Good morning! California lawmakers have rejected what would have been a first-of-its-kind ban on medically unnecessary treatment for infants born with ambiguous or conflicting genitalia. More on that below, but first here are your top California health stories of the day.
Homelessness Task Force Recommends Ballot Measure To Force Localities To Meet Aggressive Goals Or Face ‘Big Stick’ As Punishment: A state task force co-chaired by Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg is calling for a statewide in which localities that fail to meet benchmarks could face court action from the state Attorney General’s office or other public officials. The task force argued in its report that the state needs to carry a big stick to convince local governments that they will face consequences if they don’t get people off the streets. The proposal has undergone a massive overhaul since July, when Steinberg first proposed it as a statewide “right to shelter” mandate modeled after the state of New York. But that controversial proposal would have put the burden on the homeless people themselves. The new version instead places the burden on the state, counties and cities to get homeless indoors. It also focuses on permanent housing, though shelters with services may be part of the plan for localities where housing is more available. Gov. Gavin Newsom, speaking Monday in Grass Valley where he was touring homeless facilities, said he broadly supported “the direction they’re going,” but would like to see a pilot program to test the mandate idea.
Read more from Theresa Clift and Sophia Bollag of the Sacramento Bee; Anita Chabria, Benjamin Oreskes and Taryn Luna of the Los Angeles Times; Kevin Fagan of the San Francisco Chronicle; and Matt Levin and Jackie Botts of CalMatters.
Federal Funds To Help LA's Homeless Crisis Would Come Bundled Up In Strings: Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson has been working with Mayor Eric Garcetti to address the city's homeless crisis despite public tension over the issue. But the administration says that if Los Angeles accepts federal help, it will need to change the way it handles the problem. Carson's hints were somewhat vague, but they included a directive to move toward “empowering and utilizing local law enforcement.” Though it’s true that federal funds earmarked for Los Angeles often come with stipulations, some fear that demands to alter policing policies to clear more encampments, for instance, could run afoul of several legal settlements and federal court rulings. It also could anger local leaders. Read more from Dakota Smith, Benjamin Oreskes and Noah Bierman of the Los Angeles Times.
In related news:
Capital Public Radio: One Year In, Gov. Gavin Newsom Shows Bold Action, But California’s Homelessness Crisis Deepens
Reuters: California Governor's 'Homelessness Tour' Seeks Money, Solutions to Crisis on Streets
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.
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More News From Across The State
The Associated Press:
California Rejects Unique Intersex Surgery Ban For Some Kids
California lawmakers have rejected what would have been a first-of-its-kind ban on medically unnecessary treatment for infants born with ambiguous or conflicting genitalia. The measure would have banned all procedures on intersex children 6 and under unless they were deemed medically necessary by the Medical Board of California. (1/13)
Los Angeles Times:
Bill To Ban Surgery On Intersex Children Fails In California Senate
Advocacy groups for intersex people, who have differences in their reproductive or sexual anatomy, have been seeking legislation in California that would postpone genital surgeries, which they say do more harm than good. The groups say infants born with atypical genitalia often undergo surgeries to “normalize” their body, which can lead to incorrect gender assignment or an irreversible loss of physical sensation. Senate Bill 201 by state Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), would have required that a child be at least 6 years old before a doctor could perform genital surgery that is not medically necessary. The bill faced opposition from doctors who said medical decisions should be left up to parents and the physicians treating a patient. (Gutierrez, 1/13)
The San Francisco Chronicle:
Ban On Surgery For Intersex Children Dies In California Legislature
Sen. Steve Glazer, the Orinda Democrat who chairs the committee, said the legislation was a “missed opportunity.” He said he supported the goal of stopping doctors from assigning a sex to children with ambiguous genitalia, but he was uncomfortable banning other operations that fell under the bill’s definition of intersex. (Koseff, 1/13)
Sacramento Bee:
California Has So Much Money For These Programs It Can’t Spend It Fast Enough
Even as he announced plans to spend $222 billion in next year’s budget, Gov. Gavin Newsom noted billions of dollars for kindergarten, housing and mental health programs allocated in past years that still haven’t been spent. He’s threatening to take millions of unspent mental health dollars back from counties, and proposing new uses for untouched kindergarten funding. He also acknowledged housing money approved last year has been slow to get out the door. (Bollag, 1/14)
Capital Public Radio:
Advocates Say Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Budget Proposal Leaves Out Funding For Sexual And Domestic Violence Prevention
The California Partnership to End Domestic Violence and California Coalition Against Sexual Assault are asking Newsom to include $15 million in ongoing annual funding for prevention efforts. They claim the current proposed budget would revert prevention funding to the previous ongoing amount of $45,000 per year. (Rodd, 1/13)
The Mercury News:
Supervisor Wants To Build County's First Permanent Housing For Domestic Violence Survivors
