Posts Tagged: health care

News

New laws: California at forefront of health policy innovation

Gov. Gavin Newsom, who recently signed into law major health care-related approved by lawmakers. (Photo: Rich Pedroncelli, AP)

When Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom concluded the chaotic legislative year Wednesday — his deadline to sign or veto bills — what emerged wasn’t the sweeping platform he and state lawmakers had outlined at the beginning of the year. But the dozens of health care measures they approved included first-in-the-nation policies to require more comprehensive coverage of mental health and addiction, and thrusting the state into the generic drug-making business.

News

Health care: Nurse practitioners push for greater role

A medical practitioner checks the blood pressure on an older patient. (Photo: Alexander Raths, via Shutterstock)

As California contends with a shortage of primary care doctors, some legislators are pushing to have nurse practitioners fill in the gaps. Assembly Bill 890, which is now headed to the Senate, would remove the requirement that nurse practitioners practice under a physician’s supervision.

Opinion

Lost in translation: Information for Medi-Cal’s beneficiaries

A photo illustration of language diversity. (Image: Lonely Walker, via Shutterstock)

OPINION: For most patients, interpreting medical information can feel like interpreting a new language – the jargon and industry language requires reading comprehension comparable to the SATs. But imagine if that challenge also included interpreting mistranslated language. What’s a health consumer to do?

News

Capitol Weekly Interview: Jodi Hicks

Jodi Hicks at her office in Sacramento in November 2017. (Photo: AP/Rich Pedroncelli)

Jodi Hicks is co-chair of Mercury Public Affairs’ Sacramento office. She is the first woman and the first Asian-America to serve in that role and is regarded as one of the Capitol community’s foremost advocates of quality health care. Capitol Weekly’s Chuck McFadden caught up with her recently for a chat.

Opinion

Exempt health care professionals from AB 5

A perfusionist operating a heart-lung machine in a surgical setting. (Photo: Dmitry Kalinovsky, via Shutterstock)

OPINION: In an attempt to address some problematic side-effects of a recent California Supreme Court case focusing on the employment of independent contractors, lawmakers have crafted a proposal that would take away our ability to decide how and when we work.

Opinion

‘Stranger Things,’ the ACA and a federal appeals court

A photo illustration of the Affordable Care Act. (Image: Jon Schulte, via Shutterstock)

OPINION: Anyone binge watching “Stranger Things,” will be struck by the similarities with the real-world drama playing out before the federal appeals court in New Orleans. The question before the three-judge panel is whether the Affordable Care Act should be struck down in its entirety. In Stranger Things, the deadly threat comes from an upside-down parallel universe in which things aren’t what they seem, the rules of logic don’t apply, and nothing makes sense.

News

Gavin Newsom takes center stage

Gavin Newsom, flanked by wife Jennifer Siebel Newsom and their children, is sworn in as governor by state Supreme Court Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye, right. (Photo: AP/Rich Pedroncelli)

Gavin Newsom, the former San Francisco mayor who roiled Democrats across the country when he issued marriage certificates to same-sex couples, was sworn in Monday as California’s 40th governor. He succeeds the unprecedented, largely successful tenure of four-time governor and fellow Democrat Jerry Brown, who moseyed on back to his 2,500-acre ranch in Colusa.

Opinion

My hope for health care in 2019

Hundreds of people advocating for improved health care rally outside San Francisco City Hall, 2017. (Photo: Kim Wilson, via Shutterstock)

As a physician in California, I am so grateful to see preserving people’s access to health care at the top of our state’s New Year’s resolution list. Although a federal judge in Texas has ruled the Affordable Care Act is unconstitutional (in a state where five million people could be directly affected, no

Opinion

Health care and the pain of losing Medi-Cal coverage

A doctor examines a young patient at a hospital. (Photo: wavebreakmedia, via Shutterstock)

OPINION: A few months ago, I turned 19 years old. Approaching the last year of my teenage years should have been exciting, but instead it was bittersweet. On my birthday, I lost access to my Medi-Cal coverage and all of the preventative health care services that it provided. I spent the days leading up to my birthday rushing to complete all of the final health check-ups I could fit in, before I lost coverage – possibly forever.

Opinion

Trump admin has declared war on the environment

The deeply forested landscape in Humboldt County, where environmental protection is a critical issue. (Photo: Ethan Daniels)

OPINION: The resignation of Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt was met with a collective sigh of relief across the nation. Pruitt, one of President Donald Trump’s most loyal foot soldiers in the Trump Administration’s ongoing war on environmental quality, environmental justice, and environmental health, had overseen some of the most egregious rollbacks of environmental protections in history during his brief and troubled tenure in office.

Support for Capitol Weekly is Provided by: