Stephen G. Larson, an attorney representing the plaintiffs, said the law should be overturned because it was improperly rushed through a special session of the legislature under “extraordinary circumstances.”

By Deepa Bharath | dbharath@scng.com | Orange County Register
Published: May 15, 2018 at 4:47 pm | UpdatedD: May 15, 2018 at 7:18 pm

RIVERSIDE — A judge in Riverside County granted a motion Tuesday to overturn the state’s End of Life Option Act, which allows terminally ill Californians to end their life, legally, with a lethal drug.

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At the San Diego Central Jail in downtown, two inmates are housed in the Psychiatric Inpatient Unit. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune)

Gary Warth
March 3, 2018 – 06:00 a.m.

Counties throughout the state are holding onto millions of dollars intended for mental health services, a recently released state audit has found.

Read the rest of this entry »

.

AP Nation / World
By JONATHAN J. COOPER
Associated Press
May 22, 2017 – 7:05 PM EDT

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — A California bill that would eliminate health insurance companies and provide government-funded health coverage for everyone in the state would cost $400 billion and require significant tax increases, legislative analysts said Monday.

Read the rest of this entry »

Capitol Alert
By Christopher Cadelago and Angela Hart
ccadelago@sacbee.com
May 19, 2017 – 8:35 PM

State Democrats’ three-day convention had a raucous start Friday, as liberal activists booed and heckled Democratic National Committee Chair Tom Perez after marching from the state Capitol to promote a universal heath care program.

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By Erica Werner and Alan Fram
May 4, 2017

WASHINGTON (AP) — Delivering at last, triumphant House Republicans voted Thursday to repeal and replace the “Obamacare” health plan they have reviled for so long, overcoming united Democratic opposition and their own deep divisions to hand a major win to President Donald Trump.

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Capitol Alert
By Alexei Koseff
akoseff@sacbee.com
April 28, 2017 – 5:30 PM

Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon, D-Paramount, visited The Bee Capitol Bureau on Wednesday to discuss some of the biggest issues facing the California Legislature this year. Here’s what he had to say:

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The measure has raised concerns, because it doesn’t specify where money to fund the program would come from.

Melanie Mason
April 26, 2017

A sweeping measure that would establish government-run universal healthcare in California cleared its first legislative hurdle Wednesday as scores of supporters crammed into the Capitol to advocate for a single-payer system.

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Capitol Alert
By Jim Miller
jmiller@sacbee.com
January 25, 2017 – 1:52 PM

California faces a $76.67 billion cost to provide healthcare and dental benefits to retired state employees, state Controller Betty Yee reported Wednesday, an increase of $2.49 billion over the previous year’s estimate.

Read the rest of this entry »

By Lisa Schencker, Chicago Tribune
December 17, 2016 – 2:05 PM

One of the first things Tracy Trovato did – once she overcame the shock of learning her 42-year-old, marathon-training husband had leukemia – was look through their health insurance documents.

Read the rest of this entry »

Friday, October 28, 2016 – 08:30 a.m.

We said it would happen over a year ago.

The now-skyrocketing Obamacare premiums will likely impact the November 8 presidential election between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.

Read the rest of this entry »

Natalie Kitroeff
October 25, 2016

In a ruling last week, the National Labor Relations Board ordered Prime Healthcare Services, the owner of several Southern California hospitals, to pay back wages to laboratory technicians, clerks and pharmacists, among other employees.

Read the rest of this entry »

Associated Press
October 24, 2016

Premiums will go up sharply next year under President Obama’s healthcare law, and many consumers will be down to just one insurer, the administration confirmed Monday. That will stoke another Obamacare controversy days before a presidential election.

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Deductibles and out-of-pocket maximums are going up for many Covered California plans.

By Emily Bazar, California Healthline
Posted: 10/15/16 – 6:52 PM PDT |

Covered California’s big 2017 rate hikes are starting to hit home for consumers.

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By Carolyn Y. Johnson
August 27, 2016 at 8:10 PM

Enrollment in the insurance exchanges for President Obama’s signature health-care law is at less than half the initial forecast, pushing several major insurance companies to stop offering health plans in certain markets because of significant financial losses.

