Throughout California, low-income public-school students are guaranteed at least one free or low-cost healthy meal each school day. That same law doesn’t apply to public preschools or to child care programs operated by school districts or county offices of education that serve low-income children. But that could soon change.
A California law that went into effect in 2016 allows pharmacists to prescribe, not just dispense, many forms of birth control. But three years in, only fifteen percent of pharmacies offer the option and too few women know about it.
Hospital stays for victims can run hours to months but during that time the caseworkers—who often come from the same neighborhoods as their clients—listen, talk and link them to assistance.
Last week saw some good news about cancer from the American Cancer Society’s (ACS) annual checkup report—a 25-year decline in cancer rates and a 27 percent drop in the overall cancer death rates in the United States. But the news was not nearly as good for low income people and people of color.
Having a disposable phone, or no cell phone at all, makes it difficult for people living on the streets to maintain relationships with the case workers and health care providers critical to remaining healthy and becoming housed, according to a new study.
A first of its kind survey of California mothers about their birth concerns and outcomes offers two findings: Health providers often don’t listen to mothers about their birth preferences and African American women are the least likely to be listened to.
Disregarding input from pregnant women increases the risk of death and complications for the mothers and their babies.
Treatment with antiretroviral drugs can suppress the HIV virus, but only if people who are infected can access and stay on treatment, a multi-state study has found. Among key findings from the national study were that people with HIV who were younger than 30 were more likely to have detectable levels of the virus and that viral suppression was 8 percent lower in African Americans than in whites.
The My Birth Matters campaign is aimed at every demographic, but experts are also keenly focused on lowering C-section rates for African-American mothers. Their rate of C-sections is on average 5 percentage points higher than other racial and ethnic groups.
Two health plans that serve low-income residents in the Central Valley have consistently failed to meet state standards, recent reports show.
Health Net of San Joaquin and Health Plan San Joaquin, which serve nearly a quarter million Medi-Cal patients combined, failed to meet the state’s minimum performance levels for Medi-Cal health plans since at least 2016.
San Francisco’s street medicine team brings doctors and other health professionals directly to people living on the streets to hear their stories and earn their trust. They provide as many services as the person will accept, from housing and food to medication and medical treatment, including addiction treatment.