Latest California Healthline Stories
Listen: Teaching Teens to Reverse Overdoses, Taxes on Uninsured Californians, and More
California Healthline journalists report on efforts to train teens to use the opioid overdose reversal drug naloxone, the state’s decision not to spend the tax penalty money from uninsured residents, Centene’s political contributions, and efforts to keep young kids on Medicaid for several years after birth.
Listen: Valley Fever, Health Worker Pay, and Ambulance Rides
California Healthline journalists report on the intersection between drought and valley fever, a union’s campaign to boost the minimum wage for some health care workers, and an ambulance company’s decision to stop providing some nonemergency services.
Listen: How Does Human Composting Work?
California Healthline’s Bernard J. Wolfson went on the air to explain a new California law that will allow people to have their bodies reduced to compost after death, an alternative to the traditional-but-toxic methods of cremation and burial.
Remote Rural Hospital Puts Its Fate In Hands of Denver Entrepreneur
Residents of Surprise Valley, in the state’s northeastern corner, voted to sell its hospital to a businessman with a controversial plan to bring in revenue. Its dismal financial plight exemplifies the woes of rural hospitals around the country.
Day Care Centers For The Most Fragile Kids Struggle To Stay Open
Eighteen Medi-Cal-funded day care centers across California provide care for over 500 severely ill and disabled children, allowing their parents to work outside the home and avoid poverty. But those centers are struggling to keep their doors open, because they say the payments they get from the state don’t allow them to offer competitive wages, and nurses are leaving for other jobs. Listen to Pauline Bartolone’s story on KQED radio’s “California Report.”
California Aims To Tackle Health Care Prices In Novel Rate-Setting Proposal
Proponents of the bill say high costs of care are gobbling paychecks and worsening income inequality. Doctors and hospitals say it will drive providers out of state.
A Little-Known Activist Thinks Big About Single-Payer
Democratic legislators seem to favor an incremental approach to providing universal health care in California. Tech worker Dale Fountain has a more ambitious goal, even if it’s a long shot for now.
Podcast: ‘What The Health?’ Tax Bill Or Health Bill?
Julie Rovner of Kaiser Health News, Sarah Kliff of Vox.com, Joanne Kenen of Politico and Alice Ollstein of Talking Points Memo discuss the inclusion of health policies into the current tax cut debate, including a possible repeal of the fines for people who fail to maintain health insurance.
Calif. Locks In Plans For Open Enrollment As Congressional Bipartisanship Fades
Almost as fast as a bipartisan deal on restoring key health care subsidies was announced, enthusiasm for it seemed to dim in the nation’s capital. Regardless, California has a plan in place to protect most exchange consumers and is preparing a marketing blitz to encourage sign-ups.
Questions Loom About Obamacare As Covered California’s Open Enrollment Nears
President Donald Trump took two swings at the Affordable Care Act last week. Californians are somewhat protected from immediate harm but doubts persist about the law’s future as sign-ups begin Nov. 1.