Health Care

Soaring costs vex health care witnesses

The escalating cost of health care is making sick patients wait until they get sicker before receiving the medicine that would cure them. That was one of the warnings from a Feb. 4 California Senate Health Committee hearing titled, ”Making Health Care Affordable:

CA bill would snuff smoking until age 21

James Poulos February 6, 2015

Smoke ’em if you got ’em — maybe. A new wave of anti-smoking legislation is wafting through the halls of the state Capitol. And it’s been more than four years since former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger folded his cigar “smoking tent”

CA stricken with vaccine controversy

James Poulos February 5, 2015

As a rash of measles outbreaks raises health alarms, Californians are caught in a national crossfire of controversy over a new trend against vaccinating children. Thanks to relatively lenient laws, the Golden State has been caught flat-footed as over 100 residents have contracted the

Obamacare takes turn for the worse in CA

James Poulos February 4, 2015

As the Affordable Care Act and the Covered California health exchange enter their second year, Californians have begun to encounter fresh challenges and disappointments — a development that has pushed enrollment numbers below official targets. This year, signups are trailing

Veteran lawmakers embrace new committee assignments

John February 3, 2015

As the new class of state lawmakers settles in to their jobs, Sacramento’s old hands are getting a jump start on the 2015-16 legislative session. Each session brings a biennial reshuffling of committee assignments. But some lawmakers aren’t waiting to get acquainted with their new perches. New

Assisted suicide back from the dead

James Poulos January 28, 2015

Physician-assisted suicide has returned to California’s political agenda. After years off the table, the issue gained new life in the wake of Brittany Maynard’s high-profile decision to end her life. Maynard, 29, an assisted-suicide activist living in Oregon, advertised her

Covered CA facing 2015 adjustments

James Poulos January 20, 2015

After posting some of the biggest numbers in the Obamacare firmament, Covered California is putting the squeeze on Golden Staters. Amid concerns that bureaucratic and administrative rules will reverse initial gains, the statewide exchange is stressing the substantial increase in

Health co-ops filling Covered CA gap

Wayne Lusvardi January 2, 2015

As rates continue to rise sharply for the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, in the new year people are looking for more affordable alternatives. One is medical cooperatives. That’s especially true here, where the Obamacare implementation is called Covered California.

CA small biz hit with health care hikes

James Poulos December 24, 2014

It wasn’t supposed to be like this. Proposition 45 on the Nov. 4 ballot would have given the California insurance commissioner the power to limit health-insurance rate increases. It lost. Opponents, including officials at Covered California, assured voters adequate price controls

Covered CA struggles through second enrollment

James Poulos December 4, 2014

Covered California’s huge enrollment numbers boosted the national health care program, the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, during its first year. But the Covered CA health care exchange, the center of the system, has been sneezing through its crucial second open-enrollment period, which