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.
I’m one of many people who are increasingly living longer with or past cancer. In the 1970s, only 49 percent of patients survived five years after their illness, but that rate has risen to 70 percent. Doctors now commonly talk about cancer as a chronic disease which can be managed.
But even as older cancer patients receive the gift of extra time, greater longevity brings its own challenges.
When California rolled out its 988 mental health crisis response hot line in July 2022, architects believed it would lead to an overhaul of the emergency medical system.
That hasn’t quite come to pass, but most communities across the state have taken steps toward this vision — and some of them have robust systems. Now they are worried about losing them due to looming federal and state budget cuts.
Recent ICE actions threaten the stability of the current and future caregiver workforce, impacting those who are undocumented, as well as nearly 500,000 workers with legal status.
On Feb. 26, 109 organizations sent a letter to Congress calling for reining in ICE actions due to the harm to older adults, people with disabilities and their caregivers.
For the past two years, I’ve co-facilitated meetings in five counties and helped lead numerous projects across California to help these organizations cope with the state’s demands. In nearly every meeting, I observe the same pattern: Community-based organizations are financing California’s Medicaid transformation out of their own organizational capacity.
This dynamic has equity implications that deserve attention.
Imagine knowing exactly what you want to say, but the words don’t make it from your brain to your lips. You know how you want to move, but your body fails to comply.
This is the reality of living with something called full-body apraxia, a term I hadn’t heard until recently, despite my 30 years of being diagnosed with this and or that disorder. Many treatment providers fail to recognize how these motor and sensory differences might manifest.
Shari Horne spends much of her day caring for her husband Hal in their sunny apartment in Orange County’s Laguna Woods, where she was once mayor.
I’m sharing the Hornes’ story in my inaugural column for the California Health Report. Over the next year, I’ll write about health equity and aging, drawing on my personal experiences, as well as those of the people I interview.
For many older adults, especially those with low incomes, mobility is not a luxury. It is the foundation of independence, emotional well-being and dignity. Yet access to basic mobility support varies widely across the state. That gap has serious consequences.
As a physical therapist working in post-acute and long-term care, I see this divide every day.