LAUSD Aims To Protect Health And Well-Being Of Immigrant Students, Staff: Los Angeles Unified school police, staff and community volunteers will form protective perimeters around at least 100 schools when classes resume Thursday to help ensure the safe passage of children — an announcement that came on a day that immigration agents reportedly handcuffed, detained and drew their guns on a 15-year-old boy with disabilities outside Arleta High School in a case of mistaken identity, officials said. Read more from the Los Angeles Times.
California Should Lower Lead Cleanup Goal, Scientists Argue: Harvard environmental health researchers argue that California’s threshold of 80 milligrams of lead in each kilogram of soil is not strict enough. They contend the state’s health standard is not based on sound science and should sit around 55 milligrams per kilogram of soil. Read more from the Los Angeles Times.
Below, check out the roundup of California Healthline's coverage. For today's national health news, read KFF Health News' Morning Briefing.
More News From Across The State
California Healthline:
Considering A Life Change? Brace For Higher ACA Costs
People thinking about starting a business or retiring early — before they’re old enough for Medicare — may want to wait until November, when they can see just how much their Affordable Care Act health insurance will cost next year. Sharp increases are expected. Premiums for ACA health plans, also known as Obamacare, which many early retirees and small-business owners rely on for coverage, are going up, partly due to policy changes advanced by the Trump administration and Congress. At the same time, more generous tax subsidies that have helped most policyholders pay for coverage are set to expire at the end of December. (Appleby, 8/12)
CalMatters:
California Republican Heckled Over Health Cuts In Trump Law
Rep. Doug LaMalfa, the Republican who represents much of California’s rural north, had barely begun his prepared remarks at a town hall in Chico early Monday when a chorus of boos and jeers overpowered him. ... The crowd of more than 650 people ... slammed him for his vote for President Donald Trump’s budget bill, which cuts more than $1.1 trillion in federal spending for Medicaid, Medicare and plans under the Affordable Care Act over the next decade. The crowd excoriated LaMalfa for supporting legislation they said will “devastate” rural hospitals and hurt vulnerable people with disabilities and poor families. But LaMalfa claimed the legislation makes “no cuts to the people themselves” in California’s Medicaid program, known as Medi-Cal. (Miller, 8/11)
Becker's Hospital Review:
Providence Hospital Foundation Receives $5M Gift For Cardiology Center
Providence Santa Rosa (Calif.) Memorial Hospital Foundation has received a $5 million gift from Norma Person to establish the Dr. John B. Reed Center for Cardiology. The center will be located within the Hansel Family Care Center and serve as a cardiovascular hub for Northern California, according to an Aug. 1 news release. It will honor Dr. Reed, Sonoma County’s first cardiologist, who has practiced in the community for more than five decades. The gift supports the foundation’s Caring Together Initiative, which also aims to create a new imaging center and a women’s center. (Dyrda, 8/11)
The (Santa Rosa) Press Democrat:
Sebastopol Gives $40,000 To Nonprofit — Not Cops — For Homeless Outreach
West County Community Services, the Guerneville-based homeless services nonprofit, will continue to provide outreach services for individuals living on the streets in Sebastopol. The decision, which includes a $40,000 contract for a part-time outreach worker, comes after the City Council wrestled with shifting the money to the Sebastopol Police Department, the city agency directly responsible for managing and collaborating with WCCS. (Windsor, 8/11)
Times of San Diego:
Mission Beach Women's Club Donates $35,000 Toward Safehouse
The Mission Beach Women’s Club, a philanthropic nonprofit founded in 1926, has donated $35,000 from the proceeds of its annual fundraiser toward a safehouse for women and children in the beach community. Money from its annual fundraiser — a casino night — went to the Center for Community Solutions, a San Diego-based group dedicated to ending relationship and sexual violence. (8/11)
Times of San Diego:
UCSD Announces 'Pivot Grants' Thanks To Prebys Foundation Gift
The University of California, San Diego’s School of Medicine has announced the inaugural recipients of a grant program intended to help protect San Diego’s biomedical research sector. The move – which was enabled by a $1 million gift from the Prebys Foundation – comes in response to the Trump administration sharply cutting federal funding for biomedical research. (Binkowski, 8/11)