Santa Clara County Supervisor Cindy Chavez on Tuesday will call on the county to build housing at the civic center in San Jose for survivors of domestic violence struggling to find a place to live. “The sense of urgency is so profound with this particular group of people — this hidden group of homeless families that are really being torn apart by not having a safe, healthy option,” Chavez said during an interview at her office. “So we’re going to move with a sense of urgency.” (DeRuy, 1/13)
Sacramento Bee:
Low Carb, High Fat: What To Know About The Keto Diet
The keto diet was one of the most searched for diets online in 2019. Before you switch food habits in the new year, just what exactly does the keto diet look like? A Cleveland Clinic dietician explains the high fat, low carb eating plan. (Caraccio, 1/13)
CalMatters:
Why One County Is Exploring Giving $1,000 Monthly To Every Youth Aging Out Of Foster Care
When Dontae Lartigue left foster care right before his 19th birthday in 2009, finding housing in Santa Clara County was one of his biggest obstacles. He struggled to find places he could afford on his $12 an hour wages at Walmart, and with a limited income and no rental history, landlords were often wary of returning his calls. So Lartigue, who is now 29, ended up couch surfing or sleeping in his car. “Right now when a foster youth like me emancipates, I don’t have credit, I don’t have enough income, and I don’t have rental history,” he says. “So most of the time I’ve already got my back against the wall.” (Hellerstein, 1/13)
The Hill:
Trump Knocks 'Mini Mike Bloomberg' Over Health Care, 'False Advertising'
President Trump on Monday lashed out at former New York City Mayor and Democratic presidential hopeful Michael Bloomberg, defending his administration's health care record. "Mini Mike Bloomberg is spending a lot of money on False Advertising," Trump tweeted. "I was the person who saved Pre-Existing Conditions in your Healthcare," he continued, adding that he would "always protect your Pre-Existing Conditions, the Dems will not!" (Sullivan, 1/13)
The New York Times:
To The Contrary, Trump Has Tried To Weaken Protections For Pre-Existing Conditions
President Trump was not in Washington when the Affordable Care Act established a right to health insurance for Americans with pre-existing health conditions. His first legislative priority as president was a bill that would have repealed key parts of Obamacare and weakened such protections. His Justice Department is arguing in court that the entire law should be overturned. His tweets Monday morning, describing himself as “the person who saved pre-existing conditions,” contradict this record. (Sanger-Katz, 1/13)
The Hill:
Trump Asks Supreme Court To Let Immigrant 'Public Charge' Rule Take Effect
The Trump administration on Monday asked the Supreme Court to allow it to move forward with a rule aimed at cutting back benefits for immigrants while litigation plays out in court. The Justice Department, on behalf of the administration, asked the justices to lift a nationwide halt on President Trump’s "public charge" rule that links immigrants’ legal status to their use of public benefits. (Kruzel, 1/13)
The Hill:
Appeals Court Skeptical Of Trump Rule On TV Drug Ads
The Trump administration urged a federal appeals court Monday to overturn that ruling, arguing it has the authority under the law to run the Medicare and Medicaid programs efficiently. The health care programs for the elderly and the poor paid about $240 billion for prescription drugs in 2016. (Hellmann, 1/13)
The Wall Street Journal:
9/11 Responders Have Higher Rates Of Leukemia, Study Shows
Researchers found an elevated incidence of leukemia in first responders and other workers at the World Trade Center site after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks compared with the general population. The study, by New York researchers, is the first to show an increase in the incidence of the blood cancer, which can occur years after exposure to carcinogens. (Grayce West, 1/14)
The New York Times:
Why Is Air Pollution So Harmful? DNA May Hold The Answer
The threat of air pollution grabs our attention when we see it — for example, the tendrils of smoke of Australian brush fires, now visible from space, or the poisonous soup of smog that descends on cities like New Delhi in the winter. But polluted air also harms billions of people on a continuing basis. Outdoors, we breathe in toxins delivered by car traffic, coal-fired plants and oil refineries. Indoor fires for heat and cooking taint the air for billions of people in poor countries. Over a billion people add toxins to their lungs by smoking cigarettes — and more recently, by vaping. (Zimmer, 1/13)
The New York Times:
What Happened When A State Made Food Stamps Harder To Get
In the early mornings, Chastity and Paul Peyton walk from their small and barely heated apartment to Taco Bell to clean fryers and take orders for as many work hours as they can get. It rarely adds up to full-time week’s worth, often not even close. With this income and whatever cash Mr. Peyton can scrape up doing odd jobs — which are hard to come by in a small town in winter, for someone without a car — the couple pays rent, utilities and his child support payments. Then there is the matter of food. (Robertson, 1/13)
The Wall Street Journal:
Drugmakers Test New Ways To Pay For Six-Figure Treatments
Drugmakers are experimenting with new ways to get paid for their most expensive medicines, as resistance to escalating prices builds and the collection and analysis of patient data improves. Now that six-figure price tags are common, drug companies are finding creative ways to get reimbursed, from installment plans and subscriptions to more complex value-based contracts that tie payment to when a drug helps a patient. (Hopkins, 1/13)