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The generation that faced discrimination, ostracism, and the AIDS epidemic now faces old age. Many struggle with isolation along with a host of pressing health problems.
Street medicine providers and homeless outreach workers who travel into Las Vegas’ drainage tunnels have noticed an uptick in the number of people living underground, and it can be difficult to persuade them to come aboveground for medicine and treatment.
Homelessness experts and community leaders say vulnerability questionnaires have worsened racial disparities among the unhoused by systematically placing white people in front of the line ahead of Black people. Now places like Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and Austin, Texas, are developing alternative surveys to reduce bias.
Exclusive reporting reveals how the United States lost track of a virus that could cause the next pandemic. Problems like the sluggish pace of federal action, deference to industry, and neglect for the safety of low-wage workers put the country at risk of another health emergency.
A new tax on guns and ammunition in Colorado is set to take effect in the spring. Voters approved the tax, with most of the proceeds going to support services for crime victims and other social programs.
Donald Trump’s second term is reigniting mistrust in health services among California immigrants, making it harder for community health workers to get people enrolled in Medi-Cal. Yet the president-elect is also seen as someone who could improve their lives with a better economy, even if that means forgoing health care.
Hypothermia deaths have risen in California and across the nation. Experts point to the growing number of older, unsheltered homeless people as a key factor in the trend.
Researchers found toxic “forever chemicals” in drinking water wells dotting California’s rural farming regions, far from known contamination sources. The discovery complicates the state’s drinking water problem, which disproportionately affects farmworkers and communities of color.
Former California social services head Will Lightbourne has come out of retirement to lead the state’s mental health accountability commission following its executive director’s resignation in the wake of conflict of interest allegations.
As Donald Trump prepares to reenter the White House with a Republican-controlled Congress, health officials and community advocates in California worry that large-scale Medicaid cuts could be enacted as soon as next year. More than 60% of California’s $161 billion Medi-Cal budget comes from Washington.
A Biden administration rule that imposed minimum rules on nursing levels may not survive, even though many homes lack enough workers to maintain residents’ care.
California’s goal was to help 2,000 seriously mentally ill people by the end of this year, but data shows fewer than 600 petitions have been filed. As the CARE program expands to every county, officials say it sometimes takes months to locate eligible adults and get them in treatment plans.
Patient and consumer advocates fear a new Trump administration will scale back federal efforts to expand financial protections for patients and shield them from debt.
A private immigration detention center contractor has sued to block a California law allowing local public health officials to inspect facilities in response to allegations of medical neglect or unsanitary conditions.
The state Office of Health Care Affordability has set a goal for insurers to direct 15% of their spending to primary care by 2034, part of a push to expand preventive care services. Health plans say it’s unclear how the policy will mesh with the state’s overarching goal to slow spending growth.
Listen to KFF Health News' Jackie Fortiér recount how a backyard snakebite led to a harrowing hospitalization — and big bills — for a San Diego family.
California health officials began providing protective clothing to farmworkers months before the state’s first bird flu transmission to humans was announced in October. It’s a reminder of the state’s struggle to remain prepared for health threats amid multibillion-dollar deficits.
With the arrival in California of dengue, a dangerous mosquito-borne disease present mainly in more tropical climates, public health authorities are deploying a range of strategies to beat back the Aedes mosquitoes that spread the virus.
Diverse networks of friends, former co-workers, neighbors, and extended family are often essential sources of support for older adults living alone. Often it is the elderly caring for the elderly.
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