Latest California Healthline Stories
Making the Most of State Mental Health Efforts
It would be tough to call it integrated medicine. According to public health experts, the state of mental health care in California is more like a crazy quilt of mixed treatments, limited funding and uncertain outcomes.
That’s precisely what the Mental Health Services Oversight and Accountability Commission hopes to change. The board was created by the Mental Health Services Act, passed by California voters in 2004. It convened Wednesday in Sacramento to iron out the details of how it hopes to evaluate the sprawling mental health system in California.
“This is a critical meeting for this commission,” said Larry Poaster, vice chair of commission.
Single Payer Bill Back in the Mix
The normally sedate audience at an Assembly health committee hearing broke into spontaneous applause last week as Senate member Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) stepped to the microphone. Leno was introducing SB 810, which would establish a single-payer health care system in California.
The burst of applause came from a busload of supporters in the hearing room. It has been a long, hard fight for single-payer advocates. Twice the idea has been approved by the state legislature, and twice it has been vetoed by the governor.
The single-payer system would bypass health insurance companies in California, handing the authority and responsibility of health care administration to the state. With passage of a national health care reform law, some expected the single-payer idea to wither on the vine. But at last week’s Assembly Health Committee hearing, it was alive and well.
Big Week Ahead — and the Budget Looms
You’re going to see a lot of bills passed this week, at least through the committee phase of legislation. This is the final week, ending July 2, for laws to be approved out of committee, so legislators are likely looking at long, agenda-packed hearings.
For instance, the Senate Committee for Appropriations meets today (Monday), with a grand total of 96 items on its agenda. Good luck with that.
Also, July 1 is the beginning of the fiscal year, and that leads into the next deadline: passing a state budget.
Booming Need for Senior Centers
Like all social services in California, senior centers are short of funding. They are struggling to maintain their current level of programs and services and on top of that they need to prepare for the huge wave of aging Baby Boomers about to hit senior centers across the state.
According to a report by the Congress of California Seniors released Tuesday to coincide with a legislative hearing on the subject, the state’s senior centers are in disrepair and ill-prepared to deal with the burgeoning number of Californians expected to join the senior ranks in the next decade.
“The demographic shift is so undeniable,” Assembly member Mariko Yamada (D-Davis) said. Yamada, chair of the Aging and Long-Term Care Committee oversight hearing Tuesday as well as a Boomer herself, said she’s been seeing the approach of what she calls the “silver tsunami” for years. She vows she and other seniors-to-be will work to get senior centers the infrastructure funding they need to survive and thrive.
ARRA Projects Move Ahead for Health IT, Broadband
Although health care reform has moved into the national spotlight, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 continues to develop health care-related projects and grant programs. This update summarizes significant developments over the past few months.
Assembly OKs High Risk-Pool to Protect ‘Uninsurable’
The state Assembly passed AB 1887 (Mike Villines, R-Clovis) that establishes a temporary high-risk health insurance pool program in California.
It’s designed to cover patients with a pre-existing condition who have been rejected for coverage by a private health plan. It would insure high-risk patients here for the next four years, until the federal government sets up a permanent health care exchange in 2014.
The legislation complies with new federal health care reform law, and allows the state to tap into $761 million a year in federal funds. High-risk coverage is expected to reach about 30,000 people in California.
Telemedicine Struggles in Central Valley Amid Hope, Hardship
Despite investments in infrastructure, widespread use of telemedicine has yet to take hold in San Joaquin Valley, an area of California that could benefit greatly from the technology. The Valley’s experience could hold lessons for the rest of the state.
Santa Clara’s Happy Meal Toy Ban Carefully Watched
A new ordinance in Silicon Valley banning the inclusion of toys with unhealthy kids’ meals is being closely watched around the country. While supporters acknowledge that the ban isn’t the silver bullet to end childhood obesity, they say it is a new weapon in the fight.
Moving Homeless Patient Discharge From the Streets
Los Angeles’ law prohibiting hospitals from discharging homeless patients back to the street was a catalyst for creating recuperative and transitional care programs that help the city and county deal with the nation’s largest homeless population.
Task Force Issues Plan for Saving $305 Billion in California
The plan by the California Task Force on Affordable Care is not likely to help the state close an estimated $20 billion budget gap, but it could be an important step in helping the state implement national health reform.