California advocacy groups are decrying a Trump administration proposal to change one of the measurements to determine the federal poverty level, a move that could force tens of thousands of state residents to lose their public benefits.
Author: Ron Shinkman
In 2009, as the Great Recession bore down on California, lawmakers cut coverage of eyeglasses, podiatry, speech therapy and other benefits from the state’s low-income health program. A decade later, California will restore many of the cuts.
As Latanja Madison’s release date from prison inched closer, she felt more terrified than elated. During a decade behind bars at the California Institution for Women in Corona, her immediate family members passed away. She feared leaving prison may lead to a worse fate – habitual homelessness.
Fewer than half of children with Denti-Cal, the state’s low-income dental program, received preventative care at a dentist’s office in 2017. Still, that’s 20 percent more than did before the state improvements began.
A California regulator has imposed a six-figure fine on Molina Healthcare for significant lapses in the insurer’s grievance process for enrollees. It’s the third large fine imposed on Molina related to its handling of enrollee grievances since 2015.
While the number of Californians with health coverage has surged, the state is struggling to provide enough physicians to care for them.
A pilot program in Los Angeles County to boost the number of kids receiving vision care through the Medi-Cal program appears to have succeeded, even as utilization of such services has seen a sharp decline in recent years.
California’s capital is one of the toughest places in the state for low-income seniors to afford rent, according to a new study.
UCLA researchers found that 68 percent of low-income seniors in Sacramento County suffer a severe rent burden, which means half or more of their pre-tax income is going toward housing. Another 17 percent suffer a moderate burden, where 30 percent or more of their pre-tax income is going to rent.
In an ideal world, Jennifer Kent would like to have added 1,000 new dentists across California willing to accept enrollees in Denti-Cal, the state’s low-income dental program, over the past year. Kent, director of the California Department of Health Care Services, the agency that manages the program, has had to settle for a much more modest number: 73 new dentists.
New data from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show’s children’s oral health has improved across the nation, but race-based gaps in the prevalence of dental cavities and their treatment persist.