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Supporters said they will continue to work with Assembly members to build support for the bill, which would allow doctors to write lethal prescriptions for some terminally ill patients with less than six months to live.
The budget deal announced by Gov. Jerry Brown last month grants Medicaid coverage to young Californian immigrants who are in the state without legal permission. Now comes the push for coverage of their parents and other adults.
Doctors often opt to forego aggressive care for terminal illnesses but fail to talk to their patients about their preferences.
When officers in Los Angeles encounter people who may be mentally ill, they call in a specialized unit that offers help on the spot.
Highly effective drugs for Hepatitis C patients in California’s Medicaid program, prisons and hospitals could cost the state billions, an insurance-industry sponsored study found.
California went from being a state with relatively lax vaccination rules to one of the most strict in the country. But opposition to vaccines is far from new.
Disability rights advocates say the bill allowing doctors to prescribe lethal medications to terminally ill patients could lead some disabled people to prematurely end their lives.
Supervisors are slated to vote Tuesday on a contract that would provide nearly $15M in additional state funds to hire 70 more staffers.
Disability rights advocates are speaking up in opposition to a bill currently being considered by California legislators that would allow terminally ill patients to get prescriptions to end their lives. Their opposition stems from worries that if it becomes law, depression and incorrect prognoses may lead people with serious disabilities to end their lives prematurely.
Advocates say the law has permitted homes to give anti-psychotic drugs, use restraints and withdraw treatment without allowing patients to object. But the industry warns the ruling will make it more challenging to provide routine care to such patients.
Beginning in 2016, most Covered California customers will not have to pay more than $150 or $250 per prescription, per month. The price caps are a response to very expensive new drugs used to treat hepatitis and other serious illnesses.
The problems with managed care plans, documented in a recent state audit, stem from meteoric enrollment growth and lack of oversight, experts say.
Report finds state health officials had no idea whether managed care plans have sufficient doctors, while an overwhelmed ombudsman’s office failed to answer 12,500 calls a month on average.
A handful of programs around the country aim to ease physicians’ reentry into clinical practice, but they can take months and cost thousands of dollars.
California’s sprawling Inland Empire is making vigorous efforts to train and attract primary care doctors attuned to the needs of the fast-growing and under-served population.
In Reno and around the country, community paramedics are providing more primary and preventive care and taking nonemergency patients to facilities other than ERs.
The state is proposing to use federal Medicaid dollars to usher ill homeless people into housing, arguing the policy saves taxpayers money.
Though many newly insured Californians say they have trouble paying premiums, they find care easier to access than the uninsured and are more confident in their ability to pay for it, according to a survey.
In California nursing homes, just over 15 percent of dementia patients are on antipsychotic drugs. That’s far more than advocates say is necessary. But that number is down from almost 22 percent just three years ago.
California children are increasingly seeking care for asthma in emergency rooms – despite medical advances and millions of dollars spent to control symptoms statewide.
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