Latest From California Healthline:
California Healthline Original Stories
FDA Keeps Brand-Name Drugs On A Fast Path To Market ― Despite Manufacturing Concerns
The agency approved Gilead’s “game changer” hepatitis C cure, bypassing concerns raised by its own federal inspectors. The problems they found at the company’s main U.S. drug-testing laboratory in Foster City, Calif., were so bad, they recommended withholding approval. (Sydney Lupkin, )
Good morning! Apple has announced it will commit $2.5 billion to fund new homes, aid home buyers and prevent homelessness in California amid a crisis that has ballooned in the state. Read more on that below, but first here are your other top California health stories of the day.
Trump Slams Calif. Governor Over Perceived Failure To Curb Wildfires, But Draws Criticism For Not Understanding Cause Of Flames: President Donald Trump criticized Gov. Gavin Newsom for his handling of wildfires and made a vague threat to cut aid as blazes continue to burn. The comments are the latest installment of the president’s long-standing grievance with California, a state that has clashed with Trump’s administration, particularly on issues of environmental regulation. Trump tweeted: "The Governor of California, @GavinNewsom, has done a terrible job of forest management. I told him from the first day we met that he must 'clean' his forest floors regardless of what his bosses, the environmentalists, DEMAND of him. Must also do burns and cut fire stoppers... Every year, as the fire's rage & California burns, it is the same thing-and then he comes to the Federal Government for $$$ help. No more. Get your act together Governor.” Newsom later responded with his own tweet: “You don’t believe in climate change. You are excused from this conversation.”
Presidential candidates, including California’s own Kamala Harris, were also quick to hit back at Trump’s accusations. "Raking leaves is as effective at combatting the climate crisis as your phone's spellcheck is at fixing your tweets," Harris said.
Experts say the president’s criticisms reflect a broad misunderstanding of the climate-driven science behind the seasonal wildfires and at the same time mischaracterizes the realities on the ground in California. While fire prevention generally includes some level of debris management, scientists and fire-prevention experts agree California’s wildfire situation largely stems from the region’s intensifying heat that dries out vegetation and creates tinderbox conditions come fire season — which coincides with the prime time for powerful offshore winds like the Santa Ana and El Diablo that spread the easily-fueled fire.
Read more from James Rainey of the Los Angeles Times; Katie Dowd of the San Francisco Chronicle; Carla Marinucci of Politico; Kim Bellware of The Washington Post; and James Walker of Newsweek.
In more fire-related news:
Los Angeles Times: California Wildfires Are Mostly Under Control, But Fire Risk Remains High
Santa Rosa Press Democrat: Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital A Constant During Kincade Fire
KQED: Even With Evacuation Order Lifted, Two Major Santa Rosa Hospitals Won’t Reopen For Several More Days
84,000 Health Care Workers Vote To Ratify Contract With Kaiser Permanente That Includes Wage Increases, Limitations On Outsourcing: The Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions representing workers from three unions — the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, the Office and Professional Employees International Union and the Service Employees International Union — touted the deal because it assured an investment of $130 million in a health care academy to develop and sustain the health care workforce of the future and because it provided that Kaiser would not sign new outsourcing contracts for existing jobs held by coalition members. The agreement gives workers in California and the Northwest region an across-the-board wage increase of 3% a year. Management will also work with labor to set up a committee that will work to ensure that Kaiser’s caregivers can apply a patient-centered approach when integrating cutting-edge technology. Read more from Cathie Anderson of the Sacramento Bee.
