California

California

California Republican Legislators Find Some Health Dollars

As California continues to teeter on insolvency, Republican legislators have proposed a budget amendment that transfers some funds from two health-care programs that are in surplus! Surplus? How the heck did that happen? The funds in question are for mental health and early childhood development (health and education). They are ...
Business & Economics

Growth is the only solution to state’s crisis

Most of the proposed solutions for California’s budget problems – spending cuts, tax increases, infrastructure spending – attempt to patch a Band-Aid on a festering wound but do not address the underlying causes of the infection – an economy weakened by improper nutrition and the wrong medications. We cannot cut, ...
Commentary

Medicaid’s Poverty Trap: Learning the Right Lesson

The Annals of Internal Medicine has an original article demonstrating that patients who had interrupted access to Medicaid in California (Medi-Cal) were more likely to be hospitalized than those who were constantly enrolled during a five year period. The New York Times concludes that the culprit is California’s requirement that ...
California

Families of 80% of Uninsured California Kids Reject State Coverage

The UCLA Center for Health Policy Research has published its annual update on health insurance in the Golden State. I’m a big consumer of the Center’s research. It conducts the outstanding California Health Interview Survey (CHIS), which was a source for much of my criticism of last year’s Schwarzenegger-Nuñez Health ...
Commentary

Follow the Foster-Care Leader

SACRAMENTO—With approximately 80,000 children, California has the nation’s largest foster-care population, according to the state’s Blue Ribbon Commission on Children in Foster Care. Californians should keep a close watch on Arizona, where the fate of the country’s first K-12 scholarship program for foster-care students is now in the hands of ...
Commentary

Counting the Cost of the War on Global Warming

Last month, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger held an international climate summit to show local governments in other countries that greenhouse gas emissions can be cut, to the degree he wants, without harming the economy. This comes as the financial meltdown has prompted a global movement to scale back draconian measures ...
Business & Economics

State legislators need to find a way to boost ranking

California legislators are in the midst of a “special session” to deal with this fiscal year’s budget deficit, estimated at $10 billion. They should use this session to boost California’s ability to generate economic growth and the tax revenues that go with it. The Golden State could stand for much ...
Commentary

Rhode Island Seeks Caps on Medicaid, Will Shift Costs to Emergency Room Patients

In response to an ongoing state budget crisis, Rhode Island Gov. Don Carcieri (R) has requested the federal government relax its strict Medicaid regulations in exchange for caps on state spending and federal contributions to the program. The state’s plan is to cap Medicaid spending at 23 percent of the ...
Commentary

Jewish Groups Lobby for Federal School Choice Bill

Forty-four years after the signing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, a new rights movement is gathering steam as ethnic groups are increasingly joining forces to press for school choice. Jewish groups have taken a prominent role in the effort. The Civil Rights Act of Equal Educational Opportunity (CRA ...
Commentary

Government Care Isn’t Promising

Health care reform proposals generally fall into two camps: Those that rely on government to expand access and hold prices down, and those that rely on market competition to lower prices and expand consumer choice. Proponents of government-heavy reform believe that because the health care problem itself is massive and ...
California

California Republican Legislators Find Some Health Dollars

As California continues to teeter on insolvency, Republican legislators have proposed a budget amendment that transfers some funds from two health-care programs that are in surplus! Surplus? How the heck did that happen? The funds in question are for mental health and early childhood development (health and education). They are ...
Business & Economics

Growth is the only solution to state’s crisis

Most of the proposed solutions for California’s budget problems – spending cuts, tax increases, infrastructure spending – attempt to patch a Band-Aid on a festering wound but do not address the underlying causes of the infection – an economy weakened by improper nutrition and the wrong medications. We cannot cut, ...
Commentary

Medicaid’s Poverty Trap: Learning the Right Lesson

The Annals of Internal Medicine has an original article demonstrating that patients who had interrupted access to Medicaid in California (Medi-Cal) were more likely to be hospitalized than those who were constantly enrolled during a five year period. The New York Times concludes that the culprit is California’s requirement that ...
California

Families of 80% of Uninsured California Kids Reject State Coverage

The UCLA Center for Health Policy Research has published its annual update on health insurance in the Golden State. I’m a big consumer of the Center’s research. It conducts the outstanding California Health Interview Survey (CHIS), which was a source for much of my criticism of last year’s Schwarzenegger-Nuñez Health ...
Commentary

Follow the Foster-Care Leader

SACRAMENTO—With approximately 80,000 children, California has the nation’s largest foster-care population, according to the state’s Blue Ribbon Commission on Children in Foster Care. Californians should keep a close watch on Arizona, where the fate of the country’s first K-12 scholarship program for foster-care students is now in the hands of ...
Commentary

Counting the Cost of the War on Global Warming

Last month, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger held an international climate summit to show local governments in other countries that greenhouse gas emissions can be cut, to the degree he wants, without harming the economy. This comes as the financial meltdown has prompted a global movement to scale back draconian measures ...
Business & Economics

State legislators need to find a way to boost ranking

California legislators are in the midst of a “special session” to deal with this fiscal year’s budget deficit, estimated at $10 billion. They should use this session to boost California’s ability to generate economic growth and the tax revenues that go with it. The Golden State could stand for much ...
Commentary

Rhode Island Seeks Caps on Medicaid, Will Shift Costs to Emergency Room Patients

In response to an ongoing state budget crisis, Rhode Island Gov. Don Carcieri (R) has requested the federal government relax its strict Medicaid regulations in exchange for caps on state spending and federal contributions to the program. The state’s plan is to cap Medicaid spending at 23 percent of the ...
Commentary

Jewish Groups Lobby for Federal School Choice Bill

Forty-four years after the signing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, a new rights movement is gathering steam as ethnic groups are increasingly joining forces to press for school choice. Jewish groups have taken a prominent role in the effort. The Civil Rights Act of Equal Educational Opportunity (CRA ...
Commentary

Government Care Isn’t Promising

Health care reform proposals generally fall into two camps: Those that rely on government to expand access and hold prices down, and those that rely on market competition to lower prices and expand consumer choice. Proponents of government-heavy reform believe that because the health care problem itself is massive and ...
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