OPINION The importance of health care access to underserved populations is clear. Today, those local health needs are identified and prioritized in collaboration with local governments, nonprofit hospitals and community members. These “community benefit plans” provide the framework for local hospitals to direct available resources to target local health care needs in the community.
OPINION: Sadly as we witness the Affordable Care Act unfold, we’re seeing the exact opposite. We’re finding “mom and pop” small businesses – indeed, our leading job creators – not just marginalized, but much of the time left out of the discussion altogether.
California is in the forefront of the nation’s new health care insurance reforms and is following its own drummer, such as when it decided not to go along with the president’s call to give certain policyholders a year-long delay from being kicked off dubious health insurance plans. But the political forces surrounding the Affordable Care Act in California are profound and are all but certain to play a role in campaigns, including the potential reelection of California’s powerful insurance commissioner and whether Californians will approve a high-stakes initiative to regulate health insurers’ rates. (Above, left to right: Covered California’s Peter Lee, Diana Dooley and Susan Kennedy.) Photo: Rich Pedroncelli/AP)
Jerry Schumacher’s Fullerton-based engineering firm seems like the perfect example of what President Obama would like to see from American business when it comes to health care. The company offers coverage to all of its full-time employees, and pays 100 percent of the monthly premium.
As it turns out, the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), known popularly as “Obamacare,” could be a boon to the California budget. Given how the ACA is structured, the state could end up spending less on an unlikely source – prison inmates. The ACA is designed to expand healthcare coverage to low-income
The Affordable Care Act not only drastically changes how health care is delivered but sharply alters the underpinnings of California’s economy. To get a deeper sense of health care reform’s impact on the Golden State, Capitol Weekly talked to Micah Weinberg, PhD, a senior policy advisor at the Bay Area Council and CEO of Healthy Systems Project, a health care consulting firm based in Sacramento.
As the state shifts more and more responsibility to local governments, disputes over the size of the tab and who picks it up are growing.
In theory, the transfer of state authority to the locals, such as in the $6.3 billion realignment program in which some state prisoners are sent to county lockups and myriad
With the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, California’s healthcare system is undergoing some of the biggest changes since Medicare was introduced in 1964. While this is an exciting development that promises to improve the overall quality of health for all Californians, it is sure to bring some challenges for people as they
“Respect for other people’s rights is peace.” Benito Juarez’s words have rang in my ears ever since I organized farmworkers in the Central Valley, and most recently, as I reflected on the work that remains to be done to protect the health and well-being of all Californians, especially the most vulnerable.
Peace cannot exist
In the debate surrounding our state’s primary care shortage, proposed solutions abound, yet the root problem remains clear: Millions of presently uninsured Californians will be covered under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) starting in 2014. Yet in order for the coverage to succeed, patients must have convenient and timely access to health care services and