Latest California Healthline Stories
Voters Approve Measure To Fund West Contra Costa Healthcare District
About 84% of voters in West Contra Costa County voted to approve a measure on the June 8 ballot that will assess single-family homeowners a $52 annual tax to help fund Doctors Medical Center San Pablo and its emergency department, the Contra Costa Times reports.
Democrats Recommend More Automatic Enrollment in Medicare Prescription Drug Discount Card Program
With only three million beneficiaries enrolled in the Medicare prescription drug discount card program so far, some Senate Democrats and senior advocates on Tuesday at a Senate Finance Committee hearing called upon CMS to expand efforts to automatically enroll participants, Long Island Newsday reports.
Grand Jury Report Finds That One-Fifth of Orange County Students Are Obese, Overweight
About 20% of Orange County’s nearly 100,000 school-age students are either overweight or obese, according to a report released Tuesday by the Orange County Grand Jury, the Los Angeles Times reports.
Ventura County Supervisors Ask County Executive Officer To Find Way to Avoid Health Program Cuts
The Ventura County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday instructed County Executive Officer Johnny Johnston to review the fiscal year 2004-2005 budget without implementing proposed cuts to health and social service programs, the Los Angeles Times reports.
Criticism of Schwarzenegger’s Support for Abortion Rights Limited
The San Diego Union-Tribune on Wednesday considered the limited criticism of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) for his support of abortion rights, compared with criticism of other Catholic lawmakers.
Health Care Issues Dominate State’s Economic Activity, Opinion Piece Says
The “long-running saga of health care politics” has become a “preoccupation of the Capitol’s inhabitants,” encompassing a large component of the state’s economic activity, Sacramento Bee columnist Dan Walters writes in an opinion piece.
The increased availability of generic drugs, together with changes to drug benefit plans that encouraged generic use, “took the edge off rising drug prices” in 2003, according to a national study released Tuesday by pharmacy benefit manager Express Scripts, the Boston Herald reports.
U.S. health spending per privately insured person increased 7.4% in 2003, a slower rate than in 2002 but still about twice as fast as the overall world economy, according to a study released Wednesday by the Center for Studying Health System Change, USA Today reports.
CalPERS Analysis Indicates Some Sutter Hospital Prices Exceed Other Hospitals’ Charges By 84%
In response to “mounting pressure” to justify its decision to drop 38 of the most costly hospitals from its Blue Shield of California HMO network, CalPERS on Tuesday said its analysis found that Sacramento-area Sutter Health hospitals cost as much as 84% more than other Northern California hospitals, the Sacramento Bee reports.
American Medical Association May Ask HHS To Develop New Registry of Clinical Trial Data
The American Medical Association House of Delegates will vote at a meeting starting Saturday on a resolution asking HHS to create a registry of all private and public clinical trials and their results, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports.