- California Healthline Original Stories 5
- Push-ups In The Park: Cal State Students Lead Outdoor Exercise In Low-Income Areas
- Legislation To Improve Mental Health Care For Millions Faces Congressional Vote
- A Frenzy Of Lobbying On 21st Century Cures
- Trump's Pick To Run Medicare And Medicaid Has Red State Policy Chops
- Price’s Appointment Boosts GOP Plans To Overhaul Medicare And Medicaid
- Covered California & The Health Law 2
- With 13.5 Million On Medi-Cal, California Has Greatest Stakes In ACA's Future
- California Health Advocates Reeling From Price Nomination
- Public Health and Education 2
- Air Quality Officials Go After Metal-Processing Plants For Cancer-Causing Toxins
- As California's Elderly Population Surges, It Becomes More Diverse With A Greater Number Of Disabilities
Latest From California Healthline:
California Healthline Original Stories
Push-ups In The Park: Cal State Students Lead Outdoor Exercise In Low-Income Areas
A program to boost physical activity at parks around California can help people lose weight and prevent – or control – chronic conditions such as diabetes and high blood pressure. (Anna Gorman, )
Legislation To Improve Mental Health Care For Millions Faces Congressional Vote
Sponsors of Congressional action up for vote Wednesday have championed mental health changes since the 2012 Newtown shootings. (Liz Szabo, )
A Frenzy Of Lobbying On 21st Century Cures
Three lobbyists for every member of Congress in a push to pass a bill that increases research funding and speeds up approvals. (Sydney Lupkin, )
Trump's Pick To Run Medicare And Medicaid Has Red State Policy Chops
Seema Verma is a consultant who was Vice President-elect Mike Pence's health policy advisor when he was governor of Indiana, playing a key role in Medicaid expansion in that state. (Jake Harper, Side Effects Public Media, )
Price’s Appointment Boosts GOP Plans To Overhaul Medicare And Medicaid
Privatizing the Medicare program for the elderly and disabled and turning the Medicaid program for the poor back to the states are long-time goals for Republicans in Congress and the White House. (Julie Rovner, )
More News From Across The State
Covered California & The Health Law
With 13.5 Million On Medi-Cal, California Has Greatest Stakes In ACA's Future
If the health law is dismantled, California would have to decide whether to kick millions off the Medi-Cal rolls or cover them with state tax money.
Sacramento Bee:
California Has Big Stake In Obamacare’s Future
Today, with Republicans poised to take control of the White House and Congress and promising to repeal Obamacare, 13.5 million Californians have Medi-Cal coverage, a 71 percent expansion since 2014 and more than a third of the state’s population... It means that California has, by far, the greatest stakes in the forthcoming battle over whether Obamacare lives or dies. And if its fate is the latter, California would have to decide whether to kick millions off the Medi-Cal rolls or cover them with state tax money.A new report from the California Budget and Policy Center, which advocates for programs serving the poor, contains a county-by-county breakdown of those stakes.It reveals, not surprisingly, that rural counties with the state’s highest levels of unemployment and poverty, have the most to lose. (Walters, 11/29)
California Health Advocates Reeling From Price Nomination
Rep. Tom Price's health proposals "would not just undo the last five or 10 years of progress under the Affordable Care Act, but the last 50 years under Medicaid and Medicare,’’ said Anthony Wright, executive director of Health Access California.
