Every year, an estimated 1 or more million patients venture from California to Mexico to obtain medical treatments and medicines, and a large contingent of these are aging people.
Cost is the main reason to make the trip for 60 to 70 percent of patients, said Arturo Vargas Bustamante, a professor in the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health.
The most popular treatments among older patients who cross the border are dental services.
California closely monitors whether nursing home residents fall. Regulators track incidents, facilities report them and safety policies revolve around preventing them.
Yet a more fundamental question often goes unasked: Can residents walk?
When safety becomes the only measurable outcome, unintended consequences can follow.
Like most parents, my wife and I want our daughter to be kind, happy and safe — but what does safety really mean?
What kind of safety can we ensure in a society deeply rooted in sexism and patriarchal violence? How do we teach her to be safe — without instilling a fear of men or of people who’ve committed past harms? How do we show her to be strong without masking her vulnerability? To be assertive yet expansive in her compassion?
As California lawmakers race to hash out what will get nixed and what will remain in the state’s strained 2026-27 budget before the constitutional June 15 deadline, aging and disability advocates are sounding alarms.
A consortium of 166 organizations say Gov. Gavin Newsom’s proposals break a promise and target the state’s most vulnerable residents.
When California committed to “Medi-Cal for All Children” a decade ago, it made a powerful promise to families from all backgrounds: No child will go without health care. It was a defining moment and a strong example of California taking the lead on kids’ health and setting an example for the country.
Today, that promise is in danger of being broken.
Under California law, residential care and skilled nursing facilities must inform new residents and their families of the existence of a family council. And if a council doesn’t exist, relatives must be told of their right to form one.
State law now requires facilities to respond to a council’s written requests within 14 calendar days. Facilities with active councils often see higher quality care, advocates say.
Every Californian should have access to quality health care, no matter where they live. But today, that promise is slipping out of reach in rural communities. Without decisive action to support the academic medical centers that offer care and train the next generation of health professionals, the consequences will be felt across the entire state.
The budget that legislators must adopt by June 15 will set California on one of two courses: protecting the health coverage that millions rely on, or allowing federal cuts to decimate Medi-Cal, the insurance program covering 15 million Californians.
Without a strong response from lawmakers in the coming days, millions will be pushed out of coverage or lose critical health benefits, making California sicker and more unequal.
There are an estimated 11.5 million Americans (or nearly 5 percent of the population) living with a serious mental illness. Many families struggle to get care for their loved ones, describing an inhumane system that treats mental illness and the often-concomitant problem of substance use disorder as different than other disabilities.
For years, Kartar Diamond struggled to find care for her son due to a lack of quality residential housing programs in California, expensive monthly rates, and long waiting lists at both public and private long-term psychiatric facilities.
Now 35, he lives in a residential housing program in Orange County for people with severe mental illnesses.