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When Californians phone for help with their Medicaid coverage, they routinely face waits of nearly an hour — and are regularly disconnected without reaching anyone, researchers found in a newly released analysis. An audit released Wednesday by the Children’s Partnership, an advocacy group focused on child health, found the average wait when researchers phoned in dozens of counties was 55 minutes. More than half of children in California rely on Medi-Cal — the California Medicaid program — for their health insurance coverage, including 1.4 million children 5 and under. (Alpert Reyes and Gold, 8/7)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: The Politics Holding Back Medicaid Expansion In Some Southern States

For Roderick Givens, a radiation oncologist, the expansion of Medicaid isn’t just a policy issue. He practices medicine in a rural area in the Mississippi Delta and he sees daily how Medicaid coverage could help his uninsured patients. “I can’t tell you the number of patients who I see who come in with advanced disease, who have full-time jobs,” Givens said. “They haven’t seen a physician in years. They can’t afford it. They don’t have coverage.” (Hawkins, 8/8)

A state lawmaker from the San Fernando Valley has resumed his push for a bill that would ban public schools in California from serving food or beverages containing synthetic food dyes such as Red 40 that child health advocates say can harm developing brains and cause neurobehavioral problems. (Tat, 8/7)

A Los Angeles County jury found businesses that make or distribute engineered stone at fault Wednesday for the suffering of a 34-year-old stonecutter afflicted with an incurable disease. In a decision watched closely by silicosis experts and the stone industry, jurors deliberating at Stanley Mosk Courthouse in downtown L.A. decided largely in favor of Gustavo Reyes Gonzalez, who was diagnosed with silicosis and had to undergo a double lung transplant after years of cutting engineered stone countertops. (Alpert Reyes, 8/7)

Delaware Gov. John Carney signed two pieces of legislation on Wednesday that support student mental health in schools. The first new law will help establish a mental health services unit for high schools in Delaware. This unit will lower the ratio of students to counselors and make mental health services a lot more accessible. The second law will expand the reimbursement of school-based behavioral health services through Medicaid. (8/7)

The state of Iowa has not issued any permits for school employees to carry guns on school property under a new law, and it’s still not clear if public schools will be able to arm staff without risking the loss of their insurance coverage. Gov. Kim Reynolds signed a law in April allowing school staff to get a professional permit to carry a firearm on school property. School boards get to decide if staff can be armed at school. (Sostaric, 8/7)