Health Care

CA vaccine bill placed in intensive care

Faced with an unexpected new source of opposition, California lawmakers trying to tighten up vaccine exemptions have been thrown back on the defensive. “In requiring vaccinations as a prerequisite for enrolling children in school, detractors said, the bill would legalize institutional

Doctors join push for CA assisted suicide

James Poulos April 2, 2015

In a medical community sharply divided on the issue of assisted suicide, momentum has shifted to the side that embraces the idea — with California at the forefront of the change. Two Golden State doctors with life-threatening illnesses have recently become plaintiffs in

Covered CA complicates tax preparation

James Poulos March 10, 2015

Many Californians will be headed into tax season with their paperwork in disarray thanks to their state health care exchange, Covered California. The program is the state’s implementation of the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare. In a repeat of follies

Lawmakers seek soda warning labels

John March 9, 2015

A group of state lawmakers wants to single out “The Coke Side of Life” for a mandatory warning label that could send the Pepsi Generation to unhealthy beverages. State Senator Bill Monning, D-Carmel, and seven of his Democratic colleagues have proposed the Sugar-Sweetened

Sen. Hernandez: Expand nurse practitioner duties

John March 2, 2015

An influential state lawmaker is once again seeking to expand the “scope of practice” for California’s nurse practitioners, despite strong objections from the state’s leading medical organization. State Senator Ed Hernandez, D-West Covina, has reintroduced legislation that would allow nurse

Hospital sale hobbles Harris

James Poulos February 24, 2015

Pressured by labor unions and their political allies, California Attorney General Kamala Harris has made her first big political gamble as a candidate to replace retiring Sen. Barbara Boxer in 2016. Urged to intervene in a hot-blooded dispute over the fate of six

Covered CA signups fall short of goal

James Poulos February 23, 2015

Amid a shifting, uncertain health care landscape, Covered California’s latest round of enrollments fell short of administrators’ goals. In a reflection of larger uncertainties nationwide, the Golden State’s Obamacare exchange missed its mark due to factors ranging from bureaucratic glitches

Medi-Cal woes leave CA hurting

James Poulos February 20, 2015

A victim of its own success, California’s popular Medi-Cal program has rapidly swelled to a large enough size to malfunction. It’s known as Medicaid in the rest of the country and provides medical care to poor people. Mounting woes — from applicant

Schools signing up families for Covered CA

John Seiler February 13, 2015

Critics of anti-poverty programs long have warned about what’s called the Welfare State or “Cradle-to-Grave” government programs. The late Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, a liberal Democrat from New York, worked for decades to try to avoid that. He helped craft the 1996

Wired: Anti-vaccine parents common in Silicon Valley

Chris Reed February 13, 2015

The coverage of the measles outbreak in the U.S. often makes the point that opponents of compulsory vaccination for schoolchildren are split politically between affluent leftists with New Age-y views about modern medicine and conservatives who don’t like government telling