Read the rest of this entry »

Wednesday, August 17, 2016 – 09:00 a.m.

We said it more than a year ago and it’s coming true.

Obamacare is melting down right in the middle of the U.S. presidential election.

Read the rest of this entry »

Monthly premiums in California’s health insurance exchange will increase by more than 13 percent on average next year after two major insurers requested large rate increases, officials said Tuesday.

By Jonathan J. Cooper,  Associated Press
July 19, 2016 – 1:01 PM

SACRAMENTO, Calif.

Monthly premiums in California’s health insurance exchange will increase by more than 13 percent on average next year after two major insurers requested large rate increases, officials said Tuesday.

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By Harriet Ryan, Lisa Girion and Scott Glover
July 10, 2016

In the waning days of summer in 2008, a convicted felon and his business partner leased office space on a seedy block near MacArthur Park. They set up a waiting room, hired an elderly physician and gave the place a name that sounded like an ordinary clinic: Lake Medical.

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By Neil Nisperos, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin
Posted: 07/06/16 – 10:51 PM PDT |

ONTARIO >> Ontario-based Prime Healthcare medical group responded Wednesday to news the federal government is joining a Medicare fraud lawsuit against the company, denying charges it admitted patients needlessly.

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Noam N. Levey
May 31, 2016

Health insurance giant UnitedHealth Group, which sat out California’s implementation of the Affordable Care Act until this year, will not sell health plans on the state’s insurance marketplace in 2017, state and company officials said Tuesday.

Read the rest of this entry »

Paul Sisson
May 26, 2016

The U.S. Justice Department has joined a whistle-blower case against Prime Healthcare Services, adding significant weight to allegations of widespread Medicare overbilling at 14 of the company’s hospitals in California.

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Capitol Alert
By Dan Walters
dwalters@sacbee.com
May 11, 2016 – 12:15 PM

• Pew report says California owes $80.3 billion for retiree health
• Covering obligation would more than triple current spending

California is spending more than $2 billion a year on health care for retired state employees – up more than 80 percent in the last decade, according to Gov. Jerry Brown’s latest budget.

Read the rest of this entry »

By Chad Terhune
California Healthline
May 11, 2016

California’s health insurance exchange estimates that its Obamacare premiums may rise 8 percent on average next year, which would end two consecutive years of more modest 4 percent increases.

Read the rest of this entry »

UnitedHealth Group Inc.’s campus in Minnetonka, Minn. The company will be exiting some Obamacare marketplaces in 2016. (Jim Mone / AP)

Noam N. Levey
April 19, 2016

UnitedHealth Group, the nation’s largest health insurer, announced Tuesday that it would stop selling health plans through the Affordable Care Act next year in most of the 34 of states where it operates.

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Ed Mendel
April 11, 2016

Gov. Brown’s plan to reduce state worker retiree health care costs got only a small nod in a tentative CSU faculty contract agreement last week. But three unions have agreed to begin paying down one of the state’s fastest-growing costs and largest debts.

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Health & Medicine
By Claudia Buck
cbuck@sacbee.com
April 7, 2016 – 9:11 AM

• Covered California takes first step toward enrolling undocumented residents
• There would be no state or federal subsidies
• Potential enrollment of undocumented residents could reach 50,000

In a move called both symbolic and practical, the Covered California board took the first step Thursday toward allowing undocumented residents to purchase health plans – with no state or federal subsidies – through California’s Obamacare marketplace.

Read the rest of this entry »

Friday, March 25, 2016 – 11:00 a.m.

The Inland Empire’s economic cheerleader was out touting the region’s job growth this week.

But he didn’t say much about all-important wage growth.

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By Melody Gutierrez
Updated: March 10, 2016 – 3:57pm

SACRAMENTO — Dying Californians can ask their doctors for a lethal prescription to end their lives beginning June 9.

