Latest California Healthline Stories
Food Distribution Inequity a Target of Talks
Paula Daniels is the senior advisor on food policy in Los Angeles County, but a lot of people don’t really understand what she’s working on.
“People don’t always get it,” Daniels said. “There’s an enormous amount of policy that’s related to the food system. When you think about the whole system, the kind of food, how it’s grown, how you get it, where it’s distributed, there’s regulatory policy, there’s economic policy. And from an environmental justice point of view, it cuts across every line.”
Daniels spoke yesterday in Los Angeles at an event called “An Appetite for Equity: Ensuring Access to Healthy Foods.” It’s the first of three meetings across the state sponsored by the California Pan-Ethnic Health Network. The next event is Apr. 11 in Fresno; the final one is Apr. 19 in Oakland.
Report Shows Health Disparities in Valley ZIP Codes
An in-depth study of Central Valley neighborhoods indicates that social determinants such as poverty, exposure to environmental hazards and lack of fresh food predict the health and life expectancy of residents.
Kim Dempsey of NCB Capital Impact Discusses Ways To Boost Capacity of Community Clinics
Kim Dempsey, director of innovation and strategy at NCB Capital Impact, spoke with California Healthline about recommendations for improving the operations of community health centers.
Survey: Californians Concur on Need for Prevention
At a joint Assembly and Senate health hearing yesterday, results of a Field Poll unveiled a few days shy of the official release indicate that an overwhelming majority of Californians (about 80% of those surveyed) believe government and schools need to pitch in to fight childhood obesity and that preventive health programs pay for themselves in reduced health care costs to the state.
That tied in nicely with the intent of the hearing, which was convened by the two legislative health committees to look at ways to focus health policy toward prevention of chronic conditions such as obesity, heart disease and diabetes.
“When we look at the fact that individual [health] behavior and people’s environment contribute to about 70% of our health care costs, it should really be addressed,” according to Larry Cohen, founder and executive director of the Prevention Institute and a panelist at the hearing. “But our health care investment is only about 4% in prevention.”
Dental Problems Showing Up as Emergencies
A study being released today by the Pew Foundation found that 83,000 emergency department visits in California in 2007 were due to preventable dental problems. That rate of dental emergencies is likely growing quickly, according to Shelly Gehshan, director of the national Pew Children’s Dental Campaign.
“It is the wrong service, in the wrong setting, at the wrong time,” Gehshan said.
“These are people who come in with dental pain, and they’re desperate. The emergency room can’t cure that, so they don’t really get the problem taken care of.”
Can Regional Planning be a Health Issue?
Earlier this week, Assembly member Bill Monning (D-Carmel) made a memorable appearance at a Capitol Building briefing on the health care needs and opportunities for minorities in California.
Monning held up a bright yellow plastic barrel-shaped mug by its thick handle — it was almost a foot tall and looked like it weighed a couple of pounds.
“On the way up here, I went into an AM/PM [market], and saw this thing,” Monning said, hefting the giant mug with the Too Much Good Stuff logo on it. “If you bought one of these, you’d get a free soda. They’d fill this thing up for you.”
Health Care May Play Part in California Political Makeover
With retirements on both sides of the aisle, new congressional districts and new voting rules, California’s political makeup is headed for change in both Washington, D.C., and Sacramento. A couple of health care issues — a controversial Medicare plan in Congress and a state ballot proposal to regulate health insurance premiums — could play a part in how those changes happen.
Few People Aware of Medical Review Program
It has been 11 years since California launched its Independent Medical Review program, an appeals process that allows Californians to challenge denial or delay of coverage by private health care insurers.
In the Capitol Building in Sacramento yesterday, a policy briefing laid out the findings of a new report on IMR that includes praise for its effectiveness and some recommendations on how to make the program stronger.
The briefing was sponsored by the California HealthCare Foundation, which commissioned the report and publishes California Healthline.
Personal Stories Highlight Oral Chemotherapy Bill
New legislation proposed by Assembly member Henry Perea (D-Fresno) would require health plans to provide chemotherapy in pill form, in some cases.
“This bill will provide greater access for oral chemotherapy treatment,” Perea said on the Assembly floor late last week. “This is the right thing to do, to allow people access to lifesaving drugs.”
Perea introduced the measure with his personal account of caring for his mother, who he said was diagnosed with stage 2 lung cancer just over a year ago. During the long, eight-hour chemo infusion in the hospital, he learned quite a lot about cancer and chemo from patients and professionals.
Ateev Mehrotra of RAND Corporation Talks About the Growth Potential of Retail Clinics
Ateev Mehrotra, a policy analyst at the RAND Corporation, spoke with California Healthline about how the demand for retail clinics might increase in response to a growing shortage of primary care providers and a nationwide push to lower health care costs.