Pauline Bartolone

Review state measures granting rights, opportunities and protections to undocumented immigrants.   Highlights of state measures granting unauthorized immigrants rights, protections and opportunities. 1996 Prenatal care available for all low-income residents, regardless of legal status. 2001 In-state tuition at public universities approved for undocumented students who attend high school in California for three or more […]

Students speak on how their lives have changed since an executive order by President Obama and policies by California lawmakers. Efrain Carrillo

When 27-year-old Juan Valentin became old enough to get behind the wheel, a friend gave him driving lessons in the agricultural fields surrounding Stockton. As an undocumented immigrant from Tijuana, Mexico, Valentin spent the next 10 years driving without a license. In order to get to school or to work, he felt he had little […]

As the presidential election generates a heated national debate about immigration, California is ploughing ahead with policies to integrate undocumented immigrants, most recently, by expanding healthcare access. “It’s one of the most dramatic turnarounds in California political history,” said Daniel Zingale, senior vice president of the California Endowment, a nonprofit health foundation, about undocumented kids […]

When Californians go to the polls this November, they’ll weigh-in on a contentious health care topic amplified by presidential campaigns: prescription drug prices. A state ballot initiative, Proposition 61, would restrict California health programs from paying more for a prescription drug than what’s paid by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, which is widely cited […]

SACRAMENTO — In a small room at a neighborhood clinic in Sacramento, a handful of hepatitis C patients wait to see their physician, hoping they’ll be found sick enough to be approved for a cure. The low-income patients hope to be prescribed new breakthrough drugs, such as Sovaldi or Harvoni, which offer cures with almost […]

NOTE: Somebody redirected this to medium.com version. Doing the same here. What’s behind the jaw-dropping cost of new “specialty drugs” like Orkambi, which has a sticker price of $259,000 per year for cystic fibrosis patients? Orkambi, which was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration last July, is expected to take almost $36 million […]

Private health plans invoiced the state of California $387.5 million to cover high-cost hepatitis C treatments in Medi-Cal between July 2014 and November 2015, when just 3,624 patients received the treatments, according to the California Department of Health Care Services. The state’s supplemental payments started after managed care plans that cover health services for almost […]

California will be a flashpoint in the policy debate this year around reining in the cost of high-priced prescription drugs. A measure expected to be before voters this November would restrict the state’s payments for drugs to no more than the lowest prices paid for the same drug by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. […]

After the City of Los Angeles passed an ordinance this summer to increase the minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2020, Richard LoGuercio spent the following weekend driving around a nearby city, looking for warehouses to move his business. “I am just screwed,” said LoGuercio, owner and president of Town and Country Event Rentals […]