The Mercury News:
Trump's Pick Of Tom Price Rattles California Health Care Advocates
President-elect Donald Trump’s nomination of Georgia Congressman Tom Price to be U.S. secretary of health and human services didn’t just send shock waves through California because of his plan to dismantle the Affordable Care Act. After all, Trump had already promised numerous times to “repeal and replace” President Barack Obama’s signature health care program on the campaign trail. What really rattled California health care experts and advocates was Price’s written plan for overhauling Medicaid, the nation’s health plan for the poor, and privatizing Medicare — which covers 57 million Americans age 65 and older. (Seipel, 11/29)
The New York Times:
Tom Price, H.H.S. Nominee, Drafted Remake Of Health Law
In choosing Representative Tom Price of Georgia to be his health secretary, President-elect Donald J. Trump has signaled an undiminished determination to repeal President Obama’s signature domestic achievement, the Affordable Care Act, and replace it with a health law that would be far less comprehensive. And Mr. Trump is handing Republicans and their base voters what they have clamored for since the Affordable Care Act became law in 2010 — a powerful force to reverse course. (Pear, 11/29)
Politico:
Tom Price's Radically Conservative Vision For American Health Care
Price, a former orthopedic surgeon and six-term House member from suburban Atlanta, has proposed policies that are more conservative than those of many House Republican colleagues. His vision for health reform hinges on eliminating much of the federal government's role in favor of a free-market framework built on privatization, state flexibility and changes to the tax code. The vast majority of the 20 million people now covered under Obamacare would have far less robust coverage — if they got anything at all. “Young, healthy and wealthy people may do quite well under this vision of health care reform,” said Larry Levitt, a senior vice president at the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation. “But the people who are older and poorer and sicker could do a lot worse.” (Cancryn, Haberkorn and Pradhan, 11/29)
The Washington Post:
CMS Nominee Set Up Indiana’s Unusual Medicaid Expansion
Verma’s approach to expanding the state’s Medicaid program was unusual and somewhat controversial. In return for significant choice in their health coverage and enhanced benefits, the plan required many of the state’s poorest residents to contribute a few dollars into health savings accounts, then purchase their own insurance with help from the state. The idea was to make sure that the newly covered patients had some skin in the game when they made their health-care decisions. (Bernstein, 11/29)
Saint Agnes' Distribution Of Mandatory Charity Donations Raises Questions
“You have $500,000 that goes to four health-based organizations and the remaining $1.6 million stays within Saint Agnes Medical Center’s systems. It’s like taking money from one pocket and putting it into another,” said Noe Paramo, co-director of Sustainable Rural Communities Program at the California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation.
Fresno Bee:
Saint Agnes Gives $2.1 Million In Charity Care, Most Of Money Goes To Saint Agnes Hospice
Saint Agnes Medical Center is paying $2.1 million to nonprofit organizations to comply with an order by the California attorney general that the hospital maintain its charity care to the community. The hospital has awarded $1.6 million to Saint Agnes Home Health and Hospice and $125,000 each to Clinica Sierra Vista, WestCare California, Fresno State Foundation and Camarena Health. The distribution has raised eyebrows among some community activists. The nonprofit Catholic-based hospital in northeast Fresno had asked the attorney general to lower an annual charity-care minimum, established by the state three years ago, from $7 million to less than $5 million. The money covers patients who had no insurance or means to pay for their care in 2015. (Anderson, 11/29)
Air Quality Officials Go After Metal-Processing Plants For Cancer-Causing Toxins
The air quality agency also said it has drafted a plan to expand its monitoring for toxic metals to other parts of Paramount where residents have complained of headache-causing metallic fumes.
Los Angeles Times:
Air Quality Agency Aims To Stop Metal Plants Accused Of Polluting Paramount With Cancer-Causing Emissions
Air quality officials are taking enforcement action against two metal-processing plants they believe are contributing to alarming levels of cancer-causing hexavalent chromium discovered recently in Paramount. The South Coast Air Quality Management District filed for an administrative order Tuesday against Aerocraft Heat Treating Co. and Anaplex Corp. to force them to cease operations or take steps to stop violating pollution and public nuisance rules. (Barboza, 11/29)
The report concludes that the trends will present new and difficult challenges for California in providing long-term care for these seniors.
