Health

So far the doctors' lobby has blocked giving nurse practitioners greater autonomy — a move aimed at expanding care options in rural and inner-city areas. Critics of the idea say it would create a two-tiered system of care.

California is now behind some other states and the Trump administration when it comes to cracking down on flavored tobacco and e-cigarettes— and it also hasn't barred flavored vape products containing cannabis.

Amanda Caballero wishes she could go back to work at Amazon. She made $15 an hour at the Fresno fulfillment center — several dollars more than the state’s minimum wage — and received more than three months of paid maternity leave. Her generous health insurance package covered her husband and five children, and she liked […]

Jocelyn Wiener, an award-winning Bay Area journalist with international experience, will join CalMatters to write about Californians and their experience with health care. Wiener worked recently as a freelance writer on a compelling series for CalMatters about mental health. The series, titled “Breakdown,” profiled intimate experiences with suicide, family stress and homelessness as well as the […]

Taking a play from Elizabeth Warren, Gov. Gavin Newsom wants California to become the first state to establish its own generic drug label, the better to cut health care costs.

State Auditor Elaine Howle found some 1.4 million toddlers enrolled in Medi-Cal had gone untested for lead exposure over the past decade, and another 740,000 missed one of two required screenings — a failure encompassing nearly three-quarters of the babies covered by the state’s publicly-funded health insurance program. 

Injured workers in California often wait months or even years to receive the medical evaluations they need, as requests for evaluations have soared.

New California laws explained in 60 seconds. Ring in 2020 by learning about California's new do's and don'ts, and how they will affect us all.

The state begins requiring health workers receive implicit bias training — to improve awareness of the impact racial bias has on maternal and infant health.

California inches toward making it easier to compel treatment for mental illness, but serious questions remain. Among them: Do treatment options even exist?