Health

The iconic California burger joint known for its crossed palm trees and cups printed with Bible verses banned its employees in five states from wearing masks at work.

California still offers generous subsidies, but the rate hike signals that runaway health care costs are back after five years of low premium increases.

Thousands of Californians died from opioid overdoses in 2021. In response, many communities are making it easier to obtain life-saving overdose reversal drugs while some families are calling for tougher criminal penalties for fentanyl dealers.

California’s experimental new program targets methamphetamine addiction by rewarding patients with gift cards for negative drug tests.

Many of the people who lost Medi-Cal are likely still eligible for health care coverage if they can get their paperwork to county offices in the next 90 days.

One California mental health crisis center grew its staff by almost 50% to accommodate that number of calls it’s been receiving since the state launched its 988 hotline.

A new ban on flavored tobacco products is accelerating a decline in nicotine tax revenue that funds California’s early childhood services. Some programs are already making cuts.

Gov. Gavin Newsom wants to rethink how California spends its millionaire’s tax by directing more money toward housing. Some county-run mental health programs could lose out.

California’s more than 170,000 unhoused people often lack the means and mobility to locate and visit a doctor who will accept them. At least 25 street medicine teams throughout the state are trying to fill that gap by providing health care to unhoused individuals in need.

Medi-Cal is changing how it pays mental health providers. Many of those providers say they may no longer be able to afford peer support specialists, home visits and other services.