Health

A huge surprise surplus, a big push on affordable housing, help for college students, working poor tax credits, credit cards at the DMV, kindergarten potties.

In one of his first official actions, Gov. Gavin Newsom has directed that state agencies, including the one that oversees Medi-Cal, negotiate as a block to demand prescription drug makers lower their prices. The move will make California the nation’s largest negotiator against pharmaceutical companies and could become a model for other states—if it works.

As Insurance Commissioner, Ricardo Lara will oversee a department with 1,325 employees, a budget of $287 million and a significant law enforcement operation. His transition team includes a man who until last month lobbied for a drug company that received a subpoena from the Department of Insurance.

California is once again defending the Affordable Care Act, leading a coalition of Democratic states against a small army of Republican lawmakers seeking to undo the Obama administration’s signature healthcare law.

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra is labeling as unconstitutional the Trump administration’s proposed rule that would block some legal immigrants from getting a green card if they’ve used—or may use in the future—public services like health care, food assistance and housing programs.

California could create its own mandate or subsidies—or both—to keep up to a million people from going without health insurance, now that the Trump administration has canceled the Obamacare mandate that everyone be insured or pay a penalty.

Spots in California are registering, by one measurement, the most polluted air on earth. If this is the “new abnormal” of wildfires, health advocates say the state will need to step up efforts to educate and protect the public.

One of four California gun owners bought their firearms without undergoing background checks, researchers at UC Davis’ Violence Prevention Research Program reported Sunday. State laws dating back decades require background checks for all gun buyers.

Yes, California leads the nation in highest number of mass shooting deaths, but that ranking belies the fact that California has one of the nation’s lowest overall gun deaths per capita.

Now that California voters have given Gavin Newsom the job he has sought for eight years, he is about to discover that winning was the easy part. Here's his plans for California's most pressing issues.