Viewpoints: With Finite Resources Directed At Gun Safety, California Has To Prioritize Its Strategies
A selection of opinions on health care developments from around the state.
USA Today:
California Attorney General: We Focus On Taking Guns From Criminals
At the California Department of Justice, our first priority is public safety. When it comes to keeping guns out of the hands of dangerous people, California has figured out what makes a difference, and we’re doing it. Earlier this month, a Government Accountability Office report suggested that the federal government and states like California that perform background checks on firearm purchases could do more to investigate and prosecute those who failed background checks and might have lied on their forms. In a world of unlimited resources, we certainly would. Instead, we prioritize our finite resources to go after dangerous criminals who already possess weapons illegally. (Calif. Attorney General Xavier Becerra, 9/19)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Prop. 71 Funds Are Laying Groundwork For Stem Cell Therapies
In 2004, the voters of California approved Proposition 71, creating the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine and setting the state on the path to becoming a global leader in stem cell research. Today the therapies resulting from the institute’s work are not just changing lives — they are already saving lives. (Maria T. Millan and Jonathan Thomas, 9/17)
Los Angeles Times:
How A Stem Cell Clinic Lured Patients With Unsupported Claims Of Treatment 'Success'
Callers seeking treatment from StemGenex, a La Jolla medical clinic offering stem cell therapies for Parkinson’s, multiple sclerosis and other serious ailments, were hoping to hear encouraging news. For many, that’s what they got. Plaintiffs allege in depositions filed in a federal court lawsuit that they were told the clinic had a 90% “success rate” in treating its patients. ... As it turned out, however, the success rate they cited was inaccurate, according to former executives. (Michael Hiltzik, 9/14)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Chronicle Recommends Yes On California Prop. 2
Darrell Steinberg, long one of the state’s leaders in mental-health policy, had always envisioned that housing would be key to the strategy of stabilizing people with severe mental illness. California voters in 2004 approved Steinberg’s Proposition 63, a surtax on income over $1 million to expand mental-health programs — but the measure did not explicitly mention housing. Prop. 2, on the Nov. 6 ballot, would close that gap. (9/19)
San Francisco Chronicle:
California’s Children’s Hospitals Doing Better Than California’s Children
I wish California children were doing as well as California children’s hospitals. Even as the Golden State has maintained the nation’s highest child poverty rate and struggled to fund schools, it has developed a system of children’s hospitals that occupies a parallel California in which kids’ needs actually come first. California has 13 children’s hospitals — eight private not-for-profits and five within University of California medical centers. (Joe Mathews, 9/16)
Los Angeles Times:
One Year After Maria Hit Puerto Rico, We're Still Piecing Together What Happened And What To Do About It
FEMA may well have done its best in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, but it was responding to a disaster that has its roots in the still-amorphous relationship between the island and the rest of the U.S. The storm was a stress test, and Puerto Rico and the rest of the nation failed together. More, and tougher, tests are undoubtedly on their way, as warming oceans make hurricane season more hazardous. (9/20)
Los Angeles Times:
Netflix Is Televising Prejudice Against The Chronically Ill
Ableism kills. I’ve watched my fellow patients with myalgic encephalomyelitis, also known as chronic fatigue syndrome, suffer and even die from the ignominy of a suspect disease. Patients often can’t get effective medical care, their disability insurance applications are rejected, their marriages are torn apart, they’re abandoned by their families, they end up in poverty and food insecurity, and sometimes they die, occasionally from the disease itself, more often from suicide. As terrible as this litany is, nothing has brought home to me the dangers of prejudice against those who are chronically ill like the new Netflix documentary series “Afflicted.” (Julie Rehmeyer, 9/18)
Los Angeles Times:
I Broke The Anita Hill Story. Here's What We Need To Learn From Her Treatment
When I first called Anita Hill in 1991 to ask her, out of the blue, if she had been sexually harassed by then-Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas, she was very reluctant to give me any details. ... In my opinion, if Hill’s story had been handled properly earlier in the process, and she had been given time to prepare to testify, Thomas would not today be the senior associate justice on the Supreme Court. (Timothy M. Phelps, 9/18)