Public Health

Latest California Healthline Stories

‘American Diagnosis’: A Fuller Moon Rising — Revised ‘Violence Against Women Act’ Offers Hope

The Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) was reauthorized on March 10, 2022, reaffirming tribes’ authority to prosecute non-Native perpetrators of sexual violence and certain other crimes. This episode looks at the history of VAWA, and how protections for Native women have been tangled in the fine print of the law.

Want Vulnerable Californians to Have Healthier Pregnancies? Doulas Say the State Must Pay Up.

California was supposed to start paying doulas this year to help Medicaid enrollees have healthy pregnancies. But the benefit has been delayed because doulas feel lowballed by the state’s proposed reimbursement rate, which is below what most other states pay.

KHN’s ‘What the Health?’: Congress Shelves Covid Funding for Now

The Biden administration’s request for billions more in funding to fight covid-19 hit a snag on Capitol Hill this week, as Democrats objected to Republican demands that money allocated to states but not yet spent be reclaimed. Meanwhile, the big annual spending bill about to cross the finish line addresses other health policy changes, such as giving the FDA authority to regulate “synthetic” nicotine. Joanne Kenen of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Politico, Rachel Cohrs of Stat, and Jessie Hellmann of Modern Healthcare join KHN’s Julie Rovner to discuss these issues and more. Plus, for extra credit, the panelists recommend their favorite health policy stories of the week they think you should read, too.

One California University Has Unified Town and Gown to Fight Covid. Why Haven’t Others?

The University of California-Davis has spent close to $50 million preventing the spread of covid on campus — and among residents and workers in the adjacent city of Davis. By most accounts, this town-gown experiment has paid off nicely.