (D) on Tuesday joined striking unionized hotel workers on the picket line after employers at 14 of the city’s largest hotels rejected his proposal for a 90-day cooling-off period in a labor dispute involving 4,000 workers, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.
FDA Has Withheld From Congress Documents on Flu Vaccine Shortage, Lawmaker Says
House Committee on Government Reform ranking member Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) in a letter to FDA Acting Commissioner Lester Crawford wrote that he has information that the agency is intentionally delaying until after the presidential election the release of documents requested by Congress that could determine whether FDA could have prevented a recent national flu vaccine shortage, USA Today reports.
From 2000 to 2002, although the number of child immunizations in Los Angeles County increased by 10% and the number of pregnant women receiving prenatal care increased by 4%, geographic and ethnic disparities persist, according to a report scheduled to be released Wednesday by the county’s Children’s Planning Council, the Los Angeles Times reports.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel Butcher on Tuesday in his opening statement in a criminal trial of Tenet HealthSystem Hospitals, a Tenet Healthcare subsidiary, said that the company and two administrators at Alvarado Hospital Medical Center “paid illegal kickbacks to doctor groups to boost patient referrals and revenue,” the Los Angeles Times reports.