Health

California healthcare workers union leader Dave Regan has used initiatives and threats of initiatives in the past in negotiations on behalf of his 100,000-member union. That Proposition 8 opponents are spending $105 million-plus to defeat the initiative is sure to send a message to Regan’s future foes that ballot measure fights come at a steep cost.

California has the nation's third-highest rate of congenital syphilis. That's "a failure of the public health system," said one expert.

Experts say a drier climate means more dust storms, which carry the fungus that causes the disease. New laws and money address the issue. Is that enough?

State officials hope to improve dental care for low-income residents by signing up more dentists, paying them better and emphasizing prevention.

In the final days of California's 2018 legislative session, hundreds of bills landed on the governor's desk. We're tracking the fate of the most consequential here.

Hundreds of thousands of residents can't drink the water that flows to their homes. Here are some of the proposed remedies, not all of them successful.

The Legislature's struggle this year to pass even one partial solution to untreated mental illness illustrates the complex philosophical, legal and ethical questions that surround conservatorship in California.

More than half the state’s health care budget will be spent on just 5 percent of its patients—and they’re not the sickest people. Officials are staging an intervention.

California's new budget includes $12 million for research into Jordan’s Syndrome—named after the daughter of a powerful lobbyist who persuaded lawmakers to spend state dollars seeking a cure for Jordan and others afflicted by the rare condition.

The Trump administration says OK to short-term, bare-bones health insurance policies. A bill in the California Legislature says: not in the Golden State.