Latest California Healthline Stories
Basic Health Plan Not Among Slew of Approved Bills
The demise of the Basic Health Program in California came quietly.
When SB 703 by Ed Hernandez (D-West Covina) came before the Assembly Committee on Appropriations and committee yesterday, chair Mike Gatto (D-Los Angeles) had seven words for it: “That bill goes to the holding committee.”
Those seven words effectively ended BHP for this legislative session, though it may come back again in 2013.
Amendments Could Move Basic Health Program to Floor Vote
Today a bill to create a state Basic Health Program comes before the Assembly Committee on Appropriations, with the intention of getting sprung out of committee and to the legislative floor for a vote.
SB 703 by Ed Hernandez (D-West Covina) is currently “on suspense” — a kind of legislative limbo for bills with significant potential fiscal impact on California. All bills with a financial impact of $150,000 a year or more have to be put on the suspense file. The appropriations committee can then evaluate all of those bigger-ticket items collectively, so that the committee can better regulate how much spending it approves.
Hernandez has been proposing amendments that would lessen the potential financial impact of SB 703, and today the committee will decide whether or not to remove the bill from suspense.
Tulare Hospital Takes Big Steps To Promote Breastfeeding
Tulare Regional Medical Center has quadrupled the number of new mothers exclusively breastfeeding in the hospital, moving from one of the lowest rates in Tulare County to the highest in just four years.
Task Force Tackles Access, Coverage, Workforce Issues
The state’s health care task force met yesterday with an ambitious end goal and a complex agenda that broached access and coverage issues, as well as health workforce concerns.
The end goal, according to Diana Dooley, HHS Secretary and a co-chair of the task force, is embodied in a single question: “What will it take for California to be the healthiest state in the nation?”
Getting to that simple question is a complex, multi-layered, 10-year effort. Yesterday’s meeting was the third of four opening workshops of the Let’s Get Healthy California Task Force, formed by executive order of Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown.
University of California Campuses Gear Up To Implement, Enforce Upcoming Smoking Ban
UC-Berkeley student Irene Cheng, Kevin Confetti of the University of California, Colleen Stevens of the California Department of Public Health, Kim Homer Vagadori of the California Youth Advocacy Network and a scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory spoke with California Healthline about the upcoming smoking ban at UC campuses.
What Paul Ryan’s Reforms Would Mean for California
Mitt Romney’s running mate has authored several budget proposals that would transform Medicare and Medicaid. How would Ryan’s changes affect the Golden State, and how do they compare to the Affordable Care Act’s reforms?
Will Basic Health Program Hurt, Help Exchange?
An analysis of a proposed Basic Health Program and its impact on the Health Benefit Exchange offers a mixed bag of pros and cons for exchange leaders and legislators.
The nascent Basic Health Program, if passed by the Legislature, would target a large percentage of possible exchange participants. So the question lawmakers have been wrestling with is: Would that be a good or a bad thing for the exchange, and for Californians?
That’s the question tackled by the exchange itself. On Monday, it released an independent analysis by the UC-Berkeley Labor Center and the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, which was commissioned by the exchange board.
Ombudsman, Immunization Bills Up for Floor Vote
Dozens of health-related bills passed through committee last week, setting up pending floor votes starting this week.
The last hurdle for many bills is the appropriations committee of each house. Those committees ran at high speed last week, churning out approvals for hundreds of bills.
The Legislature has until the end of August to vote on all bills.
Some of the health-related bills that cleared committee last week:
Designing a New Tier of Dental Professional in California
The California Legislature this month will consider a bill that could set the stage for a new tier of oral health care provider — people less educated than dentists but with enough training to perform some dental procedures. We asked stakeholders and experts how the state should proceed.
Including PACE in Dual Eligible Options
Legislators are about to weigh in on one detail of the state’s dual-eligible pilot program known as the Coordinated Care Initiative: An Assembly bill calling for the inclusion of a popular program for Californians at-risk of nursing home care is up for a vote on the Senate floor.
AB 2206 by Toni Atkins (D-San Diego) would require the Department of Health Care Services to include PACE — the Program of All-Inclusive Care For The Elderly — as one of the alternatives to Medi-Cal managed care in the eight counties where the CCI pilot is starting.
The bill cleared its last committee obstacle, the Senate Committee on Appropriations on Monday, on a 7-0 vote. It has now been introduced on the Senate floor and a floor vote on it is expected soon.