Becker's Hospital Review:
California System Among Top Enrollment Sites For Heart Valve Trial
Thousand Oaks, Calif.-based Los Robles Health System, part of Nashville, Tenn.-based HCA Healthcare, was among the top 10 sites for patient enrollment in a clinical trial aimed at assessing the safety and effectiveness of Abbott’s TriClip Transcatheter Tricuspid Valve Repair system. ... Saibal Kar, MD, interventional cardiologist and director of structural heart disease interventions and clinical research at Los Robles, shared more with Becker’s about participating in the trial and what it meant for the health system to be one of the trial’s top enrollment sites. (Gregerson, 8/11)
California Healthline:
Experts Say Rural Emergency Rooms Are Increasingly Run Without Doctors
There was no doctor on-site when a patient arrived in early June at the emergency room in the small hospital at the intersection of two dirt roads in this town of 400 residents. There never is. Dahl Memorial’s three-bed emergency department — a two-hour drive from the closest hospital with more advanced services — instead depends on physician assistants and nurse practitioners. (Zionts, 8/12)
Axios:
Why More Doctors Can't Make Ends Meet
America's doctors are working harder and getting paid less. And that could soon translate into less access for some patients. A new report from consultancy Kaufman Hall shows primary care physicians and specialists are delivering more services since the pandemic. But they're not making more money because of stagnant reimbursements from public and private insurers and inflation. (Reed, 8/12)
The Hill:
HHS Pilot Program Raises Concerns Over Medicare Red Tape
House Democrats are sounding the alarm and demanding more information about a new Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) demonstration they say will increase red tape by adding prior authorization requirements in Medicare. Led by Reps. Suzan DelBene (D-Wash.) and Ami Bera (D-Calif.), a group of 17 Democrats questioned why HHS would want to test adding prior authorization requirements in traditional Medicare when the Trump administration is touting efforts to reduce the practice in Medicare Advantage (MA). (Weixel, 8/11)
Southern California News Group:
California Lawmakers Finally Tour An LA Immigration Detention Center. Here’s What They Saw
Some Democratic members from Los Angeles’ congressional delegation who toured an immigration detention center in downtown L.A. this week — two months after House members first attempted to check out conditions inside the facility but were denied access — described what they saw and learned as “inhumane” and “disturbing.” (Tat, 8/12)
Oaklandside:
Trump Claims Oakland Crime Is Out Of Control. But Crime Has Fallen This Year
President Donald Trump announced on Monday that he’s placing Washington D.C.’s police department under federal control and deploying the national guard as part of a crackdown on crime in the district. Trump claimed that crime in the nation’s capital has gotten out of hand, citing a recent alleged assault on a former staffer from the so-called Department of Government Efficiency. In a rambling speech, Trump also complained about other big American cities that he accused of having crime problems — including Oakland. (Wolfe, 8/11)
Stat:
NIH Director: Lack Of Public Trust Led To Cancellation Of MRNA Vaccine Contracts
The head of the National Institutes of Health has offered a new explanation for why the federal government canceled $500 million in contracts to help develop messenger RNA vaccines, saying the platform is not viable because the public doesn’t trust it. (Branswell, 8/11)
The New York Times:
Why Young Children May Not Get Covid Shots This Fall
This fall, it may not be possible for many parents to have a healthy child under age 5 immunized against Covid. Pfizer’s vaccine has long been available to these children under so-called emergency use authorization. But the Food and Drug Administration is considering discontinuing the authorization for that age group, according to an email sent by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to state and local health departments. Pfizer confirmed the possibility on Monday evening and said that the company was “currently in discussions with the agency on potential paths forward.” For children 5 to 11 years old, the Pfizer vaccine is expected to be approved and available, according to the C.D.C.’s email, which was reviewed by The New York Times. (Mandavilli, 8/11)
The Guardian:
US Veterans Agency Lost Thousands Of ‘Core’ Medical Staff Under Trump, Records Show
The Department of Veterans Affairs has lost thousands of healthcare professionals deemed “core” to the system’s ability to function and “without which mission-critical work cannot be completed," agency records show. (Glantz, 8/11)
