Latest From California Healthline:
California Healthline Original Stories
Promising Greater Safety, A Tiny Widget Creates Chaos For Tube Feeders
A standard connector for feeding tubes was supposed to improve patient safety by preventing accidental misconnections to equipment used for IVs or other purposes. But critics say the design instead could keep patients from real food and inadvertently creates a host of new risks, including for vulnerable premature infants. (Mary Chris Jaklevic, )
Good morning! Here are some of your top California health stories for the day.
What Does The State-Level Individual Mandate, New Subsidies Mean For You?: A lot of Californians aren’t aware of the new state mandate or subsidies, experts say. California will be providing financial help for middle-income earners, who make up to about $75,000 a year, so they can pay insurance premiums. Most of the aid money is expected to come from penalties collected from those who decide not to get insurance. The deadline for coverage starting in the new year was Dec. 15, but Californians have until Jan. 31 for plans that take effect Feb. 1. You will not be charged a tax penalty if you lack coverage for one month. Read more from Catherine Ho of The San Francisco Chronicle.
More coverage from California Healthline:
Some Rejoice Over New California Health Insurance Subsidies. Others Get Shut Out.
Californians Without Health Insurance Will Pay A Penalty — Or Not
Calif. Stem Cell Company Halts Sales Umbilical Cord Blood-Derived Products In Wake Of FDA Warning: A California stem cell company on Friday announced the immediate suspension of sales of umbilical cord blood-derived products, a week after federal regulators said the treatments were unapproved drugs and posed safety risks. In a letter to clients, Liveyon LLC Chief Executive Officer John Kosolcharoen said the company has halted distribution of its products, Pure and Pure Pro, to “focus its efforts” on getting the nod from the Food and Drug Administration to conduct a clinical trial and eventually apply for approval of the products. The FDA said in its recent warning letter that a May inspection showed the products are unapproved drugs that required advance agency approval. Read more from Laurie McGinley of The Washington Post.
San Francisco Mayor Has A Lot Riding On Embarcadero Navigation Center That Opens This Week: Built at cost of $4 million, the 200-bed Embarcadero Navigation Center takes about up half of a 2.4-acre parking lot along the city’s picturesque waterfront near Beale and Bryant streets. Unlike the city’s other Navigation Centers, which are in mixed-use areas, the Embarcadero shelter sits next to some condominium buildings where units start at $1 million each. San Francisco Mayor London Breed, who pushed hard for the center, is well aware that both her reputation and the reputation of the city’s shelter program is on the line, especially if she wants to open more Navigation Centers in other residential areas. Read more from Phil Matier of The San Francisco Chronicle.
Below, check out the full round-up of California Healthline original stories, state coverage and the best of the rest of the national news for the day.
More News From Across The State
San Francisco Chronicle:
Oakland Councilwoman Wants To Put Homeless On Cruise Ship, But Port Not On Board
Oakland City Council President Rebecca Kaplan wants to bring a cruise ship to the city’s port to house up to 1,000 homeless people, an idea officials at the Port of Oakland called “untenable.” At Tuesday’s council meeting, Kaplan told council members she has been contacted by cruise ship companies about providing a ship for emergency housing. Homelessness has spiked in Oakland in the past two years with an increase in the number of unsheltered people from 1,902 to 3,210. (Ravani, 12/11)
Los Angeles Times:
Officials Address State Of O.C.'s Economy, Homelessness And Climate Future At H.B. Gathering
Elected officials focused on the big issues facing Orange County cities now and in the future at a State of the County address Friday, with talk of homelessness, the opioid crisis, workforce development and adapting to California’s economic and climate future taking center stage at the Pacific City shopping center in Huntington Beach. The emphasis was on how the gravest issues affecting local communities are interconnected. (Sclafani, 12/13)
Capital Public Radio:
Additional $400,000 In Funding Will Help Stockton Shelter Add Beds This Winter
More than $400,000 will be used to bring homeless people out from the cold in Stockton. The Stockton Shelter for the Homeless and the Gospel Rescue Mission will be able to add 50 beds apiece with the funding from the city of Stockton and San Joaquin County. (Ibarra, 12/13)
