The first FDA-authorized cigarettes with 95% less nicotine than traditional smokes will go on sale in California, Florida, and Texas starting in early July. Anti-smoking groups oppose greenlighting just one plant biotech’s products and instead urge federal regulators to set a low-nicotine standard for the entire industry.
Though most California counties are experimenting with dispatching health professionals rather than law enforcement to respond to people experiencing mental health crises, powerful police unions fear defunding.
University of California researchers found at least 90% of adults experiencing homelessness became homeless while living in the state, and many suffer depression and anxiety living without stable housing.
State researchers offer recommendations on how schools can become more heat-resilient in the face of global warming. Proposed changes to state law could make it easier to build shade structures.
State researchers offer recommendations on how schools can become more heat-resilient in the face of global warming. Proposed changes to state law could make it easier to build shade structures.
Annie Malloy, of San Diego, is among the first to receive a new housing move-in benefit from Medi-Cal, California’s Medicaid program. It’s an effort to help homeless and near-homeless people who might otherwise rack up huge medical bills.
Medical debt is a leading public health problem, researchers say. Despite the county’s ongoing expansion of health coverage, the prevalence of medical debt remained unchanged from 2017 to 2021.
Drug use has become a major public health crisis, but effective treatment remains hard to find. It does exist though. Columnist Bernard J. Wolfson offers advice on finding help and says not to expect a quick solution.
California officials are stepping up efforts to combat the spread of xylazine, a powerful animal sedative that’s increasingly being used by people, often with devastating results. It’s mostly been an East Coast phenomenon, but ‘tranq,’ as it is known, is beginning to appear in the Golden State.
KFF Health News has learned that a coalition of doctors, hospitals, insurers, and community clinics want to lock in a tax on health insurance companies to draw in extra Medicaid funding. It also wants to make the tax permanent.