Politico:
Kennedy's MAHA Strategy Will Not Be Released To The Public Immediately
Farmers, food manufacturers, chemical companies, anti-vaccine activists and MAHA moms — all waiting anxiously for the release of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s strategy for “making children healthy again” — will have to wait a bit longer. The White House said Monday that it expected the Make America Healthy Again Commission, which President Donald Trump created in February to revamp the nation’s food supply and chronic health outcomes, to send the strategy to the president Tuesday, as required by an executive order. (Lim, Brown and Messerly, 8/11)
Axios:
FDA Says IV Fluid Shortage From Hurricane Is Over
The nationwide shortage of critical intravenous saline fluid triggered by Hurricane Helene is over, though some other injectable solutions remain in shortage almost a year after the storm, the Food and Drug Administration said. (Bettelheim, 8/12)
The Hill:
Trump Considers Reclassifying Marijuana As Less Dangerous
President Trump said Monday his administration is “looking at” reclassifying marijuana as a less dangerous drug. Such a move would continue efforts begun by the Biden administration, which started the process to make marijuana a Schedule III drug in 2024 but did not finish it before former President Biden left office. (Weixel, 8/11)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Could Chikungunya Virus Spread In The Bay Area? Here’s What To Know
An outbreak of chikungunya virus this summer has sickened more than 7,000 people in southern China, particularly in the city of Foshan. The virus is spread by Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus mosquitoes, which also transmit dengue and Zika viruses. These invasive mosquitoes have expanded worldwide, including to California. (Lee, 8/11)
Times Of San Diego:
Heat Wave Continues, Deserts Could Reach 115 Degrees Tuesday
An extreme heat warning was in effect Monday in the arid eastern reaches of the San Diego area, alerting the public to potentially unhealthy triple-digit temperatures in local desert communities. (8/11)
Stat:
Telehealth Has Changed The Abortion Landscape, Study Says
Population-based rates of telemedicine abortion were highest in Southern and Midwestern states, particularly those with abortion bans, during a 15-month period starting in July 2023. That’s when several telehealth abortion providers, including Aid Access, began prescribing medication abortion under state shield laws intended to protect abortion care providers who treat patients in areas with bans. In those 15 months, 84% of Aid Access’ prescriptions went to patients in states with near-total abortion bans or bans specifically on telemedicine abortion. Notably, rates of abortion provision were higher in areas where people had to travel farther to the nearest clinic, and in counties with higher poverty levels. (Palmer, 8/11)
The Washington Post:
Working Mothers Are Leaving The Work Force, Undoing Pandemic Gains
Working mothers, who helped drive much of the job market’s post-pandemic comeback, are leaving the workforce in large numbers this year. The share of working mothers age 25 to 44 with young children has fallen nearly every month this year, dropping by nearly 3 percentage points between January and June, to the lowest level in more than three years, according to an analysis of federal data by Misty Heggeness, a professor at the University of Kansas and former principal economist at the Census Bureau. (Bhattarai, 8/11)
Voice Of San Diego:
Firefighters Couldn’t Rely On A Police Response, So They Searched And Chased People
In the weeks after El Cajon police stopped automatically responding to certain crisis calls, firefighters grappled with what that policy shift meant for their own responses – and safety. On June 3, a Heartland Fire & Rescue captain injured his knee restraining an intoxicated woman who ran toward the road after threatening to kill herself. He was forced to go on leave after the injury, records obtained after a public-records request show. (Halverstadt, 8/11)
San Diego Union-Tribune:
Encinitas To Debate Three Homeless-Related Proposals Wednesday
When the Encinitas City Council returns from its month-long summer recess Wednesday, it’ll consider three homeless-related items, all of them placed on the agenda by Councilmember Jim O’Hara. (Henry, 8/11)
East Bay Times:
California School District To Start Voluntary, Random Drug Tests For Middle, High School Students
Fontana schools will begin voluntary, random drug testing of middle and high school athletes — and other students in extracurricular activities — in a program aimed at improving youths’ health. (Darling, 8/11)