The independent source for health policy research, polling, and news.
81-100 of 165 results
Across the country, politics have muddied the question of when and how to reopen schools. Even though teachers continue to fear for their safety, lawmakers and parents are demanding that schools take advantage of declining infection rates to open safely and quickly.
Democratic congressional candidates in California and beyond are linking their Republican opponents to the COVID-19 crisis and the survival of the Affordable Care Act, betting that health care could be a decisive issue for voters, especially in toss-up districts.
Californians are again being asked to weigh in on a dialysis ballot measure. This one purports to target patient safety, and dialysis industry giants are once again spending big to defeat it.
Gov. Gavin Newsom said he has already begun discussing California health care priorities with Xavier Becerra, tapped this week by President-elect Joe Biden to serve as his Health and Human Services secretary.
KHN and California Healthline staff made the rounds on national and local media this week to discuss their stories. Here’s a collection of their appearances.
Richard Costigan, a well-respected fixture in state Capitol circles, has detailed his family’s ongoing experiences with COVID-19 on social media after catching the virus — he surmises — at a backyard gathering. The former Schwarzenegger aide wants people to know this virus doesn’t care who you are.
Will Lightbourne, the new director of the California Department of Health Care Services, says government must address the racial disparities laid bare by COVID-19 and improve care for the state’s most vulnerable residents.
Gov. Gavin Newsom has asked lawmakers to pare down their legislative wish lists and focus on the state’s coronavirus response. But state Sen. Jim Beall plans to forge ahead with his mental health care proposals, including a measure to create a state mental health parity requirement.
Gov. Gavin Newsom approved many consequential health care bills by his bill-signing deadline Wednesday, including a ban on the sale of menthol and other flavored tobacco products, the creation of a state generic drug label and better coverage for mental health disorders.
Unlike earlier in the year, most hospitals are not proactively canceling elective surgeries, even in some places seeing spikes in coronavirus patients.
As California workers and schoolchildren struggled to work from home, state lawmakers met in person. And as their legislative session came to a close in late August, they broke COVID rules: They huddled, let their masks slip below their noses, removed their masks to drink coffee — and required a new mom to vote in person while toting her hungry newborn.
State legislators and Gov. Gavin Newsom have hammered out an agreement on a budget that rejects Newsom’s proposed cuts to health care services for older and low-income people.
California Attorney General Xavier Becerra is President-elect Joe Biden’s pick for U.S. Health and Human Services secretary. As attorney general and during his 24 years in Congress, he has staked progressive positions on health care issues, fighting the Trump administration on contraception, suing a major California health system for monopolistic behavior and calling himself a supporter of single-payer health care.
In an interview with California Healthline, the state’s Senate leader, Toni Atkins, makes clear that with social-distancing measures in force it will be difficult to debate and pass complicated budget measures ― but public health, education and public safety will be priorities.
California could become the first state to develop its own line of generic drugs under a bill approved Monday by the legislature. The measure heads to Gov. Gavin Newsom for consideration.
Safety-net health care programs that keep low-income Californians out of nursing homes are on the chopping block as Gov. Gavin Newsom and state lawmakers attempt to plug a massive budget deficit caused by the COVID-19 emergency.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom has outsourced his way through the covid-19 pandemic, tasking his private-sector allies in Silicon Valley and the health care industry with fundamental public health duties such as testing, tracing and vaccination. Among the losers: the state’s weakened public health system.
Researchers say “very low”-quality research from the 2003 SARS outbreak drove guidelines on who got the best PPE, leaving those most at risk exposed.
Gov. Gavin Newsom’s surprising choice of Blue Shield to lead the state’s covid vaccination effort raised questions about the role politics played in the decision — and whether the insurer is up to the task.
Biden’s pick to lead the Department of Health and Human Services has been on record throughout his career for this type of health care system. But the president doesn’t support it, which is the position that counts.
© 2026 KFF