Archive

Latest California Healthline Stories

‘Locally Grown’ Insurance Companies Help Fortify Washington State Market

The individual insurance market in Washington is dominated by companies that do business only in the Pacific Northwest, and the state’s insurance commissioner credits them with helping keep premium rates lower than in other states.

In India’s Slums, ‘Painkillers Are Part Of The Daily Routine’

As the Indian government reluctantly loosens its prescription opioid laws after decades of lobbying by palliative care advocates desperate to ease their patients’ pain, the nation’s sprawling, cash-fed health care system is ripe for misuse.

Beset By Lawsuits And Criticism In U.S., Opioid Makers Eye New Market In India

What began in India as a populist movement to bring inexpensive morphine to the diseased and dying poor has paved the way for a booming pain management industry. Now, new customers are being funneled to U.S. drugmakers bedeviled by a government crackdown back home.

Governor’s ‘Mental Health Czar’ Seeks New Blueprint For Care In California

Thomas Insel, who ran the National Institute of Mental Health for 13 years before casting his lot with Silicon Valley, is taking a temporary break from his senior position at a health care startup to advise Gov. Gavin Newsom on how to remake mental health care in the Golden State.

Mysterious Vaping Lung Injuries May Have Flown Under Regulatory Radar

Doctors who saw patients with a mysterious lung illness in the past suspected vaping as the cause but didn’t know where to report such cases. “It wasn’t that I didn’t want to report it, it’s that there’s no pathway,” said one California pulmonologist.