Health

A 2015 law required the state Department of Toxic Substances Control to overhaul its permitting process to consider how multiple sources of pollution impacts health. Advocates now say the overdue rules aren’t protective enough.

Families sued to block the Justice Department's subpoena for records of young transgender patients. The agency agreed to drop its request through 2029.

Newsom has already vowed to tank a proposed ballot initiative that would impose a 5% wealth tax on the state’s billionaires to bolster Medi-Cal. Progressive lawmakers and their allies in labor and health seem hopeful that Newsom could support a different long-shot funding idea.

Ash rained down and smoke blanketed Los Angeles during the 2025 wildfires, leaving behind a toxic legacy in soil and homes. Without a federal or California mandate, nonprofit, academic and local groups offer testing for homeowners.

California health care was hit hard in 2025: more than three million may lose Medicaid, Covered California subsidies at risk, and the state froze enrollment for undocumented residents amid budget cuts.

Starting in 2026, California tortillas will contain folic acid to help prevent birth defects—a change aimed at closing a gap for Latina mothers.

In vitro fertilization costs thousands of dollars and is often too expensive for many people struggling to conceive. A new law aims to help change that.

San Mateo adopted a new approach to mental health 911 calls by pairing police with mental health clinicians. Researchers found that it reduced the number of future mental health emergency calls and involuntary psychiatric holds by roughly 17%.

Aetna will provide equitable fertility benefits to LGBTQ members, including 91,000 Californians, under the terms of a class action lawsuit settlement.

Senior Californians in rural communities are dying by suicide at troubling rates—struggling with pain, cut off from doctors and mental health care, with guns at hand. Access to care and safety planning would help, experts say.