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:
Apple Pledges $2.5 Billion To Help With Housing Crisis
Apple will commit $2.5 billion to fund new homes, aid home buyers and prevent homelessness in California, becoming the latest Bay Area company pledging to combat the housing crisis. Apple’s move, by far the largest such commitment by a tech company to date, follows similar announcements by Google and Facebook. (Narayan, 11/4)
Los Angeles Times:
Apple Pledges $2.5 Billion To Address The State's Affordable Housing Problem
“Affordable housing means stability and dignity, opportunity and pride,” Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook said in a statement. “When these things fall out of reach for too many, we know the course we are on is unsustainable, and Apple is committed to being part of the solution.” (Khouri, 11/4)
NPR:
Apple Pledges $2.5 Billion To Combat California's Housing Crisis
The announcement comes as California grapples with how to keep pace with growing demand. By one estimate, as NPR recently noted, the state must build more than 3 million new homes by 2025. Apple's plan includes $1 billion to create a mortgage assistance fund for first-time homebuyers, and another $1 billion that will be an open line of credit to support building "very low- to moderate-income housing," the company said. (Chappell, 11/4)
Los Angeles Times:
L.A. Voided Old Tickets, Warrants. It Won't Help Homeless People
When Los Angeles officials decided to toss out millions of citations and warrants in early October, they hailed it as a boon for homeless people. The purge, they said, would “unclog” the court system and stop the cycle of debt and arrests that has made it harder for the poorest Angelenos to land jobs and housing. But weeks after the announcement by L.A. City Atty. Mike Feuer, L.A. County Dist. Atty. Jackie Lacey and LAPD Chief Michel Moore, it has become clear that their amnesty program is unlikely to end the criminal consequences for low-level offenses by people who live outdoors. (Holland, 11/4)
San Francisco Chronicle:
How Mark DeSaulnier’s Cancer Gave Him New Purpose In Politics
Rep. Mark DeSaulnier carries a small pill in his breast pocket. It’s the medicine that keeps him alive. The routine of carrying the drug in his shirt helps the Concord Democrat remember to take his medication. But his daily struggle with cancer is never far from his mind in his legislative work. (Kopan, 11/1)
Capital Public Radio:
Californians Will Be Turning Their Clocks Back This Fall Despite Voting Last Year To Explore Alternatives
Californians are turning their clocks back with the rest of the country this weekend, despite their continued efforts to eliminate the practice. In 2018, voters approved a ballot measure to make it possible for California to eliminate the yearly change. But ending the clock-switch requires the Legislature to pass a law. The most recent proposal to make daylight saving permanent was held this year and is expected to return in January. (Caiola, 11/1)
Capital Public Radio:
Will California’s “Revenge Porn” Law Really Help Rep. Katie Hill?
Last week, Hill’s legal team sent a cease-and-desist letter to the Daily Mail, citing California’s so-called revenge porn laws, which make it a crime to share private, sexual images without a person’s permission.Sympathetic commentators and advocates for victims of cyber exploitation have also characterized the reporting as “revenge porn.” (Christopher, 11/2)
Modesto Bee:
Changes In Store For Medicare Plan In Stanislaus County
Medicare recipients in the CareMore health plan will make appointments with physicians in Central Valley Medical Group starting next year. AllCare Independent Physician Association has broken away from the CareMore Medicare Advantage plan. About 2,000 CareMore members are faced with finding another Medicare-approved insurance plan aligned with AllCare, so they can keep their doctor, or finding a new physician with Central Valley Medical Group. (Carlson, 11/2)
Ventura County Star:
CEO Villani's Resignation Finalizes Divorce With Medi-Cal Plan
On the same morning Ventura County Medi-Cal commissioners were poised to talk about how to end their relationship with CEO Dale Villani, the administrator resigned Friday as leader of the Gold Coast Health Plan. The resignation came without the CEO or Gold Coast's governing board – the Ventura County Medi-Cal Managed Care Commission – specifying reasons. A Gold Coast statement cited only the commission's decision earlier in the week not to renew Villani's contract. (Kisken, 11/1)
Sacramento Bee:
25,000 UC Service, Health Care Workers To Strike In November
More than 25,000 service and health care workers at the University of California will stage a one-day walkout on Nov. 13 over concerns about how their employer is outsourcing jobs that should be performed by union-represented workers. Local 3299 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees filed six new unfair labor complaints against the UC in late October alleging that it is violating state laws, UC’s own wage and procurement policies and the terms of collective bargaining agreements. (Anderson, 11/1)
LAist:
An LAUSD Student Asked Us About The 'Gross,' Yellowish Water At Her School. We Investigated
