Category: California

With Becerra as HHS Pick, California Plots More Progressive Health Care Agenda

Gov. Gavin Newsom said he has already begun discussing California health care priorities with Xavier Becerra, tapped this week by President-elect Joe Biden to serve as his Health and Human Services secretary.

Dialysis Industry Spends Millions, Emerges as Power Player in California Politics

Over the past four years, the dialysis industry has spent $233 million on both political offense and defense in California. Most of it went toward protecting its revenues against ballot initiatives, but the industry also strategically worked the corridors of the state Capitol.

Xavier Becerra in His Own Words: ‘Health Care Is a Right’

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra is President-elect Joe Biden’s pick for U.S. Health and Human Services secretary. As attorney general and during his 24 years in Congress, he has staked progressive positions on health care issues, fighting the Trump administration on contraception, suing a major California health system for monopolistic behavior and calling himself a supporter of single-payer health care.

Fear and Loathing as Colleges Face Another Season of Red Ink

When campuses stay open, COVID infections spread widely, and sometimes kill. But by closing dorms and dining halls, scores of smaller schools face finances so ruinous they could be fatal for their institutions.

As LA County Sets New Infection Record, State Leaders’ Behavior Sends Mixed Messages

Even as L.A.’s stay-at-home restrictions began, leaders across California took heat for their do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do pandemic behavior.

Where COVID Is on the Menu: Failed Contact Tracing Leaves Diners in the Dark

State and local public health officials are sure that bars and restaurants are spreading COVID. But they don’t always have much concrete evidence to support their convictions.

OSHA Let Employers Decide Whether to Report Health Care Worker Deaths. Many Didn’t.

Four workers died at a facility with one of the largest U.S. outbreaks, but the Occupational Safety and Health Administration never conducted an inspection. It’s a pattern that’s played out across the nation, a KHN investigation finds.

Medicare Open Enrollment Is Complicated. Here’s How to Get Good Advice.

It’s a complex program with many options — as well as confusing rules and nuances. Here’s how to get reliable guidance.

California Law Banning Toxic Chemicals in Cosmetics Will Transform Industry

The law will ban the manufacture and sale in California of personal care products that contain 24 toxics, including asbestos, formaldehyde and lead, and is expected to fill a gap in federal regulation as companies sell the new formulations nationwide.

Surging LA

Eight months after California Healthline’s Heidi de Marco photographed LA under lockdown, she returned to the same iconic spots. Vehicle and foot traffic are up — as are coronavirus cases.