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.
Sen. Marty Block, D-San DiegoA coalition led by Democrats and advocates for the aged proposed a series of bills aimed at reforming the deadly conditions reported in some California’s elderly care facilities. Photo: Samantha Gallegos/Capitol Weekly.
A major public pension reform initiative got a mixed cost analysis last week from the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office. The measure would give state and local governments the option of cutting retirement benefits current workers earn in the future, while preserving benefits already earned through past service.
OPINION: Just as patients don’t want to see a $15 charge for an aspirin on their hospital bill, hospitals don’t want to charge patients those prices. Hospital pricing has evolved because of decades of government regulations, cost shifts to private payers and unfunded government mandates (including expensive seismic retrofitting), inadequate Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements, and the obligation for hospitals to treat all patients, regardless of ability to pay.
State Capitol, Sacramento. (Photo: David Monniaux)For the followers of California politics, non-election years usually are yawns. Not so 2013: One would be hard pressed to find a year with more hot-button events fraught with statewide political ramifications. Here’s our roundup of the year’s top tales, a subjective compilation to be sure but one which was fun to put together. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)
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)
From the PPIC survey on how Californians view their government: Most people without health insurance intend to get coverage via the new law, even though skepticism runs deep over the ACA itself. The state’s fiscal condition is a mixed bag — the recession is weakening, but the widening divergence between those with resources and those without is a major concern. Support for Gov. Brown is strong as next year’s elections loom, bust Congress and President Obama are getting poorer reviews.
More California voters are becoming critical of the job Barack Obama is doing as President. The latest Field Poll finds that while 51% of California voters approve of the President’s overall performance, a growing proportion (43%) disapprove. This represents an increase of 8 percentage points in the proportion disapproving since July. While the growth in the number of Californians disapproving spans most demographic subgroups, some of the greatest increases have occurred among voter segments who have been among the President’s strongest supporters.
California’s new online insurance marketplace signed up 31,000 customers in the first month it was open for business and another 18,000 in the first two weeks of November. That’s less than 1 percent of the number of people without insurance in the state, but California, through Nov. 2, still accounted for more than a third of those who signed up for insurance nationwide under the Affordable Care Act, President Obama’s signature program to overhaul the health insurance industry.