Newsom’s $6.4 Billion Homelessness Gambit Hangs by a Thread
By Angela Hart
California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s ambitious attempt to combat the mental health and addiction epidemic in his state is leading by a razor-thin margin, calling into question whether voters trust him to confront the state’s growing homelessness crisis. Newsom asked voters on Tuesday to approve his $6.4 billion bond measure, dubbed “Treatment not Tents” — the […]
The Supreme Court Confronts a Public Health Challenge: Homeless Encampments
By Angela Hart
Homelessness is a soaring public health crisis, with a record 653,000 unhoused people in the United States, according to federal estimates. Tent and recreational vehicle encampments have exploded in recent years, crowding streets and sidewalks from Portland, Ore., to New York. In California, where roughly a third of all the nation’s homeless people live, doctors […]
Newsom Wants Voters to Approve Billions More to Help the Homeless. Will It Help?
By Angela Hart
A March 5 ballot initiative seeks $6.4 billion to build thousands of new housing units and provide mental health treatment for homeless people — on top of the billions already being spent to address the public health crisis. Despite significant support from health and law enforcement officials, many front-line workers are skeptical that more money is the answer.
Is Housing Health Care? State Medicaid Programs Increasingly Say ‘Yes’
By Angela Hart
States are using their Medicaid programs to offer poor and sick people housing services, such as paying six months’ rent or helping hunt for apartments. The trend comes in response to a growing homelessness epidemic, but experts caution this may not be the best use of limited health care money.
¿Ofrecer vivienda gratis es atención médica? Programas de Medicaid dicen que sí
By Angela Hart
Estados están invirtiendo miles de millones de dólares en un experimento de atención médica de alto riesgo: utilizar fondos ya escasos de seguros de salud públicos para proporcionar vivienda a los estadounidenses más pobres y enfermos.
California’s Ambitious Medicaid Experiment Gets Tripped Up in Implementation
By Angela Hart
The health care insurers, nonprofit organizations, and other groups responsible for implementing Gov. Gavin Newsom’s ambitious plan to infuse Medicaid with social services say their ability to serve vulnerable, low-income Californians is hamstrung.
Beyond Insulin: Medi-Cal Expands Patient Access to Diabetes Supplies
By Angela Hart
California’s Medicaid program is making it easier for people with diabetes to obtain the supplies and equipment they need to manage their blood sugar, partly by relaxing preauthorization requirements that can cause life-threatening delays.
Street Medicine Practitioners Are Getting Paid. Now They Want Higher Rates.
By Angela Hart
Street medicine, the practice of caring for homeless people outdoors, is a burgeoning field — an unfortunate reality as America confronts a growing homelessness epidemic. But it’s at least become a little more rewarding after the Biden administration made an under-the-radar yet revolutionary change to Medicaid. Starting this month, doctors, nurses and other providers can bill […]
Journalists Talk Madera Hospital Bankruptcy Woes and Savings for Covered California Enrollees
By Bernard J. Wolfson and Melissa Montalvo, The Fresno Bee and Stephanie O'Neill Patison
California Healthline senior correspondent Bernard J. Wolfson and Fresno Bee reporter Melissa Montalvo discuss community efforts to save a bankrupt hospital from liquidation. California Healthline contributing radio correspondent Stephanie O’Neill Patison reports how lawmakers won additional Covered California subsidies.
Watch: The Politics of Health Care in California
California Healthline senior correspondent Angela Hart discussed the most pressing health care issues in California with the nonpartisan group Democracy Winters in mid-November, touching on a variety of issues, from the state’s effort to transform its Medicaid program to its plan to produce generic insulin.
