Health

California's Democratic lawmakers are pondering ways to lay the groundwork for a single-payer health care system in the state. Supporters say such a system would cover everyone, streamline an unwieldy bureaucracy and bring down costs. Opponents say it could lead to unacceptably high taxes, a flight of doctors to other states and a rationing of care as patients’ needs overwhelm providers. We explain.

Organized labor, consumer advocates and several Democratic lawmakers offered a new prescription for California's ailing health care system in the form a package of bills intended to rein in health care costs, fend off Trump administration efforts to undermine Obamacare, and provide lower-income Californians with greater access to care.

The case, which the U.S. Supreme Court will hear on March 20, is the latest battleground in a long legal debate at the intersection of free speech and abortion access.

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra has been using the courts to try and stop policies coming out of the White House that harm Californians, and it's working.

The Los Angeles Unified School District has a multimillion-dollar project to fix or shut down tainted water fountains. It's taking calls from other districts seeking advice on how to do the same.

The effort to create a single-payer healthcare system in California appears to be a lost cause in the short term. But advocates are playing a long game, and they have effectively made single payer a front-and-center issue in California's 2018 elections.

California's Legislature is strategizing about how to preserve expanded health coverage required by Obamacare: “Everything they are doing at the federal level, we are doing the opposite,” one legislator said.

About 32,000 children and pregnant women could lose out unless Congress acts soon.

Diabetes, which is spreading and driving up health costs, now afflicts more than half of California adults, especially people of color and the poor.

The state of California hopes to pause Trump administrations rules that allow employers to opt out of birth control coverage through company health insurance plans.