California Health Report | HealthyCal - Part 59
 

California Health Report

  

Brown names hospital association exec, former aide to run Health and Human Services Agency

Published: December 7, 2010 | No Comments

Gov.-elect Jerry Brown made his first major appointment today, naming hospital association executive Diana Dooley to be secretary of the Health and Human Services Agency.

Dooley, currently president and CEO of the California Children’s Hospital Association, has a long history with Brown, having served as his legislative secretary and special assistant when he was governor from 1975 until 1983.

After Brown left office, Dooley ran her own advertising and public relations agency, became an attorney and then was general counsel and vice president for Children’s Hospital Central California, near Fresno.

She is a native of Hanford and earned her bachelor’s degree at Fresno State. She went to law school at San Joaquin College of Law and earned her law degree in 1995.

“I am humbled by the opportunity to lead the Health and Human Services Agency,” Dooley said in a statement released by Brown’s office. “In these difficult times, it’s more important than ever to manage our health and social programs with efficiency and a sense of compassion. And that’s my commitment in taking this position.”

She takes on a tough job, managing the agency that runs health and social services for the state’s poorest residents at a time when resources are pinched, federal stimulus funds are about to disappear and the state is charged with implementing the new federal health reform.

Brown also named Ana Matosantos to continue as director of the Department of Finance.

Both appointments require Senate confirmation.

 

Governor proposes new cuts in health and social service programs

Published: December 6, 2010 | No Comments

By Daniel Weintraub

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Monday proposed more than $7 billion in spending cuts to try to rebalance his final budget before he leaves office in January.

Schwarzenegger declared a fiscal emergency and called the Legislature into special session to deal with his plan. But Democratic leaders have already signaled that they will probably ignore the governor’s proposals and wait for Gov.-elect Jerry Brown to be sworn into office on Jan. 3.

Most of the cuts Schwarzenegger proposed would affect health and social service programs.

In the Healthy Families program, for example, the governor proposes to eliminate vision services, raise monthly premiums and increase co-pays for emergency room and hospital visits.

In Medi-Cal, the governor would limit the provision of over-the-counter drugs and nutritional supplements, limit physician and clinic visits, cap patient spending on incontinence supplies, wound treatments, hearing aids and medical equipment, and limit prescriptions for other than life-saving drugs to six per month.

He also proposes to increase or add co-payments for Medi-Cal, and limit services for legal immigrants.

In social service programs, Schwarzenegger proposed eliminating the Cal-Works job training and welfare program, reducing grants to the aged, blind and disabled, and curtailing state subsidies for child care.

The governor said he was unpersuaded by the advice of staff, friends and observers who said he was wasting his time because his proposal would be dead on arrival in the Legislature.

“I always said I will go and charge through the finish line,” Schwarzenegger told reporters. “I took the oath to serve as California’s chief executive until January 3. I will serve the people of California until the last second, until the next governor is sworn in.”

Assembly Speaker John A. Perez of Los Angeles said the proposal was unlikely to advance in the Legislature.

“We will take the Governor’s proposal under advisement when it comes before the Budget Committee,” Perez said. “However, I believe the governor will have a difficult time convincing the Legislature to approve his proposal given the fact that it doesn’t address the entire problem, doesn’t create jobs and is in fact a rehash of proposals we have already considered and rejected.”

 

Poll finds that jobs, economy are a bipartisan concern

Published: December 1, 2010 | No Comments

Democrats, Republicans and independents agree: jobs and the economy are the top issues facing California today, according to a new independent public opinion poll of voters in the Nov. 2 election from the Public Policy Institute of California.

Sixty-eight percent of Democrats, 62 percent of Republicans and 59 percent of independents said jobs and the economy were the most important issues in the state. The overall number — 64 percent — is up 50 points since the last governor’s election four years ago, when just 14 percent cited jobs and the economy as the most important issue. Back then, immigration was the top issue, and it was named by just 20 percent of California voters.

The state budget, deficit and taxes were the top concern of 13 percent of voters in this poll, and 4 percent said education was their top priority.

Looking ahead, only 27 percent of voters anticipate good economic times in the next 12 months, while 61 percent expect bad times ahead. Democrats are more optimistic than either Republicans or independents.

The poll also examined voter attitudes about the ballot propositions, the initiative process and the state’s top elected officials.

To see the entire poll, click here.

–Daniel Weintraub

 

Breast cancer screening program reopens

Published: December 1, 2010 | No Comments

A state program that screens low-income women for breast cancer has reopened this week, 11 months after the Schwarzenegger Administration suspended new admissions to save money.

As of Wednesday the Every Woman Counts program is accepting new applications for women age 40 and over who want to have a mammogram screening for cancer.

“Our top priority is to provide breast cancer screening services to as many low-income California women as possible under the Every Woman Counts program,” Dr. Mark Horton, director of the Department of Public Health, said in a statement. “We are very pleased to be able to reopen the program to qualifying low-income women age 40 and older. Early detection can save a life, and I strongly encourage all eligible women to take advantage of this service.”

The program was established by the federal Breast and Cervical Cancer Mortality Prevention Act of 1990 and the state Breast Cancer Act of 1993.

The program is funded mostly by state tobacco tax revenue, and as fewer people smoke, that revenue has been declining. Faced with dwindling funds, the administration on Jan. 1 suspended new enrollment and announced plans to restrict mammograms under the program to women age 50 and over.

But state lawmakers objected to the changes, and as part of the budget negotiations, the program was restored to its former status. The administration agreed to changes that will save an estimated $14 million annually by ending payments to doctors and clinics to track the cases of women who tested negative for cancer. In addition, the Legislature added $20 million to the program’s budget.

The state expects to screen more than 300,000 women during the current fiscal year.