Sacramento Bee:
Sacramento Homelessness Rises As Congress Struggles To Help
More and more people are living on Sacramento’s streets, in makeshift encampments or their cars — or what the federal government calls “other places not suitable for human habitation.” Seventy percent of homeless people in Sacramento County were living in unsheltered conditions in the 2019 count, up from 56% in 2017 and 40% in 2015. (Lightman, 12/16)
Why it matters in California: Boise, Idaho Is Why L.A. Can't Clear Homeless Encampments
Sacramento Bee:
Kaiser’s 4,000 Behavioral Health Workers Launch 5-Day Strike
Kaiser Permanente’s behavioral health clinicians will be picketing Monday outside the health care giant’s Sacramento Medical Center on Morse Avenue, joining in a weeklong labor strike that will affect services at more than 100 facilities around California Roughly 4,000 psychologists, psychiatric nurses and other behavioral health workers — members of the National Union of Healthcare Workers — say they want the company to shorten wait times for return appointments and reduce therapist caseloads. (Anderson, 12/15)
Sacramento Bee:
Grass Valley CA Hospital Nurses Put Picketing On Hold
Registered nurses at Grass Valley’s Sierra Nevada Memorial Hospital said Thursday they will postpone informational picketing that was scheduled for Friday, saying they have reached a preliminary agreement with management to address their staffing concerns. The nurses, members of the California Nurses Association union, had planned to alert the public that the number of nurse aides had been cut by as much as half on some unit shifts, making it harder for the nursing team to reach patients in a timely manner. (Anderson, 12/12)
East Bay Times:
You’re Two Times More Likely To Die From A Stroke In Humboldt County Than Rest Of California
You’re more likely to die from a stroke in Humboldt County than if you live elsewhere in the state, but that doesn’t have to be the case, local doctors say. The risk of dying from a stroke in Humboldt County is almost double the state average at 67.6 deaths per 100,000 people compared with the rest of the state at 36.3 deaths per 100,000 people between 2015 and 2017, according to the 2019 county health status profiles prepared by the state Department of Public Health. (Waraich, 12/15)
LAist:
Cannabis Is Unsafe For Pregnant Women, Says Panel Of California Scientists
Beginning late next year, cannabis and THC products sold legally in California will be required to carry a warning label stating that they're not safe for pregnant women and their developing fetuses. A panel of state scientists with California's Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment voted on the issue this week in Sacramento after reviewing what one panel member described as "several hundred studies." (Ogilvie, 12/13)
Fresno Bee:
Study: Hotter Temperatures Could Mean Shorter Pregnancies
A new study that rising temperatures brought on by climate change could be shortening pregnancies by as many as two weeks suggests worrisome implications for babies’ health and children’s later development. The study by University of California, Los Angeles, found that births on hot days 90 degrees and higher were happening much earlier than expected – as many as 14 days sooner. Pregnancies generally last 40 weeks. (Smith, 12/13)
KQED:
In The Expensive Bay Area, Artists Navigate Unique Mental Health Challenges
Grueling tour schedules, financial ups and downs, performance anxiety, fear of failure—musicians face unique job pressures that can make them more prone to mental illness. A 2019 survey of nearly 1,500 independent musicians conducted by music distributor Record Union found that 73 percent of respondents struggled with anxiety and depression, and 33 percent grappled with panic attacks. (Fraga, 12/12)
KPBS:
San Diego Missing Out On Revenues From Pot Legalization
When California voters legalized recreational marijuana in 2016, they did so with the promise of new social and environmental programs — funded by cannabis tax dollars — that would help communities hit hardest by the "War on Drugs." But two years into the state's legal cannabis market, those programs are just barely getting off the ground and San Diego County is seeing much less of that money than the state’s other large metro areas. Cannabis industry insiders say the region’s elected leaders are partly to blame. (12/16)
The Mercury News:
Santa Clara County, Avenidas To Expand Services For LGBTQ Seniors On The Peninsula