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Gov. Jerry Brown speaks at the Capitol on Jan. 7. (Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press)

By Melanie Mason
February 29, 2016

Culminating a prolonged, wonky debate that has consumed the Capitol for months, legislators on Monday approved a new tax on healthcare plans that would help finance the state’s public healthcare program for the poor.

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California
Jonathan Cooper, Associated Press
February 8, 2016 – 6:26 PM

SACRAMENTO, Calif. —

The California Legislature on Monday unveiled a bill imposing a new tax on health insurance plans that would prevent a massive $1.1 billion hole in the state budget.

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By Tracy Seipel
tseipel@mercurynews.com
Posted:    01/21/2016 – 12:01:48 PM PST
Updated: 01/21/2016 – 07:01:54 PM PST

California’s four largest health plans may be on the hook for $10 billion in state back taxes — and at least $1 billion every year going forward — if a closely watched legal case does not break their way.

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Gov. Jerry Brown discusses the 2012-13 budget in 2012. (Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press)

John Myers and Melanie Mason
January 7, 2015

In an effort to break a political and policy logjam, Gov. Jerry Brown will unveil a state budget that revamps a controversial tax on health plans to avoid jeopardizing federal healthcare dollars.

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32-year-old suspected of plundering Retrophin to pay debts. (Martin Shkreli – Photographer: Francesco Nazardo)

By Christie Smythe and Keri Geiger | December 17, 2015

Martin Shkreli, the boyish drug company entrepreneur, who rocketed to infamy by jacking up the price of a life-saving pill from $13.50 to $750, was arrested by federal agents at his Manhattan home early Thursday morning on securities fraud related to a firm he founded.

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California Gov. Jerry Brown, with Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de Leon, D-Los Angeles, left, and Assembly Speaker Toni Atkins, D-San Diego, in June. (Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press)

John Myers
December 11, 2015

In the eyes of Martin Weil, it’s not the hard slog of political deal-making that explains why his 26-year old daughter, a quadriplegic with cerebral palsy who is unable to speak, struggles to keep the services she needs.

It’s more like political malpractice.

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U.S. health spending grew 5.3% last year, fueled by prescription drug costs and an expansion of insurance coverage, federal officials said Wednesday. (Fotolia / TNS)

Chad Terhune
December 2, 2015

U.S. healthcare spending grew 5.3% last year to $3 trillion, another sign that a historic slowdown in medical inflation may be ending, a new federal report shows.

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By Dan Walters
dwalters@sacbee.com
December 1, 2015

• State has levied special tax to finance Medi-Cal
• Feds say that tax is no longer acceptable
• Gov. Brown struggles to write a replacement

For years, the state has conducted something of a shell game to help finance Medi-Cal, its health insurance system for the poor that now covers nearly a third of Californians.

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By Sarah Ferris
12/01/15 – 11:05 AM EST

The CEO of UnitedHealthcare on Tuesday said he regretted the decision to enter the ObamaCare marketplace last year, which the company says has resulted in millions of dollars in losses.

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Sovaldi, an expensive Hepatitis C treatment, is made by Gilead Sciences. (AP Photo/Courtesy of Gilead Sciences)

By Carolyn Y. Johnson and Brady Dennis
December 1, 2015 at 2:27 PM

–This story has been updated.–

Gilead Sciences executives were acutely aware in 2013 that their plan to charge an exorbitantly high price for a powerful new hepatitis C drug would spark public outrage, but they pursued the profit-driven strategy anyway, according to a Senate Finance Committee investigation report released Tuesday.

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Health insurer UnitedHealth cut its earnings forecast, citing hits it expects to take from public insurance exchanges.

Chad Terhune
November 19, 2015

Industry giant UnitedHealth has warned it may quit selling Obamacare coverage across the country, raising questions about an expansion in California.

Read the rest of this entry »

By Eric Pianin
November 16, 2015

First, the administration revealed that enrollments for Obamacare next year will barely hit 10 million, far below previous projections.

Read the rest of this entry »

Soumya Karlamangla
October 9, 2015

Half of Californians in the country illegally would be eligible for the state’s healthcare program for the poor if it were expanded under a proposal by legislators, a new report finds.