Women can call the program’s toll free number to determine if they are eligible (800) 511-2300.

–Daniel Weintraub

 

Nearly 6 million Californians lack access to jobs-based health coverage

Published: November 30, 2010 | 1 Comment

Living in a household with someone who has a job is no guarantee that a Californian will have access to job-based health insurance, according to a report from the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research.

About 20 percent of Californians under age 65 who live with at least one person who is employed did not have access to job-based health insurance in 2007, the UCLA policy brief said. That’s 5.7 million people.

And adults who lacked access to job-based coverage generally found it difficult to obtain health insurance at all. Only one-third had done so, through Medi-Cal, private insurance or a parent’s health insurance plan.

Children do better, thanks to public programs that subsidize their coverage. Nearly 60 percent found coverage through Medi-cal or the Healthy Families program and 7.5 percent had private insurance.

See the full policy brief here.

–Daniel Weintraub

 

Arizona-style immigration law proposed for California ballot

Published: November 23, 2010 | No Comments

A ballot measure that would make it state crimes to hire an illegal immigrant and for illegal immigrants to seek work under false pretenses will soon be circulating on the streets of California. The measure’s sponsors have been given the go-ahead by the secretary of state to begin collecting signatures to place their proposal on the ballot.

The proposal is patterned after a controversial Arizona law, but its sponsors say it has features that will make it more likely to withstand a constitutional challenge.

The measure was submitted by Michael Erickson, a former Sonoma County Republican Party chairman and an activist in the Tea Party movement. He runs a web site called “Republicans for the National Interest.”

In an essay he titled “Can California be Salvaged?” Erickson wrote that he believed “lower middle class” tradesmen and “Poor Hispanics” will find common cause “as both see that they are equally victims of a system of illegal immigration that just perpetuates the exploitation of the poor by the elites, all in the name of ‘social justice’ and ‘welcoming everyone.’”

The measure would require law enforcement officers who stop or detain a person where “reasonable suspicion” exists that the person is here illegally to make an effort to determine the person’s immigration status. The proposal would prohibit police from stopping a person solely because they suspect him or her is here illegally, and it requires police to adhere to federal immigration law and the US and California constitutions.

The proposal would impose a fine of $5,000 and revocation of a business license on the second offense for employers who negligently hire an illegal immigrant. Employers who are found to intentionally hire someone who is in the country illegally would face a $10,000 fine and loss of their business license. It would also be illegal for anyone to impede traffic by stopping their car to pick up a day laborer looking for work.

Erickson has until April 21 to collect 434,000 valid signatures.

-Daniel Weintraub

 

Employment gains but unemployment remains flat at 12.4 percent

Published: November 22, 2010 | No Comments

California employers added a net of 39,000 jobs in October, but the state’s unemployment rate remained unchanged at 12.4 percent, according to the latest numbers from the Employment Development Department.

Eight industry categories added a total of 46,500 jobs during the month, while three reported losses of 7,500 jobs.

The biggest gainers were professional and business services, while education and health services, leisure and hospitality, and government also added jobs in October.

The biggest losses were in financial services, while mining and logging and information services also shed jobs.

The biggest jobs losses compared to a year ago were in the construction industry, which had 45,700 fewer jobs in October 2010 than in October 2009.

Here is an analysis of the numbers from Steve Levy, director of the Center for the Continuing Study of the California Economy:

October’s gain of 39,000 jobs marks the first solid month of recovery for the California economy. If these gains are confirmed in the following months, California will have finally turned the corner toward job growth and reducing unemployment.

This is one month only in the midst of the state’s long and deep recession but it is a very good one month.

The pattern of job growth in October is encouraging with gains in manufacturing jobs, professional and technical services and temporary help. At the same time California is finally seeing an upturn in exports, port traffic and tourism.

The encouraging job gains in October come at the same time as the nation saw 150,000 new private sector jobs and other economic indicators are pointing upward.

There are two metro areas in California with year over year job growth of more than 1,000 jobs—the state’s two major tech centers, the San Jose (+3,700 jobs) and Orange County (+14,000 jobs) economies. In October Southern California metro areas posted job gains, reversing several months of disappointing economic news.

It is unlikely that job gains of this magnitude can continue as the national and state recovery are forecast for modest growth during the next 12 months. The construction and government sectors will continue to limit the growth in the overall economy as the housing market and state/local budgets continue to constrain growth.

The unemployment rate remained flat at 12.4%. It will take sustained job gains of over 20,000 per month to begin to push the unemployment rate downward. Workers reenter the labor force as the jbo market strengthens so the unemployment rate is usually the last economic indicator to improve in a recovery.

 

Parents expect kids to go to college but they don’t know how they are going to pay for it

Published: November 18, 2010 | No Comments

Nearly 9 out of 10 California parents expect their youngest child to graduate from college or even graduate school, but many are concerned about how they — and the state — are going to pay for that education, according to a new poll from the Public Policy Institute of California.

Forty-two percent of parents with children under 18 expect their youngest to graduate from college with a four-year degrees, and another 46 percent hope their child will earn a graduate degree, according to the poll.

But 62 percent of parents, and 69 percent of Latino parents, say they are behind in saving for their child’s college education.

Nearly three quarters of California adults — 73 percent — think the high price of a college education keeps students who are qualified and motivated from attending.

Californians are more open to tax increases than tuition hikes to support the state’s public universities, but neither approach is supported by a majority. Forty-nine percent said they would be willing to pay higher taxes to maintain current funding for higher education, and 49 percent were opposed. Democrats were much more likely than Republicans to support higher taxes.

But by a margin of 62 percent to 35 percent, Californians said they would not support more student fee increases. Democrats and Republicans were almost equally opposed, and independents were only slightly more in favor of higher fees.

To see the entire poll, go here.

 
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