The new “public charge” rule is a cruel policy, and it threatens to harm the broader community. Health care costs will certainly rise for everyone if people drop off Medicaid rolls. Some will forgo vaccinations, which has the potential of creating outbreaks of preventable diseases.
At a time when a third of the state’s population relies on government-funded health care, most California counties are failing to apply for millions of dollars that could be used to broaden access to mental health care, an analysis by the California Health Report has found.
Medical providers in California and nationwide are increasingly recognizing that racism and discrimination affect children’s health, and they’re seeking to tackle the problem. Last month, the American Academy of Pediatrics issued its first policy statement on how racism affects the health and development of children and teens.
A Trump administration proposal to change how states determine who qualifies for food stamps could lead to thousands of California children going hungry at home and at school, analysts say.
The policy is a lifeline for low-income families in high-cost-of-living states, like California, where housing, child care and medical expenses can eat up a large portion of people’s earnings.
Almost 140,000 Latino children in California aren’t covered by health insurance, even though they’re eligible to enroll in Medi-Cal, the state’s safety-net health care program. Three quarters of the state’s uninsured Latino children ages 18 and under are missing out on health coverage, analysts at the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research found.
A federal proposal to open a shelter for up to 430 unaccompanied migrant children in the Inland Empire is drawing condemnation from local immigrant advocates and elected officials.
A bill making its way through the state legislature aims to make it easier for parents charged with certain crimes to stay with their kids. If passed, SB 394 would allow courts to establish a diversion system for primary caregivers of children under 18.
Community organizers in the Salinas Valley have long begged for a ban on chlorpyrifos, as study after study has tied the widely-used pesticide to brain damage in children. So when California’s Department of Pesticide Regulation announced this month that it’s taking legal action to ban chlorpyrifos across the state, those campaigning for pesticide reform in the region felt that their work was finally paying off.
Soon after news broke last week of the Trump administration’s finalized “public charge” rule, benefit enrollers at the Eisner Health community clinic in downtown Los Angeles started getting phone calls.
It’s not unusual for Debra Rush to receive a late night phone call from law enforcement agents who have just completed a human trafficking bust and need her help caring for trafficking survivors. When Rush rescues a young survivor from one of these situations, she knows all too well the horrors they’ve endured.