Read the rest of this entry »

Blue Shield of California sued a former employee who has criticized the nonprofit insurer. (Bob Chamberlin/Los Angeles Times)

Chad Terhune
October 9, 2015

Health insurance giant Blue Shield of California sued its former public policy director and accused him of disclosing confidential company information.

Read the rest of this entry »

Mitch McConnell can’t afford to lose any more votes. | Getty

By Seung Min Kim
10/25/15 – 05:29 PM EDT

• McConnell is having a hard time getting a simple-majority bill through the Senate.

Senate Republicans’ carefully-laid plans to use a powerful fast-track tool to send an Obamacare repeal to President Barack Obama is running into fresh resistance, with new opposition from high-profile conservatives and bubbling concerns from moderates.

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Stuart Pfeifer
October 24, 2015

Dr. Prem Reddy has frequently been criticized over his tough management, cost-cutting and reduced medical services at Prime Healthcare Services Inc., his fast-growing Ontario-based hospital chain.

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San Diego’s Imprimis has introduced a compounded drug that sells for far less than Daraprim from Turing Pharmaceuticals. — John Gastaldo

By Bradley J. Fikes | Oct. 22, 2015 | Updated 6:23 p.m.
San Diego’s Imprimis has introduced a compounded drug that sells for far less than Daraprim from Turing Pharmaceuticals.

• Turing Pharmaceuticals raised price of AIDS/cancer drug by 5,000 percent

Turing Pharmaceuticals sparked nationwide outrage and government investigations when it raised the cost of a generic drug used for AIDS and cancer from $13.50 to $750 a capsule.

Read the rest of this entry »

By Stacy Cowley
October 19, 2015

JACKSONVILLE, N.C. — When Billy Sewell began offering health insurance this year to 600 service workers at the Golden Corral restaurants that he owns, he wondered nervously how many would buy it. Adding hundreds of employees to his plan would cost him more than $1 million — a hit he wasn’t sure his low-margin business could afford.

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Melanie Mason
October 9, 2015

A new law signed by Gov. Jerry Brown Friday cements California’s expansion of public healthcare to children who are in the country illegally, underscoring the state’s immigrant-friendly tilt.

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By John Howard
October 5, 2015

Gov. Jerry Brown, in one of the most emotional moments of his long political career, signed into law a bill allowing people near death to end their lives with lethal drugs supplied by a physician. “The crux of the matter is whether the state of California should continue to make it a crime for a dying person to end his life, no matter how great his pain or suffering,” Brown wrote in his official signing message.

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By Stuart Pfeifer
September 20, 2015

Hospital operator Prime Healthcare Services Inc. is suing California Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris for imposing strict restrictions that caused the Ontario company to back out of its attempted purchase of six Roman Catholic hospitals earlier this year.

Read the rest of this entry »

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton campaigns in Baton Rouge, La., on Monday. (Jonathan Bachman / Associated Press)

By Evan Halper and Noam N. Levey
September 21, 2015

Democrats facing tough elections have been running away from Obamacare in their campaigns almost since the law was passed, but Hillary Rodham Clinton is taking a different approach. She is embracing it.

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President Obama speaks at Macomb Community College in Warren, Mich. on Wednesday. A federal judge has ruled that congressional Republicans have legal standing to sue his administration over spending related to the Affordable Care Act. (Mandel Ngan / AFP / Getty Images)

By David G. Savage
September 9, 2015

House Republicans won the opening round in a lawsuit against President Obama over their claim that his administration spent money for health insurers under the Affordable Care Act without receiving needed approval by Congress.

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AP California News

By JUDY LIN
Associated Press
Jul 27, 2015 – 9:14 PM EDT

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — The cost of private individual health plans on California’s state-run market will increase about 4 percent for the second straight year, evidence the strategy of forcing insurers to compete is controlling costs, program officials said Monday.

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Saturday, July 25, 2015 – 09:00 a.m.

Really! Another larges-scale merger, this time in the healthcare industry, and it’s supposed to be a good thing.

