Health plan shake-up could disrupt Medi-Cal coverage for low-income Californians
BERNARD J. WOLFSON, California Healthline: “Almost 2 million of California’s poorest and most medically fragile residents may have to switch health insurers as a result of a new strategy by the state to improve care in its Medicaid program.
A first-ever statewide contracting competition to participate in the program, known as Medi-Cal, required commercial managed-care plans to rebid for their contracts and compete against others hoping to take those contracts away. The contracts will be revamped to require insurers to offer new benefits and meet stiffer benchmarks for care. The long-planned reshuffle of insurers is likely to come with short-term pain.
Four of the managed-care insurers, including HealthNet and Blue Shield of California, stand to lose Medi-Cal contracts in a little over a year, according to the preliminary results of the bidding, announced in late August. If the results stand, some enrollees in rural Alpine and El Dorado counties, as well as in populous Los Angeles, San Diego, Sacramento and Kern counties, will have to change health plans — and possibly doctors.”
Newsom vetoes bill to make kindergarten mandatory, citing costs
LA Times, MACKENZIE MAYS: “Despite a tenure that has focused on early education, Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed a bill Sunday that would have made kindergarten mandatory in California.
In his veto message, Newsom said that though the intent to make kindergarten compulsory is “laudable,” it would cost the state up to $268 million each year.
That is not accounted for in the state’s record-breaking budget and spending plan, the governor added.”
Newsom signs bills to cut catalytic converter thefts
The Chronicle, MICHAEL CABANATUIA: “Gov. Gavin Newsom signed two bills Sunday that aim to make it tougher and less profitable to steal catalytic converters.
The legislation, authored by two Southern California lawmakers, makes it illegal for recyclers and brokers to buy used catalytic converters from anyone but licensed auto dismantlers, dealers or owners of the vehicles. It also requires more detailed records of transactions involving catalytic converters, making it easier to track stolen devices.
Catalytic converters are a part of a vehicle’s exhaust system. They contain valuable minerals like platinum, rhodium, and palladium that convert toxic gases and pollutants into less harmful emissions. Thefts of the anti-pollution devices have soared in the past few years, increasing by as much as 1,215%, according to a study by Car Fax, a company that tracks vehicle histories.”
State workers can double their pay through union apprenticeships. Newsom wants more of them
Sac Bee, WES VENTEICHER: “Strict rules for hiring and promotion tend to shut out apprenticeships from California government employment, but one state employee union has made the arrangements work, ushering employees into higher-paying jobs.
Working with state departments, SEIU Local 1000 has built apprentice programs outside the traditional trades — in nursing, financial services, cybersecurity and maintaining one of the state’s outdated computer systems.
California’s Labor and Workforce Development Agency is looking to programs like Local 1000’s as it spends a projected $480 million over the next three years expanding apprenticeships around the state.”
COVID is in a lull, again. Experts say it’s still a time of ‘trade-offs’
The Chronicle, ERIN ALLDAY: “His comment was off the cuff — and the White House spent the rest of the week walking it back. But when President Biden said last Sunday on CBS’s “60 Minutes” that the COVID-19 pandemic was “over,” his words fell on American ears all too eager to believe he was right.
It’s true that the long summer coronavirus surge is winding down, with case numbers, hospitalizations and deaths falling sharply. Weddings and reunions, maskless shoppers at the supermarket and throngs of people crowding into music festivals reinforce the sense that the worst is past and life is getting back to normal.
But nearly three years after COVID emerged and quickly swept across the globe, it’s still premature to claim victory, health experts warn. Arguing whether the pandemic has ended is largely a matter of semantics, these experts say, and there’s little doubt that COVID remains a stubborn and wily threat — no matter how badly the public wants it to be gone.”
Newsom signs law removing ‘squaw’ across California. What it means for Squaw Valley
Sac Bee, CARMEN KOHLRUSS: “Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a state bill on Friday, California Native American Day, that will remove the word “squaw,” now widely considered a slur, from California places by 2025.
In the central San Joaquin Valley, Assembly Bill 2022 should impact the rural Fresno County town of Squaw Valley.
