California

Latest KFF Health News Stories

Q&A: How Will California’s New 988 Mental Health Line Actually Work?

KFF Health News Original

California Assembly member Rebecca Bauer-Kahan, who authored legislation to create and fund the state’s new 988 phone line for mental health emergencies, spoke with KHN about the effort and what more will be needed to create a full-fledged response network for people experiencing mental health crises.

Community Clinics Shouldered Much of the Vaccine Rollout. Many Haven’t Been Paid.

KFF Health News Original

Federally qualified health centers from California to Michigan are mired in a bureaucratic mess over how they should be paid under Medicaid for each dose of covid vaccine given. In California alone, clinics await reimbursement for at least 1 million shots, causing a “massive cash flow problem.”

New California Law Bans Harassment at Vaccination Sites, but Free Speech Concerns Persist

KFF Health News Original

Effective immediately, it will be a misdemeanor in California to harass people on their way to get a covid, or any other, vaccine. But First Amendment experts say the new law violates free speech protections and could face a constitutional battle.

Racism a Strong Factor in Black Women’s High Rate of Premature Births, Study Finds

KFF Health News Original

Dr. Paula Braveman, director of UCSF’s Center on Social Disparities in Health, shares her insights on a provocative new study that identifies racism as a decisive factor in the gap in preterm birth rates between Black and white women.

Listen: California Banks on a Bold Treatment: Pay Drug Users to Stop Using

KFF Health News Original

As the pandemic has raged so has the country’s drug epidemic. California is looking to a controversial solution for certain drug users, but despite its effectiveness, critics have scoffed at the idea calling it unethical or a bribe.

Santa Cruz Health Officials Honored for Persevering in Covid Battle Against Tide of ‘Denialism’

KFF Health News Original

Mimi Hall and Dr. Gail Newel, health director and health officer for Santa Cruz County, California, will receive PEN America’s 2021 PEN/Benenson Courage Award for soldiering forward in their work amid death threats and personal attacks.

Wildfire Smoke Is Here to Stay. Here’s How to Clean the Air Inside Your Home.

KFF Health News Original

There are many ways to cleanse indoor air of dangerous smoke particles, which are particularly harmful to people with chronic respiratory and cardiac conditions. Some are expensive, but cheap alternatives exist.

California Moves on Climate Change, but Rejects Aggressive Cuts to Greenhouse Emissions

KFF Health News Original

Drought, wildfires, extreme heat: California lawmakers cast climate change as the culprit in an emerging series of public health threats, setting aside billions to help communities respond. But they stopped short of more aggressively reducing the state’s share of the greenhouse emissions warming the planet.

Home Births Gain Popularity in ‘Baby Bust’ Decade

KFF Health News Original

Over the past decade, California has seen a sustained rise in the proportion of people who opt to give birth at home or in midwife-run birthing centers rather than in a hospital. Covid has further fueled that trend.

California’s Reboot of Troubled Medi-Cal Puts Pressure on Health Plans

KFF Health News Original

The nine commercial insurers in Medi-Cal must reapply by submitting bids for new contracts. The state hopes the process will improve care for low-income residents and tighten accountability, something critics say has been missing.

Leader of California’s Muscular Obamacare Exchange to Step Down

KFF Health News Original

Peter Lee helped create Covered California, which has been lauded as a national example among the Affordable Care Act’s insurance marketplaces, and he fiercely opposed Republican efforts to repeal the federal health reform law.

No Papers, No Care: Disabled Migrants Seek Help Through Lawsuit, Activism

KFF Health News Original

A class action lawsuit seeks better care for immigrants with physical disabilities or mental illness who were detained after trying to enter the country. Other disabled immigrants without legal status are also finding it difficult to get care.

It’s Not Just Covid: Recall Candidates Represent Markedly Different Choices on Health Care

KFF Health News Original

Those seeking to replace California Gov. Gavin Newsom in Tuesday’s recall election disagree with him on more than mask and vaccine mandates. The conservative candidates tend to favor free-market solutions over Newsom’s expansion of publicly funded health coverage.