Read the rest of this entry »

Capitol Alert
By Jim Miller
jmiller@sacbee.com
July 10, 2015

• The attorney general approved title and summary Friday
• Three-quarters of the money would go to healthcare programs
• The initiative says raising reimbursement rates should be a priority

A tobacco-tax initiative proposed for the November 2016 ballot would raise as much as $1 billion to increase reimbursement rates for healthcare providers, about three-quarters of the estimated revenue that would be generated by the $2-per-pack tax hike.

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Capitol Alert
By David Siders and Jim Miller
dsiders@sacbee.com
July 9, 2015

• Jerry Brown, Democratic lawmakers seek funding for roads, health care
• Billions of dollars in unfunded maintenance plagues California roadways
• Health funding more politically difficult than roads, but both efforts uncertain

Inheriting a budget deficit when he took office in 2011, Gov. Jerry Brown tried for months – and failed – to reach agreement with Republicans to put a tax measure on the ballot. He finally bypassed the Legislature and went directly to voters himself.

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Hillary Rodham Clinton participates in a grass-roots organizing event in College Park at Dartmouth College on Friday in Hanover, N.H. (Darren McCollester/Getty Images)

By Philip Rucker
July 3, 2015 at 4:20 PM

HANOVER, N.H. — Hillary Rodham Clinton sharpened her partisan rhetoric to appeal to Democratic primary voters here Friday by issuing a dire warning: President Obama’s health care law would disappear if a Republican wins the White House in 2016.

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AP California News
By Femit Nirappil and Judy Lin
Associated Press
June 29, 2015 – 2:37 PM EDT

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — The California Legislature is holding two special sessions this summer to tackle long-vexing funding shortfalls in the state’s transportation and health care programs. But talk of targeted tax increases has prompted political hand-wringing.

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Sunday, June 28, 2015 – 10:30 a.m.

Set aside all the hubbub.

The Supreme Court of the United States did the Republican Party a huge favor this week.

Read the rest of this entry »

By Debra J. Saunders
Friday, June 26, 2015 – Updated 2:12 pm

The GOP-majority Supreme Court saved President Obama’s bacon Thursday with a political ruling that papered over his signature Affordable Care Act. Writing for the majority in the 6-3 King vs. Burwell decision, Chief Justice John Roberts noted that the 900-page law was written behind closed doors with little debate or amendment, and thus was “inartfully drafted.” It was the court’s obligation, he wrote, to translate bill language limiting the government subsidies to enrollees in “an exchange established by the state” to also cover federal exchanges.

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Capitol Alert
By Jeremy B. White
jwhite@sacbee.com
June 25, 2015

• Legislation would require pupils to be fully vaccinated
• Vote follows furious protest from some parents
• Bill now returns to the state Senate, then to Brown

The state Assembly passed a closely watched bill Thursday compelling schoolchildren to be fully vaccinated, approving the measure on a 46-30 vote that blurred party lines.

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Thursday, June 25, 2015 – 05:00 p.m.

On the Lou Desmond and Company Show tonight, Lou is joined in the studio by Toyota of San Bernardino Owner Cliff Cummings and on the newsmaker line by Constitutional Scholar Ralph Rossum to discuss today’s depressing SCOTUS ruling. Scalia said it best: words no longer have meaning. So how could the Court end up at such a ruling?

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By Mark Sherman
June 25, 2015

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the nationwide tax subsidies underpinning President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul, rejecting a major challenge to the landmark law in a ruling that preserves health insurance for millions of Americans.

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By Victoria Colliver
June 22, 2015
Updated: June 22, 2015 5:17pm

Drug shortages have turned into a nationwide chronic condition.

Disruptions in production, safety recalls, difficulties finding key raw ingredients, shifts in demand and decisions to discontinue certain products are just some of the reasons pharmaceutical makers give for not having enough supply. Nearly half the time, research shows, the reason is not disclosed, but the problem has escalated over the past five years.

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By Lawrence Hurley
Sunday, June 21, 2015

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Tensions are building inside and outside the white marble facade of the U.S. Supreme Court building as the nine justices prepare to issue major rulings on gay marriage and President Barack Obama’s healthcare law by the end of the month.

