Latest California Healthline Stories
Editorial Recommends Rejecting Proposition 72
The “fundamental flaw” of Proposition 72 — a Nov. 2 ballot measure that will determine the fate of SB 2, a state law that will require some employers to provide health insurance to workers or pay into a state fund to provide such coverage — is that it is based on a “static analysis” that assumes “Sacramento can impose $5 billion or so in health care costs on employers and they will just grin and bear it,” a San Diego Union-Tribune editorial states.
Los Angeles County Continues Negotiations With California Hospital Medical Center on Trauma Unit
Los Angeles County officials and the California Hospital Medical Center have resumed “delicate talks” about a proposal to open a trauma center at the facility that would serve 1,000 of the 1,800 annual trauma patients from Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center in the event that the King/Drew trauma unit is closed, the Los Angeles Times reports
Thomas Proposes Tobacco Tax Bill Without FDA Regulation
As expected, House Ways and Means Committee Chair Bill Thomas (R-Calif.) on Monday presented to conference committee members a final version of a corporate tax bill that does not include a provision to allow FDA to regulate the manufacture, promotion and sale of cigarettes, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports.
States’ Cost-Cutting Efforts Threaten Access to Medicaid, SCHIP, Surveys Find
Ongoing state budget pressures have prompted many officials to take cost-cutting measures under Medicaid and SCHIP programs that could threaten recent increases in enrollment, according to two new 50-state annual surveys by the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured, the AP/Las Vegas Sun reports.
President Bush Criticizes Kerry Health Care Plan as ‘Hillary Care’
President Bush on Monday in Iowa criticized the health care plan of Democratic presidential nominee Sen. John Kerry (Mass.) as “creeping toward ‘Hillary Care,'” a reference to the failed health care reform efforts of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) as first lady, the New York Times reports.
One in Five Bay Area Residents Cannot Afford Basic Necessities, Including Health Care
About 25% of Bay Area residents do not earn enough money to afford basic necessities such as health care, child care and food, according to a United Way report released last month, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.
Washington Post Examines Administration Abandonment of Policy on Immigration Status Inquiries
The Washington Post on Tuesday examined action by HHS officials to back off plans that would have required hospitals to ask patients about their immigration status as part of a four-year $1 billion program designed to provide new funds to hospitals for providing uncompensated care.
Enrollment Low in Health Insurance Tax Credit Program for Displaced Workers, GAO Finds
A program included in the 2002 Trade Adjustment Assistance Act (PL 107-210) under which U.S. workers displaced by international trade can receive tax credits that cover 65% of the cost of health insurance premiums has enrolled less than 6% of the more than 230,000 eligible workers as of July, according to a report released on Monday by the Government Accountability Office, CQ HealthBeat reports.
Family of Deceased Inmate Files Suit Against Schwarzenegger, Department of Corrections
A $60 million wrongful-death lawsuit filed last week by the family of a Solano State Prison inmate who died after a wisdom tooth extraction names Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) and two Department of Corrections officials as defendants, the Sacramento Bee reports.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected without comment Catholic Charities’ challenge of a California law that requires employers — including religiously affiliated organizations — to cover contraceptives if they provide coverage for other prescriptions, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.