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.
The coast at La Jolla. Photo: Dancestrokes)Under an unusual agreement reached between Senate leaders and a number of environmental groups just before the end of the legislative session, the period of time to consider the submitted list of candidates has been extended indefinitely. Such an extension is extremely rare, if not unprecedented.
LInda Vista Community Hospital in Los Angeles, formerly Santa Fe Coast Lines Hospital. (Photo: Downtowngal, Wikimedia)State Attorney General Kamala Harris wants unprecedented authority over contracts dealing with nonprofit hospitals, after a deal in Southern California caused abortion-rights activists to cry foul. On the governor’s desk is a bill that would give the attorney general’s office more time, from 60 to 90 days, to review such deals.
Led by medical insurers, opponents of two November ballot initiatives aimed at regulating insurance rates, raising the limits on pain-and-suffering awards and requiring doctors to be drug tested have raised nearly $92 million from their largest donors, according to figures compiled by the state’s political watchdog.
Field Poll: Voter support has diminished for Propositions 45 and 46, two health–related ballot initiatives on the upcoming California general election. Currently, 41% of likely voters are inclined to vote Yes on Prop. 45, the Health Insurance Rate Changes initiative, 26% are on the No side, while a growing proportion (33%) are undecided.
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.
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.