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The California Public Employees’ Retirement System spends $8 billion annually on healthcare for 1.4 million employees, retirees and dependents.

By Chad Terhune
June 18, 2015

• CalPERS: HMO rates are rising 7.2% for 2016; PPO premiums are up 10.8%
• CalPERS pins higher premium increases on rising drug costs, including hepatitis C drug Sovaldi

Citing higher drug prices, the California Public Employees’ Retirement System said its HMO premiums are rising by 7.2% next year.

Read the rest of this entry »

California Gov. Jerry Brown discusses his revised state budget plan during a news conference at the Capitol in Sacramento last month. On Tuesday, Brown and top Democratic lawmakers struck a deal on the budget. (Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press)

By Chris Megerian and Melanie Mason
June 17, 2015

Immigrant children who are in the country illegally would receive public healthcare coverage in California under a budget deal announced Tuesday by Gov. Jerry Brown and legislative leaders.

Read the rest of this entry »

Dan Walters
dwalters@sacbee.com
June 16, 2015

• Obamacare enrollees have difficulty finding providers
• Legislative budget raised reimbursement rates in California
• Spending deal axes rate increases, leaving issue in air

The Supreme Court will soon decide whether residents of states that refused to implement Obamacare are entitled to federal insurance subsidies.

Read the rest of this entry »

By Debra J. Saunders
Friday, June 12, 2015 – Updated 3:08 pm

“There are also those who claim that our reform effort will insure illegal immigrants. This, too, is false — the reforms I’m proposing would not apply to those who are here illegally,” President Obama proclaimed in a 2009 speech to Congress. It was a memorable event in part because Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., shouted, “You lie.” Editorial-page umbrage followed.

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Blue Shield of California is seeking state approval for its $1.2-billion purchase of Care1st, a Medicaid insurer based in Monterey Park. Above, Blue Shied’s San Francisco headquarters. (Eric Risberg / Associated Press)

By Chad Terhune
June 5, 2015

• Blue Shield of California takes on its critics in seeking state OK for a $1.2-billion acquisition of Care1st
• Consumer groups dispute Blue Shield’s claim that the nonprofit doesn’t hold charitable assets

Health insurance giant Blue Shield of California is facing more questions over its loss of tax-exempt status as it tries to win state approval of a $1.2-billion acquisition.

Read the rest of this entry »

A $1,700 emergency room charge “is consistent with the charges assessed by other hospitals in our area,” a Good Samaritan Hospital spokeswoman says. (Tetra ImagesGetty Images/Brand X)

David Lazarus, Los Angeles Times
david.lazarus​@latimes.com
@Davidlazurus
June 5, 2015

• Hospital patients face a tough challenge in getting a straight answer to the question, ‘Why so much?’
• At $20 a pill, hospital imposed a markup of more than 14,000%, a healthy profit margin by anyone’s reckoning
• Hospital charges $1,700 for a routine blood-pressure test, a pill and the use of a bed for 90 minutes

A single dose of the anti-anxiety drug lorazepam — the generic version of Ativan — will run you about 14 cents at Safeway or Target.

At Good Samaritan Hospital in Los Angeles, the same pill goes for nearly $2,000.

Read the rest of this entry »

The State Worker
By Jon Ortiz
jortiz@sacbee.com
June 1, 2015

• Draft legislation lowers benefits for future hires when they retire
• Brown bargaining medical coverage terms with unions

Even as Gov. Jerry Brown bargains changes to retiree health benefits with four state-employee unions, his administration has drawn up some unnumbered bills that reveal the governor’s thinking on how to cut those costs long-term.

Read the rest of this entry »

Friday, May 29, 2015 – 03:00 p.m.

Coming to you from the Toyota of San Bernardino Studios, Lou is joined by Ed Hoffman, proprietor of Wholesale Capital Corporation. They talk about Francis Pusok, who was charged with 11 felonies yesterday.

