Health

The Unruh Civil Rights Act provides the fundamental protection for equal access to health care regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity, experts say. The state has not acted to uphold those protections, transgender rights groups claim.

A newly formed coalition wants to bring a half-cent sales tax before Angeleno voters in June to mitigate Medi-Cal losses

Close to four thousand employees of the California Department of Public Health were told they must use the federal E-Verify system to keep federal funding. Unions are pushing back.

Psychiatric hospitals could close beds under proposed state rules if regulators don’t allow implementation time, facilities warn.

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.

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

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.