KQED:
The Future Of California’s Seniors: More Diverse, But More Disabled Too
The number of seniors in California is expected to more than double by 2060, from roughly 5 million to 12 million. A new report from the Legislative Analyst’s Office says this future senior population will be more racially diverse than seniors in the U.S. as a whole: the state’s elderly population is projected to become majority nonwhite as soon as 2030. The proportion of these future seniors who are disabled will also increase. That’s because nonwhite populations have higher disability rates. Seniors are also expected to live longer, and seniors over age 85 experience higher disability rates as well. (Feibel, 11/29)
Food-Borne Outbreak Linked To Church Allowed To Serve Holiday Dinner Without Permit
Three people were killed and at least 17 were sickened by the illness.
East Bay Times:
More Illnesses Tied To Antioch Thanksgiving Meal
At least 17 people were sickened in the outbreak of a foodborne illness that apparently killed three in East Contra Costa County, authorities said Tuesday, as evidence mounted that the cause was a church-sponsored Thanksgiving dinner in which much of the food was prepared in homes. A day after saying that a county health permit was not required for the community dinner that served more than 800 people at the American Legion Hall in Antioch, Contra Costa County health officials said Tuesday they will now investigate whether a permit should be required of Brentwood’s Golden Hills Community Church next year, if the dinner continues. Such a permit would subject its serving facilities to a county health inspection and require that no food be served that was prepared in private homes or from unlicensed facilities. (Davis, 11/29)
In other news from around California —
East Bay Times:
Toxic Mushroom Dangers Pop Up With Rains In Bay Area
Early rains are sprouting a bumper crop of toxic wild mushrooms in Bay Area parks and open spaces. The East Bay Regional Park District issued a public warning Tuesday that visitors not collect mushrooms or let dogs or children near the fungi. The district already bans collection of any plants from its 65 regional parks, but it is urging people to take extra care with mushrooms this season, said Carolyn Jones, a park district spokeswoman. (Cuff, 11/29)
After Eleventh-Hour Negotiations, House Set To Vote On $6.3B Cures Bill
While Democrats are still unhappy with some aspects of the legislation, it's expected to make it through the House and move on to a Senate vote next week.
The Wall Street Journal:
Drug, Medical-Device Bill Headed For Floor Votes
A $6.3 billion bill heading for a vote in the final weeks before adjournment could provide an infusion of money for biomedical research and opioid-addiction therapy while taking steps favored by drug and medical-device companies to ease federal approvals of their products. The measure would wrap in provisions based on a bill sponsored by Rep. Tim Murphy (R., Pa.) and passed by the House in July aimed at improving patients’ access to mental-health treatment. (Burton, 11/29)
In other national health care news —
Stat:
Meeting With Trump Emboldens Anti-Vaccine Activists
The discredited researcher who launched the anti-vaccine movement met with Donald Trump this summer — and found him sympathetic to the cause. Now, with Trump preparing to move into the White House, leaders of the movement are newly energized, hopeful they can undermine decades of public policy promoting childhood vaccinations. At the most basic level, they’re hoping Trump will use his bully pulpit to advance his oft-stated concern — debunked by an extensive body of scientific evidence — that there’s a link between vaccines and autism. (Robbins, 11/30)
The Wall Street Journal:
Anthem Begins Defense Of Cigna Merger At Antitrust Trial
Anthem Inc. executives told a judge Tuesday that consumers would benefit from the company’s proposed acquisition of Cigna Corp., saying the new company would be highly innovative while not reducing the fierce competition in the health insurance marketplace. (Kendall, 11/29)
The Associated Press:
EPA Begins Process To Regulate Toxic, Widely Used Chemicals
The Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday released a list of toxic chemicals that will be the first reviewed under a recently enacted law that gives regulators increased authority to ban substances shown to endanger human health. (11/29)
The Hill:
Abortion Foes Plot Wave Of Legislation In The States
Opponents of abortion rights are planning to push a raft of new rules and restrictions after their allies scored big wins in state legislative chambers and gubernatorial races.Legislators in some states have already filed measures to prohibit or limit abortions that occur after 20 weeks of pregnancy and to ban abortions conducted by dismembering a fetus. (Wilson, 11/29)