But long before Flint's crisis was making headlines, the L.A. Unified School District has been taking steps to make sure water on its campuses is safe to drink. Since 2008, LAUSD has spent $30 million — and will soon spend $15 million more — to test its 60,000 drinking fountains for lead and replace, shut off or install filters on compromised water outlets. Which means Kajsa's letter caught my attention for another reason: after all that testing and all those upgrades, how could something possibly have gone wrong with the water at Kajsa's school? I decided to investigate. (Stokes, 11/1)
KPBS:
San Diego County, Hospitals Tracking Data To Get Ahead Of Next Big Flu Emergency
The disaster management tool relies on real-time data to alert officials the health care system is experiencing additional stress and outlines actions they can implement to alleviate the pressure. Officials are paying close attention to metrics as the expected but unpredictable peak of flu season nears. (Mento, 11/1)
East Bay Times:
San Jose Woman Gets Gift Of Sight Via Free LASIK Surgery
For the 18th year, San Jose’s Furlong Vision Correction hosted its “Gift of Sight” program last month. Six South Bay residents—two participants of San Jose’s work2future program, three nominated by community members and one referred by another local optometrist—were chosen to receive LASIK and other corrective procedures free of charge. Run out of the city’s Office of Economic Development, work2future serves job seekers across Santa Clara County who need access to education, training and support in their search for employment. According to Dr. Michael Furlong, medical director of Furlong Vision Correction, the private practice chooses a local organization each year to draw recipients from. He said it’s important that the organization—and the recipients of the procedure—are doing good for their communities. (Pitcher, 11/3)
The Associated Press:
San Francisco: Mayor Has Easy Reelection; Vaping On Ballot
After a bruising fight last year to become San Francisco's mayor, London Breed faces token opposition on Tuesday's ballot as she struggles to find solutions to the city's homelessness crisis, drug epidemic and a housing shortfall that have put the politically liberal city in the national spotlight. The former president of the Board of Supervisors and San Francisco native narrowly won a special June 2018 election to fill the seat left vacant by the sudden death of Mayor Ed Lee. (11/3)
The Bakersfield Californian:
Kern Medical Makes Multimillion-Dollar Upgrade To Electronic Health Records
As the east Bakersfield hospital prepared to "go live," it was expected to be an "all hands on deck" kind of day, according to Judd. The new system includes every level of a patient's record regardless of venue, billing records, health maintenance information, consultation coordination and more. But Kern Medical's transition to fully electronic record keeping actually began at least 20 months ago, Judd said. Previously, the system had been a mashup of vintage systems, going back as far as the early 1990s. (Mayer, 11/1)
Sacramento Bee:
How Sacramento Pot Dispensaries Pay Taxes, Without Banking
When the owners of Sacramento’s retail cannabis dispensaries pay their taxes, they walk into City Hall hauling trash bags or backpacks stuffed with cash, sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars in a single trip. This, for obvious reasons, initially raised alarms among everyone involved. Worried about counting so much cash at the first-floor revenue counter at City Hall, staffers allowed the dispensary owners to come behind the glass and get their money counted in a traditionally restricted area. (Clift and Kasler, 11/1)
ProPublica:
How One Employer Stuck A New Mom With A $898,984 Bill For Her Premature Baby
Lauren Bard opened the hospital bill this month and her body went numb. In bold block letters it said, “AMOUNT DUE: $898,984.57.” Last fall, Bard’s daughter, Sadie, had arrived about three months prematurely; and as a nurse herself, Bard knew the costs for Sadie’s care would be high. But she’d assumed the bulk would be covered by the organization that owned the hospital where she worked: Dignity Health, whose marketing motto is “Hello humankindness.” She would be wrong. (Allen, 11/4)
The New York Times:
Billionaires Only? Warren Errs In Saying Whom Her Health Plan Would Tax
When Senator Elizabeth Warren laid out her plan for “Medicare for all” on Friday, she said she would raise taxes on the top 1 percent of households to help pay for it. The middle class, she said, would not pay “one penny” more. On Saturday night, Ms. Warren presented an even narrower description of who would face higher taxes under her plan. She told reporters that billionaires would be the only people to see their taxes go up — a misstatement of what she had proposed a day earlier. “It doesn’t raise taxes on anybody but billionaires,” Ms. Warren told reporters in Dubuque, Iowa, when asked what income bracket she defined as “middle class.” (Kaplan, 11/3)
The New York Times:
Elizabeth Warren’s ‘Medicare For All’ Math
The Warren plan includes several key assumptions, including starkly lower prescription drug prices, minimal administrative spending and health care costs that grow at a significantly slower pace. Warren backers describe these cuts as ambitious and assertive, contending that the American health system — which has the highest prices in the developed world — could weather the change. Other health care experts call the ideas unrealistic, given the revenue that American doctors, hospitals and drug companies have become accustomed to earning. The key question in this debate is, how quickly can the United States tamp down its sky-high health care prices? (Sanger-Katz and Kliff, 11/1)
