Latest California Healthline Stories
FDA, DEA To Release Prescription Drug Abuse Prevention Plans Soon
The FDA and the Drug Enforcement Administration will soon release plans aimed at curbing prescription drug abuse as sales of narcotic painkillers increase and drug makers are producing more opioid drugs, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Los Angeles County on Monday presented its case to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Pasadena appealing a decision to block the county from closing Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center and from eliminating 100 beds at County-USC Medical Center, the Los Angeles Times reports.
Health Advocates Criticize Proposed Cap on Healthy Families Enrollment
As many as 100,000 children who would otherwise qualify for the program would not have health insurance under a budget proposal by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) that would freeze enrollment in Healthy Families, health advocates said on Monday, the Ventura County Star reports.
Office of AIDS Expands Use of Rapid HIV Test to Four Additional Counties
The Office of AIDS will expand the use of rapid HIV tests to Fresno, Los Angeles, Orange and Sacramento counties, agency officials announced on Monday, the Sacramento Bee reports.
California Supreme Court To Begin Hearing Arguments on Contraceptive Coverage Mandate
The California Supreme Court on Tuesday will begin hearing oral arguments in San Jose in a case challenging a state law enacted in 2000 that requires some state employers, including some Roman Catholic charities, to offer contraception coverage to women, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.
Virtual Colonoscopy as Effective as Standard Test, Study Finds
A “virtual colonoscopy,” which uses X-ray images and computer software to create three-dimensional images of the colon, is equally effective at detecting precancerous polyps as the “invasive” conventional exam, which uses a small camera that is snaked through the colon, according to a study to be published in Thursday’s issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, the Washington Post reports.
AARP Advertisements Explain Impact of Proposed Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit for Beneficiaries
AARP on Tuesday ran an advertisement in the New York Times and several other major newspapers explaining “[w]hat the new prescription drug benefit will do” for the average Medicare beneficiary.
Measure To Repeal Employer-Sponsored Benefits Law May Appear on March Ballot
Californians Against Government Run Healthcare, a coalition of business groups led by the California Chamber of Commerce, on Monday announced that it has collected more than 620,000 signatures to place a referendum on the March 2004 statewide ballot to repeal a law (SB 2) that would require some employers to provide health coverage to workers or pay into a state fund that would provide such coverage, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.
New York Times Features Interview With Physician Who Advocates Single-Payer Health Care System
The New York Times on Tuesday published an interview with Dr. Steffie Woolhandler, an associate professor at Harvard Medical School and an internist at Cambridge Hospital, who supports a single-payer health care system.
United States Should Implement Single-Payer Health Care System, Opinion Piece States
The best way for the United States to ameliorate the “double standard of health care that has evolved in our country” would be to create a system of mandatory universal health insurance, Dr. Alex Gerber, a University of Southern California clinical professor of surgery and former health care consultant to the White House and HHS, writes in a Washington Times opinion piece.