In an effort to fill a gap of services for LGBTQ seniors on the Peninsula, Santa Clara County’s Board of Supervisors voted unanimously this week on a partnership to better serve a population that officials say is vulnerable to neglect and mistreatment in aging care facilities. Proposed by Board President Joe Simitian, the pilot will involve a partnership between the county and non-profit aging care center Avenidas — which has facilities in Palo Alto and Mountain View — to provide new services like case management, caregiver support, friendly visiting, transportation and other socialization opportunities for LGBTQ seniors starting in January. (Toledo, 12/13)
The Hill:
ObamaCare Shows Resilience Despite Trump Attacks
ObamaCare is showing signs of stability as its seventh open enrollment period draws to a close despite actions taken by the Trump administration to undermine the health care law. While signups for ObamaCare plans are down slightly from last year, experts say enrollment appears to be relatively stable, partly due to lower premiums and more insurer participation. (Hellmann, 12/15)
The Hill:
Two ObamaCare Taxes Likely To Be Repealed In Year-End Funding Deal
A year-end government funding package is likely to include repeal of ObamaCare’s Cadillac Tax and medical device tax, according to sources familiar with the talks. The move would mark a final blow to two taxes that were originally passed in the Affordable Care Act to help fund the law’s coverage expansion, but that have been repeatedly delayed and criticized by lawmakers in both parties. (Sullivan, 12/15)
The New York Times:
Elizabeth Warren And Bernie Sanders Have A Problem: Each Other
Diane Chojnowski and Denyce Rusch were among the Iowans who braved light snowfall and temperatures in the teens to see Senator Bernie Sanders on Sunday afternoon, a few hours before Senator Elizabeth Warren was also due in this liberal pillar of eastern Iowa. But after Ms. Chojnowski and Ms. Rusch praised Ms. Sanders, they turned to a predicament far more bothersome than the winter weather: choosing between the two progressive candidates. (Martin, 12/16)
The New York Times:
To Prevent Deadly Infections, F.D.A. Approves The First Disposable ‘Scope’
Following a series of deadly outbreaks in hospitals around the country, the Food and Drug Administration on Friday approved the first fully disposable version of the medical device implicated in the infections. Reusable versions of the device — a long, snakelike tube with a fiber-optic camera at one end, called a duodenoscope — are inserted in one patient after another to diagnose and treat diseases of the pancreas and bile duct, like tumors and gallstones. (Rabin, 12/13)
Politico:
Democrats Box In Republicans On Drug Pricing
After months of wrangling, House Democrats finally passed a massive bill aimed at lowering drug prices. And Senate Republicans are flummoxed at how to respond. The GOP is in a jam that makes action appear somewhere between unlikely and impossible. But if Republicans fail to act, it could easily become a major political liability for the party given the salience of high drug prices in public polling and President Donald Trump’s desire for sweeping reforms. (Everett and Owermohle, 12/16)
ProPublica:
The Law Says She Should Have Been Protected From Birth. Instead, She Was Left In The Care Of Her Drug-Addicted Mother, Who Killed Her.
The adults in her life began failing Jasmine Irwin before she ever left the hospital. Born severely underweight — just 4 pounds, 3 ounces — to a mother with a history of dealing and abusing methamphetamine, Jasmine might have been exposed to drugs in the womb, doctors believed, which should have jump-started intensive efforts to keep her safe. But hospital records show staff never followed up, failing to conduct drug tests on the baby or her mother, Tami Mann, before letting Mann take Jasmine home to the family’s trailer in this small town north of the state capital. (Palmer and Huseman, 12/13)
The New York Times:
Military Families Say Base Housing Is Plagued By Mold And Neglect
Sandy Gerber was excited when she and her husband, Scott Gerber, an Army colonel, moved into a stately house near the parade field at Fort Meade, Md. — their first on-base home since they were newlyweds in the mid-1990s. “When you come in the Army, you think, ‘Oh wow, I hope someday I can live there,’” Mrs. Gerber said. “But for us, the problems started literally the day we walked in the door.” A broken water line in the kitchen had flooded the house. Pulling up damaged linoleum flooring revealed rotting wood underneath. On rainy days, water streamed into every room. “And the smell of mold was overwhelming,” Mrs. Gerber said. (Ismay, 12/13)