In a first step in a campaign to emphasize a moral and religious imperative in the state budget debate, clergy from a coalition of Los Angeles County churches and synagogues delivered sermons over last weekend calling on Gov. Jerry Brown to retain current state support for county indigent care.
More than one million people in California suffer from mental illness – the largest number of any state. When the final phase of the new health care law starts in January of next year, more California residents than ever before will be able to seek help for problems ranging from depression, anxiety, and addiction to schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. But mental health providers in the state’s Central Valley are unprepared for an influx of thousands of patients.
Right now, young people are generally benefitting from protective changes ushered in by Obama care. But many advocates and experts wonder if the Affordable Care Act will actually make care more affordable for young people – or if the young will simply end up paying the price of lowering costs for everyone else.
Provisions in the Affordable Care Act may not be enough to ensure that small businesses can provide health to their employees — and some provisions may actually discourage employers from providing insurance.
As the state prepares for the expected onslaught of newly insured patients, health-care professionals are warning there may not be enough doctors — particularly, those practicing primary care — to meet the increased demand. Some say that the problem will be even more amplified in rural California, which already suffers a physician shortage and dwindling workforce, as the majority of rural physicians nears retirement and recruitment of new doctors lags in replacing them.
Kalwis Lo, 24, says Obamacare saved his life. But his story is also a cautionary tale about the limitations of Obamacare, also known as the Affordable Care Act — especially as it applies to young people.
Pay for performance was the next big idea in improving patient care – until studies suggested that it wasn’t working especially well to reduce costs and improve health care. But one plan in the Central Valley is offering inventives that work. What’s their secret?
A number of California nursing mothers who have had their requests for a breast pump denied by their insurance companies this year, despite the new law.
Monterey County, which operates a safety-net hospital and has a constrained budget, wasn’t sure it could afford to back the insurance plan and lose federal cash it receives for treating low-income, uninsured adults at Natividad Medical Center, the county hospital.