Proposed rules to protect millions of workers from potentially dangerous heat inside workplaces are dead after Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration refused to sign off. Labor advocates and state regulators are calling for emergency regulations before temperatures soar this summer.
Colorado is ahead of the curve on policies to prevent medical debt, but the gap between the debt load in places inhabited primarily by people of color versus non-Hispanic white residents is greater than the national average.
In California, assaulting paramedics or other emergency medical workers in the field carries stiffer fines and jail time than assaulting emergency room staffers. State lawmakers are considering a measure that would standardize the penalties.
Want to know how much opioid settlement money your city, county, or state has received so far? Or how much they’re expecting in the future? Use our new searchable database to find out.
One year after California became the first state to require public universities to provide abortion pills to students, LAist found that basic information for students to obtain the medication is often nonexistent.
A shortage of primary care providers is driving more people to seek routine care in emergency settings. In Rhode Island, safety-net clinics are under pressure as clinicians retire or burn out, and patients say it’s harder to find care as they lose connections to familiar doctors.
State institutions and community hospitals have closed inpatient mental health units, often citing staffing and financial challenges. Now, for-profit companies are opening psychiatric hospitals to fill the void.
Hospitals are increasingly stretching a velvet rope, offering “concierge service” to an affluent clientele. Critics say the practice exacerbates primary care shortages.
The Supreme Court this week heard its first abortion case since overturning Roe v. Wade in 2022, about an appeals court ruling that would dramatically restrict the availability of the abortion pill mifepristone. But while it seems likely that this case could be dismissed on a technicality, abortion opponents have more challenges in the pipeline. Meanwhile, health issues are heating up on the campaign trail, as Republicans continue to take aim at Medicare, Medicaid, and the Affordable Care Act — all things Democrats are delighted to defend. Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico, Sarah Karlin-Smith of the Pink Sheet, and Lauren Weber of The Washington Post join KFF Health News chief Washington correspondent Julie Rovner to discuss these issues and more. Also this week, Rovner interviews KFF Health News’ Tony Leys, who wrote a KFF Health News-NPR “Bill of the Month” feature about Medicare and a very expensive air-ambulance ride. Plus, for “extra credit,” the panelists suggest health policy stories they read this week they think you should read, too.
A California law that takes effect this summer will grant minors on public insurance the ability to get mental health treatment without their parents’ consent, a privilege that their peers with private insurance have had for years. But the law has become a flashpoint in the state’s culture wars.
