OPINION: That’s why our organizations, the California Medical Association and the Central Valley Health Network, strongly oppose Proposition 46 on the November 2014 ballot. We have joined a broad coalition that includes doctors, community health centers, hospitals, local governments, the ACLU, Planned Parenthood, business and labor groups and many others to fight this misleading ballot measure.
The CalPERS' governing board during a meeting several years ago at the pension fund's headquarters. (Photo: CalPERS board)Calpensions: A federal judge ruled that CalPERS pensions can be cut in bankruptcy like other debt. He rejected the argument that the giant system is an “arm of the state” with pensions protected by federal law and two state laws on contracts and liens.
OPINION: At a time when Californians need more access to hospital services, SB 1094 should be equipped with flashing lights and sirens. The bill politicizes transactions involving the sale or transfer of non-profit hospitals, and deserves to be vetoed by the Governor.
OPINION: The latest Medi-Cal renewal process jeopardizes health coverage for tens of thousands of California’s most vulnerable families. The renewal forms are long, confusing and complex. Some forms were mailed out in English, regardless if the Medi-Cal enrollee indicated that English was not their primary language.
A plan crafted by Silicon Valley venture capitalist Tim Draper to carve California into six states would do a lot more than change the lines on a map. It would have a profound effect on California’s health care system, which is now in a dramatic transition because of the Affordable Care Act.
There is strong early support for Proposition 45, the “Approval of Healthcare Insurance Rate Changes” initiative that will appear on the November 2014 statewide election ballot. Greater than two in three likely voters (69%) say they would vote YES after being read a summary of its official ballot description, while just 16% are initially opposed. Another 15% are undecided.
A sign advertising a Los Angeles medical clinic. (Photo: JDS via Shutterstock)A state legislative committee has ordered an audit of provider directories that are given to people in California’s low-income health program, after reports of major inaccuracies. The audit will examine the managed-care directories, whether they list enough doctors who are accepting new patients and whether state regulators have done their jobs overseeing that aspect of the Medi-Cal program.
The California agency that oversees the state’s low-income health plan vastly overstated the number of doctors who accepted patients through the state program last year, even as the number of people enrolled in the program was set to skyrocket under the federal Affordable Care Act, the California Health Report has found.
Consumers have been complaining this year that Covered California insurance plans have doctor’s networks that are too narrow. The doctors they want to see don’t accept the insurance, they say. While a relatively new problem for California’s upper- and middle-class residents, this situation has been a problem for the poor for decades.
Irene Gomez, manager of a domestic violence and mental health outreach program for indigenous farmworkers in Oxnard, helps a client. (Photo: Scott Erickson.)Although many counties have programs that provide at least some medical care to this population, access to mental health services is extremely limited in most parts of the state. This is despite the fact that indigenous farmworkers are believed to face higher amounts of anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder than the general population.