A California voter casts a ballot. (Photo: Vepar5)One thing about California’s lineup of looming ballot propositions: You can’t say they aren’t interesting. From school bonds to the environment to condoms to drugs to plastic bags, and more, voters already are set to vote on seven propositions on the November ballot. And many more are in the wings.
Demonstrators seeking more funding for health care coverage gathered recently at the state Capitol. Inside, the Senate voted to expand coverage to undocumented choldren. (Photo: Alvin Chen, Capitol Weekly)Hoping to fill a “billion-dollar hole,” lawmakers were poised to gather in a special session to figure out new sources of funding for the state’s complex health care programs – including Medi-Cal.
In 2015, California’s push to expand health care coverage continues at a rapid pace. Consider this statistic: 12 million of our residents are enrolled in Medi-Cal – nearly one in three Californians. This greater demand is creating new challenges for California’s hospitals, both inside and outside of their walls.
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.”
As a deadline loomed, Gov. Brown struck down legislation to grant state Attorney General Kamala Harris more authority over nonprofit hospital mergers. The attorney general — a position he once held — already has sufficient authority, he said Monday in his veto message.
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.
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.
OPINION: Once again the California Hospital Association is mounting a crusade that the survival of the multibillion-dollar California hospital industry is in grave jeopardy. The threat? Earthquakes? Climate change? Godzilla? Not exactly. The big threat is AB 503, a bill that would let the public know whether non-profit hospital corporations justify their enormously profitable tax-exempt status by providing sufficient charity care and community benefits.
OPINION: The new version would impose a costly scheme to redefine community benefit standards at California’s not-for-profit hospitals, limiting consumer access to special health care services through neighborhood programs.