California

Latest California Healthline Stories

Listen: California Banks on a Bold Treatment: Pay Drug Users to Stop Using

As the pandemic has raged so has the country’s drug epidemic. California is looking to a controversial solution for certain drug users, but despite its effectiveness, critics have scoffed at the idea calling it unethical or a bribe.

Racism a Strong Factor in Black Women’s High Rate of Premature Births, Study Finds

Dr. Paula Braveman, director of UCSF’s Center on Social Disparities in Health, shares her insights on a provocative new study that identifies racism as a decisive factor in the gap in preterm birth rates between Black and white women.

California Moves on Climate Change, but Rejects Aggressive Cuts to Greenhouse Emissions

Drought, wildfires, extreme heat: California lawmakers cast climate change as the culprit in an emerging series of public health threats, setting aside billions to help communities respond. But they stopped short of more aggressively reducing the state’s share of the greenhouse emissions warming the planet.

California’s Reboot of Troubled Medi-Cal Puts Pressure on Health Plans

The nine commercial insurers in Medi-Cal must reapply by submitting bids for new contracts. The state hopes the process will improve care for low-income residents and tighten accountability, something critics say has been missing.

Leader of California’s Muscular Obamacare Exchange to Step Down

Peter Lee helped create Covered California, which has been lauded as a national example among the Affordable Care Act’s insurance marketplaces, and he fiercely opposed Republican efforts to repeal the federal health reform law.