This “racist and sexist term” will be “removed from all geographic features and place names in the state, and a process to review petitions to change offensive or derogatory place names will be created,” a news release issued by the Governor’s Office states.”
UC housing crisis forces students into multiple jobs to pay rent, sleeping bags and stress
Sac Bee, TERESA WATANABE: “Matthew Chin couldn’t wait to dive into the life of a UC Santa Cruz college student after the loneliness of online learning. But instead, he is missing out on the camaraderie of roommates, dorm life and full slate of campus activities he had hoped to embrace.
That’s because he lives alone in a tiny trailer away from campus — the only shelter he could afford in the scenic coastal town that was recently named the nation’s second-priciest rental market.
Chin was shocked at the $1,200 or more monthly rents for an apartment or dorm in Santa Cruz. So his father found him a used trailer to live in and rented a driveway — for $700 a month. Before he got a $1,000 “beater car,” Chin had to take two buses, an hourlong commute, to get to campus. Last year, when it was too late to get back to his trailer, he slept overnight in a forested part of campus. One day, he hid his gear — sleeping bag, mat, lantern and ukulele — in a bush because he was too embarrassed to lug it to classes. All of it got stolen.”
LAUSD makes push to bring chronically absent students back to school
EdSource, KATE SEQUEIRA: “For eighth grader Cloud Mejia, this school year feels like a reset.
He’s slowly gotten back into his daily school routine after a year of chronic absence. It’s been a period of adjustment for him as he’s gone from missing two days the first week of school to one the second to finishing a complete week during the third. He’s missed a few additional days recently too, but now he’s on track to meet his attendance goals early.
“It’s been way better,” Cloud’s mom, Aimee Mejia, said. “I mean, less anxiety for both of us now that Cloud is going. That really helps a lot.””
Modular homes cost less and are used all over California. Why not in San Francisco?
The Chronicle, JK DINEEN: “During the next year Factory OS, the modular housing manufacturer on Mare Island, will truck its units to development sites in South Lake Tahoe and Santa Cruz, Morgan Hill and Palo Alto, San Jose and Los Angeles, as well as other cities.
Everywhere in California, it seems, except for San Francisco.
Five years after opening, the Bay Area’s only modular housing factory has churned out 2,000 units in 17 projects. By the end of the year, that number will be up to 2,400 units and 20 developments. All but three of the projects that have been built or are underway have been for affordable, nonprofit clients. And about half have been supportive housing for the formerly homeless, mostly studio units that Factory OS said can go from design to occupied in about a year — with a cost of $350,000.“
D.A. Jenkins appoints her first member to S.F. Innocence Commission
The Chronicle, JOSHUA SHARPE: “San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins on Monday announced the appointment of a member to the Innocence Commission as well as shoring up procedural matters that she says will make the panel stronger.
The commission — a group of six legal experts of varied experience — began work in 2020 after then-District Attorney Chesa Boudin founded it to consider claims of innocence, especially in cases where a person is serving a long sentence. Jenkins named Julia Cervantes as the liaison from the district attorney to the commission, replacing Arcelia Hurtado, who was fired after Jenkins was appointed to replace Boudin following a recall.
Cervantes, the lead attorney in the District Attorney’s Office Post-Conviction Review unit, is a longtime prosecutor with stints in San Francisco, San Mateo County and Brooklyn. She’d also served as a senior attorney in the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office’s homicide unit.“
Does anyone else feel as if they’re drowning? Mental health is suffering
LA Times, DEBORAH NETBURN: “There’s no way to sugarcoat it: These are challenging times to live in Los Angeles.
In the last few years an unprecedented number of stressors have coalesced around us— skyrocketing inflation and immense income inequality; record-breaking drought and heat waves; an alarming rise in hate crimes, especially against Asian, Black and LGBTQ residents; and the many lingering effects of a devastating global pandemic.
Amid — and because of — these adversities, our children are suffering. In California, rates of anxiety and depression among youth shot up by 70% from 2016 to 2020, according to an analysis by the Annie E. Casey Foundation. The California Department of Public Health reports that suicide rates among young people grew 20% from 2019 to 2020.”