Read the rest of this entry »

By Soumya Karlamangla
May 24, 2015

Since California’s health insurance program for the poor was expanded under the Affordable Care Act last year, enrollment has exploded, with more than 3.5 million people signing up for the first time. Almost 1 in 3 Californians — a total of 12.2 million people — now receive coverage through Medi-Cal.

Read the rest of this entry »

By Melanie Mason
May 4, 2015

Extending state-subsidized healthcare coverage to people in the country illegally could cost California as much as $740 million annually, according to a Senate fiscal analysis released Monday.

Read the rest of this entry »

Exclusive Care, a Riverside County-run health insurance program for employees, sends patients to the county hospital in Moreno Valley. One supervisor is questioning whether the program pays Riverside County Regional Medical Center enough for patient care.

Published: April 29, 2015
Updated: May 2, 2015 4:20 p.m.

Since 1999, Riverside County employees have been able to get health care through an exclusive, county-run program called, fittingly enough, Exclusive Care.

To read story by Jeff Horseman in The Press-Enterprise, click here.

Thursday, April 23, 2015 – 10:00 p.m.

All sides of a contract dispute affecting San Bernardino County Nurses and Per Diem Nurses have given their blessing to a new contract that will run through July 2017.

Read the rest of this entry »

By Patrick McGreevy
April 23, 2015

Democratic state lawmakers on Thursday shot down a proposal that would have required all California state legislators to get their health insurance from Covered California, the benefits exchange set up to implement Obamacare in the state.

Read the rest of this entry »

Congressman Pete Aguilar

Published: April 2, 2015 – 10:26 a.m.

Rep. Pete Aguilar, D-Redlands, was one of four Democrats and 43 first-year representatives to sign a letter to House Speaker John Boehner this week urging him to repeal a tax on medical devices tied to the Affordable Care Act.

To read post by Jeff Horseman in The P-E Political Empire Blog, click here.

By Ed Mendel
March 30, 2015

Employer and employee groups are urging CalPERS to “undertake all efforts” to avoid the “Cadillac Tax,” a 40 percent tax on high-cost health plans imposed in 2018 by President Obama’s health care law, a CalPERS staff report said this month.

Read the rest of this entry »

By Lisa Zamosky
March 29, 2015

Coping with ever-increasing medical bills is frustrating — and getting more so.

Read the rest of this entry »

By Chad Terhune
March 27, 2015

With billions of dollars in reserve, nonprofit insurer Blue Shield of California is facing new pressure to offer better prices for its policies.

Read the rest of this entry »

By Jonathan Weisman
March 27, 2015

WASHINGTON — Emerging from an all-night session that contained more exhaustion than drama, Senate Republicans squeaked through a budget blueprint Friday morning that would repeal the Affordable Care Act, fundamentally remake federal health care for the poor and elderly, and push the federal deficit toward zero over the next decade.

Read the rest of this entry »

It’s the same facility, but area officials hope that calling it Riverside University Medical Center will attract more business.

Published: March 25, 2015 – Updated: 10:28 p.m.

Those who avoided Riverside County Regional Medical Center can now seek treatment at Riverside University Medical Center.

Just a couple of things worth noting, though.

To read story by Jeff Horseman in The Press-Enterprise, click here.

By BROOKE SELF
STAFF WRITER
Posted Mar. 22, 2015 at 3:50 PM

ADELANTO — About 40 former Adelanto employees and a few City Council members are named on a list of those who were grandfathered into a city policy granting free health care benefits for life, with an additional 26 former employees who stand to qualify but have not yet sought reimbursement, according to city records.

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By Ed Mendel
Monday, March 23, 2015

Gov. Brown’s plan to curb the long-ignored debt for state worker retiree health care, now much larger than their unfunded pension debt, may look familiar. It’s similar to the standard state and local government pension reform.

Read the rest of this entry »

The State Worker
Jon Ortiz chronicles civil-service life for California state workers
By Jon Ortiz
jortiz@sacbee.com
03/18/2015 – 4:27 PM

Unions lined up Wednesday to oppose Gov. Jerry Brown’s proposal to offer high-deductible medical coverage to state employees, suggesting it could hurt workers’ health instead of improving it.

Read the rest of this entry »