California Healthline

Latest California Healthline Stories

Beyond Insulin: Medi-Cal Expands Patient Access to Diabetes Supplies

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.

The Unusual Way a Catholic Health System Is Wielding an Abortion Protest Law

Dignity Health is suing several patients and their advocates for “commercial blockade” for refusing discharge during the covid-19 pandemic. The lawsuits could set precedents for use of the California commercial blockade statute, conceived to constrain abortion protesters, and how hospitals handle discharges.

California Expands Paid Sick Days and Boosts Health Worker Wages

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed legislation expanding paid sick leave to five days, extending bereavement leave to miscarriages and failed adoptions, and approving an eventual $25-an-hour health care minimum wage. Still, in a possible sign of national ambitions, the Democrat vetoed free condoms in schools and refused to decriminalize psychedelic mushrooms.

Pregnant and Addicted: Homeless Women See Hope in Street Medicine

As homelessness explodes across California, so does the number of expectant mothers on the streets. Street medicine doctors are getting paid more by Medicaid and offering some of those mothers-to-be a chance to overcome addiction and reverse chronic diseases so they can have healthy babies — and perhaps keep them.

California prohíbe el controversial diagnóstico de “delirio excitado”

El gobernador demócrata Gavin Newsom firmó un proyecto de ley el 8 de octubre para prohibir que los forenses, doctores, y examinadores médicos incluyeran el síndrome de “delirio excitado” en certificados de defunción o informes de autopsias.

California Bans Controversial ‘Excited Delirium’ Diagnosis

California is the first state to ban the controversial diagnosis known as “excited delirium,” which has been used increasingly to justify excessive force by law enforcement. A human rights advocate described the law, signed this week by Gov. Gavin Newsom, as a “watershed moment” in criminal justice.