The New York Times:
Warren Health Plan Tightens Democrats’ Embrace Of Tax Increases
Three years after President Trump rode a wave of populist anger into office, some of his top Democratic challengers are calling for a fundamental reordering of American capitalism, arguing that voters will embrace bold plans to reverse decades of rising inequality by raising taxes on corporations and the rich. The $20.5 trillion proposal for “Medicare for all” released by Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts on Friday is the most prominent example of how a party that once bet on centrist economic policies to win elections is moving toward far more ambitious efforts to redistribute wealth and expand the government’s role in the economy. (Tankersley, 11/2)
The Washington Post:
Sanders, Warren, Seek To Clarify Their Differences
Sanders said his approach to funding Medicare-for-all, which includes raising taxes on middle-class families, is “far more progressive” than Warren’s method, a stinging comment calculated to solidify his role as the only pure progressive in the race. Sanders took issue specifically with Warren’s proposal that businesses would redirect their current health-care payments to the Medicare program, which Sanders said would hurt job growth. (Janes, Sullivan and Stanley-Becker, 11/3)
Reuters:
Warren's Big Healthcare Plan Relies On Big Assumptions
Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren's plan for universal healthcare rests on an assumption she can radically change an industry the size of Germany's entire economy without new costs for the average taxpayer. On paper, the plan by the senator from Massachusetts to use government bureaucracy to create a more efficient healthcare system gets credibility from the fact that most rich nations, including Canada and France, already do just that. (11/1)
The Associated Press:
Biden Defends His 'Vision' Against Warren's Indirect Attacks
Bristling at Elizabeth Warren's suggestions that he's a milquetoast moderate with small ideas, presidential candidate Joe Biden countered Saturday that he offers a "bold" vision for the country and warned that Democratic primary voters should not get distracted by the party's increasingly tense battle over ideological labels. It was a departure from Biden's usual campaign speech and signaled perhaps a new phase of Democrats' search for a nominee to take on President Donald Trump, with Warren, the leading progressive candidate, and Biden, the top choice for most moderates and establishment liberals, ratcheting up the intensity three months ahead of the Iowa caucuses. (11/2)
The Associated Press:
Widespread Glitches Occur On 1st Day Of 'Obamacare' Sign-Ups
Trump administration officials say they're working to resolve problems with HealthCare.gov following reports of widespread technical glitches on the first day of "Obamacare" sign-ups. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said in a statement Friday that it's aware that some consumers trying to sign up for health insurance have received error messages from the online system. The agency said its "highest priority" is to fix the issues quickly to provide a "seamless consumer experience." (11/1)
The Associated Press:
US Judge Blocks Trump's Health Insurance Rule For Immigrants
A federal judge in Portland, Oregon, on Saturday put on hold a Trump administration rule requiring immigrants prove they will have health insurance or can pay for medical care before they can get visas. U.S. District Judge Michael Simon granted a temporary restraining order that prevents the rule from going into effect Sunday. It's not clear when he will rule on the merits of the case. (11/2)
The New York Times:
Adoption Groups Could Turn Away L.G.B.T. Families Under Proposed Rule
A proposed rule by the Trump administration would allow foster care and adoption agencies to deny their services to L.G.B.T. families on faith-based grounds. The proposal would have “enormous” effects and touch the lives of a large number of people, Denise Brogan-Kator, chief policy officer at Family Equality, an advocacy organization for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender families, said on Saturday. (Taylor, 11/2)
The Associated Press:
Trump Picks Cancer Specialist From Texas Hospital To Run FDA
President Donald Trump on Friday picked a cancer specialist and hospital executive to lead the Food and Drug Administration. If confirmed, Dr. Stephen Hahn of the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston would inherit a raft of high-profile public health issues, including leading the government's response to the problem of underage vaping and the prescription opioid epidemic. (11/1)
The Associated Press:
One Big Step: Google Buys Fitbit For $2.1 Billion
Google, the company that helped make it fun to just sit around surfing the web, is jumping into the fitness-tracker business with both feet, buying Fitbit for about $2.1 billion. The deal could put Google in direct competition with Apple and Samsung in the highly competitive market for smartwatches and other wearable electronics. But it also raises questions about privacy and Google's dominance in the tech industry. (11/1)