A digital illustration of a satellite dish transmission. (Photo: Hywards, Shutterstock)The most critical assets of California’s future economy will rely on wireless Internet technology—including renewable energy, smart agriculture, education, healthcare and advanced manufacturing. There also are important implications for public safety, where a dropped call to 911 could be the difference between life and death.
A physician and a nurse tend to a patient. (Photo: Tyloer Olson, Shutterstock)Here’s the diagnosis: It was the doctors versus the nurses, and the doctors won – for now. An effort to allow nurse practitioners limited authority to treat patients without the supervision of a doctor was blocked in the Assembly amid opposition from physicians, who said the plan would hinder high-quality medical care.
Prime Healthcare has decided not to buy six California health care facilities, a highly controversial transaction that was approved under unprecedented conditions by Attorney General Kamala Harris last month. Officials for the financially strained Daughters of Charity Health System chain say failure to complete the sale will force them to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
State Attorney General Kamala Harris has approved the sale of six nonprofit Catholic health facilities to a controversial buyer under “strong conditions to ensure continued community access to essential healthcare services.”
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.
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.
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
A day in the life of a typical paramedic is nothing like that of a primary care provider. Though both are central to the healthcare system, a paramedic performs in a high-stress environment that focuses exclusively on providing emergency medical services, while a primary care physician is more focused on a patient’s long term needs.
Like many of her colleagues, state Sen. Lois Wolk, a Democrat, found herself this year in a totally new election environment.
During her initial four-year term, she represented the 5th Senate District, a Delta-flanking district where she built a reputation as an advocate for water and environmental protections. Now, she is the senator from the