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Ńī¹óåś“«Ć½Ņīl Health News and California Healthline journalists made the rounds on local and state media recently to discuss topical stories. Hereās a collection of their appearances.
John Baackes, who steered Medi-Calās largest health plan following the Affordable Care Act expansion, and later prepared it for a state overhaul of Medi-Cal, will retire after this year. Baackes believes low payments to doctors and other providers, along with an acute labor shortage, hamper Medi-Calās success.
Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra has a plan to protect farmworkers from extreme heat and wildfire smoke, but farmworkers who pick California grapes say they need more, as climate change brings more extreme weather.
Ńī¹óåś“«Ć½Ņīl Health News and California Healthline staff made the rounds on state and local media in recent weeks to discuss topical stories. Hereās a collection of their appearances.
State leaders are cutting public health spending and laying off workers hired during a pandemic-era grant boom. Public health officials say the bust will erode important advancements in the public health safety net, particularly in rural areas.
Asian American and Pacific Islander women once had a relatively low rate of breast cancer diagnoses. Now, researchers are scrambling to understand why itās rising at a faster pace than those of many other racial and ethnic groups.
Pediatricians want to vaccinate kids, but some say theyāre keeping their stockpile of covid vaccines low to avoid being stuck with costly, unwanted shots. They canāt afford to stock up on costly shots that parents donāt want.
UC-San Francisco is pausing its long-running masterās program in nurse-midwifery and plans to shift to a lengthier, costlier doctoral program. Midwives criticized the move and questioned the universityās motivations at a time of serious shortages of maternal care workers.
New HIV diagnoses have decreased among Latinos in San Francisco, potentially marking the first time in five years that the group hasnāt accounted for the largest number of new cases. Public health experts express cautious optimism, but outreach workers warn that many Latinos still struggle to find testing and treatment.
Medical aid in death is legal in 10 states and the District of Columbia. But only Oregon and Vermont explicitly allow out-of-state people who are terminally ill to die with assistance there. So far, at least 49 people have made the trek while state legislation stalls elsewhere.
Former President Donald Trumpās claim that Vice President Kamala Harris voted to ācut Medicareā is false, experts say.
The end of pandemic-era Medicaid coverage protections coincided with changes in more than a dozen states to expand coverage for lower-income people, including children, pregnant women, and the incarcerated.
Proposed legislation would require the state attorney generalās consent for a wide range of private equity acquisitions in health care. The hospital lobby negotiated an exemption for for-profit hospitals.
California is among a growing number of states that offer dental benefits to low-income residents, but some lawmakers want the state to go further by covering more cleanings and costlier implants. Dentists and health experts worry the approach doesnāt address the root of the problem: Many providers donāt accept Medicaid.
Congress and state legislatures are considering age bans and other limits for Instagram and TikTok out of concern that they harm kidsā mental health. But some researchers and pediatricians question whether thereās enough data to support that conclusion.
Colorism ā a form of prejudice and discrimination in which lighter skin is favored over darker skin ā has been associated with mental health conditions such as depression, low self-esteem, and anxiety. But skin tone often goes unaddressed with therapists and clinical specialists.
Kamala Harris fought health care consolidation during her tenure as Californiaās attorney general, and she could escalate the fight nationally if she wins in November. Still, the pace of mergers has accelerated.
Immigration is regulated by the federal government, but California lawmakers may give local public health inspectors the authority to inspect privately operated immigration detention facilities, citing complaints and lawsuits from detainees alleging inadequate medical care and unsanitary conditions.
Montanaās proposal to increase oversight is part of a national trend by states to ensure nonprofit hospitals act as charitable organizations as they claim tax-exempt status. But the state has yet to set standards for how much the hospitals must do.
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