The independent source for health policy research, polling, and news.
Rachel Bluth was a correspondent for Â鶹ŮÓÅ Health News until February 2023.
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Effective immediately, it will be a misdemeanor in California to harass people on their way to get a covid, or any other, vaccine. But First Amendment experts say the new law violates free speech protections and could face a constitutional battle.
Opponents of free needle programs in California are using environmental regulations to shut them down. On Monday, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill that will end that strategy.
Those seeking to replace California Gov. Gavin Newsom in Tuesday’s recall election disagree with him on more than mask and vaccine mandates. The conservative candidates tend to favor free-market solutions over Newsom’s expansion of publicly funded health coverage.
Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom’s pandemic policies are effectively on California’s Sept. 14 recall ballot — and the electorate views them with a mix of resentment, gratitude and disillusionment.
Reproductive rights groups and Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom argue that Californians’ access to abortion would be threatened if he is recalled. But a replacement governor’s power to restrict access to the procedure would be limited.
A proposal breezing through the state legislature would make it illegal to obstruct someone from getting a covid-19 shot, or any other vaccine, but some free speech experts say it goes too far.
As the nation confronts the delta variant, many consumers are again facing delays getting tested. The problem appears most acute in the South and Midwest, where new infections are growing the fastest.
State lawmakers aim to expand Medicaid enrollment by dedicating billions of dollars in coming years to simplifying paperwork, extending pregnancy coverage and opening the program to thousands of new enrollees, including older unauthorized immigrants and people who need nursing home care.
After being mostly closed to the public and the press for more than a year, California’s state Capitol is open again — masks, temperature checks, covid outbreaks and all.
Phone visits became an option for many Medicare and Medicaid patients during the pandemic. Now policymakers are deciding whether they’re worth the money.
California lawmakers are debating a bill that would eliminate out-of-pocket costs that often prevent people from obtaining abortions, proponents say.
The costs of personal protective equipment and disinfecting offices while seeing fewer patients have some doctors and dentists demanding that insurance companies step up.
Lawmakers in California and other states are rethinking how they set and enforce speed limits, and they’re proposing to hand more power to local authorities to slow drivers in their communities.
Rural Mendocino County had finally figured out its vaccination program. But now the community clinics that helped make it happen are changing course as Blue Shield of California takes over the state vaccine program.
President Biden vowed to reverse reproductive health restrictions enacted by President Trump. His pick to run HHS, Xavier Becerra, fought the Trump efforts but must now navigate a difficult legal and political landscape.
With the introduction of a single-payer bill Friday, a group of California Democratic lawmakers set the terms of the health care debate in the Capitol this year. The move puts Gov. Gavin Newsom in a delicate political position, threatening to alienate voters as he faces a likely recall election.
A strike team of nurses and others is vaccinating Contra Costa County’s hardest-hit populations right where they live.
A federal program that sends retail pharmacists into nursing homes to vaccinate residents and workers has been hindered by bureaucratic hurdles and scheduling woes.
Everyone — from toilet paper manufacturers to patient advocates — is lobbying state advisory boards, arguing their members are essential, vulnerable or both — and, thus, most deserving of an early vaccine.
Dentists and optometrists across the country are trying to join in the fight to get everyone vaccinated against COVID-19, the flu and other diseases.
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